Knowing Yesterday, Shaping Tomorrow: The Lou Kushnick Memorial Lecture

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust, in partnership with the University of Manchester, is launching a new annual lecture in honour of our founder, Professor Lou Kushnick. Lou was a tireless advocate for anti‑racist education and a driving force behind both the Education Trust and the RACE Centre. Since his death in early 2025, he has been deeply missed.

This new lecture series celebrates his legacy, beginning with an inaugural talk by Professor Abdul Alkalimat. Professor Alkalimat - internationally respected scholar-activist and a founding figure in Black Studies in the United States – was a friend and colleague of Lou’s.

Professor Alkalimat opens this new lecture series by commemorating Lou's important work. He will respond to four key questions: Who was Lou Kushnick? Why am I speaking about him? Why was he concerned about racism? And why should we be concerned about racism? His perspective will reflect his African American identity, but will also connect with the trans-Atlantic perspective he shared with Lou.

We welcome friends observing Ramadan and our programme will allow for Maghrib and Iftar. There is a dedicated prayer space in Manchester Central Library.

Complimentary hot food, tea and coffee will be provided.

Abdul Alkalimat (born Gerald A. McWorter) is a founder of the field of Black Studies and author of many books and papers about Black liberation. He wrote the first college textbook for the field, Introduction to Afro-American Studies, which has seen seven editions, the last one free and online. A lifelong scholar-activist with a PhD from the University of Chicago, he has lectured, taught, and directed academic programs across the US, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and China. Two of his early contributions were serving as chair of the Chicago chapter of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and co-founding the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) in 1967. Raised in Chicago's Cabrini Rowhouses, he is now professor emeritus of African American Studies and Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
His most recent books are:
* The History of Black Studies, published by Pluto Press 2021
* Dialectics of Liberation: The African Liberation Support Committee, published by Africa World Press 2022
* The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago, co-edited with Romi Crawford and Rebecca Zorach and published by Northwestern University Press 2017
* New Philadelphia, written by Gerald A. McWorter and Kate Williams-McWorter for the New Philadelphia (IL) Association and published by Path Press 2018.
Much of his work is freely available at .

Lou was a Professor of Sociology at The University of Manchester, who lectured at the University for over 40 years.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Lou received his first degree from Columbia University before receiving a scholarship to complete his PhD in political science at Yale University. He then moved to The University of Manchester on a further scholarship, where he settled permanently. Lou moved to the UK before the main US Civil Rights Movement gained momentum – it was racial discrimination in the UK that sparked his own interest in race and inequality.

In 1999, he founded the (Race Archives and Community Engagement) Centre, a specialist library and archive located in Manchester’s Central Library, which documents the histories of Greater Manchester’s Global Majority communities (and beyond), and the struggle against racism. His vision, underpinning all the work of the Centre, was for a collection that would not only have major research value, but would also be instrumental in celebrating Global Majority histories and cultures and combating racism.

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre and Education Trust is a specialist open-access library and archive, focusing on the study of race, migration and thinking about race, anti-racist activism and the fight for social justice. We are recognised as a centre of excellence in oral history work, Global Majority community-led collecting and ethical community engagement. We work ethically and sensitively with Global Majority communities to explore, document and share their histories, cultures and experiences.

The Performance Space is wheelchair accessible. The Performance Space is located on a raised mezzanine on the ground floor of the Central Library; there is ramp access to the mezzanine. There is a Changing Places toilet on the ground floor – a Radar key will be available at the event sign in desk. The hearing induction loop will be on at all times. For more information see the ⁠. If you have any questions or any access requests, please contact [email protected] and we will do our best to accommodate.

Info: Complimentary hot meal for all guests. For friends observing Ramadan, there is access to a prayer space

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Manchester Central Library (Performance Space, Ground Floor), St Peter's Square, Manchester, United Kingdom

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