Jones Book.Book

Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California African American Faculty and Senior Staff Oral History Series AN ORAL HISTORY WITH REGINALD LANIER JONES An Interview Conducted by Nadine Wilmot in 2003 Copyright © 2005 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The regents of the University of California and Reginald Lanier Jones, dated July 13, 2003. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Reginald Lanier Jones, “An Oral History with Reginald Lanier Jones,” an oral history conducted in 2003 by Nadine Wilmot, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2005. Copy no. ______ Reginald Lanier Jones TABLE OF CONTENTS—Reginald Lanier Jones INTERVIEW HISTORY ...........................................................................................................................i SESSION 1, July 14, 2003 [Minidisc 1, 74 minutes]...........................................................................................................................1 Family background—Mother’s family in Florida—Summers in Philadelphia—Relationship with father— Father’s family—Siblings—Early education—Row housing in Overtown, Miami—Employment in a florist store. [Minidisc 2, 71 minutes].........................................................................................................................17 Dan Boggan—Childhood, parenting, reading—High school—Applying to college—Attending Morehouse College—Majoring in psychology—Mission of historically black bolleges and universities [HBCUs], friendships—Black faculty in the UC system—Pledging Omega Psi Phi and Greek organizations on campus—Sigma Pi Phi fraternity—Choosing to teach at Hampton University—Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to create a program preparing students for careers in mental health research. [Minidisc 3, 76 minutes].........................................................................................................................30 Choosing an academic career in psychology—Pursuing a master’s degree at Wayne State University— Internship at Logansport State Hospital—Dissertation at Ohio State University—Becoming a faculty person and vice chairman for personnel development at Ohio State University—Applying for faculty positions after completing his Ph.D. SESSION 2, July 15, 2003 [Minidisc 4, 65 minutes].........................................................................................................................47 Face-off between UCLA and Fisk over Jones’ appointment—Joining the faculty at Fisk—Early professional career, moving around—Joining the faculty of UCLA in 1964—Returning to Ohio State to join the faculty—Back to California, coming to UC Riverside—Job talks—Deciding between Harvard and UC Berkeley—Coming to Berkeley, salary negotiations, Berkeley attempts to renege—Afro-American Studies at Berkeley in 1974—Bridging community and institutional concerns at UC Riverside. [Minidisc 5, 63 minutes].........................................................................................................................59 The role of Bil Banks at UC Berkeley’s Afro-American Studies Department—Spearheading Black Psychology as a field—Professional work and methodology—Special education—Military service, working for the psychology unit, leisure and travel, reading—Leave in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia—Working for the University Testing Center—Living in Addis Ababa with his family—Being an African American in Africa—Building the special education department at UC Riverside. [Minidisc 6, 66 minutes].........................................................................................................................72 African American faculty at Berkeley in 1974, African American faculty and staff group—Serving as faculty assistant for affirmative action, post-doctorate fellowship program—Informal racism in hiring and promotion processes—Strategies for minority faculty recruitment at Berkeley—Competition in minority recruitment with other institutions—Serving as faculty assistant for affirmative action, interactions with administration. [Minidisc 7, 38 minutes].........................................................................................................................84 Interactions with Chancellors Bowker, Heyman, and Tien, their support of affirmative action efforts on campus—Chairship of the Afro-American Studies Department—Black graduation program—Important hires, promotions, lectures under his watch—Purchasing his family home in Oakland. SESSION 3, July 16, 2003 [Minidisc 8, 67 minutes].........................................................................................................................93 1988 UC systemwide conference on the future of black faculty hiring, UC San Diego, UC Davis—Walter Massey—The founding and mission of the Association of Black Psychologists—Split from American Psychological Association in 1968—Differences with Kenneth Clarke—The existing scholarship of race and psychology in the early seventies—First edition of Black Psychology—Fourth edition of Black Psychology—African psychology—The Handbook of Tested Measurements for Black Populations— Locating himself in an intellectual continuum among the influential people in his career—Drawing from sociology and anthropology. [Minidisc 9, 76 minutes].......................................................................................................................105 Creating a space for fresh voices in the field, academic and professional networks—New directions in the field—More on African psychology—Potential for racist cooptation of African psychology—The necessity of creating bibliographic resources for psychology research studying people of color and other minorites—Working with his publisher, Cobb & Henry—Working style and motivation—The next frontier of work—Why Black Adult Development and Aging is important—The Larry P. vs. Wilson Riles case (1972)—Inappropriate use of IQ test for placement in special education—Mainstreaming and the Minority Child. [Minidisc 10, 43 minutes].....................................................................................................................120 Close collaborators, colleagues, and mentors—African American Studies at UC Berkeley—Intellectual themes in creating the discipline—Hiring faculty—Strategies for moving appointments through administration—Tension around leaving ethnic studies and joining the College of Letters and Science— Collegiality and heirarchy—Coming to Hampton University in 1991—Winning and managing large grants, students—Collegiality as chair working to improve student writing—Significance of finishing off his career at a HBCU—Family—Closing comments. i INTERVIEW HISTORY—Reginald L. Jones Professor Reginald Jones was born in Florida in 1931 and joined UC Berkeley’s faculty in 1973 as professor of African American Studies, an adjunct professor in the Department of Education. His groundbreaking work pushed the field of educational psychology, challenging and debunking ideas held particularly with regard to minorities and disabled children. He was committed to cultivating an arena for black scholars and scholarship in the field of psychology. To this end, he has edited a seminal anthology, founded a publishing house, and chosen to finish his career at Hampton University, a historically black university, with the aim of developing and nurturing future scholars. At Berkeley, Professor Jones witnessed and participated in the early development of the African American Studies Department, serving as

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