Conservative Philanthropy, Black Studies and the Evolution and Enduring Legacy of the Academic Culture Wars, 1945-2005
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IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES: CONSERVATIVE PHILANTHROPY, BLACK STUDIES AND THE EVOLUTION AND ENDURING LEGACY OF THE ACADEMIC CULTURE WARS, 1945-2005 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Donna J. Gough, MA **** The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Prof. Antoinette Errante, Adviser Approved By Prof. Kenneth Goings Prof. Valerie Lee _______________________________ Antoinette Errante, Ph.D. Adviser Educational Policy and Leadership ABSTRACT Social conservatives have heeded the advice of Robert Weaver who convincingly argued that “ideas have consequences” and have gained the intellectual and political legitimacy needed to take their political and social ideology to the American public through the academy. The creation of philanthropic organizations and policy institutes allowed for social conservatives to move from being the political elite with aspirations to become the governing elite. To carry out the ideological attack against liberalism in the academy, conservatives developed think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, philanthropic organizations including the Bradley foundation which gave heavily to academic change organizations such as the National Academy of Scholars and the Madison Center for Educational Affairs. These organizations in turn financed scholars whose research reflected conservative political and social ideology, established college conservative newspaper training programs, organized speaker bureaus for conservative ideologues and supported legislation that would rid the nation of affirmative action. The economics of race helps to explain more precisely the reason why Black Studies was bore the brunt of this conservative ideological attack during the academic culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, although racism and racial chauvinism did factor into the equation. As described in case studies of individual Black Studies departments, the Academic Culture Wars had a profound impact on student enrollment, faculty hiring and institutional support for Black Studies. Certainly the financial implications of the ii Academic Culture War were most profoundly felt at the public comprehensive universities where access to philanthropic support from the Ford Foundation was not available. Although Black Studies departments in the comprehensive, teaching based institutions may have felt the effects of the Culture War attacks on the discipline more acutely than their elite, research based university peers, the entire discipline continues to “suffer the burdens of its beginnings” and must continually defend its right to exist within the hallowed halls of academe. The Culture Wars may have not dismantled Black Studies but it has made the stability of the field far less certain as a result. iii Dedicated to my grandmother, Catherine Tarpley and to my late father, Paul Gearring iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Dr. Antoinette Errante, for her support of my research. I wish to thank Drs. Kenneth Goings and Valerie Lee for stretching me intellectually and showing enthusiastic support of my research and potential as an academic. I am grateful to Dr. Renae Bredin for spotting grammatical errors and being one of my greatest cheerleaders and taskmasters during this process. I also wish to thank several people who offered support and encouragement along the way: Dr. Lenora Barnes-Wright, Dr. Durene Wheeler, Dr. Roland Coloma-Sintos, Dr. Sandra Sutphen, Dr. Leila Sutherland, Dr. Sherwin Bryant, Dr. Laura Chrisman, Dr. Patricia Golay, Dr. Karen Alsbrooks, Dr. Thomas Klammer, Mr. Ernest Perry, Ms. Melvina Young and Dr. Greg Streich, Mr. Phillip Mayo, Ms. Lovie Debnam, Mr. Andre Patterson and Mrs. Timeka Thomas-Rashid. I would have not made it this far without the love and support of my family and I wish to especially thank my mother, Wanda Gough; my grandmother Catherine Tarpley; my sister and brother Melissa and Joseph Washington; my maternal grandfather Everett Gough and my paternal grandparents, Arthur and Maggie Gearring. I want to thank the love of my life, my best friend and my rock: Mr. Leonard Nicol, my husband for giving me tough love when I needed it; a shoulder to cry on when v things got rough; for reading my drafts and for putting up with the mess I created in our home while going through this process. I love you with my whole heart and soul. I wish to thank the ancestors for their inspiration because each time I hit a roadblock in this journey, I remembered someone endured far worse just so I could have the opportunity to be here. Finally, I want to give thanks and praise to the Creator for the will and determination to complete this project. My faith was tested several times throughout this process but God saw it fit to help me stick with it and endure. vi VITA March 11, 1973………………… Born – Charleston, West Virginia 2002………………………………MA, Education, The Ohio State University 1999………………………………MA, History, California State University Long Beach 2004-2006………………………..Project Director, History Works 2 Grant Department of History, The Ohio State University 2006-2007………………………..Full Time Lecturer, Women’s Studies California State University Fullerton FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Education Minor Fields: Educational History, Diversity and Inclusion, African American Studies vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..ii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………..iv Acknowledgments…..…………………………………………………………………v Vita…………………………………………………………………………………….vii Chapters 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………1 1.1 Background and Context………………………………………………..1 1.2 Research Question and Purpose of the Study………………………….. 4 1.3 Research Design and Methodology……………………………………..6 1.4 Chapter Outline…………………………………………………………11 2. Modern American Conservatism, Anti-Communism and Civil Rights…….15 2.1. The Case Against Liberalism…………………………………………..15 2.2. The Three Strands of Modern American Conservatism………………..21 2.3. The Process of Unification……………………………………………..32 2.4. Conservatism and the Hysteria of Anti-Communism………………….42 2.5. Goldwater Conservatism……………………………………………….50 2.6. Race and Reagan’s Ascent in California……………………………….59 3. Conservative Philanthropy and the Academic Culture Wars……………….70 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………...70 3.2 Early Conservative Philanthropy and the Neo-Conservatives…………..72 3.3 Context and Scope of the Academic Culture Wars……………………...86 3.4 The Political Correctness Debates……………………………………….95 4. The Conservative Backlash Against Black Studies………………………...107 4.1 The Historical Development of Black Studies………………………….107 4.2 Philanthropy and the Backlash Against Black Studies……………...….128 4.3 Case Studies of the Conservative Attack on Black Studies…………….144 5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………….165 5.1 Why Black Studies? The Economics of Race…………………………..166 5.2 Summary of the Research Findings………………………………...…..170 5.3 Suggestions for Further Research………………………………………176 References……………………………………………………………………...178 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and Context This dissertation explores the strategic organizing efforts of 20th century conservatives to shape liberal arts curricula in American higher education and the subsequent participation of conservative scholars in the debate over the legitimacy of Black Studies within the academy. This study discusses how political pressure brought by conservatives and the battles they initiated under the banner of the “Culture Wars” affected the viability of Black Studies as an academic discipline. Consequently, this project traces the development of a highly organized network of philanthropic foundations, think tanks and policy institutes as the funding sources for scholarly projects and educational policy initiatives that reflected the particular ideological stance(s) of these groups. Several historians and educators have examined the role that philanthropy played in support of blacks in higher education since the establishment of historically black colleges for newly freed slaves (Anderson, 1988; Anderson and Moss, 1999). Additionally, work has been done that examines the uses of philanthropy in thwarting efforts by scholars such as Carter G. Woodson to promote the development of Black history as a viable field of inquiry at the turn of the twentieth century (Clark-Hine, 1986; Meier and Rudwick, 1986; Hall, 2000). However, little work has been done regarding 1 the more recent use of philanthropy as a means of calling into question the legitimacy of institutionalized Black Studies programs in the nation’s colleges and universities. This dissertation examines the "Culture Wars" of the 1980s and 1990s within a larger context of conservative philanthropy by demonstrating how financing from conservative think tanks and foundations has supported critics of ethnic studies and multicultural education, allowing them to mount a relatively successful ideological campaign against multiculturalism and diversity in higher education. This research project further examines the “Culture Wars” as an extension of the early grassroots and national organizing work done by modern American conservatives in the 1940’s and 1950’s to remove all vestiges of the liberal welfare state ushered in by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Conservatives consider affirmative action, Black Studies and other “race- based initiatives” as a destructive outgrowth of the New Deal liberalism. In April 2005, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article entitled