This past Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the Afrikan\/Black Coalition held their 23rd annual Afrikan\/Black Coalition (ABC) conference at California State University, Northridge. This conference hosted over 800 African American and Black students and teachers from all over California who came together to discuss pressing social issues through workshops, social activities, keynote speakers, and, of course, conferences. According to the Afrikan\/Black Coalition website, the ABC conference, \u201cseeks to unify Afrikan\/Black students across the state in order to discuss and resolve issues concerning academic policy, campus climate, matriculation from the University, and political education.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first ABC conference was held in 2003 at University of California Santa Barbara, since then, it has been hosted at different UC and CSU campuses. Each conference has a different focus that is implemented throughout all activities, this year was \u201cReimagining Black Futures.\u201d Lily Owen, a Berkeley High School freshman who attended the 2026 ABC conference with the Black Student Union (BSU) said that, \u201c[African American and Black people in America] are sort of a marginalized group. It’s important that we as a community, not only learn about or know about our past future, but more about what’s to come.\u201d The ABC conference was first established to help prepare African American and Black students with the expertise of changing the educational, political, and social world through leadership and teachings.<\/p>\n
As one of the only state-wide conferences for African American students, the ABC conference provides a unique opportunity for students to create bonds with fellow African American and Black students from all over California. \u201cIt was so nice to see so many people that look like me coming from different schools around the world and collaborating to make an event such as this one,\u201d D\u2019Onnah Reed, a BHS senior who heard about the ABC conference through BSU last year, said. The ABC conference not only gave BHS students the occasion to connect with students that they had not previously met, but also cultivate deeper friendships with other students from BHS who went. \u201c(The ABC Conference) helped me create bonds and relationships that I never knew would exist,\u201d Reed said. \u201cIt also helped me become closer to people who I was already in close kin with. It also created endless memories that I’m so glad I get to call my own,\u201d Reed continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ABC conference consists of many forms of teachings and activities designed to educate, empower, and engage students on issues affecting the African and Black diaspora. Monique Hightower Gaskin, a BHS sophomore, said that her favorite ABC conference activity was hearing all of the different BSU\u2019s chants. In addition to the social aspects of the conference, students gained a wealth of knowledge about their identities, futures, and opportunities beyond high school. \u201cI learned so much about myself as a black woman and my peers,\u201d Hightower Gaskin said. \u201cI took many workshops about my future and the next steps to take in order to have an enriched college experience,\u201d Hightower Gaskin said. Like Owen and Reed, Hightower Gaskin also enjoyed the connections that she made at the conference. \u201cIt is powerful and motivating seeing how much greatness can be in one room, and I wish other high schools around the bay area could see the same,\u201d Hightower Gaskin said.<\/p>\n
For many students, the ABC conference also highlighted the importance of unity and safe spaces within the African and Black community. Through discussions, empowering speakers, group activities, and workshops, students were able to reflect on their identities and make lasting connections. Owen added that it is valuable that African and Black people have a place to come together and support each other, just like the ABC conference. \u201cIt’s unknown for everyone, but especially for Black people, especially in America,\u201d Owen said. \u201cWe need to have our own group that can conjugate and be more together,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the Afrikan\/Black Coalition held their 23rd annual Afrikan\/Black Coalition (ABC) conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-167992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}