Controversial Blackness: The Historical Development & Future Trajectory of African American Studies Martha Biondi The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States has prompted some observers to assert that the nation has overcome its history of white supremacy and moved into a “post-racial” era, making continued attention to race and rac- ism passé and unnecessary. Radio and television host Tavis Smiley posed this provocation to his guests in a 2009 radio special on the fortieth an- niversary of African American studies in Ameri- can colleges and universities. He asked, is African American studies still necessary in the age of Oba- ma? Eddie Glaude, Elizabeth Alexander, Greg Carr, and Tricia Rose–chairs of African Ameri- can studies departments at, respectively, Prince- ton University, Yale University, Howard Univer- sity, and Brown University1–each articulated important themes in the intellectual tradition of African American studies. Thus, their discus- sion is a useful lens through which to explore key themes in the historical development and MARTHA BIONDI is an Associate Professor of African American future trajectory of the ½eld. Studies and History at Northwest- Eddie Glaude and Greg Carr captured two truths ern University. Her publications about the history of African American studies. include To Stand and Fight: The Glaude noted its origin in black student activism Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar of the 1960s. The upsurge of campus activism in New York City (2003) and “The 1968 and 1969 was a critical component of the Rise of the Reparations Move- broader black freedom struggle. In contrast to the ment,” Radical History Review (2003). Her newest book, The media-driven notion that Black Power was merely Black Revolution on Campus, is a slogan lacking concrete application, black col- forthcoming from the Univer- lege students successfully turned the concept into sity of California Press. a genuine social movement. On some campuses, © 2011 by Martha Biondi 226 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00090 by guest on 28 September 2021 the students emphasized the black col- ars who wrote pioneering studies of Martha lege graduate’s responsibility to serve black life, namely, giants such as intel- Biondi black communities. They saw black lectual leader W.E.B. Du Bois, political studies as a means of generating leaders scientist Ralph Bunche, sociologist E. for, and sharing intellectual resources Franklin Frazier, and philosopher and with, neighboring black communities. educator Alain Locke. This intellectual Even more, they envisioned black stud- tradition is at the heart of the black stud- ies as a means of training black students ies project. Moreover, Carter G. Wood- to one day return to, and help enact the son’s Association for the Study of Afri- self-determination of, their communi- can American Life and History, founded ties. But the black student movement in 1915, exempli½es the long history and also aimed to affect campus politics. autonomy of Africana intellectual life. On most campuses, the push for curricu- lar transformation–alongside the ½ghts Still, this genealogy is contradictory for open admissions, af½rmative action, and complex. A tidal wave of protest black cultural centers, and black faculty, swept through hbcus in the 1960s and coaches, and advisers–was part of an in- 1970s. The outcry was inspired by a tentional effort to rede½ne the terms of range of student grievances, most no- integration: away from assimilation into tably, criticism of white ½nancial and a Eurocentric institution and toward the administrative control, excessive regula- restructuring of that institution and its tion of student life, excessive discipline, mission. Students won many victories inferior facilities and faculty, and out- and launched major changes in campus moded or Eurocentric curricula. “With- culture, opportunity structures, and in- out question, the Black Power-Black tellectual production, notwithstanding Consciousness movement has been felt continued resistance and challenges. in the South,” wrote political scientist Greg Carr offers a more critical inter- and activist Charles Hamilton, formerly pretation of this history. African Ameri- a professor at Tuskegee Institute (now can studies, he notes, was “a concession” University); its biggest manifestation that began as “crisis management.”2 was the quest for a “Black University,”3 Today, it bears remembering that in 1969, he said. Hamilton ½rst articulated the the majority of white academics and ad- concept of a black university in a 1967 ministrators doubted the scholarly grav- speech on “The Place of the Black Col- itas of African American studies and lege in the Human Rights Struggle.” viewed black studies as a means to ap- He called on black colleges to reject the pease student discontent. African Amer- white middle-class character imposed ican studies began its modern career in on them by white funders and to re- a context of insurgency and turmoil, and de½ne their missions to provide great- its advocates continually had to ½ght for er aid and assistance to black communi- resources and support. Carr argues that ties. Later published in the Negro Digest, the real history of African American stud- Hamilton’s article spawned a yearly tra- ies, as a serious, respected endeavor, lies dition of devoting an entire issue of the in historically black colleges and univer- Negro Digest (later the Black World) to the sities (hbcus) and other black-controlled idea of a black university. spaces, such as Atlanta’s Institute of the According to Hamilton, the mission of Black World, an activist think tank of the the black university was to develop a dis- 1970s. Indeed, hbcus employed the schol- tinctive black ethos; to prepare students 140 (2) Spring 2011 227 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00090 by guest on 28 September 2021 The to help solve problems in poor black com- which emphasized the existence of Afro- Historical munities; and to offer a new curriculum, Americans as a body separate from the Development & Future one that was relevant to contemporary rest of America.” As a result, “studies of Trajectory needs but that also required a course in Afro-American history, literature, sociol- of African American ancient African civilizations. “I am talk- ogy, economics, and politics were stuffed Studies ing modernization,” Hamilton asserted. into the traditional surveys, which were “I propose a black college that would already so overcrowded that important deliberately strive to inculcate a sense of materials must be omitted.” He felt that racial pride and anger and concern in its “integrated surveys” were necessary but students.” The ideas in his essay illus- insuf½cient “to provide Afro-Americans trate the emerging view that the black with the necessary understanding of intelligentsia was a relatively untapped their culture.”5 and potentially radical leadership re- Indeed, in 1968, several members source for the black liberation move- of Howard’s board of trustees “were ment. “We need,” Hamilton declared, shocked that courses in Black history, “militant leadership which the church jazz and literature were not presently is not providing, unions are not provid- offered. ‘We had many of these things ing and liberal groups are not providing. in the 1930s’ commented one member.”6 . I propose a black college that would be Students there had taken over a build- a felt, dominant force in the community ing to press for a department of Afri- in which it exists. A college which would can American studies. They pressured use its accumulated intellectual knowl- Howard to identify itself as a black uni- edge and economic resources to bring versity and adopt an explicit mission about desired changes in race relations of serving local black communities. in the community.” It would dispense Black nationalist thought and action with “irrelevant PhDs,” he wrote, and in this period were also directed toward “recruit freedom ½ghters and graduate transforming black education on white freedom ½ghters.”4 campuses. Much of the impetus to de- Given that schools such as Howard velop black studies came from exposure and the Atlanta University Center had to the freedom schools of the Southern been home to pioneers in black scholar- (and Northern) civil rights movement. ship, what provoked the charge of Euro- Activists had come to view the entire centrism? Darwin T. Turner, dean of the nation’s educational system as a contest- graduate school at North Carolina Agri- ed and profoundly signi½cant space: a cultural and Technical State University, means of racial domination, on the one argued that the academic turn away from hand, or a path to black empowerment blackness emerged from the optimism on the other. Thus, as Greg Carr sug- spawned by early legal decisions support- gests, administrators may have viewed ing desegregation, the defeat of Fascism, the introduction of black studies courses and postwar affluence. Political repres- as “crisis management,” but for students, sion, too, most likely was a factor. “The the turn toward black studies reflected a tendency for black educators to neglect genuine development in their approach materials related to Afro-American her- to advancing the cause of black liberation. itage intensi½ed, I believe, during the Strikingly, this huge achievement of early 1950s,” Turner wrote. The many the black power movement immediately “indications of opening doors persuaded faced a crisis. With the students gone, many blacks to discourage any education who would design and develop this new, 228 Dædalus, the Journal ofthe American Academy of Arts & Sciences Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00090 by guest on 28 September 2021 and quite extensive, national black stud- leading scholars, trains graduate students, Martha ies infrastructure? In 1970, less than 1 per- and produces influential research, even Biondi cent of those with a Ph.D. in the United though faculty still face occasions when States were black, and most of these schol- they must explain or defend its existence.