- Posted in All University
- Category: Campus News
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA – Assistant professor and Mass Communications Center of Excellence director Murali Balaji moderated a panel on the legacies of five African American pioneers last Thursday at the African American Museum of Philadelphia. The panel, “Free to Be,” featured the descendants and protégés of African American legends Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Julian Abele, and Marian Anderson.
Balaji was selected to moderate the panel because of his biography of Robeson, The Professor and the Pupil. Paul Robeson’s father, the Rev. William Robeson, graduated from Lincoln in 1876 with a degree in theology. Robeson’s granddaughter Susan was one of the panelists and spoke with Balaji afterward.
“It was such an honor to meet Susan,” Balaji said. “Paul Robeson is one of my heroes, and for Susan to take the time and speak at this panel and share her thoughts with me, it’s a feeling that is hard to put into words.”
In addition to Robeson, panelists included Jean-Claude Baker, the adopted son of Josephine Baker; Lewis Tanner Moore, Jr., the descendant of artist Henry Ossawa Tanner; Peter Cook, the descendant of noted architect Julian Abele; and Blanche Burton Lyles, the former student of Marian Anderson. All of the pioneers had connections to Philadelphia and Moore and Burton-Lyles live in the area.
Balaji, who has written on both Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois, said he might work on future projects with the museum. He said he wants more Lincoln students to be involved with the museum.
“There’s a natural connection there,” he said. “You have to appreciate the rich history of African American culture in order to chart a course forward. When looking at the impact that legends such as Robeson had on the expanse of American culture and abroad, it is awe inspiring, even to those of us who weren’t alive when they were.”
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Lincoln University – founded in 1854 as the nation’s first Historically Black University – combines the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly technological and global society. The University enrolls approximately 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students.
Internationally recognized for preparing learners and producing world-class leaders in their fields, Lincoln has created five academic Centers of Excellence-programs of distinctions. They are: Lincoln-Barnes Visual Arts, Grand Research Educational Awareness and Training (GREAT) for Minority Health, Mass Communications, Teacher Education and Urban Pedagogy and Business and Information Technology.