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The First Three Years of the Afro-American Studies Harvard

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The First Three Years of the Afro-American Studies Harvard DOCUMENT RESUME ED 103 503 OD 014 849 TITLE The First Three Years of the Afro-American Studies Department, Harvard University. INSTITUTION Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. PUB DATE 16 Oct 72 NOTE 56p.; Seiblral pages in the appendixes to this document have been deleted for reproducibility (print size) reasons EDRS PRICE MF-$O.76 HC-$3.32 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS *African American Studies; *College Administration; *College Curriculum; College Faculty; College Majors; College Planning; College Programs; Departments; Graduate Study; Negro Education; Political Issues; *Program Descriptions; Research Needs; Universities IDENTIFIERS *larvard University ABSTRACT The Faculty of Arts and Sciences established the Afro-American studies program as a department afterreviewing a careful, reasoned analysis by a committee of Harvardprofessors who had worked for almost a year to develop the program.The Rosovsky Report and the faculty's action in creating adepartment of Afro-American Studies, represented honest forward thinkingwhich reflected university-wide concern to improve thequality of education at Harvard. The faculty thusestablished a commitment to the experience of black people as a valid intellectualpursuit. The Afro-American Studies Department continues to attempt,in the spirit of the Rosovsky Report, to discover howscholarship may be appropriately used to devise solutions to the "problemof the twentieth century." In our minds, research andscholarship are not in disharmony with the utilization of such research. Itis our conviction that we must set our prioritiesrealistically. We find that this policy does not in any waycompromise our standards of excellence. It is clear then that to honor itscommitment to Afro-American studies, Harvard must now initiate acapital fund drive to create at least four additionalchairs in Afro-American studies, guarantee the operation of the W.E.B.DuBOis Institute for Afro-American Research, and develop graduate degree programsin Afro-American studies. (Author/JM) 6. 021 11171Y1 VOF 4( AF TH Fr.1(.:r ot ItF .0r1 NAT ,-0.0.01 0Jr} F GPI( ATION a 4/1MPED 0010.1, SOOSA PREFACE During the first year of our existence, we reviewed the baseson which we were building a department and issued a report dated September 21, 1970. Since then we have again taken a look at the work weare doingwith an outside consultant in the spring of 1971, then withconcentrators and faculty in our department in the fall of 1971. What follows here is the result ofour review of the department. It attempts to indicate wherewe are, how we got here, where we are going, and how we can best get there. As alwayswe measure our progress against the vision that we have of a fully functioning intellectual center for the study of the black experience. That vision entailsa well-staffed graduate and undergraduate department; a DuBois Institute, rich in resources, offering scholars in the field a place to further pursue their work; a center for the elaboration of the cultural aspects of this field; and the needed co-ordination and co-operation with all the Boston areacolleges and institutions concerned with the black experience. When we reflect upon this vision, we once again fix our goals Lt.d re-double our efforts. We hope in reading this report you share our pride in what has been done and reaffirm with us the intention to see this task through to completion. Ewart Guinier Professor and Chairman October 16, 1972 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 1 IL Accomplishments 5 Needs 9 IV. Unfinished BusIss 14 V. Conclusion 16 Appendix I. Faculty Resolution 17 Appendix II. A Perspective on Afro- American Studies 19 Appendix 11A. A Report on Black Studies 22 Appendix III. A Former Student's Comment 24 Appendix IV. Courses of Instruction 19724973 26 Appendix V. B'ographies of Faculty Members 39 Appendix VI. Graduating Seniors' Theses Topics 51 Appendix VII. Rules Relating to Concentration 53 Appendix VIII.N.Y. Times Article June 7.5, 1972 56 Appendix IX. Associate Professor Isaac's Reset; .ch Project 57 Appendix X. Prospectus for the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research 61 Appendix Xl. Graduate Program 66 Appendix X11. A Student's Inquiry 70 5 BEST COPY AVAILABLE I ITCRODUCTION The perspective which informs the Afro-American Stt.A,ies Department is one which describes and explains the black experience, in Africa andthe New World, from the point of view of the black people who lived that unique experience. This perspective grows out of a knowledge of the black past. Although it is grounded in the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade, slavery in the Americas, and the current oppressed state of black people, it also reflects the glorious civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, the Sudan, Mali, Songhai, and Benin. Thus our perspective sees much of the "civilizing" effort of Western man as a dehumanizing imposition of an individualistic and mate- rialistic culture on one based on family and tribal ties and responsibilities. History For centuries black people have struggled for liberation from these forces of dehumanizatioIn the United States the struggle was manifest during the 1960's in a dynamic interrelation between the civil rights movement, the urban uprisings, the demand for black power, and the deepening thrust to- ward black nationalism and consciousness. This historical black struggle can- not be properly understood unless it is placed in the context of the inter- national movement of African people toward self-determination as part of a far larger act by the colonized peoples of the world since World War II.These movements had their on-campus manifestations in the thrust for blackstudies programs at the end of the 1960's and were in large measurecreated by the struggle of the black communities beyond the schools. A certain public furor erupted among black students here Harvard in 1968 and while it is impossible to recapture all of the spirit, emotion, and thought of that period, there are some facts which bear repeating here be- 1 cause our memories have apparently grown short. The furor we speak of was not confined to Harvard; it was national in scope and spoke to conditions prevalent at many universities. Attention was paid to what happened at Harvard because H,.:vard was then, as now, alei. ler among academic institutions. The catalyst for the public emergence of this anger was the assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. At that point a proposal for a Program of Afro-American .:tidies, which had been quietly under discussion with a number of administrators who had no power to create one, became a demand that appropriate university channels be created to consider this proposal. The Rosovsky Committee, composed of nine faculty members, was appointed and invested with the power to recommend to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences some action that Harvard might take. The Committee had a series of meetings with black students and eventually shared their perspective that the university had neglected the study of black history, literature, and cAture and that that neglect amounted to a denial of the validity of the black experience. There are at present no special fields in Afro-American Studies within existing departments or committees of instruction. Rosovsky Report, p. 12 and . wehave underscored, as of primary importance to the black stu- dent, an enrichment of the Harvard curriculum and an expansion of its degree programs, to provide black students opportunities to pursue studies and research in their areas of special concern...We have asked for changes that will surely alter the quality of life at this institution, but like the students, we have aimed at a life that is not different, merely, but better and richer. Rosovsky Report, p. 10 The facts spoke for themselves. In 1968 in ail of Harvard's tenured aca- demic community there was but one black. In the variety of Harvard's aca- demic offerings there were then only a couple of courses which examined the experience of blacks in any manner and certainly none "from the bottom up." It was around these facts that a common perspective about the univer- sity's unfulfilled responsibility was reached. In February 1969, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to accept the Rosovsky Report in principle. On April 12, 1969, black students, under the aegis of the Association of African and Afro-American Students, joined other university students on strike, charging that Harvard had purposely violated its 2 BEST COPYAVAILABLE agreement to establish a meaningfulAfro-American Studies program. On April 22, 1969, the Faculty of Arts and Sciencesoverturned a proposal for a combination major of Afro-American Studies and anytraditional discipline and voted, instead, to eablish the Afro-AmericanStudies Program as a De- partment with students on its Standing andExecutive Committees. So fell the walls of academic exclusion which had previouslysurrounded the ivory tower, and, over the opposition of the administration,the Department of Afro-American Studies was born. (See Appendices I,11, and HA) The work that has been done in Afro-AmericanStudies on this campus has been accomplished by faculty and students of theAfro-American Studies Department, working within the severe limitationsimposed by the absence of critical resources in several areas. In what remains ahighly competitive field, and despite the inability of the department to matchthe salary offerings of other institutions in this field, a highly qualified anddedicated instruc- tional staff has been gathered. Within the department student contributionshave been invaluable. From ourperspective, any attemptto separate the work that has beendone by students on the various departmental committeesfrom the work that has been done by faculty members is sheersophistry. To focus on the fact that students sit on all the committees of thedepartment is clearly an attempt to obfuscate the fundamental issue:the lack of university support for the work of the department.This is yet another example of the kind offatuous argu- mentation that has become so fashionable here atHarvard.
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