AFRICAN AMERICAN STRUGGLE HEADING IN NEW DIRECTION? IHRAAM CHICAGO CONFERENCE East-West University, April 2012 On April 20-21, 2012, key representatives of the African American popular leadership and intelligentsia broke new ground in Chicago at the IHRAAM-sponsored conference titled FROM CIVIL RIGHTS TO HUMAN RIGHTS AND SELF-DETERMINATION? Speakers and attendees flew in from all corners–California, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, Washington, DC, Virginia and Canada. The atmosphere in the conference hall at East-West University was electrifying, as speaker after speaker added new planks to attendees’ understanding of where the African American struggle had been, where it was now, and the direction it had to go to move forward. There was no disagreement from either speakers or floor on the general direction proposed by the title of the conference: that the African American struggle must now move on from civil rights to human rights and self-determination. more