History and Hope: Dean Mutua Stirs Crowds at Two Black History Month Events

Makau W. Mutua, the first person of African descent to serve as dean of UB Law School, found himself in demand during Black History Month. Organizers called on Mutua to give context and inspiration to two major events – one at UB, the other in downtown Buffalo.

Dean Makau Mutua and Donna Brazile

On Feb. 12 at UB's Center for the Arts, Dean Mutua gave the University welcome before an address by political powerhouse Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. Brazile's appearance, part of the University's Distinguished Speakers Series, was celebrated as the school's 33rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event.

Mutua noted the connection saying, "We celebrate the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the backdrop of the most historic year since he was taken from us. Today, we are living the history that Dr. King so presciently foresaw. A significant part of the dream of Dr. King has been fulfilled by a black kid born in the era of the civil rights movement. That kid – now President Barack Hussein Obama – sits in the White House and occupies the most powerful office on Earth. Like Dr. King, President Obama believes that someone must bend the arc of history toward justice. Indeed, like Dr. King, President Obama is a transformational figure."

But, Mutua said, "much more remains to be done before we can get to Dr. King's mountaintop. Public universities like UB play a fundamental role in the struggle for civil rights in our society. Because public universities mirror the complexity of the world around us, they are ideally positioned to provide a forum where key social issues and ideas may be productively and freely examined, questioned, debated, discussed and interrogated.

"The purpose of our Distinguished Speakers Series is to provide just such a forum, and perhaps no aspect of this series embodies this objective more meaningfully than our annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event."

On Feb. 20 as part of Black History Month celebrations, Dean Mutua stood with Buffalo's first African-American mayor, Byron Brown, to honor "the change makers" – people of color who have made life in the Queen City better.

"Although Buffalo has not been spared the torment of race in America, it has been a major contributor to the struggles for racial and social justice in this country," the dean said in his keynote speech at the City Hall ceremony. "African-Americans, particularly through the African-American church and their civic and political organizations, have long played a leading role in the search for equity, inclusion and justice in this city.

"Buffalo was a major terminus for the Underground Railroad. In fact, it was just across the border in Canada that Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and his comrades formed the Niagara Movement – the precursor to the NAACP."

Commenting that Mayor Brown is proving himself a change maker in Buffalo's renaissance, he said the mayor is also "a critically important role model for our youth who live under challenging conditions but who aspire to live a life of dignity. The mayor – with a plethora of prominent politicians, leading clerics, successful professionals such as lawyers and judges, and diligent parents, all drawn from communities of color in this city – is working hard to give our young men and women a reason to hope and dream big."

Dean Mutua visits University of Deusto in Bilbao

Dean Makau Mutua was a visiting professor at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain in February, where he taught Challenges to the Implementation of Human Rights as a visiting professor. The University of Deusto runs a global law program in human rights that is supported by the European Union and draws students from around the world.