Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative

The Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative aims to embed the study of racial justice throughout every aspect of the Pitzer educational experience.

Photo of the Mounds

“As an African American, I have felt deeply each blow, each knee to the neck, each bullet that has extinguished the lives of my fellow brothers and sisters. I have spent my professional life trying to understand the sources of that violence and developing policies and programs to address it.”

Melvin L. Oliver

Pitzer's 6th President

3 Primary Prongs Funded

The Racial Justice Initiative funds events addressing curricular transformation, co-curricular transformation, and structural transformation.

About

Continuing acts of racialized violence and the mobilization efforts by the Black Lives Matter movement and its allies to fight for racial justice provide an important backdrop for scholars and students to analyze this unique moment in time. 

In an effort to support productive discussion, analysis, and activism, the Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative provides funds for three primary prongs: curricular transformation, co-curricular transformation, and structural transformation. Together, these are designed to deepen student, staff, and faculty knowledge and action around racialized violence.

Melvin L. Oliver

Pitzer President Melvin L. Oliver, who co-authored the groundbreaking book Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality, launched the Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) in 2020. 

After President Oliver announced that he would retire at the end of June 2022, RJI was renamed the Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative to honor Oliver’s tenure as the sixth president of Pitzer College, his fight for equity and against injustice, and his 45-year career in higher education and philanthropy.

If you would like to support the Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative, please visit Pitzer College’s donation page.

Recent Events

Conflict in Gaza: A Historian’s View

James L. Gelvin, Professor of History at UCLA and author of “The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History,” discusses the background to the current crisis in Gaza.

Conflict in Gaza a Historians View

The Everyday (Re) Making of Brazil

This presentation introduces important Brazilian writers and the politics of their works in the everyday (re)making of Brazil.

The Everyday (Re) Making of Brazil

The Barber of Little Rock

A special screening of the 2024 Academy Award-nominated short film, The Barber of Little Rock, was followed by a discussion with co-director John Hoffman and the barber himself, Arlo Washington.

The Barber of Little Rock

The Three Mothers

Tubbs discussed her work with Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jan Barker Alexander and Bee Joyner ’24 and how she told American history through Black women’s eyes.

The Three Mothers

The 2022 Midterm Elections Discussion

A discussion on the 2022 midterm elections and broader issues around multiracial coalitions and diversity in the electorate.

The 2022 Midterm Elections Discussion

Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens Distinguished Lecture

Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens Distinguished Lecture

Experiences of Central American Asylum Seekers

Experiences of Central American Asylum Seekers

Environmental Justice in Indian Country

Environmental Justice in Indian Country

Politics of Belonging and Exclusion

Politics of Belonging and Exclusion