Community and Government Affairs

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2010

FSU Co-Sponsors Exhibit at the Arts Council (January 22-March 6, 2010)

FSU is one of many community stakeholders co-sponsoring the inaugural exhibit of the Arts Council's Friends of African and African American Art, ART OF THE MASTERS: A Survey of African-American Images, 1980-2000.  This exhibit opened at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City and will travel to Fayetteville (the only stop in the Southeast) in January 2010, then move on to Chicago. The exhibit will be housed at the Arts Council in downtown Fayetteville   This exhibit contains more than 60 works of art from 36 national and international artists such as John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Floyd Coleman, Robert Colescott, Adger Cowans, Willis Bing Davis, James Denmark, Murray Depillars, David Driskell, Betye Saar, Sam Gilliam, Hugh Grannum, Al Hinton, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Mayhew, Margaret Burroughs, Jon Onye Lockard, Dr. Samella Lewis, Al Loving, Benny Andrews, E. J. Montgomery, Calvin Jones, Reginald Gammon, Ben Jones, Romare Bearden, Lois Mailou Jones, Robert Stull, Aaron Ibn Pori Pitts, Greg Ridley, Frank Smith, Marian Stephens, Nelson Stevens, Donald Stinson, Yvonne Edwards Tucker, Raymond Wells, Rip Woods and Shirley Woodson.  From January 22-February 26, 2010, an Art of the Masters Educational Panel Exhibit, will be at Rosenthal Gallery here on campus.

Campus and Community Black History Month Kick Off Celebration

Theme: Embracing Black Scholarship
February 2, 2010 2:00 p.m. Seabrook Auditorium

This year's honorees are Mrs. Doris Ann Shipman, Fayetteville resident and National Vice Chair, Southeast Region V, Women in NAACP (WIN), and Mr. Kenneth Travitt, FSU graudate and civil rights activist. The keynote address will be given by Dr. Boyce Watkins.

A classroom teacher of exceptional children for 46 years, Doris Ann Shipman was born and raised in Shelby, North Carolina to Ray and Margaret Rogers Cabaniss, who were active in the early Civil Rights struggle.  She attended Elizabeth City State University and graduated from Fayetteville State University. Advanced hours in education were received from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Mrs. Shipman is a member of the Region V NAACP Leadership Team serving as the Region V Women in NAACP (WIN) Coordinator. She oversees and helps plan WIN activities in seven states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). She is also chairperson of the Health Committee for the Fayetteville Branch of NAACP.   In addition to the NAACP, Mrs. Shipman is a member of the Fayetteville State University Alumni Association, National Education Association (NEA), North Carolina Association of Retired Educators, and Delta Gamma Sigma Chapter, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority.

Mrs. Shipman was married to the late Raymond F. Shipman, Jr. who was President of the Fayetteville Branch, NAACP. Along with her husband, she was the recipient of the 2007 Through the Storm Award for Region V. She is mother to one son, Reginald L. Shipman.

Kenneth Travitt is a 1963 graduate of Fayetteville State University who hails from the city of Newark, New Jersey. He is married to Olivia Potter- Travitt, a Spelman College graduate, and they have three adult offspring’s who have gone on to be successful professionals. Mr.Travitt has been an educator, administrator, and civic leader whose exercise of social responsibility has been extended abroad. However, this same trait was evident in Kenneth Travitt during his student days here at FSU.

As the student- led Civil Rights crusade was waged in Fayetteville his role was most significant. He was a very dependable line leader with a particularly calm demeanor. This mature influence aided many of the younger participants who had difficulty remaining disciplined due to the pressures of that experience. Kenneth Travitt was a model of the well- composed lieutenant who helped to keep the troops  focused and directed, as they labored to observe the “ Eighteen Rules” of conduct that were so important to the proper execution of the campaign.  Mr. Travitt’s positive impact was meaningful to the orderly beginnings of the protest. But his disposition of helpfulness and social uplift has been life long as we see this in Kenneth Travitt’s efforts at home and abroad.

Over many years Mr. Travitt has served as a classroom teacher, vice principal, and principal in the public schools of Newark, New Jersey. He has been both directly and indirectly involved with the development and acquisition of grant awards in education that exceed $370,000 in total value. He has also engaged in actions to extend education to those in need beyond the shores of the United States. In 1964, shortly after his graduation from FSU, he participated in Operation Crossroads, a project that brought relief to needy areas in Africa. Kenneth Travitt put his skills in masonry to work as he physically labored in the construction of a school for children in the small farming village of Mpeseduadze in Ghana. During the years that followed Travitt has made financial contributions to the school and has secured instructional materials and resources for that same institution. He has also encouraged the support of others in the ongoing effort to provide continued education.

Mr. Travitt is the President of the South Jersey Chapter of the FSU Alumni Association. 


Dr. Boyce D. Watkins "The People's Scholar", is one of the leading social commentators, black speakers and high action freedom fighters in America. In his words, "We don't need more PhDs in the black community, we need more Ph-Dos". He advocates for education, economic empowerment and social justice and has changed the definition of what it means to be a black scholar and leader in America. He is a Blue Ribbon Speaker with Great Black Speakers, Inc. and one of the top black speakers in America.

In addition to publishing a multitude of scholarly articles on Finance and investing, Dr. Watkins has presented his message to millions, making regular appearances in various national media outlets, including CNN, Good Morning America , MSNBC, FOX News, BET, NPR, Essence Magazine, USA Today, The Today Show, ESPN, The Tom Joyner Morning Show and CBS Sports. He is also the favored Financial Expert and social commentator for The Wendy Williams Experience, which has 11 million listeners nation-wide. Through his Step Up and Go to College Tour, he has spoken to over 50,000 African-American youth about the benefits of obtaining a college education. As a black financial speaker, he has given financial advice to millions of African-Americans through his series "Get your paper straight" and "Black Love, Black Money, Black Relationships" as well as over 150 national television, radio and print interviews in the last 2 years alone. He is also a faculty affiliate with the College Sports Research Institute at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Finally, he has fearlessly endured firestorms of controversy for his willingness to honestly and intelligently address racial inequality in university hiring/tenure practices, NCAA athletics, the prison system, "mainstream media" and the educational system.

A community reception, co-sponsored by the FSU School of Business and Economics and the Fayetteville Business and Professional League will follow in the lobby of Seabrook Auditorium.

An Intellectual Discussion with Dr. Boyce Watkins 

February 2, 2010 5:30 p.m. FSU Bookstore (space is limited)

Scholars from FSU's School of Business and Economics and departments of sociology and government and history will lead a discussion with Dr. Watkins regarding what it means to be a black scholar and leader in America. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Jerry Woods, Assistant Professor of Sociology.

Chancellor’s Distinguished Speakers Series: February 16, 2010 6:00 p.m. Seabrook Auditorium

Dr. David C. Driskell, artist and scholar will headline the black history month edition of the Chancellor's Distinguished Speakers Series.  Born in 1931 into a family of Georgia sharecroppers, he is today a renowned painter and collector of art, as well as one of the leading authorities on the subject of African American art and the black artist in American society. His paintings can be found in major museums and private collections worldwide.  His contributions to scholarship in the history of art include many books and more than 40 catalogues for exhibitions he has curated.  His essays on the subject of African American art have appeared in major publications throughout the world.  In establishing the Driskell Center, the University of Maryland has proudly taken up Driskell’s challenge to “grow the field.”

Prof. Driskell studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and received his undergraduate degree in art at Howard University (1955) and a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Catholic University (1962).   He joined the faculty of the Department of Art at the University of Maryland in 1977 and served as its Chair from 1978-1983.  He has been a practicing artist since the 1950s and his works are in major museums throughout the world, including the National Gallery of Art, the High Museum of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery, to name a few. 

In 1976, Driskell curated the groundbreaking exhibit “Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950” which laid the foundation for the field of African American Art History.  Since 1977, Prof. Driskell has served as cultural advisor to Camille O. and William H. Cosby and as the curator of the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts.  In 2000, in a White House Ceremony, Prof. Driskell received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton.  In 2007, he was elected as a National Academician by the National Academy.

Dr. Driskell's appearance is presented in partnership with the Fayetteville Arts Council Friends of African and African American Art (FAAA).

Showcase of FSU’s Department of Performing and Fine Arts:  February 26, 2010 7:00 p.m. Arts Council, Downtown Fayetteville

This showcase will include faculty performances, the Jazz Ensemble, the University Concert Choir and a performance of God’s Trombones based on the work of James Weldon Johnson
Arts Council.

Book Signing for Charles Chestnutt Reappraised:  February 26, 2010 6:00 p.m. City Gallery Center and Books, 112 Hay Street in Downtown Fayetteville

One of the best known and most widely read of early African American writers, Charles W. Chesnutt published more than fifty short stories, six novels, two plays, a biography of Frederick Douglass, and countless essays, poems, letters, journals, and speeches. Though he had light skin and was of mixed race, Chesnutt self-identified as a black man, and his writing was often boldly political, openly addressing problems of racial identity and injustice in the late 19th century.

This collection of critical essays reevaluates the Chesnutt legacy, introducing new scholarship reflective of the many facets of his fiction, especially his sophisticated narrative strategies. Co-author and FSU professor Maria Orban will sign books from 6-8 p.m.