George Wein (CAS’50), among the most influential jazz impresarios of the twentieth century, is also known for his promotion of social justice and racial understanding. Extending that effort, Wein and his wife, Joyce, recently made a gift of $1 million, initiating a fund to establish a chair in the African-American Studies Program. The chair will be fully funded when, through additional contributions, it reaches the $2 million level.

The program offers a graduate degree and an undergraduate minor, sponsors research, and presents public programs. Its director, Ronald Richardson, summarizes: “Our overarching mission is building people-to-people bridges across nations and cultures.”

	At the press conference, (from left) Ronald Richardson, John Silber (Hon.'95), and George Wein (CAS'50). Photo by Vernon Doucette.

Founded in 1969 by Adelaide Cromwell (Hon.’95), now a CAS professor emerita of sociology, the program “thrived under her leadership,” said Richardson, a CAS associate professor of African-American studies and history, at the June 12 press conference announcing the Weins’ gift. “It became one of the best programs in the nation. African-American studies at BU has now adopted a new focus, reflecting developments at home and abroad. Our reoriented program explores the African-American experience in a global and comparative perspective. That means uncovering connections between Americans of African descent and other populations, both in the United States and around the world.”

Richardson also announced that John Thornton, whom he called one of the top historians of Africa in the world, and his wife, African historian Linda Heywood, were joining BU this fall. “Clearly, we’re on the move,” he said.

Wein, born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and raised in Newton, stressed the importance of African-American studies in higher education, and said that such programs “need support everywhere.” He pointed out that in his BU days, when he was taking premed courses largely because his father, Barnet Wein (MED’20), was a doctor, he never dreamed that he would be able to contribute to such a program in a meaningful way. “I know that my family never thought I’d be in a position like this,” he said with a laugh, “and my friends never thought I’d be in a position like this.”

Once he realized as an undergraduate that he didn’t want to pursue his father’s career path, he moved to a different beat: jazz. (See "All That Jazz") And that transformation led him to become a “cultural innovator,” according to the citation accompanying his 1999 lifetime achievement award from the Da Capo Foundation and the Friends of the United Nations.

Joyce Wein. Photo by Vernon Doucette.

With their gift to BU, the Weins continue to innovate and to promote racial tolerance, said CAS African-American Studies and History Professor Allison Blakely, who will be the first holder of the George and Joyce Wein Chair. Blakely, a renowned scholar of black history, is the author of Blacks in the Dutch World: the Evolution of Racial Imagery in a Modern Society (1994), and Russia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian History and Thought (1986). A decorated Vietnam veteran, he taught at Howard University for thirty years before joining the BU faculty in 2001.

Wein has been fostering harmonious relations in the music industry for half a century, said Blakely, citing as one example his refusal to produce the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival until the city had eliminated laws prohibiting integrated audiences and performances. Wein’s promotion of jazz has improved understanding among people of various cultures and races, Blakely said, “and I think if our program can emulate that in the academic sphere, we will have great success.”

He thanked the Weins “for the faith they are demonstrating in BU and in its African-American Studies Program, showing that they have been convinced that we will advance the humanitarian ideals of social justice, as they have done throughout their careers. I’m pledging that we will be true to that trust.”

— Brian Fitzgerald