Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad is a Chicago native and is a scholar of African-American history. He has served as an assistant professor of History at Indiana University (recently being recommended for tenure). He has deep roots in the civil rights movement, and is the Great-Grandson of the Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad.

Education

• B.A. at University of Pennsylvania, 1993
• Ph.D. at Rutgers University, 2004

Following the completion of his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, he spent two years as a Mellon Fellow at the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice think tank in New York City. As a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Vera from 2003 to 2005, Muhammad studied the origins of New York’s four strikes legislation in the 1920s.

Career

Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has been featured in the Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Charlotte Observer, as well as on National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, and Radio One. He was a commentator in a 2009 PBS documentary, Witnesses to History, chronicling the election of President Barack Obama, and a featured panelist at this summer’s National Urban League Centennial Conference. He appears monthly on local radio and writes for theDefendersonline.com, a blog of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. He speaks regularly about the history of race relations and its ongoing challenges to student groups, community organizations, professional societies, and policy researchers.

Recently, Dr. Muhammad was selected as the next Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, effective July 2011.

Accomplishments & Highlights

Selected Awards

Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship on Race, Crime, and Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice, NYC. (2003-2005)

Research Interests

Race-relations and racial ideology
(Im)migration and urbanization (Northern U.S.)
Social science and social reform
Racial politics of criminal law, policing, juvenile delinquency, and punishment

Books

The Condemnation of Blackness: Ideas about Race and Crime in the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge, MA: (Harvard University Press).

Condemnation was selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as a top ten title for Black History Month, and recommended in the April issue of Ebony Magazine.

Glenn Loury of Brown University says Condemnation “is the most significant work in the study of race and American society to have appeared in the past decade.”

*You can here Dr. Khalil Muhammad discuss is book via an archived recording from a WBAI interview on March 3, 2010. Khalil Gibran Muhammad – WBAI “Talkback!” March 3, 2010

Articles

“White May Be Might, But It’s Not Always Right,” The Washington Post, Sunday Outlook Section, December 9, 2007.

“Race, Crime, and Social Mobility: Black and Italian Undesirables in Modern America.” in Shades of Black and White: Conflict and Collaboration Between Two Communities, edited by Dan Ashyk, Fred L. Gardaphe, and Anthony Julian Tamburri. Staten Island: American Italian Historical Association, 1999.

Personal Research Statement

In my research, I seek to uncover the various ways that social scientists and social reformers have imagined African Americans as a distinctly criminal population, and how their ideas about blacks as criminals have changed at specific times and places over the course of the 20th century. I am especially focused on the historical evolution of mainstream discourse around black criminality in comparison to white and immigrant criminality. I also study past and present connections between racial thinking and racial discrimination among crime-prevention agencies and within the criminal justice system. I am currently finishing my first book which is based on my dissertation entitled, “‘Negro Stranger in Our Midst’: The Origins of African-American Criminality in the Urban North, 1900-1940.”

On Being Director of the Schomburg

“My hope for the Schomburg Center,” he stated, “is to develop it as the premier brand for historical expertise on the great race debates of our time; privileging documents, material culture, visual historical media, living artists, and widely disseminated scholarship to raise public consciousness and historical literacy in the United States and around the globe.” Dr. Muhammad plans to build upon the Schomburg’s strong beginnings in online studies under Howard Dodson, “encouraging staff and users to embrace digital technologies as we reach out to youth, especially by creatively opening up the Center’s resources and exhibitions so that they can come to know us on their own terms.” – PRNewsWire.com

===

Information from a variety of articles resulting from a Google search.

Photo from:

http://photos.prnewswire.com/medias/switch.do?prefix=/appnb&page=/prnAuth.do&action=autodetails&prnid=20101117%252fNY03747

Related posts:

1. NYPL: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
2. Dr. Darnell Hunt: Director of Bunche Center for African-American Studies @ UCLA
3. [Black Organizations] Center for African-American Research and Policy

Education

Afua holds a Ph.D. in history with specialties in slavery, abolition, and women studies. She is one of Canada’s premier experts and chroniclers of the country’s Black past. Dr. Cooper has done ground-breaking work in uncovering the hidden history of Black peoples in Canada. Her most recent history publication The Hanging of Angélique, The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal cogently explores the life and death of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a Portuguese-born Black slave woman who was hanged in Montréal in 1734 for allegedly setting fire to the city.

Scholar

Her doctoral dissertation was a biography of Henry Bibb, the renowned antislavery crusader. Further, she has done extensive work on Mary Bibb as a schoolteacher and abolitionist reformer. Afua has also done ground-breaking work on the enslavement of Black people in Canada. Such research has resulted in The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Slavery in Canada and the Burning of Old Montréal (HarperCollins, 2006); released in the United States by the University of Georgia Press. The French language version was published by L’Editions de L’Homme in 2007. Angélique has become a national bestseller and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award in 2006. Angélique has now gone in its third printing, and after almost two years of publication is still on the Canadian bestseller’s list as of 23 Nov. 2007.

Afua was the 2008-2009 Ruth Wynn Woodward Endowed Chair in the Women’s Studies Department at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

Author

Dr. Cooper’s work on Canadian Black history and slavery has made her the leading authority on such topics. Afua is also a well-known poet, having published five books of poetry, the latest of which is Copper Woman and Other Poems (Natural Heritage Press, 2006). In 2007 Dr. Cooper served as the co-ordinator of and advisor to the Ontario Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade Initiative for the Government of Ontario. She is writing a series of historical novels for the young adult audience. These novels are based on the experiences on enslaved children from the Black Diaspora. For that series, Afua recently completed The Young Phillis Wheatley, a fictionalized account of the life and art of the eighteenth-century Black poet Phillis Wheatley.

Performer

Afua is a dynamic and riveting performer. She has brought her poetry from page to stage in such diverse events as the prestigious Toronto Harbourfront International Reading Series, and Diaspora Dialogues. She has read all across Canada, the Caribbean, the UK, the United States, and West Africa. Known as a proponent of the African-Caribbean poetry genre, Dub poetry, Afua has fused together the scribal, literary, musical, and performative aspects of that artform in her performances. Cooper has worked with such bands as the Gayap Drummers, Juno award winner, Lazo and the Radicals; she now tours with the Dub Trinity Band. Further, she co-hosted and organized three international Dub Poetry Festivals in Toronto (1993, 2004, and 2005).

====

Information obtained from: http://www.afuacooper.com/

Related posts:

1. Anna Julia Cooper: Author, Educator, 4th African-American Women to Earn PhD
2. Mari Evans: Poet, Author, Educator
3. Alain Locke: 1st Black Rhodes Scholar, Author, Full Philosophy Professor @ Howard

Life and Education

Born into slavery on August 10, 1858, Anna Julia Cooper was the daughter of a slave owner and slave, who nonetheless inspired Cooper to excel as a scholar, educator, writer and activist. At the age of ten, Cooper was awarded a scholarship to attend St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute for the Colored. She not only successfully argued for admittance into courses that were typically offered only to male students, Cooper went on to teach at the school as well. In 1881, having taken college preparatory classes at St. Augustine’s, Cooper was again awarded a scholarship, this time to Oberlin College in Ohio, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics.

In 1914, Cooper began courses for her doctoral degree at Columbia University, but was forced to interrupt her studies in 1915 when she adopted the five children of her late half-brother upon their mother’s passing. Later on she was able to transfer her credits to the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and over the course of a decade was able to research and compose her dissertation, completing her coursework in 1924. Cooper defended her thesis The Attitude of France on the Question of Slavery Between 1789 and 1848 in 1925. At the age of sixty-five, Cooper became the fourth black woman in American history to earn a Doctorate of Philosophy degree.

Cooper received her diploma from the University of Paris in 1924 when she was sixty-six years old.

Years later, fellow instructor and theology student, George A.C. Cooper, became her husband. They were married for nearly two years when the George Cooper died suddenly. Anna Cooper never remarried.

Career

She returned in 1885 to St. Augustine’s to teach math, Latin and German. In 1887, Cooper taught at M Street High School in Washington, D.C., the only school in the city at that time for black students. During her tenure as principal, she designed a rigorous curriculum to help her students compete successfully with white students.

Because of her high teaching standards, Cooper was harshly reprimanded by the school board and was eventually demoted. Once a new school board was elected, however, Cooper was invited back to M Street High School where she remained until the 1930s.

Author

During her years as teacher and principal at M Street High School, Cooper completed her first book, A Voice from the South: By A Woman from the South, published in 1892. Perhaps her most well-known volume of writing, A Voice from the South is widely viewed as one of the first articulations of Black feminism. The book advanced a vision of self-determination through education and social uplift for African American women. Its central thesis was that the educational, moral, and spiritual progress of black women would improve the general standing of the entire African American community. Cooper advanced the view that it was the duty of educated and successful black women to support their underprivileged peers in achieving their goals. The essays in A Voice from the South also touched on a variety of topics, from racism and the socioeconomic realities of black families to the administration of the Episcopal Church.

Activist

Because Cooper strongly believed that women, particularly black women, deserved access to higher education, she spoke freely on their behalf. As an activist, she advocated for social change through her writings, all the while serving as a foster mother to seven children, teaching high school full-time, and working in a leadership role for social justice. In 1892, a collection of her essays, letters, and speeches were was published as A Voice From The South And Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters. Copper was 106 years old when she died in 1964. She was buried alongside her husband in Raleigh, North Carolina.

On February 27, 1964, Cooper died in Washington, D.C. at the age of 105. Her memorial was held in a chapel on the campus of Saint Augustine’s College, where her academic career began. She was buried alongside her husband at the City Cemetery in Raleigh.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Afua Cooper: African-Canadian Scholar, Author, and Poet
2. James McCune Smith: First African-American to earn a Medical Degree and run a Pharmacy in the US
3. David Harold Blackwell: 1st African-American in the National Academy of Sciences

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (26 January 1935 – 25 May 2009) was a historian, linguist and anthropologist at Rutgers University in the United States. He was noted for his Afrocentric theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas. He was born in Kitty Village, Guyana, when Guyana was still a British colony. He remained a British citizen.

Education

Ivan Van Sertima completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry. He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. In addition to producing an array of creative writing, Van Sertima completed his undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at SOAS in 1969, where he graduated with honors. During his studies he learned Swahili and Hungarian.

He worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. In doing field work in Africa, he compiled a dictionary of Kiswahili legal terms. In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey for graduate work.

Career

He began his teaching career at Rutgers University as an instructor in 1972. In 1977 he completed his master’s degree – he was Associate Professor of African Studies in the Department of Africana Studies. As editor of the Journal of African Civilizations and author of numerous books, he has addressed topics in literature, linguistics, anthropology and history. He wrote several books in which he argued that the Kings of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt were black Nubians.

His 1976 book, They Came Before Columbus, was a bestseller and achieved widespread fame for his claims of prehistoric African influences in Central and South America. It was criticized by academic specialists.

Other books by Ivan Van Sertima & The Journal of African Civilizations (15):

Other Writings

Van Sertima also treated the topic of African scientific contributions in his essay for the volume African Renaissance, published in 1999. This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 1998 on the theme of the African Renaissance. His article was entitled The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview. In it he presents early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. He claimed that higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilizations, rendering them very vulnerable in the event (as happened in Africa) of the destruction of those centers.

On July 7, 1987 Van Sertima appeared before a United States Congressional committee in opposition to describing Christopher Columbus’s initial contact with America as a discovery.

“You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans . . . to be told they were discovered.”

Criticism

Van Sertima’s work has been criticized by academics for making ill-founded Afrocentric claims. A 1997 Journal of Current Anthropology article criticized in detail many elements of Van Sertima’s 1976 book They Came Before Columbus. The book had not earlier received a thorough professional academic review. They stated that in claiming African origins for prehistoric Olmec culture (in present-day Mexico), Van Sertima had ignored the work of Central American researchers. They stated no evidence of a prehistoric African influence or presence had been found in controlled archeological excavations in the New World. The reviewers also wrote that Olmec stone heads only superficially appear to be African and did not resemble the Nubian populations which Van Sertima claimed as their originators. They ruled as “fallacious” his claims for the diffusion of pyramid building and mummification. Additionally they accused Van Sertima’s cultural outlook of being disparaging to Native American achievements. Van Sertima wrote a response to be included in the article (as is standard practice) but withdrew it because of the journal’s policy that reprints must include the entire article and would have had to include a response (written but not published) to his response. Instead Van Sertima replied to his critics in another publication.

In a New York Times 1977 review of Van Sertima’s works, British scholar Glyn Daniel labelled Van Sertima’s work as “ignorant rubbish”, concluding that the writings of Van Sertima (and Barry Fell, whom he was also reviewing) “give us badly argued theories based on fantasies”. Dean R. Snow, a professor of anthropology, in 1981 wrote that Van Sertima “uses the now familiar technique of stringing together bits of carefully selected evidence, each surgically removed from the context that would give it a rational explanation”. Snow continued, “The findings of professional archaeologists and physical anthropologists are misrepresented so that they seem to support the [Van Sertima] hypothesis.”

In response to Glyn Daniels’ review, Dr. Clarence Weiant, who worked in Mexican archeology for the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution, and who participated in the excavation of the first giant heads in Mexico, wrote to the N.Y. Times that Dr. Ivan Van Sertima’s work represents six or seven years of meticulous research based upon archeology, egyptology, African history, oceanography, astronomy, botany, rare Arabic and Chinese manuscripts, the letters and journals of early American explorers and the observations of physical anthropologists. Dr. Weiant said that he’s convinced of the soundness of Van Sertima’s conclusions. In 1998 Dr Van Sertima countered Journal of Current Anthropology criticisms [although a reference to this cannot be found].

Family

Van Sertima retired in 2006. He died on 25 May 2009 aged 74. He was survived by his wife and four adult children.

His widow, Jacqueline, said she will continue to publish the Journal of African Civilization and plans to publish a book of his poetry.

===

Information courtesy of wikipedia.

Related posts:

1. Antenor Firmin: Haitian Scholar and Anthropologist who predicted Barack Obama's Presidency over a century ago
2. Nell Irvin Painter: Author, Artist, Historian who recently released “The History of White People”
3. Zora Neale Hurston: Folklorist, Teacher, Anthropologist

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948. In 1971 she changed her name to Ntozake Shange which means “she who comes with her own things” and “she who walks like a lion” in Xhosa, the Zulu language. Her father was an Air Force surgeon and her mother was an educator and a psychiatric social worker. The Williams were upper middle class African Americans whose love of the arts contributed to an intellectually stimulating childhood for Shange and her three siblings. Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois were among the frequent guests at her parents’ house.

Early Life

When she was 8, Shange’s family moved to the racially segregated city of St. Louis. As a result of the Brown v. Board of Education court decision, Shange was bused to a white school where she endured racism and racist attacks. When Shange was 13, she returned to New Jersey, where she completed high school.

Education

In 1966 Shange enrolled at Barnard College and separated from her husband, a law student. She attempted suicide several times. Nonetheless, she graduated cum laude in American Studies in 1970 and entered the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, where she earned a master’s degree in American Studies in 1973.

Career

While living in California and teaching humanities and women’s studies courses at Mills College in Oakland, the University of California Extension, and Sonoma State College, Shange began to associate with poets, teachers, performers, and black and white feminist writers who nurtured her talents. Shange and her friends began to perform their poetry, music, and dance in and around the San Francisco Area. Shange also danced with Halifu Osumare’s company. Upon leaving the company she began collaborating with Paula Moss on the poetry, music, and dance that would become for colored girls Moss and Shange left California for New York and performed for colored girls in a Soho jazz loft and later in bars in the lower East Side. Producer Woodie King Jr. saw one of these shows and helped director Oz Scott stage the choreopoem Off-Broadway at the New Federal Theatre where it ran for eight months, after which it moved to the New York Shakespeare Company’s Anspacher Public Theatre, and then to the Booth Theatre.

In addition to her plays, she has written poetry, novels, and essays. She has taught at California State College, the City College of New York, the University of Houston, Rice University, Yale, Howard, and New York University. Among her many awards are an Obie, a Los Angeles Time Book Prize for Poetry, and a Pushcart Prize. She also wrote Betsey Brown, a novel about an African American girl who runs away from home. Among her honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize. Shange lives in Philadelphia.

Books, Plays, DVDs, Tapes By and About Ntozake Shange (23 items):

PLAYS

“for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem”-1975
First produced in New York City at Studio Riobea in 1975; produced Off-Broadway at the Anspacher Public Theatre in 1976; produced on Broadway at the Booth Theatre that same year.
“A Photograph”-1977
First produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre.
“Boogie Woogie Landscapes”-1979
First produced in New York at Frank Silvera’s Writers’ Workshop; first produced on Broadway at the Symphony Space Theatre in 1978.
“Spell #7″-1979
First produced Off-Broadway at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre.
“Black and White Two Dimensional Planes”-1979
First proudced in New York at Sounds in Motion Studio Works.
“Mother Courage and Her Children”-1980
An adaptation of Brecht’s play; first produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, directed by Shange.
“Three for a Full Moon” and “Bocas”-1982
First produced at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
“Educating Rita”-1982
Adapted from Willy Russell’s script; first produced at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.
“Three views of Mt. Fuji”-1987
First produced in San Francisco at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; first produced in New York at the New Dramatists.

Related posts:

1. Anthony Foxx: Charlotte, NC's New Mayor
2. Anika Noni Rose: FAMU Alumnus & Voice of Disney's 1st Black Princess – Tiana
3. [HBCU Presidents] Dr. James E. Cheek (1932-2010) President Emeritus of Howard U

Few historical researchers could hope to achieve much without the guidance of archivists, and Sara Dunlap Jackson was especially helpful and caring. One of the first African-American professionals hired by the National Archives in Washington, DC, she specialized in western, military, social and African-American topics. During her 46-year career, she came to be called “Archivist Exraordinaire” by her peers, authors and those she mentored.

Hundreds of historians were taken under her wing and she is fondly remembered through the acknowledgments of many publications and in the hearts of many scholars.

Early Life

Dr. Jackson was born in 1919 in Columbia. Orphaned when she was an infant, Sara Dunlap Jackson was adopted and raised by Reverend C. W. Dunlap and his wife, Ella Fair Dunlap.

Education

She graduated from Columbia’s Booker T. Washington High School in 1939, attended Allen University, and then earned her Bachelors Degree in Sociology form Johnson C. Smith University in 1943. She later did graduate work at the American University and The Catholic University of America. A lifetime of research assistance and scholarly pursuit was acknowledged in 1976 when the University of Toledo, Ohio, awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Career

Initially, Dr. Jackson started out as a teacher at Robert Smalls High School in Beaufort, but the meager rewards for African-American teachers in South Carolina at the time compelled her to look for work in Washington, then a mecca for African-Americans seeking employment during World War II. She obtained a clerical position in the War Department in 1943, and joined the National Archives in 1944. In 1968, she transferred to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, which oversees publications of papers of prominent Americans, like Andrew Jackson, Frederick Douglas, Emma Goldman, and Thomas Jefferson. Her efforts contributed greatly to many dissertations and historical volumes.

In 1990 the Houston Civil War Round Table awarded her the Frank E. Vandiver Award of Merit for outstanding contributions to Civil War scholarship. A well-known archivist who she trained said the

“her special kindness bridged what might have been barriers of race, sex, and experience. She was simply eager to welcome another recruit. To her more than to any other individual I owe the discovery of the pleasures of an archival career.”

Other Work

In addition to her duties as an archivist, Dr. Jackson wrote reviews, inventories, and introductions to scholarly works, and presented numerous papers and lectures. Her particular area of interest was the life of Henry O. Flipper, the first African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. She served on the executive council of the Southern Historical Association, and was a member of many historical and archival organizations. She also offered her assistance to religious missions and tutorial programs.

Thomas L. Connelly, a famous Southern historian, once said,

“To myself and a lot of slightly older researchers, she became a mother and symbol at the National Archives. Sara trained a lot of researchers, taking them when raw graduate students (such as myself) and watching them with pride through the years as they accomplished something. Always she was what she has been to many other researchers–confidante, guide, friend, mother.”

Sara Dunlap Jackson retired from the National Archives in October 1990, and passed away the following year.

Please read an article about her in this 1989 issue of ‘The African-American and Third World Archivists Roundtable’ (p. 4) along with other interesting historical articles.

See an article on Blackpast.org written by University of Maryland historian Ira Berlin as she recalls the remarkable contribution of Sara Dunlap Jackson.

===

Information courtesy of SC African Americans and BlackPast.

Related posts:

1. [HBCU_Presidents] Dr. Ronald Mason: Jackson State University
2. [Black Organizations] National Black Child Development Institute
3. Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History

During the dawning decades of the twentieth century, it was commonly presumed that black people had little history besides the subjugation of slavery. Today, it is clear that blacks have significantly impacted the development of the social, political, and economic structures of the United States and the world. Credit for the evolving awareness of the true place of blacks in history can, in large part, be bestowed on one man, Carter G. Woodson. And, his brainchild the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Inc. is continuing Woodson’s tradition of disseminating information about black life, history and culture to the global community.

Known as the “Father of Black History,” Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former slaves, and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure and make the most out of one’s divine right of freedom.

Education

Carter G. Woodson - "Father of Black History"

Although he did not begin his formal education until he was 20 years old, his dedication to study enabled him to earn a high school diploma in West Virginia and bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago in just a few years. He also earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in Kentucky. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University – in History (the first was W. E. B. DuBois). His doctoral dissertation, The Disruption of Virginia, was based on research he did at the Library of Congress while teaching high school in Washington, D.C. After earning the doctoral degree, he continued teaching in the public schools in the District of Columbia and later joined the faculty at Howard University as a professor and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Woodson was also a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Recognizing the dearth of information on the accomplishments of blacks in 1915, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

Under Woodson’s pioneering leadership, the Association created research and publication outlets for black scholars with the establishment of the Journal of Negro History (1916) and the Negro History Bulletin (1937), which garners a popular public appeal.

Books By and About Carter G. Woodson and the Carter G. Woodson Institute Series in Black Studies:

The Start of Black History Month

In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week, which corresponded with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this celebration was expanded to include the entire month of February, and today Black History Month garners support throughout the country as people of all ethnic and social backgrounds discuss the black experience. ASALH views the promotion of Black History Month as one of the most important components of advancing Dr. Woodson’s legacy.

Continuing Importance of Black History Month – Smithsonian Museum

Carter G. Woodson’s home is currently a historic landmark and is maintained by the National Park Service. Unfortunately, the current condition of the house does not portray the contribution this man gave to our country in the slightest.

Carter G. Woodson Historic Site

What can be done to correct this problem? We owe it to him and ourselves to do something!

The Black Scholars Index is willing to lead an effort to at least bring more attention. If you are interested in helping and/or have any ideas, please contact us immediately.

===

Information from ASALH, wikipedia, and National Park Service.

Related posts:

1. ASALH: Association for the Study of African-American Life and History
2. Ruth Simmons: 1st Black President of an Ivy League School
3. Stephen L. Carter: Law Professor, Policy Writer, Columnist, Novelist

Anthony Foxx is Mayor (D) of the City of Charlotte, NC. He began his political career in 2005 with his election to City Council as an At-Large representative and served two terms before being elected Mayor in 2009.

Early Life

Raised in the Dale Brook of Charlotte neighborhood by his mother and grandparents, Anthony Foxx knows the power of opportunity. Though his family had modest financial means, they made sure Anthony received a great education and taught him the value of hard work and service.

As a child, Anthony watched his grandparents, who were public school teachers, sacrifice for his educational opportunities and work tirelessly to help make Charlotte a better place to live.

Education

Thanks to their efforts, Anthony’s hard work and city leaders committed to expanding opportunity to all parts of Charlotte, Anthony received a great education at West Charlotte High School and went on to attend Davidson College. At Davidson, he received a bachelor’s degree in history and became the first African American elected to student body president. Anthony earned his law degree from New York University School of Law where he received the competitive Root-Tilden-Snow Public Interest Law Scholarship.

After law school, Anthony chose to follow the lessons of his grandparents and set out to make a difference. He served in all three branches of federal government, serving as a judicial clerk for the U.S. Circuit Court for the Sixth Circuit, a trial attorney for the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and counsel for the House Judiciary Committee.

Service

Anthony soon returned to Charlotte and quickly began to serve the city that had given him so much. He led efforts to organize volunteer lawyers to respond to election irregularities and served on a number of boards, including the Mecklenburg County Education Budget Advisory Committee, the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching Foundation Board, and the North Carolina Dance Theatre Board.

Anthony has served as an at-large member of Charlotte City Council since 2005. From day one, he has been a strong advocate for Charlotte neighborhoods and families and a leader for the future of Charlotte. Anthony championed a groundbreaking initiative to create job growth and opportunities in Charlotte neighborhoods. He put an end to years of neglect of our public safety and transportation needs by fighting to hire police officers and build roads. Anthony has chaired the city council environment and transportation committees and is a member of the economic development committee. Anthony’s continued service to Charlotte remains guided by the lessons of his youth and motivated by a steadfast determination to fight for a brighter future for all of Charlotte.

===

Information obtained from Anthony Foxx campaign website and website of the city of Charlotte, NC.

Related posts:

1. Shirley Franklin: First Black Woman to be Elected Mayor of Any Major Southern City
2. Anika Noni Rose: FAMU Alumnus & Voice of Disney's 1st Black Princess – Tiana
3. Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown: Educator and Founder of Palmer Memorial Institute

Barry C. Black is the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate. He was elected to this position on June 27, 2003, becoming the first African-American, the first Seventh-day Adventist, and the first military chaplain to hold the office of chaplain to the United States Senate. He ministers to a flock of 6,000, comprising senators, spouses, Chiefs of Staff, and Capitol Hill employees. Black is advisor to the most powerful people in the United States government on moral, spiritual, and ethical issues that affect the lives of millions in the United Sates and abroad. (The Senate elected its first chaplain in 1789.)

Early Life

Chaplain Barry C. Black was born on November 1, 1948, in the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland, to Pearline and Lester Black.

“My mother was a beautiful person who connected with all her children and made each of us feel special,” Chaplain Black said in an interview with Contemporary Black Biography (CBB). “She was a storyteller with the ability to find allies and build networks, and she was athletic. I inherited these skills from my mother.”

Sensing his destiny, Pearline told her son, “You will have a special destination in life and a life with God.” This she believed because when she was baptized and pregnant with the chaplain she had asked God to do something special with his life.

Pearline taught her eight children the importance of God and education as the way to a better life without poverty. Raising a large family alone, Pearline, a Seventh-day Adventist, found church to be the supportive environment she needed to accomplish this. At Berea Temple and its Baltimore Junior Academy her children found a thriving community of helping hands, a quality education, and much needed tuition assistance. Black’s mother found friends like Albertha Brown, who shared her home with young Barry after school, providing him a haven from the mean streets of Baltimore.

During church services Black heard the best preachers in the community and began to develop his language skills. “Mother supplemented this by giving us a nickel for scriptures we memorized. She had to put me on a flat rate; I was breaking the bank,” Black remembered. At school young Barry would study the prose of Longfellow, Emerson, Milton, and Thoreau.

“I entered poetry readings and oratorical contests. I had a love for the music of language,” explained Black.

Hearing his oratory skills, the congregation and school provided affirmation that oratory was also his gift.

Heeded His Calling

Black felt from an early age that he wanted to be a minister and knew he had a “special feeling for God,” but he resisted. “I wanted to pursue God, but most ministers in the inner city seemed poor. In my junior year of college I decided to go with the desire of my heart and pursue the ministry even if it meant poverty.”

He is the author of From the Hood to the Hill:

Education

First Black received his bachelor of theology degree in 1970, from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. He entered Andrews Theological Seminary at Berrien Springs, Michigan, earning a master of divinity degree in 1973. There he enjoyed the focus on theology. Next Black moved to Durham, North Carolina, to pastor seven churches in South Carolina and North Carolina. Preaching two or three times each week allowed Black to learn quickly; within two years he was sent to pastor three other churches in North Carolina.

By this time Black had married Brenda Pearsall, who he met during his junior year at Oakwood College, and he began work on a master’s degree in counseling, completing it in 1978. Brenda was an English major; her skills would become a valuable asset as Black developed his language skills. In 1982 Black completed a doctorate in theology, and received a master’s degree in management in 1989. In 1996 he was awarded a doctorate in psychology.

One day in North Carolina, while speaking with three young servicemen from Norfolk, Virginia, Black wondered why they did not worship back on base. When asked, they said they had never heard of a black Navy Chaplain.

“It planted a seed,” says Black. The Navy needed African-American chaplains, and Black wanted to work with young people. “Also I didn’t want to minister to just people from my own race,” he told CBB. “I wanted a broader challenge.”

Found His Place and Mission

Black was just 25 years old and, citing his young age, church leaders would not grant Black approval to minister to the young people of his church. Subsequently he did find what he was searching for with the United States Navy in 1976. At the time his church was seeking individuals interested in providing ministry in the military, so Black joined the Navy. Intending initially to stay three years, Black knew after his first day he had found his niche.

“The variety of denominations, the improved salary, the appreciation on the part of a diverse group of people for my particular talents and gifts, the additional challenge of being physically fit, the joy of working with young people, all those factors I recognized very quickly and thought this is too good to be true. The experience was a protracted honeymoon for 27 years that went by very quickly,” said Black.

Appointed to Top Posts

Black held several posts during his 27-year career in the Navy, eventually becoming Deputy Chief of Chaplains in 1997, and in 2000 he became Chief of Navy Chaplains. As chief he held responsibility for the spiritual care of servicemen from 190 religious traditions. He advised and provided ministry to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Secretaries of the Navy and Defense, and the Commandants of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

He officially retired from the Navy on August 15, 2003.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Patricia Hill Collins: Sociology Professor and Published Author
2. 100 African-American Inventors!
3. You & All The Black Scholars in Your Life!

Dr. James Edward Cheek, president emeritus of Howard University, was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, on December 4, 1932 and has unfortunately passed away recently.  We honor him and his accomplishments with this feature.

Education

Despite suffering from severe cataracts, Cheek was an honor student Washington Street Grammar School. He graduated from Immanuel Lutheran College with a secondary diploma in 1950 and served as a member of the United States Air Force in Korea in 1951, eventually earning a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and history from Shaw University. In 1955, Cheek received a Master of Divinity from Colgate Rochester University in 1958 and a PhD from Drew University in 1962.

During this period, Cheek was honored with a Colgate Rochester Fellowship, a Rockefeller Doctoral Fellowship and a Lily Foundation Fellowship. He was member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established by African Americans.

Career

Dr. Cheek was a professor of New Testament Theology at Virginia Union University when he was named president of Shaw University in 1963, at the age of 30. In 1968, he was appointed president of Howard University.  During Dr. Cheek’s twenty-year tenure at Howard, the student population increased by 3,500 and the number of schools, colleges, research programs, full-time faculty and Ph.D. programs increased dramatically. Howard’s budget increased from $43 million to $417 million as the federal appropriation went from $29 million to $178 million. He was named Washingtonian of the Year in 1980 and in 1983, while still serving as president of Howard, Cheek was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Cheek retired from his position as president of Howard University in 1989.

In 1989, Lee Atwater was appointed as a new member of the Historically black Howard University Board of Trustees. Howard U. gained national attention when students rose up in protest against Atwater’s appointment. Student activists disrupted Howard’s 122nd anniversary celebrations, and eventually occupied the university’s Administration building. Within days, Atwater resigned. Dr. Cheek retired in 1989 after 20 years of devoted service to Howard University.  Read more information about this unfortunate but well-known turmoil here.

Awards

The recipient of hundreds of awards and nineteen honorary degrees, Cheek has served as a board member of several colleges and universities including the University of Miami, Drew University, Colgate Rochester University, New York Institute of Technology, Benedict College, Florida Memorial College, Fisk University and Howard University. His presidential appointments include the Board of Foreign Scholarships, National Advisory Council to the Peace Corps, UNESCO, Commission on Selection of White House Fellows, and the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

We send his family condolences from the BSI Family.

A Letter from Dr. Ribeau, Current President of Howard University

Dear Howard University Community:

I am saddened to inform you of the passing of an esteemed member of our family, President Emeritus Dr. James Edward Cheek, who died today in Greensboro, N.C.

For two decades under Dr. Cheek’s leadership (1969-1989), Howard University experienced immense growth and modernization – with our student population increasing and the number of schools, colleges, research programs and faculty expanding. Dr. Cheek’s vision and passion for the University and his view of Howard as a national treasure led to bold action, which eventually resulted in a dramatic boost in our budget with increased federal support. The University built upon its international reputation and its legacy of social justice.

During his tenure as president, in 1983 he was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He served on the boards of several colleges and universities and was the recipient of hundreds of awards and nineteen honorary degrees for his contributions to higher education.

We honor his life and his contributions and we offer our sincere condolences to his wife Celestine, his two children – both Howard alums—James and Janet, and his entire family. His legacy will endure through this institution, as well as through the lives he has touched.

With warmest regards,

Sidney A. Ribeau
President

Travel Arrangements to Dr. Cheek’s funeral (for current members of Howard University community)

January 11, 2010

President Sidney A. Ribeau recognizes the significant contributions of President Emeritus James E. Cheek. To accommodate the interest of those who wish to travel to North Carolina, the Office of the President is sponsoring a bus to transport members of the University community (faculty, staff, retirees, and alumni) to the funeral service scheduled for Thursday, January 14 at noon.

The bus will depart promptly at 5 a.m., Thursday, January 14 from Cramton Auditorium and will return to Washington following the service. Seats for the bus are available on a first-come, first-served basis as the capacity of the bus is limited (maximum 55 passengers). Please R.S.V.P. as soon as possible, but no later than Wednesday, January 13 at noon. Please contact Kim Banks at (202) 806-7194 or email kebanks@howard.edu.

The family has also shared that persons traveling independently and have planned an overnight stay in Greensboro, N.C. can consider booking at the Downtown Marriott where a limited number of rooms are reserved for Howard-affiliated parties.

Related posts:

1. [ HBCU Presidents ] Dr. Frederick D. Patterson – 3rd President of Tuskegee & Founder of UNCF
2. [HBCU Presidents] Dr. Dorothy Yancy: 1st Female President of Shaw University
3. Ruth Simmons: 1st Black President of an Ivy League School