African-American institute celebrated

Northeastern events mark 40th year

Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority members (bottom to top) Khadija Burns, Tiffany Clark, Myeschea Joell, and Cristina Wells performed at Step Fest 2008 yesterday in Boston. (Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

Rhythmic steps and cadences of claps filled Northeastern University's Matthews Arena yesterday afternoon as part of Step Fest 2008, one of a weeklong series of events being held to celebrate the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute's 40th anniversary.

The event drew about 2,500 people and step-dance teams from several schools, including Boston University, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Simmons College, according to organizers.

"This is something for the community to come out and see," said 21-year-old Shantelle Anderson, president of Northeastern's Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, who helped organize the event. "It's not just dancing." The performing groups, all of them members of predominantly African-American fraternities and sororities, "also give their histories."

Step-dancing "goes back to African tradition," Anderson said. "It goes back to your roots."

The events, which end tomorrow with a unity brunch banquet, mark the week when Asa Knowles, then Northeastern's president, committed to establishing the Afro-American Institute in 1968, said Richard O'Bryant, 43, director of the institute now named after his father, the late John D. O'Bryant. The elder O'Bryant was the university's first African-American vice president, and once served as president of the Boston School Committee.

After Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, the university's Afro-American Association issued a list of 13 demands to the university, including "the formation of a committee of faculty, administrators, and black students," according to the institute's website.

The institute was created "as a result of black students after [Dr. King's death] feeling that their interests and needs could best be served by establishing cultural centers," Richard O'Bryant said.

"To recognize a man of color means a lot to this city and this university, especially on this weekend where we are recognizing and remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, who also united people," said his wife, Lanice.

Ella Robertson, an Alpha Kappa Alpha member who graduated from Northeastern in 1977 and later worked there as a dean, said John O'Bryant was inspiring to African-Americans at Northeastern and beyond.

"He was a mentor for most people of color in the field of education," she said.