Harris, Fredrick C. 1962–

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Harris, Fredrick C. 1962–

PERSONAL:

Born October, 8, 1962. Education: Northwester University, Ph.D., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Political Science, University of Rochester, Harkness Hall 333, Rochester, NY 14627-0146; Department of Political Science, Columbia University, 7th Fl., International Affairs Bldg., 420 W. 118th St., New York, NY 10027. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, director of the Center for the Study of African-American Politics and director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies; Columbia University, New York, NY, professor. Visiting scholar, Russell Sage Foundation; fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC.

AWARDS, HONORS:

V.O. Key Award for the Best Book in Southern Politics from Southern Political Science Association, Distinguished Book Award from Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Best Book Award by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, all for Something Within; W.E.B. DuBois Book Award, National Conference of Black Political Scientists, 2006, for Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973-1994.

WRITINGS:

Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with R. Drew Smith) Black Churches and Local Politics: Clergy Influence, Organizational Partnerships, and Civic Empowerment, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2005.

(With Valeria Sinclair-Chapman and Brian D. McKenzie) Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973-1994, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to journals, including the Journal of Politics, Society, and the Journal of Social, Cultural, and Political Protest.

SIDELIGHTS:

Fredrick C. Harris is a political scientist who researches American politics with a focus on political participation, social movements, religion and politics, political development, and African American politics. "I was socialized in a political environment that really got me interested in politics because of the changes that were happening all across the country, particularly in my home town," Harris noted in an interview on the Columbia News Web site. "In the household, family members always talked politics."

Harris has written extensively both in journal articles and books about his interests. His first book, Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism, won several prestigious academic book prizes. In this study, the author focuses on how Afro-Christianity has been an important force in promoting political activism among African Americans. He illustrates the participatory effects of Afro-Christianity via institutional, cultural, and psychological influences. In the process, Harris provides a new theory of religion as a political resource in terms of providing an opposition civic culture.

Eddie Stepp, writing in the Journal of Church and State, commented that the author "reasonably and concisely argues that there is an undeniable link between black political activism and the African-American Christian community." Noting the author's use of "sermons, and firsthand encounters, blended with historical narrative and reflection," Stepp went on to remark that Harris "demonstrates the multidimensional influence of the black church on … political awareness and activity."

Harris also edited, with R. Drew Smith, Black Churches and Local Politics: Clergy Influence, Organizational Partnerships, and Civic Empowerment. This book is divided into three sections: Part I is titled "Personal Influence, Coalitions and Pressure Groups"; Part II focuses on "Black Churches and Electoral Politics"; and an epilogue is titled "Black Clergy and the Governmental Sector during George W. Bush's Presidency," written by Smith. In his introduction, Harris writes: "Political engagement among activist black clergy and congregations is part and parcel of the nation's urban political landscape. Though most black churches in urban America are not directly active in the politics of their communities, an activist cadre of clergy and congregations mobilizing urban black communities for social change has been constant from the antebellum period to Reconstruction and then on to the modern civil rights movement." The book includes eleven assays overall in which contributors examine their activism in terms of personal influence, coalitions, pressure groups, and electoral politics.

Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973-1994, written with Valeria Sinclair-Chapman and Brian D. McKenzie, examines the changes in black activism from the early 1970s to the 1990s. A central theme is the struggle between black political power on one side and economic conditions in black communities on the other.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Harris, Fredrick C., and R. Drew Smith, editors, Black Churches and Local Politics: Clergy Influence, Organizational Partnerships, and Civic Empowerment, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2005.

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Sociology, May, 2000, Mary Pattillo-McCoy, review of Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism, p. 1793.

Choice, March, 2000, J.D. Rausch, review of Something Within, p. 1372

Journal of Church and State, winter, 2000, Eddie Stepp, review of Something Within, p. 189.