Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative
The Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative aims to embed the study of racial justice throughout every aspect of the Pitzer educational experience.
“As an African American, I have felt deeply each blow, each knee to the neck, each bullet that has extinguished the lives of my fellow brothers and sisters. I have spent my professional life trying to understand the sources of that violence and developing policies and programs to address it.”
Melvin L. Oliver
Pitzer's 6th President
The Racial Justice Initiative funds events addressing curricular transformation, co-curricular transformation, and structural transformation.
About
Continuing acts of racialized violence and the mobilization efforts by the Black Lives Matter movement and its allies to fight for racial justice provide an important backdrop for scholars and students to analyze this unique moment in time.
In an effort to support productive discussion, analysis, and activism, the Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative provides funds for three primary prongs: curricular transformation, co-curricular transformation, and structural transformation. Together, these are designed to deepen student, staff, and faculty knowledge and action around racialized violence.
Melvin L. Oliver
Pitzer President Melvin L. Oliver, who co-authored the groundbreaking book Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality, launched the Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) in 2020.
After President Oliver announced that he would retire at the end of June 2022, RJI was renamed the Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative to honor Oliver’s tenure as the sixth president of Pitzer College, his fight for equity and against injustice, and his 45-year career in higher education and philanthropy.
If you would like to support the Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative, please visit Pitzer College’s donation page.
Recent Events
Conflict in Gaza: A Historian’s View
James L. Gelvin, Professor of History at UCLA and author of “The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History,” discusses the background to the current crisis in Gaza.
The Everyday (Re) Making of Brazil
This presentation introduces important Brazilian writers and the politics of their works in the everyday (re)making of Brazil.
The Barber of Little Rock
A special screening of the 2024 Academy Award-nominated short film, The Barber of Little Rock, was followed by a discussion with co-director John Hoffman and the barber himself, Arlo Washington.
The Three Mothers
Tubbs discussed her work with Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jan Barker Alexander and Bee Joyner ’24 and how she told American history through Black women’s eyes.
The 2022 Midterm Elections Discussion
A discussion on the 2022 midterm elections and broader issues around multiracial coalitions and diversity in the electorate.