The Nash Lecture Series, devoted to providing the community with an outlook of black heritage and culture, kicked off its inaugural spring season Saturday afternoon at the Michigan Street Baptist Church with a lecture by Dr. Martha Bireda.
???Bireda spoke on the traditional values held by her community in Punta Gorda, Fla. as it developed in the late 1800s up until the late 1960s, as written in her book The Trabue Woods Book of Values.
???Bireda said that Punta Gorda was based primarily upon the values of collectivism, which emphasize people being integrated into strong groups and protecting each other. This is in contrast to individualism, where ties between individuals are loose and people look out for themselves, something Bireda feels is a critical problem with modern-day black society.
???"I think we're in crisis when we spend most of our time working to buy our children toys rather than concentrating on values," Bireda said. "When immigrants are establishing charter schools to teach their values, I think we're in crisis mode."
???Bireda noted that when collectivist values breakdown, things such as social polarization, dehumanization and family trouble become prevalent within a culture.
???She touched on numerous values that were of high importance to the Florida community, including equality, spirituality and education.
???Bireda also placed emphasis on the role of children within society.
???"When we judge a society, we judge by how its elders are treated and its children are treated," Bireda said. "When the elders and children are in trouble, the society is in trouble."
???Bireda added that ensuring the survival and a sustainability of a culture is dependent on how much the children within it are able to maintain its system of values over the long-term. Thus, Bireda mentioned the importance of the parents', family's and community's roles in helping to raise children.
???"Our children are who we are, not who we want them to be," Bireda said. "Our children are always watching us."
???Dave Rose, a senior environmental design major who is also pursuing African-American studies and architecture minors, started the Nash Lecture Series in the fall of 2008. His aim for the lecture series is to provide community education that is focused on Buffalo's black community at one of the area's often overlooked landmarks, the Michigan Street Baptist Church.
???"This place doesn't need to die or be forgotten," Rose said. "It is staying alive because of the lectures."
???Rose got the idea of starting the lecture series by combining ideas he picked up in his classes, hearing about the city of Buffalo's efforts to preserve its cultural history as well as numerous organizations from abroad that are trying to help black communities improve quality of life.
???Rose feels that these lectures can be a place for people to exchange thoughts and ideas.
???"The purpose is to really have a diverse crowd of students, teachers, professors and political figures have a diverse interaction," Rose said. "It's good to link socially between individuals. It gives people an opportunity to discuss different things."
???As a long-time instrumental institute within the black community in Western New York, including serving as a stop on the Underground Railroad, the Michigan Street Baptist Church also has a rich tradition of bringing in several notable black figures to speak there.
???In the 1800s, abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Henry Highland Garnet and Martin Delaney spoke at the church.
???In the 20th century, long-time pastor Dr. J. Edward Nash, whom the lecture series is named after, provided a second wave of high profile speakers, bringing in black civil rights leaders such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.
???With Buffalo's black literacy rate faltering, Rose has made it a personal goal to help improve reading levels by focusing on books and topics that are important to the black community in the lectures.
???Bireda's discussion was the first of the three discussions scheduled for the Nash Lectures during the spring semester. The second lecture in the series is set to take place on Feb. 21 when Devra Davis speaks about her book The Secret History of the War on Cancer.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
