African American Studies

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Tables

Table 1.1 Theoretical Paradigms in African American Studies

Table 1.2 Disciplinary Research Methods Used in African American Studies

Table 1.3 Institutions Conferring Bachelor’s Degrees in 2002–200

Table 1.4 Institutions Conferring Ph.D. Degrees

Table 1.5 Institutions Conferring Master’s Degrees in 2002–200

Table 1.6 Bodies of Knowledge and Contents of African American Studies

Table 5.1 Black Prisoners by Offense

Table 5.2 State and Federal Prison Incarceration

Table 5.3 Population by Sex and Age for Black Alone and White Alone

Table 5.4 Top 20 Cities with Largest African American Population

Table 5.5 Marital Status of the Population Age 15 Years and Over by Sex, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic

Table 5.6 Family and Nonfamily Household Type, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic Households

Table 6.1 Dixon’s Comparison of Euro-American and African Philosophical Orientation

Table 7.1 Religion/Denomination

Table 10.1 Homeownership Rates by Race and Ethnicity of Householder

Table 10.2 Earnings of Full-Time, Year-Round Workers 15 Years and Over in 2003 by Sex, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic

Table 10.3 Total Money Income in 2003 of Families by Type, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic Families

Table 10.4 African Americans Net Worth

Table 10.5 The Wage Gap by Gender and Race

Table 10.6 Major Occupation Group of the Employed Civilian Population 16 Years and Over by Sex, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic ← xvii | xviii →

Table 10.7 Poverty Status of Families in 2003 by Type, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic Families

Table 10.8 Employment Status of the Population 16 Years and Over in the Civilian Labor Force by Sex, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic

Table 10.9 Earnings of Full-Time Year-Round Workers 15 Years and Over in 2003 by Sex, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic

Table 10.10 Total Money Income in 2003 of Families by Type, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic Families

Table 10.11 Black-Owned Businesses

Table 11.1 Notable African American Gospel Artists

Table 11.2 Notable African American Jazz Musicians

Table 11.3 Notable African American DJs

Table 15.1 Educational Attainment of the Population 25 Years and Over by Sex, for Black Alone and White Alone, Not Hispanic

Table 16.1 First Science Doctorates Awarded to African Americans “The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences”

Table 16.2 Black First: 2000 Years of Extraordinary Achievement in Science and Technology

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Figures

Figure 1.1 Fields and Functions of African American Studies and Public Policy

Figure 11.1 The Evolution of African American Music

Figure 13.1 “Little Black Girl” by King-Steven Adebanji

Figure 13.2 “Mother and Daughter” by Michael Wilson

Figure 13.3 “North Star” by Assata Norment

Figure 13.4 “Attitude” by CMolly

Figure 13.5 “For Harriet” by Anthony Hale

Figure 13.6 “Brothers” by Rosemaire Mollison

Figure 13.7 “Mother and Sons” by Clarence Alexander

Figure 13.8 “Crest” by Maurice Evans

Figure 13.9 “Queen of Clubs” by Natasha Townsel

Figure 13.10 “Black Gem” by Paul Branton

Figure 13.11 “Untitled” by Trevor Lightsy

Figure 13.12 “Black Man” by Waymon Lindsay

Figure 13.13 “Laundry Day” by Ahmed Salam

Figure 13.14 “Growth Process” by Joseph Stewart

Figure 13.15 “Tara’s Smile” by Wycliffe Link Bennett

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Preface

The discipline of African American Studies creates a space of intellectual agency that allows scholars to do academic work without being confined to the methodological paradigms of traditional disciplines. Hence, in African American Studies, all realms of knowledge become accessible to the scholar without concern for the embracing of traditional discipline-specific sanction. African American Studies as a discipline sought freedom from the enslavement of disciplinary boundaries and limitations. Therefore, this text gives honor to the invisible progenitors, that is, our founders who demanded our entry as equal and independent scholars.

African American Studies has taught the contributions of African people to the world. This textbook, African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions,¹ includes the work of many scholars who have produced the knowledge content of this discipline. Contemporary scholars and students must be able to trace the evolution of the discipline in order to evaluate if the discipline has deviated from or stayed true to its original mission. It is absolutely necessary for students to know the original “blueprint/purpose”² of Black Studies in order to understand arguments made for the discipline’s existence and to recognize its place in the academy and community.

This text presents the discipline’s subject matter about African Americans from an African-centered perspective.³ The various bodies of knowledge, the philosophical framework, methodological procedures, and theoretical underpinnings of the discipline have never been clearly delineated. This text attempts to do so. In order for any discipline to thrive, how the discipline emerged⁴ and the academic and historical legitimacy of its subject matter must be clear. Further, arguments and debates that scholars such as John Blassingame, John Henrik Clarke, St. Clair Drake, Nick Aaron Ford, Vivian Gordon, Ewart Guinier, Nathan Hare, Wilfred Cartey, Maulana Karenga, James Turner, Harold Cruse, Martin Kilson, Bertha Maxwell, and Sidney F. Walton initiated some forty-five years ago can now be discussed with the benefit of a comprehensive text which juxtaposes all aspects of the discipline of African American Studies. ← xxi | xxii →

Despite publications since 1968,5 today there is not a viable textbook that effectively incorporates the genealogy and worldview in which African American Studies scholars make meaning and produce knowledge. An introductory text for the discipline is crucial⁶ in providing an overview of the African antecedent, the history of African-centered thought in the Diaspora, the Africana worldview, and delineating the contributions of the exemplars of the interdisciplinary Africana Studies, highlighting their approaches, methods, and ways in which they applied their intellectual work to social uplift. This is a monumental task and scholars committed to the discipline must seek like-minded individuals dedicated to work on scholarly projects, much like the historical work completed by Dr. W. E. B DuBois in the Atlanta University’s studies and the Department of Labor in the early 20th century. Also, the work of the Institute of the Black World is a model that can be emulated, as well as the creation of a research committee within the National Council of Black Studies, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations. This is absolutely essential to further the discipline in the 21st century and for eternity.

Within African American Studies, this volume⁷ takes its place alongside a number of volumes in print or in preparation, which together will give a comprehensive documentation of the discipline. These include: Mario Azevedo, ed. (2005), Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora; Beverly Guy-Sheftall, ed. (1995), Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought; Nikongo BaNikongo, ed. (1997), Leading Issues in African-American Studies; Manning Marable, ed. (2000), Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience; Talmadge Anderson (1990), Black Studies, Theory, Method and Cultural Perspectives; Floyd W. Hayes III (2001), A Turbulent Voyage: Readings in African American Studies; Maulana Karenga (2003), Introduction to Black Studies; James Turner, ed. (1984), The Next Decade: Theoretical and Research Issues in Africana Studies; Sidney F. Walton (1969), The Black Curriculum: Developing a Program in Afro-American Studies; Molefi Asante (1990), Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge; Delores Aldridge and Carlene Young, eds. (2001), Out of the Revolution; James Conyers, Jr., ed. (1997), Africana Studies: A Disciplinary Quest for Both Theory and Method; Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith, ed. (1982), All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave; Armstead L. Robinson, Craig C. Foster, and Donald H. Ogilvie (1969), Black Studies in the University: A Symposium; Joyce A. Joyce (2005), Black Studies as Human Studies: Critical Essays and Interviews; Lewis Gordon and Jane Gordon (2006), A Companion to African American Studies; Marimba Ani (2000), Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior, 10th Edition; Molefi Asante and Maulana Karenga (2005), Handbook of Black Studies; Talmadge Anderson and James Stewart (2008), Introduction to African American Studies; and Nathaniel Norment Jr., editor, (2001/2007), The African American Studies Reader.

Notes

1. A discipline implies a set of formally interrelated facts, concepts, and generalizations. It also implies a set of standardized techniques and skills. The components are part and parcel of a body of theory, propositions, and a subject matter. The specific subject matter is normally what separates one discipline from another. Generally, disciplines have five basic components: (1) a rationale; (2) a body of literature; (3) a curriculum based on the major areas of the field; (4) an overall theoretical framework within which the various hypotheses can be constructed; and (5) methodologies by which the various hypotheses can be tested. For specific discussions relevant to African American/Black Studies as a discipline, see Phillip T. K. Daniel, “Black Studies: Discipline or Field of Studies?” The Western Journal of Black Studies 4, no. 3 (Fall 1980): 195–99; Preston Wilcox, “Black Studies as an Academic Discipline,” Negro Digest 19, no. 3 (1970): 75–87 and Black Studies as an Academic Discipline: Toward a Discipline (New York: Afam Associates, Inc., 1969).

For this textbook, Dimensions are the “traditional” academic disciplines and the bodies of knowledge that provide the foundations for the study of African American people. This author proposes sixteen fields of study: anthropology, art, dance, education, film, literature, psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, economics, history, music, science and technology, sports, and religion that make up the bodies of knowledge in African American Studies. Within the general context of academia and education, African American Studies has not only contributed to existing bodies of knowledge, but has also generated new and challenging fields of study, epistemologies, perspectives, and approaches for examining the historical and contemporary experiences of people of African descent. ← xxii | xxiii →

2. See especially The National Council for Black Studies Mission Statement; Nathan Hare, “Questions and Answers about Black Studies,” The Massachusetts Review (1969): 727–36; Manning Marable, “Blueprint for Black Studies and Multi-culturalism,” Black Scholar 22, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 30–35; James B. Stewart, “Reaching for Higher Ground: Toward an Understanding of Black/Africana Studies,” The Afrocentric Scholar 1, no. 1 (1992): 1–69.

3. African Centeredness rests on the premise that it is valid to posit Africa as a geographical and cultural starting base of the study of people of African descent. This perspective makes it easier to trace and understand the social patterns of their existence; the institutional patterns of their actions; and the intellectual pattern of their thoughts.

4. According to Robert Harris Jr, there have been four stages in the development of Africana studies: from the 1890s until World War II numerous organizations developed to analyze the culture and history of African peoples (African Studies). In the second stage the focus turned to Black Americans (Afro-American Studies). In the third stage a bevy of newly conceived academic programs were established as Black Studies. Unlike the other stages, Black Studies grew out of mass rebellions of black college students and faculty in search of a scholarship of change. In the fourth stage, the new name “Africana Studies” involved a theoretical elaboration of the discipline of Black Studies according to African cultural reclamation and disparate tenets in the historical and cultural issues of Africanity within a professorial interpretation of the interactions between these fields and college administrations (see Robert L. Harris Jr, “The Intellectual and Institutional Development of Africana Studies,” in The Black Studies Reader, pp. 15–20, eds. Jacqueline Bobo, Cynthia Hudley, Claudine Michel Page). Shortly after African American Studies began to occupy space within the academy, a number of conferences and symposiums were held to debate the viability and necessity for the field. See, especially, Armistead L. Robinson, Craig H. Foster, and Donald I. Ogilvie, Black Studies in the University: A Symposium (New York: Bantam Books, 1969), John Blassingame, New Perspectives on Black Studies (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1973); Bayard Rustin, Black Studies: Myths or Realities (New York: A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1969); and Inez Smith Reid, “An Analysis of Black Studies Programs,” Afro-American Studies I (pp. 11–21, 1970). The classic work of this period, of course, is Nick Aaron Ford, Black Studies: Threat or Challenge (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1973); and Nathaniel Norment, Jr.’s, The African American Studies Reader. Durham: Carolina Academic Press (2001/2007); Jeffrey L. Woodyard, “Evolution of a Discipline: Intellectual Antecedents of African American Studies,” Journal of Black Studies 22, no. 2 (December 1991): 239–51; Alan Colon, “Reflections on the History of Black Studies,” The Journal of African American History 93, no. 2 (2008): 271.

5. See Abdul Alkalimat’s (1986) Introduction to Afro-American Studies: A People’s College Primer; Talmadge Anderson’s (1998) An Introduction to African American Studies; Maulana Karenga’s (2003) Introduction to Black Studies; Talmadge Anderson and James Stewart’s (2008) Introduction to African American Studies; and Jeanette Davidson’s (2010) African American Studies.

6. Textbooks about the African American experience are an important learning resource. They consequently serve as an important learning aid for learners and as a consultative tool for teachers. African American Studies textbooks can provide learners with interesting new facts and information. Teachers can refer to textbooks as part of their lesson plans and prescribe homework from textbooks.

7. There are now approximately thirty anthologies of Black Studies beginning in 1969 with Black Studies: Myths and Realities with an Introduction by Bayard Rustin and 1971 with John Blassingame’s New Perspectives on Black Studies to the 2007 Contemporary Africana Thought and Action: A Guide to Africana Studies edited by Clenora Hudson-Weems and the 2009 African Americans and Community Engagement in Higher Education: Community Service, Service Learning, and Community-Based Research edited by Stephanie Y. Evans, Colette Taylor, Michelle Dunlap, and DeMond Miller.

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A Note to the Reader

African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions defines bodies of knowledge, methodologies, philosophies, and disciplinary concepts; its contents, its scope, and the types of topics with which its scholars have concerned themselves; and the growth, development, and present status of the discipline. Its purpose is to prove that African American Studies is a unique and significant discipline—one that intersects almost every academic discipline and cultural construct—and to confirm that the discipline has a noteworthy history and a challenging future. Thus, this text represents a discipline committed to producing and disseminating knowledge about African Americans. This text includes the contents of knowledge necessary for African American Studies in the 21st century.¹ The true value of this volume will become most clear to students when they venture on to more specialized courses within and outside the discipline. At another level, this textbook answers a question asked by hundreds of college students: “African American Studies—what is that?” The author hopes that some of the excitement which pervades the study of African American history and culture, and which attracted students to the discipline, will transform and empower students who read this textbook.

The introductory course² within Africana Studies on the undergraduate and graduate levels must provide the foundation in the discipline.³ The intellectual history of the field and introduction to various worldviews found in African societies across the world must provide that foundation. Most African American Studies programs across the country have diverse definitions and missions. Some of the programs focus squarely on a completely historical approach; while essential, they ignore the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary focus of African American Studies. Many scholars in the discipline focus on history, sociology, psychology, or literature as the foundation. While the various modes of inquiry these traditional disciplines employ are important to understand, they should all be components of a much more expansive interdisciplinary introductory course which absorbs the Africana and African American personality or experience. This volume is an exposition of the bodies of knowledge⁴ within African American Studies. African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions can be used in ← xxv | xxvi → high school and undergraduate and graduate introductory courses along with The African American Studies Reader (Norment, 2007).

African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions is a comprehensive resource book that recounts the development of the discipline of African American Studies and provides a basic reference source for sixteen areas of knowledge of the discipline: anthropology, art, dance, education, film, literature, psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, economics, history, music, science and technology, sports, and religion. African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions defines bodies of knowledge, methodologies, philosophies, disciplinary concepts, its contents, its scope, topics its scholars have concerned themselves, and the growth, development, and present status of the discipline. African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions validates that African American Studies is a unique and significant discipline—one that intersects almost every academic discipline and cultural construct—and to confirm that the discipline has a noteworthy history and a challenging future. The various bodies of knowledge, the philosophical framework, methodological procedures, and theoretical underpinnings of the discipline have never been clearly delineated from an African-centered perspective.

The creation of the first Ph.D. program in African American Studies at Temple University in 1988 validated the specificity of a unique way of studying and interpreting the African mind, personality, and culture unencumbered by the limitations of the European worldview. African American Studies contests the ways in which Eurocentric discourse conceived of the possibilities of knowledge. African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions is an attempt at the subconscious resurrection of the variability of knowledge taught and embraced by the ancient Kemetic mystery school. In many ways, it is the 6000-year-old resurrection of the truth of that Ancient Egyptian system.

Notes

1. See Floyd W. Hayes, III, “Taking Stock: African American Studies at the Edge of the Twenty-First Century,” Western Journal of Black Studies 18, no. 3 (June 1994): 153–63 and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “African American Studies in the 21^st Century,” The Black Scholar; Special Issues of the International Journal of African Studies, editor Marilyn Thomas–Houston, “Sustaining Black Studies in the 21^st Century,” 14, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2008).

2. One of the most challenging teaching tasks in African American Studies is providing effective instruction in introductory-level courses.

3. The foundational concepts of the discipline must be grasped by all majors prior to entry into advanced courses. Introductory courses provide significant understanding of the underlying structure of the discipline.

4. See Note 2.

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Acknowledgments

African American scholars in our discipline owe much to the work of our intellectual predecessors and colleagues. I recognize and cite their contributions in my text and endnotes, but I have undoubtedly omitted some intellectual reference and credits over the long process of writing this textbook.¹ Let me express my sincere gratitude to those scholars and sources whose works have contributed to this book. In preparing African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions, I have benefited from the work of many scholars in the various subject areas of the discipline. This book could not have been completed without the help and support of my colleagues, my students, and my family. Many of my colleagues, graduate and undergraduate students, and valued friends have given their enthusiastic support and sound advice throughout the development of this textbook. I am grateful to the many faculty and students who have written to me to offer suggestions that greatly improved this book. Thank you and I hope that you can see your contributions.

I also wish to thank the following colleagues who have reviewed some or all of this manuscript and for their suggestions that greatly improved this book: Russell Adams and Greg Carr (Howard University), Karanja Carroll (SUNY New Paltz), Daniel Black (Clark Atlanta University), Mario Beatty (Howard University), Dana King (Philadelphia School District), Jerome Brooks (The City College of CUNY), Aimee Glocke (University of California-Northridge), Terry Kershaw (University of Cincinnati), Abu Abarry, Wilbur Jenkins, Harrison Ridley, Frank Johnson, and Sonja Peterson-Lewis (Temple University), Amy Yeboah (Howard University), Eric Edi (Knox College), Valethia Watkins (Howard University), William Little (California State University-Dominguez Hills), David Norment (PS 140-New York City Public Schools), Raena Osizwe Harwell (Georgia State University), Cher McAllister (University of Nebraska-Omaha), Josh Myers (Howard University), Patrick Spearman (Youngstown State University), Samuel Livingston (Morehouse College), Andrew Rosa (Oklahoma State University), Andre Key (Paine College) and my students at Temple University: Nate Thompson, Jason Neuenschwander, Danielle Wallace, Damien Frierson, Nashay Pendleton, Danielle Ayers, Tanay Harris, ← xxvii | xxviii → David Brown, Katrina S. Williams, Dana Oliver, Anyabwile Love, Heru Setepenra Heq-m-Ta, Daly Guilamo, Rhone Fraser, Ava Wilson, Satia Koroma, and Brian Jones.

Additionally, I would like to thank the many students of my AAS W1296 (Introduction to African American Studies), AAS 8001 (Prose Seminar in African American Studies), and AAS 9002 (Teaching African American Studies) classes at Temple University. Collectively, they provided commentary which was immensely helpful in making this a student-centered book. Furthermore, I could not have found many of the materials had it not been for the help of librarians at Temple University (Al Vara), The City College of New York, Fordham University, Hofstra University, Emory University, Howard University, New York University, Sharon Howard of The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Aslaku Berhanu of the Blockson Collection at Temple University.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the different Starbucks in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Fort Wayne, Honolulu, Houston, Las Vegas, Memphis, Myrtle Beach, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, Savannah, San Francisco, Smyrna, and Washington, D. C. that provided “a table and music” when I needed a creative space and atmosphere; and to Gloria Basmajian for her assistance and friendship. A Special-Special Thanks to my family (Assata, David, Jessie, Joaquim, Michael, Moziah, Natalie, Rosemarie, Sanaya, Thais, and Toeanzar Norment) for giving me so much Joy and Love.

The following individuals2 contributed specific content or developed part of the following: Chapter One: The Discipline: Greg Carr, Daniel Black, Aimee Glocke, Karanja Carroll, Patrick Spearman, and Josh Myers; Chapter Two: African American History: Greg Carr, Wilbur Jenkins, David Norment, and Josh Myers; Chapter Three: African American Literature: Abu Abarry, Daniel Black, Aimee Glocke, and Josh Myers; Chapter Four: African American Anthropology: Frank Johnson, Katrina Williams, and Josh Myers; Chapter Five: African American Sociology: Danielle Wallace, Katrina Williams, Tanay Harris, and Heru Setepenra Heq-m-Ta; Chapter Six: African American Psychology: Karanja Carroll, Nashay Pendleton, Katrina Williams, and Tanay Harris; Chapter Seven: African American Religion: Tim Brown, Andre Key, Josh Myers, Katrina Williams, and Nate Thompson; Chapter Eight: African American Philosophy: Shelley Morris, Greg Carr, and Katrina Williams; Chapter Nine: African American Political Science: Kelley Harris, Andrew Kessler, and Katrina Williams; Chapter Ten: African American Economics: Andrew Kessler, and Katrina Williams; Chapter Eleven: African American Music: Nate Thompson, Harrison Ridley, Anyabwile Love, and David Norment; Chapter Twelve: African American Dance: Aimee Glocke and Carl Parish; Chapter Thirteen African American Art: Shelley Morris and Katrina Williams; Chapter Fourteen: African American Film: Eugene Haynes, Shelley Morris, Nasha Taylor, and John King; Chapter Fifteen: African American Education: Danielle Ayers, Raena Osizwe Harwell, David Norment, and Patrick Spearman; Chapter Sixteen: African American Science and Technology: David Norment, Richard Turner, and Katrina Williams; and Chapter Seventeen: African American Sports: Michael Norment and Nate Thompson.

The production of African American Studies:The Discipline and Its Dimensions was supervised by Jackie Pavlovic, Production Manager at Peter Lang Publishing, who made this volume what it is. Sincere thanks for her patience, professional expertise, and support. This is my third book published by Peter Lang. It is a privilege to be one of its many authors.

Finally, I assume all responsibility for any errors, mistakes, and omissions that may appear in African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions.

Nathaniel Norment, Jr.
Smyrna, Georgia
2019 ← xxviii | xxix →

Notes

1. Many published works of African American scholars have helped me in writing the contents of African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions. The bibliographies of each chapter represent the sources of data and information incorporated into the bodies of knowledge in this textbook.

2. Each person listed has provided information and support to me during the past fifteen years that I have been working to complete this book. Those who have helped complete this version are Brittany Battle, Amy Yeboah, Miciah Yehudah, Nate Thompson, Megan Malachi, Heru Setepenra Heq-m-Ta, and Josh Myers.

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PART ONE

African American Studies: The Discipline

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction to African American Studies

Introduction

The intellectual heritage¹ of African American Studies² precedes its emergence on predominately White campuses in the late 1960s by some 150 years. African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions is truly inspired by the intellectual architects who laid the foundation³ and developed the bodies of knowledge⁴ in African American Studies. Scholars within the academy and community, such as George Washington Williams, Carter G. Woodson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Arturo A. Schomburg, Oliver Cox, E. Franklin Frazier, Harold Cruse, Sterling Brown, John Henrik Clarke, and John Hope Franklin, to name but a few, provided the foundations and perspectives that helped shape African American Studies today. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the efforts of Nathan Hare, Charles V. Hamilton, Maulana Karenga, Harold Cruse, Jimmy Garrett, Sonia Sanchez, St. Clair Drake, Richard Long, Carlene Young, Askia M. Touré, Nick Aaron Ford, Herman Hudson, Wilfred Cartey, Ewart Guinier, Vivian Gordon, Sidney F. Walton, James Turner, Bertha Maxwell, and John Blassingame, among others, forced predominately White universities to recognize African American Studies as a distinctive and legitimate area of study and laid the foundation for it to develop as an academic discipline. In the 1980s and 1990s scholars like William Little, Molefi Asante, Nathan Huggins, Vivian Gordon, Abdul Alkalimat, Delores Aldridge, Ernest Allen, John Bracey, James Stewart, Darlene Clark Hine, Ronald Bailey, Manning Marable, Barbara Christian, Charshee McIntyre, Winston Van Horn, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. further contributed to the institutionalization of African American Studies in traditionally White colleges and universities.

African American Studies has developed as interdisciplinary,⁵ multidisciplinary,⁶ and transdisciplinary,⁷ thus producing an accurate history and description of African people, primarily those Africans in the United States. African American Studies is an investigation of Africana history and culture from the perspective of Africana people who are committed to using knowledge in order to change the conditions of Africana people and, by extension, the human condition. In a holistic fashion, Africana Studies utilizes lenses that are available to all of humanity for the investigation of the Africana experience, but does so through a unified approach grounded in the sociohistorical experience of Africana peoples. African American Studies organizes itself around bodies of knowledge such as: Africana history, Africana politics, Africana education, Africana psychology, Africana sociology, Africana economics, Africana technology, Africana science, Africana aesthetics, and Africana literature. Together these subject/content areas work in the creation of a holistic interpretation of Africana social reality.⁸

African American Studies is not just one field of study, but it is a multidiscipline incorporating bodies of knowledge contents,⁹ disciplinary concepts,¹⁰ discipline competencies,¹¹ methodologies,¹² and theories.¹³ However, some critics of the discipline argue that African American Studies has no distinctive subject matter and that it is merely a collection of traditional disciplines combined to deal with issues that have historically been the interest and specialization of White scholars.¹⁴ But, of course, this is not the case. Scholars in African American Studies differ from scholars in traditional disciplines who claim to represent African and African American people in their scholarship, but who fail in their approach, focus, purpose, relevancy, perspective, and dedication to represent the physical, psychological, mental, and spiritual liberation of African and African American people.¹⁵ ← 4 | 5 →

Providing an elemental idea of what has transpired within the past forty-five years in the discipline helps bring about a greater appreciation and understanding of the conception of African American Studies that now exists for most undergraduates. African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions provides a foundation for the discipline by presenting basic definitions and various approaches that have been used in studying disciplinary frames of reference in African American Studies. It defines the content areas, methodologies, philosophies, and concepts of the variegated dimensions of African American Studies, as well as sets providing useful scholarly information concerning the definitions, scope, and relevance of the discipline. To understand and know the history, purpose, knowledge contents, intellectual contributors, and methods or the disciplinary approaches used in the discipline, we must ask the following questions and provide necessary answers:

We need to determine if these are the right questions to ask after more than forty-five years of developing the discipline of African American Studies. Should the discipline require a common answer to each of these questions? For the discipline to be relevant and responsible to African American communities, we need to formulate new questions that will produce answers that change the life circumstances and life situations for African people.

The Development of African American Studies16

African American Studies or the study of Black people in the United States has existed since the early 1800s.¹⁷ Ample evidence of this is to be found in any perfunctory review of the monumental scholarly works of distinguished Black people such as William Wells Brown, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Frederick Douglass, David Ruggles, Charlotte Forten, Maria Stewart, and George Washington Williams, among others. Much of what early Black scholars produced remained obscured, however, until the struggles of Blacks for improved and meaningful higher education were better planned and organized. The earliest efforts for Black courses occurred in Northern White colleges and on the campuses of Black schools. The more impressive demands of Black students to establish Black educational offerings on White campuses came later.¹⁸

African American Studies has increased awareness of the contributions of African Americans to world civilization. African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions not only demonstrates the importance, scope, and relevance of the discipline but also presents the intellectual contributions that preceded African American Studies as a discipline on predominately White campuses in the late 1960s. Scholars, within the academy and throughout the community, have laid the foundation for the discipline of Black Studies today.¹⁹

Egyptian Mystery System in Kmt

Scholars within the discipline of Black Studies do not all agree on when and where the intellectual foundation of Black Studies first began. Scholars such as Mario Beatty, Greg Carr, Jacob Carruthers, Yosef ben Johanan, John Henrik Clarke, Linda James Myers, Asa Hilliard, Maulana Karenga, and Daudi Ajani ya Azibo argue that the foundations of Black Studies date further back than African people’s arrival in America, and the foundation for the discipline can actually be found in Ancient Egypt or Kmt. More specifically, these scholars argue that the first true Black Studies curriculum can be found in the all-Black educational system of the Egyptian Mystery System.²⁰ These scholars believe that the Egyptian Mystery not only should be our blueprint for curriculum, but can also help aid in the overall organization of the discipline. ← 6 | 7 →

Pre-1900 Foundations

One of the major pre-1900 foundations for Black Studies can be seen in the organization of the American Negro Academy, established in 1897 by such members as Alexander Crummell and W. E. B. Du Bois. In addition, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Henry Highland Garnet, George Washington Williams, Martin Delany, and William Wells Brown contributed to African American history and scholarship. All of these scholars went on to make large and substantial contributions to the foundations of the discipline, demonstrating their innate Pan-African ties and their emphasis on the Diaspora.

1897–1907: Black Studies in the U.S. Department of Labor21

The emergence of Black Studies as a discipline in the 1960s was not without historical roots, as is often portrayed. Black Studies owes much to Du Bois, as he developed a great deal of the methodology for research to build a paradigm for Black Studies research. In the early 1900s, Dubois noted that “not a single first-grade college in America undertook to give any considerable scientific attention to the American Negro.” Yet between 1897 and 1903, the Department of Labor, forerunner of the present Bureau of Labor Statistics, published nine investigations, of varying length, importance, and point of view, about the condition of Blacks in America. Du Bois himself prepared three of these studies. These Department of Labor studies were closely related to the historically more famous Atlanta University publications. The first and the last departmental investigations were done by Atlanta University. Both the Atlanta and the Department of Labor investigations were among pioneering “scientific” studies of the condition of Blacks in America. The researchers of Black Studies at the Department of Labor were Carroll D. Wright, the distinguished Commissioner of Labor from 1885 to 1905; George G. Bradford, a forgotten pioneer of both the Atlanta University and Department of Labor studies; and W. E. B. Du Bois.²²

1900–1930: The Intellectual Foundations

African American Studies originally appeared as an academic field of study in the early 1900s,²³ as a result of the pioneering efforts and works of W. E. B. Du Bois, Sterling Brown, Alain Leroy Locke, Arthur A. Schomburg, Lorenzo J. Greene, Abram Harris, Charles S. Johnson, Charles H. Wesley, E. Franklin Frazier, Ralph J. Bunche, Anna J. Cooper, and Carter G. Woodson. Shortly after his arrival at Atlanta University, Du Bois initiated an eleven-volume monograph series (as an extension of his 1899 landmark study The Philadelphia Negro) entitled the Atlanta University Studies, which sought to present an accurate portrayal of post-Reconstruction life in communities of these people of African descent in the South. Shortly after entering the United States in 1885, Schomburg began what would be a lifelong mission to “fill in the missing pages of world history.”²⁴ As an extension of Schomburg’s early efforts to found the Negro Society for Historical Research, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 for the purpose of ensuring that the history of African people would no longer be omitted from the world’s historical record. Moreover, Woodson also established the first academic organization of African American Studies in 1916 with the inauguration of The Journal of Negro History.²⁵ The Harlem Renaissance, Harlem Book Club, and other historical organizations were important during this period.

1930–1955: Early Development on Black and White Campuses

In the mid-1930s, as a direct result of the efforts of Woodson, the Association, and Du Bois, a number of historically Black colleges and universities (e.g., Howard, Wilberforce, Atlanta, Morgan State, and Fisk Universities, as well as Tuskegee Institute) began to offer courses dealing with the history and culture of Black people in America. In 1922, William Hansberry instituted African Studies at Howard University. It is worth noting that also in the late 1930s and early 1940s a Pan-African perspective was taught at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Fisk University also began an African Studies program in ← 7 | 8 → early 1940 and Lincoln University instituted its program in 1950. In the 1940s and 1950s, some predominantly White universities (e.g., Harvard, Stanford, the University of Chicago, and the University of Minnesota) offered courses in the study of “Negro life and culture.” It has also been reported that, in the mid-1930s, Black Studies curricula were in place in many Southern Negro schools through courses in Black history and culture. In addition, public high schools in New York, Philadelphia, Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma also taught courses in Black history.26

1955–1970: Social and Political Influences

Prior to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education,²⁷ Black students were routinely denied admission to most White colleges and universities in the North and to all White colleges and universities in the South. As a direct result of the sense of social responsibility which permeated the Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Student movements, predominantly White institutions of higher education began to actively recruit and admit “qualified” African American students and faculty. Urban universities in predominately Black communities were confronted with the additional responsibility of admitting students from the immediate vicinity who did not always meet admissions criteria. The call for Black Studies arose out of the particular sense of discontent and dismay that the majority of first-generation Black students²⁸ on traditionally White campuses felt both inside and outside the classroom. Their frustration, combined with the increased sociopolitical awareness taking place within the Black community in the form of Black Power and Black Consciousness movements,²⁹ galvanized Black students who began demanding separate curricula, courses, and programs representing the historical and contemporary life experiences of people of African descent in the United States. They also advocated for the hiring of Black faculty and mentors, as well as pushing for universities to open their facilities and provide institutional resources for the Black community.³⁰

The formal start of the Black Arts Movement is dated as 1965 with the establishment of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BARTS)³¹ by Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and other Black artists, writers, poets, and playwrights; it began establishing the politicocultural framework that would coalesce into the Black Arts movement.³² “In 1960, On Guard for Freedom, a black (inter)nationalist literary organization was founded by Calvin Hicks, and included Harold Cruse, Amiri Baraka (then LeRoi Jones), Tom Dent, Nannie and Walter Bowe, and Rosa Guy, among others. From On Guard, in 1962, evolved Umbra, an organization spearheaded by Dent, James Johnson, Calvin Hernton, Ishmael Reed, Archie Shepp, Lorenzo Thomas, and Askia Muhammad Touré to name a few. Umbra produced the journal Umbra Magazine, and was the first post-Civil Rights artistic and literary group led by Blacks to define and make distinct their own voice from that of the prevailing white literary establishment.”³³ “The merging of a Black nationalist—themed activist thrust with a (primarily) artistic orientation caused a split in the organization, after which a number of former members, including Touré, Yusef Ruhman, and Keorapetse ‘Willie’ Kgositisle, formed the Uptown Writers Movement. They later joined forces with Baraka and BARTS. Important to note, however, is that while much of the focus on Black Arts has historically been centered or confined to New York, it was a movement that was nationwide, with points of confluence in Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans and San Francisco, where the work of Sonia Sanchez, Ed Bullins, Baraka, Askia M. Touré, Marvin X (Marvin Jackmon), Jimmy Garrett, and Nathan Hare led to the establishment of the first African American Studies Department in 1968.”³⁴

Nathan Hare, chairman of the first African American Studies Department at San Francisco State College, asserted that all Black Studies curriculum could be divided into two basic phases: the expressive and the pragmatic-positivistic. (1) The expressive phase would be therapeutic and would focus on courses in the history and culture of African Americans. (2) The pragmatic-positivistic phase would focus on praxis and provide students with research skills to bring about change in their lives and ← 8 | 9 → communities.35 John Blassingame elaborated on the prospect of expressive and pragmatic-positivistic phases, suggesting that “community action programs must be separated from academic programs and adequately funded, staffed, and truly related to community needs.”³⁶ This disagreement has produced a dichotomy between the content, theory, and pedagogy in African American Studies. Some scholars argued that many departments and programs “missed the mark” in their emphasis and coverage of the history and culture of African Americans, and the de-emphasis of skills and techniques needed to combat oppression within African American communities.³⁷

Emergence of Black Studies at Merritt College with Sidney Walton, Jr.³⁸

Walton (1969) presents a documentary case study of the emergence of the first Black Studies program developed at Merritt College in Oakland, California, in 1967. Although some schools included courses on African and African American people prior to this, the first Black Studies program was established at San Francisco State College in 1968. The establishment of the first department of Black Studies occurred under the duress of a student strike. At San Francisco State, 80% of the racially and ethnically diverse student body joined forces and “made or supported unequivocal demands.”³⁹ Similar strikes occurred at Howard (March 1968), Northwestern (May 1968), The City College of New York (April 1968), Cornell (April 1969), and Harvard (April 1969). San Francisco State responded to the demands with the appointment of Nathan Hare as the acting chair of the Department of Black Studies in 1969. Other universities followed this course, with James Turner at Cornell (1969), Andrew Billingsley at Berkeley (1969), Ronald Foreman at the University of Florida (1970), Carlene Young at San Jose State University (1970), Herman Hudson at Indiana (1970), and Richard Long at Emory University (1970). From 1968 to 1971, hundreds of African American Studies departments and programs were developed. Approximately 500 colleges and universities provided full-scale African American Studies programs by 1971. As many as 1,300 institutions offered at least one course in African American Studies as of 1974. Some estimates place the number of African American Studies programs reaching its peak at 800 in the early 1970s and declining to about 375, due to the lack of resources and support, by the mid-1990s.⁴⁰ It should be acknowledged that in 1968, Dr. Wilfred Cartey was hired by the English department at The City College of New York (CCNY) to develop a Ph.D. Program and an Institute in Black Studies.