Cultural & Ethnic Studie The Origins of Africana Studies A Brief History of a Scholar Activist

283 Chapter 13 The Origins of Studies A Brief History of a Scholar Activist Tradition ( Ra Em and Tennessee State University and the University of Introduction Born out of students demand for a relevant education during the transitionary period between the modern Civil Rights era ( and the Black Power era ( 1975 ) Studies is a discipline that emerged during one of the most radical moments in Impatient with the pace with which accepted that women , men , and children were deserving of full integration in all areas of American society , students and faculty at historically Black colleges and universities ( and predominantly white institutions ( began to critique the ideals espoused by Civil Rights era activists and reclaim history , culture , and values . These sought to use this perspective to transform university education in preparation to address the social , political , and economic conditions within their immediate neighborhoods and communities . This desire for a Within this chapter the term refers to the collective histories , experiences , and destinies of continental Africans and their descendants located in the Americas , the Caribbean , and elsewhere due to enslavement and later voluntary and involuntary migrations .

284 relevant and education on college campuses during this period led to the creation of the discipline of Studies . Studies and the tradition that brought the discipline into being in the late has a much longer evolutionary development , however . This history begins with the purpose of education and the role of the student within ancient and traditional African societies and can be traced throughout people struggle for freedom and inclusion since their enslavement in America . The purpose of this chapter is to introduce students to the origins of the discipline , the early objectives and motivations of some of its early architects , and the particular ideological framework which students , faculty , and community members used as motivation to disrupt and , in some instances , to completely shut down , college and university campuses . In doing so , however , this chapter examines this activism as an outgrowth of women , men , and youth who have historically used the acquisition of knowledge , literacy , and the creation of scholarship as methods to resist oppressive conditions in America . Before exploring the origins of Studies , it is to explain the significance of nomenclature ( naming ) used for the discipline and the scope of the discipline . The students and scholars who brought about the field through activism often espoused the political philosophy of Black Power . Therefore , Black Studies was the initial name of academic units and reflected the philosophical orientation of those who agitated for the transformation of not only racist America but its racist higher education curricula . Within this chapter , the term is used interchangeably with Black , African American , and African . Studies is used interchangeably with African

285 Studies , Black Studies , Studies , African American Studies , African Studies , and , less frequently , Since the institutionalization of the discipline in the American academy , many students , faculty , and administrators use these names interchangeably as well . But not without some debate . Nomenclature has often reflected how many scholars have envisioned the discipline . A discipline , in simple terms , is a specialized branch of study and ' For Ama , the various names for the discipline reflect the unresolved issue of the scope of The normative perspective is that terms used in relationship to the discipline identify varying cultures , communities , and regions that are of interest to scholars . For instance , as will be discussed later in the chapter , African Studies scholars or study varying aspects of continental African history , psychology , politics , sociology , and religion . For scholars in the late twentieth and early centuries , aligning themselves with the terms African American Studies or who refer to themselves as African scholars , their scholarship is frequently ( not always ) centered in the history , life , and culture of people in North America . For James Stewart and Anderson , these thinkers use theories , approaches , and perspectives borrowed from traditional Western disciplines of history , psychology , and , Introduction to Black Studies ( Los Angeles University of Press , 2010 ) Ama , Naming and Defining A Critical Link , Journal of Black Studies , Vol . 20 ( 2009 ) 68 .

286 political science , to examine African American life , defining the field to be an inherently examination of the African American This perspective also exists among some folks laboring within both African and Studies units . But many of these scholars see the discipline as an intellectual space in which there is room for engagement with continental African subject matter , both past and present , as well as the study of the linguistic , social , historical , political , economic , and behavioral realities of African descendants throughout the world ( and across time and space ( pan ) Practitioners who more so identify as Studies scholars seem to view the discipline similarly to and African scholars . However , like , they attempt to dispense with Western traditional disciplinary theories , approaches , and perspectives and consider their approach to reflect the intentions of the early architects of the discipline who called for the use of ideological and pedagogical blackness as the approach to researching and teaching in the discipline and transforming This current brand of Studies scholarship often defines the discipline as a enterprise in which ancient and traditional African perspectives on reality , found throughout African history and culture , are in fact the ideological and pedagogical blackness that early laborers in the discipline called for . Studies scholars , then , use this ideological framework Anderson and James Stewart , Introduction to African American Studies Approaches and Implications ( Baltimore Black Classic Press , 2007 ) Nathan Hare , What Should Be the Role of Education in the Undergraduate Curriculum ?

Liberal Education , Vol . 55 , No . March 1969 ) 287 as a lens through which to examine the whole of the African world experience in an attempt to bring about their psychological , spiritual , political , and economic Yet , African American , and studies scholars often unquestionably align with this academic approach as well . The next section of the chapter presents the ideas of scholars who utilize this latter approach to rethink and define the African ancestral goal of education and knowledge . African Indigenous Education A Intellectual Tradition , Linda James Myers , and several other Studies scholars support the idea that an African intellectual tradition predates what would become eighteenth , nineteenth , and objectives in the Attempting to demonstrate the existence of a liberatory higher education model among Africans thousands of years before Europe enslaved and colonized the African world , these scholars look to the ancient African Nile Valley ( Egypt ) educational systems that began during the Old Kingdom period , circa 2600 . These educational institutions ( universities ) were grounded in a study of the movement of the natural world and how nature reflected the human potential to Keita Carroll , Studies and Research Methodology Revisiting the Centrality of the Worldview Methodology , Journal of Pan African Studies , Vol . No . March 2008 ) Linda James Myers , Optimal Theory and the Academic and Philosophical Origins of Black Studies , in Nathaniel , The African American Studies Reader ( Carolina Academic Press , 2007 )

288 live a balanced life . In a word , the major purpose of education in the Nile Valley was to learn how to bring about balance in one community through knowing one self , that is , one true self , one higher Referencing the mission of one of the oldest centers for higher learning in the Nile Valley in ( Asa details the educational mission The highest aim of Egyptian education was for one to become godlike through the revision of one own Neter , of how God is revealed in the ' It was through this training that graduates were prepared to serve in spiritual , scribal , political , and other occupations that were in service to their dynastic government local communities . For Myers , the students and educators comprising the movement for Studies and the academic objectives of contemporary Studies practitioners are heirs to this The mission of and contemporary West African education systems reflect ancient intentions . Within most African cultural or language groupings , formal education in some communities continues to initiation process , where all youth on the verge of adulthood are introduced to cultural knowledge that supports their spiritual development and life Patrice describes this process within his contemporary culture of , West Africa Initiation Asa , The Maroon Us ( Black Classic Press , 1995 ) 92 . 93 , 99 . Myers , 297 . 11 Vincent , The African Experience An ( Cliffs Prentice Hall , 1994 ) 47 .

289 focuses on and is a response to some basic existential questions faced by humans beings Everyone wonders , Who am I ?

Where do I come from ?

What am I here for ?

and Where am I going ?

12 Additionally , depending on the particular social order of the African cultural grouping , youths may acquire further training to prepare them to perform specialized occupations , including but not limited to musicians , healers , shaman , and other specialized professions through which they could use their individual talents and life purpose in service of their , writing about the Akan of , West Africa , sums up service to the community in this way one must have two responsibilities to oneself as an individual and to the group . Maintaining the balance is not easy , but most people in African societies try to do what they can to fulfill those ' Mastering one purpose for community survival has therefore been the goal of formal education within many African societies . The Making of an Tradition By the early eighteenth century , intellectuals in Europe and in North America began to fabricate the inferiority of continental and African peoples . Although century Greek historian documented the ingenuity of Nile Valley inhabitants , philosophers concluded that African people were 12 Patrice , The Healing Wisdom ( New York Penguin , 1998 ) 276 . 13 Some , 40 . 14 , African Cultural Values An Introduction ( Philadelphia Press , 1996 ) 50 .

290 uncivilized and backwards . French philosopher , Scottish philosopher David , and German philosophers and Friedrich , for instance , wrote extensively about the ignorance and innately primitive nature of continental and Africans . Their main assertion was that people had never developed any form of science , mathematics , art , spirituality , political , and economic structures that were comparable to ancient Greek and Roman foundations and contemporary European advancements because they were incapable of doing so . These ideas echoed social science theories emerging during the eighteenth century , including the conclusion of Swedish botanist Carl , who classified Africans as an intellectually inferior species in comparison with all other races , especially the intellectually astute white Although the enslavement of Africans by Europeans began in 1444 when Portuguese raiders kidnapped human beings off the western coast of the African continent , these Western intellectual and social science ideas provided further rationalization for the enslavement and colonization of people . In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries enslaved and free Africans in what would become North America used literacy to challenge these white supremacist ideas and the system of enslavement . Between infamous year when the first stolen were brought to , the close of the Civil War in 1865 , owners provided necessary skills , crafts , and management training for Africans to labor on plantations , and some provided biblical education in an attempt to encourage obedience to God divine plan for their enslavement . While educating Africans was illegal , a few owners taught just enough literacy for a select few to read biblical scripture and to

291 teach Christianity to other enslaved Africans . However , in 1831 in County , Virginia , for instance , enslaved preacher Nat Turner used his interpretation of biblical scripture and his spiritual insight to organize and launch one of largest documented , deadly acts of revolution against Europeans in history . While by no means the first , it is an excellent example of enslaved folks using their education in the service of community survival . These acts were in tandem with lectures and publications composed by free Africans . Indeed , some enslaved and free Africans in both the North and South before the Civil War taught themselves to read and write , while other free Africans , especially in the North , received education from Quakers and other religious organizations or established small institutions for themselves and their children with private support . David Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World ( 1829 ) Maria Religion and the Pure Principles of ) 183 ) Edward A Voice rom on Behalf of Her Exiled Children ( 1856 ) and several others exemplify the scholarship meant to incite peoples critical thinking about collective methods to bring about their own emancipation . These unquestionably laid down the foundation for what would evolve into the discipline of Studies . Despite the fact the discipline had not been formed , it was their orientation to the work , their connection to the community , and their undying commitment to liberation through education that makes them and early Studies scholars . Word to Our Mothers of Studies

292 Gender has affected how the development of Studies has been understood and , especially when considering the differing degrees of access to education of women living under patriarchal white supremacy , even compared with their male peers . Because of these inequities , histories of Studies have highlighted an almost exclusively male foundation . Our are central to the historical development of the discipline of Studies , as is evident in the rich legacy of the tradition of women orators , educators , and researchers , many of whom are also recognized as early developers of what has become womanism , Black Women Studies , and Black Feminist Studies . Professionally trained and woman scholars have faced numerous obstacles , even more so than their male counterparts . A social system that placed women exclusively in domestic roles made it quite difficult for women to be viewed as worthy contributors to the growing body of scholarship focused on African people and the . This same social system excluded Black women from higher education , making it doubly difficult for them to secure positions using their expertise and seemingly impossible to publish in their respective fields . Finally , they faced outright sexism from their male counterparts , many of whom saw women arrival as an affront to their authority . Anna Julia Cooper , Maria Stewart , Ida , and Drusilla Houston are four early Studies scholars who overcame these obstacles , becoming major contributors to the body of scholarship on people and are recognized as founders of Studies .

293 Anna Julia Cooper has been recognized as an early founder of Studies and Black Women Studies not only because of her dedication to people and education but also due to her significant influence on Black feminist intellectual thought during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . Credited as the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in history , she remains an important Black feminist theorist because she was one of the first to consider the interconnectedness between the political , social , and economic liberation of women and African people as a whole . Cooper was born into enslavement in Raleigh , North Carolina . Still a child at the end of the Civil War , she had numerous opportunities to pursue an education and eventually obtained degrees from Augustine Normal and Collegiate Institute and College . At that time , Augustine was a newly established institution for the education of teachers , and while Cooper started as a student , in time she went on to serve as a tutor and later as a After earning a master degree from , she taught at the school , a prestigious Black high school in Washington , where she would eventually be appointed as principal . She later became president of the University , a school that provided vocational and academic courses for Black Regardless of the location or institution , Cooper made the education of people her life work . Cooper was motivated to begin her doctoral studies at sixty years old , one of her most notable accomplishments . She 15 Bailey , Anna Julia Cooper Dedicated in the Name of My Slave Mother to the Education of Colored Working , Vol . 19 , No . Spring 2004 ) 57 . 15 Bailey , 58 .

294 completed her doctorate at the University of Paris , and defended her thesis , entitled de la France dans la question de entre 1789 et 1848 ( The Attitude of France on the Question of Slavery between 1789 and 1848 ) Challenging the moral implications of enslavement , her thesis considered the impact of enslavement on African people in nuanced ways . Her thesis grappled with the contradictions of the country slaveholding past , and the work proved to be another important and practical step in her journey as a . Cooper work has become a foundational example of early Black feminist intellectual thought . Her collection of essays A Voice from the South discusses the of women identities and positions them as a unique and necessary force in reform efforts . In 1892 , she astutely described the challenges faced by women She is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem and is as yet an unknown or an unacknowledged factor in both . While the women of the white race can with calm assurance enter upon the work they feel by nature appointed to do , while their men give loyal support and appreciative countenance to their efforts the colored woman too often finds herself hampered and shamed by a less liberal sentiment and a more conservative attitude on the part of those for whose opinion she cares the Cooper focus on women agency despite their invisibility was a strong call to action and made an intentional break from the gender norms of the time . 17 Pero , Black Women Historians from the Late 19 Century to the Dawning of the Civil Rights Movement , Journal American , Vol . 89 , No . July 2004 ) 251 . 18 Anna Julia Cooper , A Voice from the South ( Xenia , Ohio The Aldine Printing House , 1892 )

295 An educator , orator , abolitionist , and theologian , Maria Miller Stewart was born a free woman in 1803 in , Connecticut . Much of Stewart life remains a mystery , but her important , albeit short career as an abolitionist writer and lecturer places her at the forefront of the tradition that would eventually usher in Studies . Mentored by free Black abolitionist David Walker , Stewart shared his belief that God was on the side of African American people and would avenge their enslavement and discriminatory treatment however , unlike Walker , she avoided endorsing Instead , Stewart focused her energies on promoting education and moral discipline as the most viable roads to racial uplift . Further , she broke with traditional gender norms of the period and fiercely advocated for the education of women and girls , going as far as to encourage them to promote , and build their own educational institutions . Her deep commitment to the daughters of Africa was demonstrated both through the content of her speeches and her published works . Between 1831 and 1833 , Stewart launched a powerful career as a passionate orator and went on to become the first woman to speak before an audience mixed with and women and men in 1832 . In her provocative speech Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality , the Sure Foundation on Which we Must Build , Stewart highlighted the of women education . She righteously asked , How long shall the fair daughters of Africa be compelled to bury their minds and talents beneath a load of iron pots and kettles ?

and advocated that they let 19 Valerie Cooper , Word , Like re Maria Stewart , the Bible , and the Rights cans ( University of Virginia Press , 2011 ) 296 every female heart become united and let us raise a fund ourselves and at the end of one year and a half , we might be able to lay the for the building of a high school , that the higher branches of knowledge might be enjoyed by Despite her relatively short career , published works and speeches left a lasting impact by demonstrating women early investment in education as a means of liberation and by showing the promise and potential of girls as viable leaders in the long , protracted struggle against white supremacy . Perhaps the most popularly known of the four scholars highlighted in this section is Ida , crusader , journalist , orator , and advocate for woman suffrage . Born to enslaved parents in 1862 in Holly Springs , Mississippi , she attended Rust College , an industrial school for freed people . After the death of both parents , the became primary caregiver for her siblings and took a teaching job to support them . In 1884 , she moved her family to Memphis in hopes of securing a position , and , that same year , she successfully sued the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company after refusing to ride in the smoking car that was designated for demand to ride in the Ladies Car instead of the smoking car was more than a demand for individual respect her refusal symbolized a Maria Miller Stewart , Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality , the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build , in Beverly , Words of Fire An Anthology Feminist Thought ( New York Norton Company , 1995 ) 26 . 21 Sharon Harley , Ida . Journalist and Social Activist , in Charles Reagan Wilson , The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Volume ( Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press , 2006 ) 350 .

297 much broader call for the protection of women and girls , a campaign that remained central to her activist agenda . While teaching in Memphis , began to pursue a career in journalism and became and editor of the Memphis Free Speech . Using the resources most readily at her disposal , in 1891 wrote and published an article criticizing the school system for its inadequate allocations to schools and was subsequently fired from her teaching The following year , wrote another fiery column in response to the lynching of three of her friends public response included the destruction of Free Speech building and numerous threats on her life . Undeterred by threats , researched the numerous lynchings of Black people and criticized local officials for their inaction . Her research was published in the pamphlet Southern Horrors Lynch Law in All Its Phases in 1892 , and a more formal analysis , A Red Record , was published in 1895 . Her work garnered from prominent African Americans , like Frederick , who helped her gain a larger national and international audience . fastidious desire to document the terror of lynching also served as an corrective that dispelled myths of African After marrying the editor of the Chicago Conservator , the city first Black newspaper , became an active contributor while also founding and serving 22 Harley , 350 . 23 Linda Edwards , To Keep the Waters Troubled The Life of Ida ( New York Oxford University Press , 1998 ) 166 .

298 in a number of civic clubs and organizations . During the opening decades of the twentieth century , sewed the National Council and the Negro Fellowship League . Further , she helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( legacy of outspoken activism , striking prose and tireless fight for people generally , and Black women specifically , positions her as an undeniable example of the stalwart Studies scholar before the formal installation of the discipline . Drusilla Houston , historian , author , and poet , is best known for her meticulously researched Wonderful ans of the Ancient Empire , a study hailed as the first exploration of ancient African civilizations by an African American woman . But long before she began working toward Wonderful ans , Houston demonstrated unwavering interest in strong education for African Americans people , especially girls and women . After serving as an elementary school teacher in , Oklahoma , she opened the Seminary for Girls at the close of the nineteenth century . Following twelve years of service and numerous commendations , Houston served as principal of the Oklahoma Baptist College for Girls from 1917 until 1923 , after which she opened the Oklahoma Vocational Institute of Fine Arts and 24 Edwards , 282 . 25 Peggy Ann , Houston Uncrowned Queen in the African American Women Literary ( Buffalo State University of New York at Buffalo , 2002 )

299 Her career in education was matched by her career as a journalist . Born into a newspaper family , Houston was a regular contributor to the Black , a periodical published in the town of , She was also a regular contributor in the Black Dispatch , which was owned by her brother , Roscoe . Between 1914 and 1939 , Houston wrote more than editorials . experience as a researcher and journalist may have prepared her for Wonderful Ethiopians , a major undertaking that would become her life work . in 1926 amid rising racial tensions in the United States , Wonderful Ethiopians was an important project that connected the ancient majesty of the to their ancestors living in America . It was not only timely but necessary to achieve the historical recovery and progress that Houston envisioned . In the preface , Houston writes to Africans , Lift up your heads , discouraged and downtrodden Ethiopians . Listen to this marvelous story told of your ancestors , who wrought mightily for mankind and built the foundations of civilization true and square in the days of Much like the Studies scholars that would follow her , Houston placed unmatched importance on knowing the truth and fullness of history and using that knowledge in service of liberation . Clearly an act of reclamation , Houston challenged of African people within scholarship . Wonderful Ethiopians was just as much a project of recovery as it was a practical means of helping African 25 , 27 Drusilla Houston , Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Empire Book ( Oklahoma City Universal Publishing Company , 1926 )

300 to reclaim and reconnect to their histories . As demonstrated through the extraordinary life and works of Cooper , Stewart , and Houston , women were active in conducting and sharing research about people that was both practical and accessible to the community . African American Research , and African Studies at Historically Black colleges and university ( had been the intellectual hub for students interested in seeking a college education before 1965 . Although initially established by religious missions and philanthropists to educate free Africans in the North directly before the Civil War , the majority of these institutions were established in the Southern states from Reconstruction through the first quarter of the twentieth century . While many initially began as primary and secondary schools , they became premier institutions of higher education for people because of legislation that mandated segregation of races in most institutions and facilities in the South . It is within these segregated institutions where highly educated having received advanced education and degrees from predominately white institutions in the , challenged , and supported many of the students and graduates who were on the cutting edge of civil rights activism during the first half of the twentieth century . In this way , in some instances , provided students with a critical education that engendered the possibilities for radical social transformation .

301 Some of the earliest research on the African American experience was conducted by faculty setting the backdrop for what would evolve into Studies . Seeking solutions to disenfranchisement , poverty , and other conditions impacting the wellbeing of African communities at the turn of the twentieth century , Howard University professor and priest Alexander formed the American Negro Academy in 1897 in Washington , Featuring a series of yearly lectures and scholarly presentations , the Academy attracted the foremost radical of the day who used their scholarship as means to dismantle white supremacy . Some of the presentations included the writings of Arturo , Archibald , and John Cromwell , among others . Sociologist and historian William Edward ( Du Bois is unquestionably positioned as a forerunner to the discipline of Often described as one of the most prolific thinkers , researchers , and activists in and American history , Du Bois completed his at Harvard in 1895 . He was a founding member and later president of the American Negro Academy , and one of Du Bois earliest appointments was to lead the sociology program at Atlanta University . While there , Du Bois led a series of social science research studies on the social , economic , familial , and mental wellbeing of communities under the umbrella of the Atlanta Sociological 28 Warren , Du Grandfather of Black Studies ( Africa World Press , 2011 ) James Stewart , The Legacy of . Du Bois for Contemporary Black Studies , Journal of Negro Education , Vol . 53 , No . 1984 )

302 Between 1897 and 1910 Atlanta sociology students often assisted Du Bois with this early research also known as the Atlanta University Studies , the publication and research arm of the Furthermore , in one of Du Bois earlier reflections of the Negro People , published in an 1897 volume of The Atlantic later as a chapter in The Souls of Black ( 1903 ) he provided the prognosis that people walk through the world with a resulting from the impact of racism in America he Negro is a sort of seventh son , born with a veil , a gifted with sight in this American , world which yields him no consciousness , but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world . It is a peculiar sensation , this , the sense of always looking at one self through the eyes of others , of measuring one soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and 31 For Du Bois , this renders women , men , and children often unable to see themselves beyond the racist and demeaning stereotypes of people created and upheld by European elites , academics , and . It is this dilemma that educators in African Studies and later in the discipline of Studies would seek to heal through scholarship and classroom instruction . Overall , Du Bois scholarship on The 29 Earl Wright 11 , The Atlanta Sociological Laboratory , A Historical Account of the First American School of Sociology , Western Journal of Black Studies , Vol . 26 , No . 2002 ) Studies of Black Families , Finding a Way The Black Struggle for Education at the Atlanta University Center , accessed November , 2020 ) 31 . Du Bois , of the Negro , August 1897 , 194 .

303 Philadelphia Negro ( 1899 ) Black Reconstruction in America ( 1935 ) and innumerable other books , works of fiction , and the tone for research and writing on the life chances of people living under white supremacy . Although Carter tenure as faculty at Howard University was short lived , his intellectual contributions are enduring . With the goal of establishing scholarship about African and history to people who may not have had access to higher education , believed that could repair the damage that the social , economic , and physical conditions of enslavement and segregation has had on the psyche and of To achieve this aim in 1915 , he formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History ( now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History ) and its publishing arm , The Journal of Negro , a year later . In 1926 established Negro History Week and published The of the Negro in 1933 . It is clear that the contributions of these early male scholars , like their female counterparts , shaped the meaning of for people . The origins of African Studies at must also be understood within this intellectual climate and as a precursor to the discipline . According to historian Mario , African Studies is defined as a broad field or area of study which combines several disciplines in the arts , the humanities , and the sciences for the 32 Pero , Making Black History Practical and Popular Carter , the Proto Black Studies Movement and the Struggle for Black Liberation , Western Journal of Black Studies , Vol . 27 , No . 2003 )

304 sole purpose of studying and understanding Africa and its people from all Interestingly , normative histories highlight the founding of African Studies at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1948 during the Cold War era . During this moment in history , the federal government , along with philanthropists , sought to fund Western academics in Africa to investigate and curb the extent to which colonial African leaders were adopting economies . Anthropologist secured yearly funding , allowing him and a team of professors and researchers to create program and to conduct research in all aspects of African social structures . The program became one of the foremost African Studies programs in the world that is still in existence today . However , prior to the creation of program , several faculty formed political alliances with continental African leaders , conducted research in Africa , and included African history in their curricula for the purpose of challenging European of the continent and reclaiming the humanity of both continental and Africans . Du Bois intellectual and activist commitments to Africa are prime examples . During the period when racist theories about the inferiority of people continued to prevail and segregation was the normative social order , Du Bois published The Negro in 1915 which reviewed the interconnected history of Africa and the and was 33 Mario , African Studies and the State of the Art , in Mario , Studies A Survey of Africa and the ( Carolina Academic Press , 2019 )

305 one of the first books on this neglected However , Du Bois interest in Africa was evident in his 1895 dissertation , Suppression of the African Slave Trade , and can be traced through his considerable involvement in and organization of between 1900 and 1945 , his teaching legacy at Atlanta University until 1910 , and his role as a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( In doing so , Du Bois organized , presented research , discussed position papers , and lobbied international political bodies alongside Trinidadian attorney Henry Sylvester Williams , theorist George , Senegalese parliamentarian , Emperor of Ethiopia I , and numerous other continental and thinkers and politicians during the first half of the twentieth century . Du Bois and these early twentieth century from the continent , the Caribbean , and North America gathered in London , Paris , Brussels , and elsewhere in the European empire to rally for the end of the economic and political occupation of the African continent by European who sought to extract raw material resources at the expense of the political , economic , and culture autonomy of African cultural groups . For Du Bois and other attendees of the , became a political philosophy that considered the end of colonialism on the African continent as a part of the collective ( pan ) liberation struggles against European racism and domination in North America , the Caribbean , and other pans of the African . Notably , the philosophy of 34 Jerry , Not an Academic Affair African American Scholars and the Development of African Studies Programs in the United States , Journal of African American History , Vol . 94 , No . 2009 ) 49 .

306 would later inform the political outlook and priorities of many of the students and faculty who fought for the development of Studies in the American academy and shaped early curricular concerns . In 1922 Leo William offered courses about African social organizations , political economies , and cultural expressions at Howard University . In teaching these courses , like , wanted to provide an alternative history to the dominant representations of inferiority in Africa and its areas as a method to repair the damaged ego of his students . During the , Howard political scientist Ralph researched colonial governments and African social and political systems of West , South , and East Africa . According to Pearl Robinson , the culmination of research emphasized the problems posed by colonial policies , imperialism , and the changing status of the contemporary African Although faculty struggled for years to receive funding from the Ford Foundation to maintain its program , by 1953 Howard offered a graduate program , and by 1969 in the midst of the Black Power era , Howard became the first university in the country to offer a in African Studies , a program that continues 35 Pearl Robinson , Ralph and African Studies Reflections on the Politics of Knowledge , can Studies Review , Vol . 51 , No . April 2008 ) 35 About the Center , Howard University African Studies Center , this ( accessed November , 2020 )

307 Fisk University in Nashville , Tennessee , and Lincoln University in Pennsylvania housed the first two programs in African Studies at . Fisk program began in 1942 due to the American government increased interest in policies on the African continent . To be sure , the Fisk faculty were not interested in furthering colonial priorities in Africa much of their interests in the study of Africa fell along the same lines as Du Bois , and objectives . However , attempting just to benefit from federal and philanthropic funding , sociologist Charles Johnson , linguist Lorenzo Turner , and other faculty were able to eventually offer an undergraduate and graduate degree in African Studies before the demise of the program in the late due to a myriad of faculty Horace Mann Bond of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania created the Institute for the Study of African Affairs in 1950 without external funding . Creating an exchange program , Bond was not only interested in researching and teaching about Africa . Bond created a bridge for which over one hundred continental African students could exchange ideas with African students in attendance at Lincoln , who would be the first president of , was one of these students . As funding went to the African Studies programs at , like the program at Fisk , Lincoln Institute was , leaving Howard University with the remaining program in African Studies at an . At both and , contemporary Studies scholars attempt to incorporate the investigation of Africa as part of the study of the larger African experience and use this historical cultural knowledge as 37 , 50 .

308 examples for how to sustain life amidst white . Therefore , much of the scholarship produced by these early African Studies scholars comprise part of the Studies curricula . Civil Rights and Black Power Student Activism at The struggle for Studies can not be divorced from the activist tradition that influenced the modern Civil Rights era ( Scholars have well documented the tradition of students , faculty , and alumni who were key architects in dismantling segregation policies in the South during the modern Civil Rights era . After the 1954 Supreme ruling in Brown . Board that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional , students , faculty , alumni , and other sympathizers and concerned community members were further inspired to challenge all policies of discrimination . For students , this resistance was especially the case . English professor JoAnne Robinson and her students at Albany State in Montgomery , Alabama , initiated and helped to bring about the 1956 court ruling that the city buses . In the fall of 1956 Hampton University students boycotted segregated movie theaters in Hampton , The same year , Florida A students , like Albany State students , boycotted buses in , With training from theologian James , 38 Favors , Shelter in a of Storm How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism ( Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press 2020 ) 186 . 39 Favors , 186 .

309 Fisk University student Diane Nash , American Baptist Seminary student John Lewis , and many other members belonging to the Nashville , Tennessee , branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( began to stage at segregated restaurants during this time as well . These Nashville were the first to successfully lunch counters on May 10 , 1960 , three months after the ins began . However , it was the staged by four students attending North Carolina A University in , North Carolina , on February , 1960 that nationalized the In April of the same year , activist Ella Baker organized students under the umbrella of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( at the Shaw University in Raleigh , North Carolina . functioned as one of the major student activist organizations until the end of the 19605 . For the remainder of the decade , even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , students were often joined by students , both and European , from colleges and universities throughout the nation . This united effort helped to overturn segregation policies and practices through voter registration drives , boycotts , and protests and marches throughout the South . These revolutionary activities resembled the traditions of thinkers , writers , and orators who used their talents in service of the liberation of their communities . Complete Coverage The Civil Rights Movement in Nashville , The , May , 2020 , accessed June 29 , 2020 )

310 The institutionalization of Studies is situated within the specific political priorities of both the Civil Rights and the Black Power eras . Even with the passage of civil rights legislation , communities across the nation remained frustrated with unchanging social , economic , and political realities impacting the life changes of communities . During the , boycotts , voter registration drives , and other revolutionary actions , and activists remained nonviolent in the immediate threat of violence , intimidation , and possible death at the hands of the state and local governments and bystanders , in most instances . Indeed , after a white supremacist shot James Meredith in 1966 during his March Against Fear , many activists and students were inspired to think more critically about the meaning of identity and freedom . Howard University alumni Stokely ( Ture ) who by 1966 had become the Chairperson of , initiated shouts of Black Power ! while marching to Memphis after the shooting of Meredith . In doing so , he is documented as one of the first to articulate and develop the philosophy of Black Power . Black Power was revolutionary at the time , but it was not new . When Ture and political scientist Charles Hamilton published Black Power The Politics of Liberation in 1967 , their work resembled many ideas articulated by David Walker , Edward , Marcus Garvey , Drusilla Houston , Ida . Wells , Carter , and numerous other late and early thinkers , for instance . Timely , the text argued for people in America should not seek to assimilate themselves in the American cultural fabric , as American values were

311 human and at the What Ture and Hamilton advocated for and what became the core philosophy of was revolutionary nationalist philosophy . Black Power as revolutionary nationalism called for a process . The first step in gaining was for folks in America to no longer identify themselves as Negro . Like Malcolm and his use of in the vein of the Black Muslim Movement and his use of to replace his slave name , Ture and Hamilton admonished readers to refrain from referring to themselves as Negro and instead to identify themselves as Black . This process of , renaming , was an attempt to dispense with names in which has used to identify peoples since their enslavement in America . Coupled with reading and learning about history and culture , African people could begin to love themselves for who they were and no longer believe in the white supremacist ideology that people were inferior to Europeans . In reclaiming the self , one could begin to address the dissonance within folks psyche that Du Bois defined as almost a century earlier . The second step was political modernization . A revolutionary nationalist perspective on political modernization is that Black folks must gain full governance over their bodies and protect themselves from violence and their communities from economic and political exploitation . Ture and Hamilton urged readers that it was time for black people in this country to unite , to recognize their heritage , to build a sense of community . It is a call for black people to 41 Stokely and Charles Hamilton , Black The Politics of Liberation in America ( New York Random House , 1967 ) 41 .

312 begin to define their own goals , to lead their own organizations and to support those organizations . It is a call to reject the racist institutions and values of this Students heard this call , and many students attending universities and colleges across the nation began to identify with revolutionary Power . From state colleges to Ivy League universities , students began to rethink what it meant to be in full governance of their education , and , more importantly , the purpose of higher education . At these institutions , regardless of the number of students enrolled at their respective colleges and universities , students began to drop the name Negro from the name of their organizations and replace the term with Black or . Or in some instances they created new organizations that were community focused . Students also began to view their liberation as part of a larger international African struggle . Civil rights activists during the late and early , because of the efforts on the African continent , stayed abreast of these activities by reading newspapers and devouring scholarship produced by African leaders . Like Du Bois and attendees of the that began in 1900 , this new generation of radicals also began to see their struggle in relationship to the struggle for liberation against colonialism on the continent and in other parts of the African and that these political futures were aligned . As historian Bennett estimated at the time , students were now considering the applicability of the theories and 42 and Hamilton , 44 .

313 ideas of Malcolm , psychiatrist Fanon , and Amil and , among many Some students even supplemented their study by joining local and national Black Power organizations such as the Black Panther Party for Self Defense , the Us Organization , and the Revolutionary Action Movement . On campuses across the nation , however , the main priority was the call for equitable funding and a radically transformative education that would prepare students to gain social , economic , and political control of their oppressed communities . In this context students consciously demanded the creation of Black Studies courses , departments , and programs on university campuses . Students attending historically Black colleges and universities were at the forefront of espousing revolutionary nationalism to transform their institutions . During this Black Power era , students took it upon themselves to use any means boycotting , and even violent gain more governing power on their campuses and in their communities . One main objective was to advocate to state legislatures and university administration for equitable funding to curb the campus conditions and resources whether were state funded or private , these institutions were always underfunded , and this condition continues today . Students at Bowie State in Maryland adhered to this line of thinking , responding to the dilapidated academic buildings and dorms that plagued most . According to one account , the Bowie students protested , boycotted , then took over the school for a Coupled 43 Bennett , Confrontation on the Campus , Ebony , May 1968 , 44 Steven Morris , Black Students Revolt , Jet , May , 1968 , 47 .

314 with the concern of due to racist legislation , students wanted quality teachers and courses about the experience . For the most part , like , sought to offer an American liberal arts , social science , and science education that would prepare students to assimilate into American society . Outside of African Studies programs , with limited exceptions , the faculty were trained in Western traditional disciplines and the curricula at most mimicked the course subjects , philosophies , and ways of thinking within these Western disciplines . For revolutionary nationalist students , this tradition was no longer acceptable . For instance , while students at Kentucky State University protested for courses in Black history and culture , students at North Carolina A and Howard University students and community members agitated for a Black Demanding that all departments at Howard should have courses and that these courses prepare students to serve their communities , revolutionaries at Howard occupied the administration building , many academic buildings , and several dormitories between March 19 , 1968 , and March 23 , 1968 , effectively shutting down the Unlike most , however , what resulted at Howard was the 1968 series on Black Power , Toward a Black University Conference , to discuss the changes in curricula that would best meet the needs of the faculty , students , and communities . Scholars and students throughout the country interested in these ideas came to this event . Following the 45 Morris , 50 Favors , 210 . 45 Martha , The Black Revolution on Campus ( Berkeley University of California Press , 2004 )

315 conference , in 1970 Howard established one of the first Studies the Department of an , just one year after the establishment of Studies at San Francisco State College . San Francisco State College The Emergence of the Discipline of Studies Students at many colleges and universities in California throughout the sought to transform their campuses . Like the students at and their intellectual activist ancestors before them , students in attendance at were seeking a new way to construct their educational experiences on college campuses in what for them was a climate of white supremacy model of education , even more so for them given the percentage of students on campus . From California to the University of California at Berkeley , students engaged with revolutionary nationalist philosophy and organizations , and like the rest of the students across the nation during the radical , organized to demand inclusion and autonomy . Nowhere else on the West coast was this more apparent than at San Francisco State College ( The literature about the emergence of Studies as a discipline consistently points to the protracted student activism at between 1967 and 1969 as the watershed moment in the history of student activism on American Due to the unwavering commitments of , Sonia Sanchez , Danny Glover , Jimmy 47 , 12 .

316 Garrett , Benny Stewart , and hundreds of other known and unknown students , faculty , staff , and community members who literally put their lives on the line in the face of violent police retaliation and jail time , is recorded as the first institution of higher education in America to establish a bachelor department of Black Studies . Although by 1971 there are more than five hundred , programs , on American campuses , the narrative of the establishment of Studies at is significant because the institutionalization is the result of the longest strike on a university campus in American The emergence of the discipline of Studies is not only the outgrowth of a long and ancient tradition , but it is the first discipline in the American academy that is born out of revolutionary struggle . The series of experiences that led to the emergence of Studies at reflect concerns of students on many college and university campuses , especially at predominantly white institutions during the age of Black Power . For instance , during the middle of the decade , students made up no more that ten percent of the student Even so , the Board of Trustees for the California state campuses implemented new admissions requirements in 1965 , which resulted in more than a fifty percent decrease in the enrollment of students at students not 48 Rooks , The Be innings of Black Studies , Chronicle Higher February , 2006 , accessed November 13 , 2020 ) 49 John , Black Studies at San Francisco State , in , 257 , 39 . 39 .

317 only began to feel isolated , but believed the decrease was by design and in response to the radicalization of students . explains that Black Studies advocates were first concerned with the low number of Blacks on campus which they saw as a racist exclusion to maintain the white monopoly on critical knowledge and to thwart the rise of a Black intelligentsia capable of effectively leading and serving Given the shift in demographics , student organizing became an even more urgent method to advocate for control of their educational environment . Adhering to the power in the process in naming outlined in Ture brand of revolutionary nationalist philosophy , the following year , students belonging to the Negro Student Association renamed their organization the Black Students Union ( Jimmy Garrett , a member who adopted revolutionary nationalism , became its primary organizer . Academic concerns were the most pressing . Not only were students at in the minority on campus , but similar to , the majority of professors teaching at the institutions were trained in traditional Western disciplines . The majority of the courses , then , unquestionably reflected the training and perspectives of the faculty , and the subject matter reinforced Western values and ideas at the exclusion of other cultural experiences and perspectives . As students who were grappling with the prescription for Black Power , many sought to reclaim an identity rooted within African American culture and in continental and African experiences . Questioning the extent to which their education at should support this process was 51 , 17 .

318 of great concern . One student recounted the significance of shaping the demand for the discipline Black people are not western they are westernized , made to be western . So basically their psychology is not Freudian , or Jungian , only so far as they have accepted westernization . Students find themselves enchanted by the schools of psychology , but as they probe deeper they find less and less in an association with their lives . Other Black students pretend they can relate to western psychology by becoming Freudian . They psyche themselves out as we say , by trying to describe manifestations of every desire by description directly from the psychology The point here for this student and other revolutionary students was that the faculty at did not consider or care that all subjects reflected European social , political , and economic ideals and values and students accept , without question , the authority , validity , and supremacy of this education . A relevant education was therefore a necessity on campus and within local communities where the youth , especially and other students of color , attended underfunded public schools . Through the Community Involvement Program and the Tutorial Program , students sought to remedy this concern in neighborhoods in San Francisco . To immediately address the issue of relevance on campus , members and other students moved beyond the traditional education process . One resolution was to offer courses in the already existing Experimental College ( EC ) Founded in 1960 and funded by the student government , the College was an program in which all students , graduate students , and faculty could volunteer to teach courses not offered in programs and departments . By the 1967 academic year , the 52 , 258 .

319 students has offered a full Studies Poets Sonia Sanchez and both taught within the The second resolution was to negotiate for a degree granting department outside of the EC . In 1966 , a year prior to the full curriculum in the EC , Garrett and other students fleshed out a proposal for a program in Studies , which the administration had received the same year and approved in In an attempt to show good faith to the frustrated students , during the spring semester of 1968 , John , the president of , hired sociologist and previous Howard University professor Nathan Hare to be the first chair of the department . Hare immediately sets out to reconstruct the EC curriculum and grounds it in both ideological and pedagogical In doing so , Hare crafted a curriculum resembling Ture and Hamilton process to actualize Black Power . Ture and Hamilton called for people to first redefine themselves Hare first objective was the expressive phase which would build in black youth a sense of pride or self , of collective destiny , a sense of pastness as a springboard in the quest for a new and better Courses in Black history , African history , Black psychology , and Black literature would achieve this aim . 53 Fabio , Black Power to Black Studies How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline ( Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press , 2007 ) 62 . 54 Shaka , Studies Department History San Francisco State University , Journal of Pan African Studies , Vol . No . October 2012 ) 20 . 55 , 14 . 55 Hare ,

320 The second step toward Black Power is political is , people must be in full control of political , economic , and other infrastructure directly serving people . Hare scripted a pragmatic phase to meet that objective , writing that it operates specifically to prepare black students to deal with their society . The student ultimate use of his pragmatic skills can be directed toward overcoming ( or , if need be , his handicaps in dealing with his Black Math , Black Science , Black Politics , Economics of the Black Community , Development of Black Leadership , Black Statistics , Black Economic Workshop , and Black Political Workshop , for instance , are all courses that students can take in preparation to solve pressing social , political , and economic problems . The pragmatic courses are revolutionary because each course not only examines major continental and historical actors , theories , trends , and moments . But these courses provide students with historical examples of ways to shape and recreate one reality in the tradition of continental and peoples . Even Black Math and Black Science are revolutionary because the mathematical and scientific problems and theories posed to the students are grounded in culturally relevant and practical The 1968 academic year , therefore , must be considered one of the most radical moments in the history of American higher education . As students were demonstrating across the nation , staged a strike and shut down the campus . But if the proposal had been approved by the college president and Hare had been hired to 57 Hare ,

321 complete the curriculum , why the need for the strike ?

Black Power philosophy stressed that people must move swiftly to gain political and economic control of their lives . The idea that methodical patience and legislation would reshape the conscience of generations of so that they would grant women , men , and children political , economic , and social equality in American society was over . For students , sympathetic residents of San Francisco , Berkeley , and Oakland along with Black nationalist organizations and many and Asian American students in the Third World Liberation Front ( who also did not see themselves in the curriculum , time was up ! Although Hare completed this curriculum by the fall semester of 1968 , the Board of Trustees had yet to grant the a department . Tired of negotiating and waiting for the Board of Trustees to confirm the department , the submitted a final list of demands to the new interim President . in preparation for a strike if the demands were not met . In recounting this moment in history , professor writes that when it became clear that the administration would only offer teaching positions the had no choice . They had to call for a The list included these comprehensive demands . That all Black Studies courses being taught through various other departments be immediately part of the Black Studies Department and that all instructors in this department have full time pay . 53 , 21 .

322 . That Hare , chairman of the Black Studies Department , receive a full professorship and a comparable salary according to his qualifications . There will be a Department of Black Studies which will grant a Degree in Black Studies that the Black Studies Department chairman , faculty and staff have the sole power to hire and fire without the interference of the racist administration and the chancellor . All unused slots for Black students from fall 1968 under the Special Admissions program be filled in Spring 1969 . All Black students who wish to , be admitted in fall 1969 . Twenty teaching positions to be allocated to the Department of Black Studies . Helen be replaced in the position of Financial Aid officer and that a Black person be hired to direct it and that Third World people have the power to determine how it will be administered . No disciplinary action will be administered in any way to any students , workers , teachers , or administrators during and after the strike as a consequence of their in the strike . The California State College Trustees will not be allowed to dissolve any Black programs on or off the San Francisco State College campus . Murray maintains his teaching position on the campus for the academic 59 , 69 .

323 The strike was indeed successful . The strike began on November , 1968 , and seven days later on November 13 , 1968 , the campus shut down each day hundreds of students , faculty , and supporters demonstrated on campus , including many students who were the and demand for an inclusive educational experience . Daily , police attempted to control the demonstrations with threats of violence and intimidation , and many demonstrators were continuously arrested . This radical and dangerous strike lasted for five long months , ending on March 21 , 1969 , after ongoing negotiations and compromises between the students and Trustees . In the end , although the Trustees did not renew Nathan Hare contract , most of the demands were met these students who were heirs to the ancestral tradition galvanized behind Black Power as their guiding philosophy to determine the purpose of their education and ultimately the purpose of their lives . With the department offering its first courses in the fall of 1969 , the discipline of Studies was born and set the tone for a national demand for other Studies units , Ethnic Studies , and Black Studies . CONCLUSION Given the scholarship on ancient and traditional African education , the purpose of education , and the pursuit of knowledge have always focused on learning about oneself and one place in the world for the purpose of bringing balance and order to their

324 communities . While the most ancient and traditional education concluded that coming to know one self as a divine and a being that comprised a linguistic , cultural , and familial community , instances of this knowledge was often evident among enslaved Africans who used literacy to resist those who enslaved and oppressed their communities . It seems , too , that this drive to transform the consciousness of African people living under white supremacy during the centuries after enslavement at times was conveyed best through what becomes the tradition and echoed the research and writing of women in who sought to center the lives of women as a central challenge to white supremacy and patriarchy . The body of writings by women and men who sought to reclaim African civilizations , African history , and culture also speaks to the activist tradition . So too does the voluminous social science research on communities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the continued education of students at before 1965 , express this tradition . Student civil rights activists were also inspired by this tradition , not only to agitate for equal rights in this country but also to demand a radically inclusive and autonomous education that resulted in the emergence of the discipline of Studies . Fifty years after its institutionalization , the discipline has matured and continues to be a viable enterprise at , and at institutions . At the time of this writing , there are almost four hundred Studies

325 departments , programs , centers , or While some of these units are able only to offer workshops , seminars , and other forms of programing in the areas of Africa and the , others house robust undergraduate and graduate degree programs , teaching a variety of courses and enrolling hundreds of students annually . For instance , there are currently eighteen doctoral programs in the discipline , all of which matriculate researchers , writers , artists , community organizers , educators , and performers . While many faculty and students do not necessarily adhere to Black Power as their philosophical framework through which to see the world , most are indeed dedicated to critical thinking , research , community engagement , and dismantling white supremacy . Looking back on half a century of Studies education , the tradition remains rich and viable . Discussion Questions . Define Studies and its purpose and function . Discuss the African origins of the discipline and the tradition . Describe the early racist views about continental and African people articulated by and philosophers and social scientists . Identify and describe the unique obstacles that early women activists faced during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century . Craig Chamberlain , African American Studies in the is Alive and Well , News Bureau , August 29 , 2013 .

326 Writing Prompt Research one figure of the Black Power movement and discuss how their ideas promoted an prospective .