Joseph Gier added to self-guided Black history tour of UC Berkeley

Black Lives at Cal adds the Joseph Gier Memorial to UC Berkeley’s first self-guided Black history tour.

Black Lives at Cal (BLAC) is a multi-year initiative formed in 2021 “to celebrate, defend, and advance the legacy of Black people at the University of California, Berkeley.” As part of their mission to research, preserve, and publicize people and events impactful to Black history at Berkeley, BLAC created the Self-Guided Black History Tour. During this tour, listeners will delve into Black History at Berkeley through “the stories of Black students, faculty, and events from the past.”

Stop six of the self-guided tour brings you to Hearst Mining Circle, which features UC Berkeley’s first tenured Black professors, statistician David Blackwell and EE Professor Joseph Gier. Gier (M.S. ’40), the first Black professor to achieve tenure in the UC system, was memorialized on campus in 2023 with the unveiling of a bronze statue in his honor.