Tuesday Oct. 15 the Levan center hosted Professor Oliver Rosales for Hispanic Heritage Month to talk about his book “Civil Rights in Bakersfield: Segregation and Multiracial Activism in the Central Valley.”

The Bakersfield College history club organized and volunteered at the event setting up the chairs and telling the students where to go. Many students and staff showed up for Rosales’ talk, standing and sitting on the ground once the chairs ran out.

The event consisted of Rosales talking about the chapters in his book and what each one covers in the history of Bakersfield and the wider areas.

Rosales said that he wrote this book because it was very close to home as his family is from Bakersfield and it is a subject that is not very well written about or researched regarding civil rights and activism in Bakersfield.

“How do you destroy people? You destroy their history,” said Rosales about why it’s important to cover local history.

After the discussions of the book by Rosales he opened the floor to allow questions from the audience. Several students asked questions about the book including details about the writing of the book and what is included in it.

Rosales explained that this book has been being written since 2003 and started as his dissertation topic before he decided to write the book which has been peer reviewed.

Rosales talked about how Kern County and Bakersfield has a lot of history that has yet to be explored through research since his book mostly covered the civil rights movement and up until the 1980s talking about the important activists and events that shaped Bakersfield and its greater area even still.

The history club held a free raffle of 25 of the books to give to students for free that could be signed by Professor Rosales.

Currently Rosales is trying to get the book into the public libraries. It can currently be found in the BC Library.