Africana Studies Scholar Elected to the California State Assembly

Shirley Weber, professor and chair of the department of Africana studies at San Diego State University, was elected to the California State Assembly. Dr. Weber was elected in a district where Blacks make up only 10 percent of the electorate. She is the first African American to win election to the state legislature from a district south of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Dr. Weber is the daughter of a sharecropper. She holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles. She has taught at San Diego State University since 1972. Dr. Weber served as president of the National Council for Black Studies from 2002 to 2008. She has served on the editorial boards of the Western Journal of Black Studies and the International Journal of Africana Studies.

In the State Assembly, she hopes to be appointed to the Higher Education Committee.

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