Ford Foundation Ford A 25th anniversary retrospective of Ford Foundation grant making 1982–2007 Inclusive Scholarship Developing Black Studies in the United States Inclusive Scholarship: A 25th anniversary retrospective of Ford Foundation grant making, 1982–2007 making, grant Foundation Ford of retrospective anniversary 25th A Developing Black Studies in the United States Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States A 25th Anniversary Retrospective of Ford Foundation Grant Making, 1982–2007 With Introduction and Commentary by Farah Jasmine Griffin, Ph.D. Ford Foundation New York, N.Y. Copyright © 1985, 1990, 1994, 2000: new material copyright 2007. ISBN: 978-0-916584-57-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007931391 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo- copying, recording, or by information storage and retrieval systems, with- out the written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Printed in the United States of America Acknowledgments The Ford Foundation wishes to thank Janice Petrovich, director of Educa- tion, Sexuality, Religion (ESR); Irma McClaurin, program officer for Edu- cation and Scholarship in ESR; Ejima Baker, consultant for ESR; and Janus Adams of Janus Adams Inc., consultant, for their assistance in bringing this project to completion. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments iii Preface vi Alison R. Bernstein Janice Petrovich Margaret Wilkerson Introduction (2006) viii Farah Jasmine Griffin PART ONE The American University in Crisis and Transition: The Huggins Report 1 Afro-American Studies: A Report to the Ford Foundation (1982, 1985) 11 Nathan I. Huggins PART TWO African American Studies from Implementation to Institutionalization: The Harris, Hine, McKay Report 79 Three Essays: Black Studies in the United States Report to the Ford Foundation (1990) 85 Robert L. Harris, Jr., Darlene Clark Hine, and Nellie McKay iv Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States Ⅲ v PART THREE Funding Change: The O’Meally, Smith Report 117 Evaluation of Ford-Funded African American Studies Departments, Centers, and Institutes (1994) 123 Robert G. O’Meally and Valerie Smith PART FOUR A Changing Political Context: The Pinderhughes, Yarborough Report 159 A Review of Ford Foundation-Funded African American Studies Programs (2000) 165 Dianne M. Pinderhughes and Richard Yarborough PART FIVE Epilogue: Continuing Challenges (2006) 231 Farah Jasmine Griffin The Contributors 239 Appendix A 243 Index 249 Preface The Ford Foundation is primarily known for its grant-making in the United States and in 12 overseas locations. Over the last decade, Ford has awarded more than $3 billon to support innovative institutions and indi- viduals committed to strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty, promoting international cooperation, and advancing human achievement. Worldwide, the foundation makes more than 2,000 grants a year. With such a large and highly diverse portfolio of international grant- making, we believe it is crucial to assess the impact of our work over sustained periodsof time.Thus,besidesmakinggrants,partof thefoundation’scoremis- sion is to continually share lessons learned from these efforts. We assess proj- ectsandmorecomprehensiveinitiativesinavarietyof ways,typicallyincluding using standard evidence-based methodologies and evaluation techniques drawn from the social sciences.From time to time,however,we also ask distin- guished scholars, policy experts, seasoned practitioners, and community- based activists to review a body of work and provide qualitative commentaries on what they think has been accomplished and what challenges remain. In the past 25 years, no arena of higher education grant-making has received more sustained attention from the foundation than scholarship and curriculum development in African American Studies. Our grant- making in African American Studies is carried out within the program area entitled “Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom” and within the field of edu- cation and scholarship. In 1982, Dr. Sheila Biddle, a program officer at the vi Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States Ⅲ vii foundation, commissioned Professor Nathan Huggins of Harvard Univer- sity to prepare a report on the state of African American Studies at selected colleges and universities. Biddle also asked Huggins to comment on how Ford could work effectively to strengthen this interdisciplinary field. Hug- gins’ report provided a road map for Biddle and other program officers in the 1980s. It also proved to be controversial in some quarters of academe because it did not advocate the establishment of separate faculty lines for “Afro-Am” programs, as they were then known. Five years after the Huggins report was published in 1985, a second re- view of African American Studies was issued by the foundation. This time, three distinguished scholars—Professors Darlene Clark Hine, Nellie McKay, and Robert L.Harris Jr.—surveyed the field and offered fresh conclusions and recommendations. In 1994, the foundation asked two other outstanding re- searchers, Professors Robert O’ Meally and Valerie Smith, to conduct an as- sessment of the foundation’s work in African American Studies. And, most recently, Professors Richard Yarborough and Diane Pinderhughes completed a superb review of this critical interdisciplinary field in 2000. Now, for the first time, and thanks to the hard work and invaluable in- sights of Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin of Columbia University, the foun- dation is making all four reports available in a single volume. We believed that Griffin was the right choice because she represents the first generation of scholars who were thoroughly exposed to,grew up with,and became com- mitted to African American Studies as a significant interdisciplinary field. Importantly, too, Griffin began her career as a student of Professor Huggins. This publication—compiled with the assistance of the current program of- ficer, Dr. Irma McClaurin—spans a quarter-century of provocative analysis about African American Studies and its place on American college cam- puses. While we do not necessarily agree with every conclusion contained in these reports,we are convinced that all of these remarkable scholars and pub- lic intellectuals offer important observations about a field of study that is transforming how we think about history—who deserves to be remembered, studied, and celebrated? Most important, African American Studies has of- fered and continues to offer a critical perspective on what constitutes the “American experience,”let alone the experiences of Africans in diaspora. We viii Ⅲ Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States ignore this history at our peril. These reports provide valuable insights into African American Studies in the last decades of the 20th century, a century that W.E.B. Du Bois correctly characterized as one in which race would be the dominant problem.Sadly,the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina confirmed that the struggle for racial justice continues unabated in the 21st century. Alison R. Bernstein Vice President Knowledge, Creativity & Freedom Janice Petrovich Director Education, Sexuality, Religion Margaret Wilkerson Director Media, Arts & Culture Introduction (2006) Farah Jasmine Griffin, Ph.D. African American Studies1 is a vibrant intellectual enterprise that has helped to transform the way we think about the United States and the world. For instance, scholars of African American Studies have called upon us to consider the centrality of the international slave trade to the development of modern capitalism. They have asked that we understand U.S. immigration policy since 1965 in relation to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. African American Studies ought to be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the world’s most powerful nation. In order to fully understand the United States, it is imperative that we also comprehend the political and cultural traditions created by a population that has consistently challenged it to live up to its democratic ideals and principles, while at the same time offering the world a vision of hope and freedom through a dynamic culture that is universal. ix x Ⅲ Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States Indeed,thefield2 of AfricanAmericanStudieshasbeeninfluentialinter- nationally, and the scholarship produced has enhanced and expanded tradi- tional academic disciplines, especially literary studies, history, and sociology. Although a number of scholars have been critical of the involvement of major foundations in the development of African American Studies, few would argue the Ford Foundation’s significance in helping to assure the long-term stability and academic legitimization of the field.3 With its ongoing commitment to the discipline and the need to as- sess the impact of its grant making, beginning in 1982, the Ford Founda- tion commissioned a series of four African American Studies reports: Afro-American Studies: A Report to the Ford Foundation by Nathan I. Hug- gins (1985); Black Studies: Three Essays by Robert L. Harris, Jr., Darlene Clark Hine, and Nellie Y. McKay (1990); Evaluation of Ford-Funded African American Studies Departments, Centers, and Institutes by Robert O’Meally and Valerie Smith (1994); and A Review of African American Studies Programs for the Ford Foundation by Diane