Historically, the attainment of education for African Americans has been a struggle. As far back as the late 1600s to the mid-1700s, there is some evidence of sporadic, systematic instruction of Africans in colonial America. Prior to 1830, some were even taught to read, write, and, in some instances, perform simple arithmetic. However, between 1830 and 1835, stringent laws were passed prohibiting whites from teaching African Americans to read and write. In spite of these laws though, many individuals struggled to provide informal and formal education to African Americans. In addition, churches and charitable organizations also played an important role in the creation of educational institutions for African Americans in the United States.

EARLY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY ENDEAVORS

Early attempts to educate African Americans can be traced back to the missionary efforts of Christian churches in the early 1600s. French Catholics in Louisiana were probably the earliest group to provide instruction to African American laborers. Although the primary goal was to convert them to Christianity, the process often involved general education. In addition, the French code noir, a system of laws, made it incumbent upon masters to educate slaves.

Pennsylvania Quakers, who were opposed to the institution of slavery, organized monthly educational meetings for African Americans during the early 1700s, so that they might have the opportunity for improvement. One such Quaker, Anthony Benezet, established an evening school in his home in 1750 that was successful until 1760. In 1774 Quakers in Philadelphia joined together to open a school for African Americans.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, organized by the Church of England in 1701 for the purpose of converting African slaves to Christianity, was another organization that provided educational opportunities to African Americans. In 1751 the Society sent Joseph Ottolenghi to convert and educate African Americans in Georgia. Ottolenghi “promised to spare no pains to improve the young children.”

AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

AFRICAN FREE SCHOOLS IN NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA

Similar to the churches, the anti-slavery movement played an important part in the creation of schools. In 1787 the Manumission Society founded the New York African Free School; by 1820 more than 500 African American children were enrolled. Support increased as other African Free Schools were established in New York until 1834 when the New York Common Council took over control of the schools.

In the North, there were opportunities for elementary education for African Americans in mostly segregated schools or in schools run in conjunction with African American churches. For example, in 1804 African Episcopalians in Philadelphia organized a school for African American children. In 1848 an African American industrial training school opened in Philadelphia at the House of Industry. Other schools in operation in Philadelphia included the Corn Street Unclassified School (1849), the Holmesburg Unclassified School (1854), and the Home for Colored Children (1859). By the mid-1860s, there were 1,031 pupils in the African American public schools of Philadelphia: 748 in the charity schools; 211 in the benevolent schools, and 331 in private schools. However, high schools in the North were almost inaccessible to African Americans in much of the nineteenth century.

FREEDMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS AND AGENCIES

At the close of the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of newly-freed African Americans were left without homes and adequate resources. As a means for providing temporary assistance to the former slaves, numerous organizations were formed. The American Missionary Association (AMA), established on September 3, 1846, had maintained an interest in African American education before and after the war. The AMA opened its first school for newly-freed slaves on September 17, 1861, at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. Mary S. Peake became the first teacher in an AMA school. The AMA also established a network of elementary schools, normal schools, and colleges throughout the South. In time, however, most of these schools were absorbed into local and state systems of education. Following the AMA’s early efforts, other voluntary and denominational groups responded to the need for freedmen’s aid and sent teachers into the Southern and border states, established elementary schools on plantations, in small towns, and in larger cities in the South. Although most of the schools were to be racially integrated, few whites attended.

The New England Freedmen’s Aid Society, organized in Boston on February 7, 1862, was founded to promote education among free African Americans. Supporters of the organization included Edward Everett Hale, Samuel Cabot, Charles Bernard, William Lloyd Garrison, and William Cullen Bryant. In New York, a similar organization was founded on February 20, 1862, the National Freedmens Relief Association. The Port Royal Relief Committee, later known as the Pennsylvania Freedmens Relief Association, founded in Philadelphia on March 3, 1862, followed this trend. In 1863 several of these organizations merged to form the United States Commission for the Relief of the National Freedmen, which, in 1865, became the American Freedman’s Aid Union.

The federal government responded to the needs of African Americans in the South. During the 1860s, Congress passed several Freedman’s Bureau Acts, creating and financing an agency designed to provide temporary assistance to newly freed slaves. Under the acts, the bureau’s chief functions were to provide food, clothing, and medical supplies. Working in conjunction with various benevolent organizations, Bureau Commissioner General Oliver Otis Howard established and maintained schools and managed to provide for teachers. By 1870 the Freedman’s Bureau operated over 2,600 schools in the South with 3,300 teachers educating 150,000 students; almost 4,000 schools were in operation prior to the abolition of the agency.

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The education of African Americans has been largely a function of independent schools, private institutions founded to meet the educational and employment needs of African Americans. In the second half of the century, these schools filled the gap until African American land grant colleges were founded in 1890. They also supplied many of the African American teachers in the South.

One of the earliest surviving African American independent schools, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), was established in 1881 by an act of the Alabama general assembly. Booker T. Washington, the school’s organizer and first principal, established a curriculum that provided African American students with the means to become economically self-supporting.

Similarly, other independent schools developed around the country. In a lecture room at the Christ Presbyterian Church, Lucy C. Laney opened what would become the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Savannah, Georgia in 1883. In 1901 Nannie Helen Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. By the end of the first year the school had enrolled 31 students; 25 years later more than 2,000

women had trained at the school. In Sedalia, North Carolina, Charlotte Hawkins Brown founded the Palmer Memorial Institute in 1901.

With only $1.50 and five students, Mary McLeod Bethune founded Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Girls (now Bethune-Cookman College) in 1904 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nineteen years later, the institute merged with the Cookman Institute of Jacksonville, Florida, founded in 1872 by D.S.B. Darnell. Over 2,000 students now study at Bethune-Cookman College.

EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (founded in 1854 as Ashmun Institute) and Wilberforce University (founded in 1856) are often regarded as the oldest of the historically African American institutions of higher education. Wilberforce College, as the latter school was first known, was founded in 1856 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church and named for the English abolitionist William Wilberforce. The school awarded its first degree in 1857. Wilberforce and Lincoln were the first African American colleges to remain in their original location and to develop into degree-granting institutions. The oldest institution in operation today, however, is Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (earlier known as the Institute for Colored Youth and, eventually, Cheyney State College), which was founded in 1837. The primary purpose of these institutions was to train African American youth for service as teachers and ministers.

Between 1865 and 1871, several predominantly African American institutions of higher learning were founded, including Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), Shaw University and Virginia Union University (1865); Fisk University and Lincoln Institute in Missouri (now Lincoln University) (1866); Talladega College, Augusta Institute (now Morehouse College), Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University), Howard University and Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College) (1867); Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) (1868); Tougaloo College (1869); Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University) and Benedict College (1871). Religious organizations were instrumental in the founding and supporting of these early African American institutions. The Freedmen’s Bureau either founded or aided in the development of Howard University, St. Augustine’s College, Lincoln Institute in Missouri, and Storer College (now merged with Virginia Union University). The American Missionary Association founded seven African American colleges; the first of these was Hampton. Other AMA-founded institutions were Atlanta, Fisk, LeMoyne (now LeMoyne-Owen College), Straight (now merged with New Orleans University to become Dillard University), Talladega, Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson), and Tougaloo. Benedict College, Shaw University, and Virginia Union were founded and supported by the American Baptist Home Mission Society.

Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University), founded in 1871, was the first African American land grant college. This was made possible under the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided federal land grant funds for higher education. In 1890 Congress passed the second Morrill Act, also known as the Land Grant Act of 1890. The second act stipulated that no federal aid was to be provided for the creation or maintenance of any white agricultural and mechanical school unless that state also provided for a similar school for African Americans. As a result, a system of separate, African American land grant institutions developed and became the basis of publicly-supported higher education of African Americans in the South.

African American colleges offered diversity in history, purpose, and curriculums. For example, early in their history, some African American colleges prepared their students for careers in medicine and medical-related fields. Those that prepared students for degrees in dentistry and medicine included Howard University, Meharry Medical College, Shaw University, and New Orleans Medical School. The nation’s only degree program in veterinary medicine among historically African American colleges and universities is still offered at Tuskegee University. Bennett College (founded 1873) and Spelman College (founded 1881) are the only two African American women’s colleges. At first coeducational, Bennett became a women’s two-year college in 1926. Xavier (founded in 1925) is the nation’s only Catholic-supported college for African Americans.

By 1900 there were some 34 African American institutions in the United States for higher education and more than 2,000 African Americans with earned degrees.

PHILANTHROPY AND EDUCATION

Pre-Civil War efforts did not fully address the educational needs and desires of African Americans, especially concerning the freed slaves. Northern philanthropy took up some of the burden of improving African American education. Agencies of the antebellum period aided in educating African Americans through their support of private and sectarian schools before and after the Civil War. By the end of the war, however, the South—the region where African Americans were concentrated—still had not addressed the educational needs of African Americans. Neither the newly-freed slaves nor their children had access to free public education. In 1867, a new type of support for education began when Massachusetts merchant George Peabody established the first educational philanthropy in the country. In his concern for the desolate South, he created the Peabody Education Fund to benefit “elementary education to children of the common people.” The fund later was credited with stimulating states to develop systems of free schools for the races, “creating favorable public opinion to levy tax to support the schools, and stimulating the development of state teachers associations and normal schools.”

So successful was the Peabody effort that in 1882 Connecticut manufacturer John F. Slater, impressed with the developments, created the Slater Fund to uplift the “lately emancipated” people of the South, thus becoming the first philanthropy devoted to the education of African Americans. Through the fund’s efforts, private African American colleges and four-year high schools for African Americans were developed. The Fund stimulated vocational and industrial training and established the idea of county training schools. The Daniel Hand Fund, established in 1888, provided for the education of “needy and indigent” African Americans in the South; it was entrusted to the American Missionary Association. By 1914 the Peabody and Slater funds worked in similar areas; Peabody then transferred its assets to Slater.

Anna T. Jeanes further advanced the education of African Americans by giving $1 million to Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute and Hollis B. Frissell of the Hampton Institute to strengthen rural schools for African Americans in the South in 1907. The gift established the Fund for Rudimentary Schools for Southern Negroes, known as the Jeanes Fund. Initially the Fund supported “industrial teachers” who moved from school to school in the South teaching industrial and utilitarian subjects. The concept was expanded to provide master teachers, known as “Jeanes teachers,” to supervise the African American schools. Later the program added new teaching methods, organized in-service training for teachers, and generally

improved instruction. The program lasted from 1908 until 1968, when counties took over the Jeanes teachers’ work and paid their salaries. Much of the credit for the program was due to Virginia E. Randolph, the first Jeanes teacher. In recognition of her work, the Jeanes teachers established the Virginia Randolph Fund to supplement the Jeanes Fund in 1936.

The Jeanes Fund and the Slater Fund, then working in similar areas, merged in 1937 to form the Southern Education Foundation (SEF). Later that year the Virginia Randolph Fund was incorporated into the SEF. The SEF extended the work of the predecessor funds and ensured that innovative approaches to the education of African Americans continued. From 1937 to 1950, the SEF concentrated on supporting the Jeanes teachers. It also worked with such agencies as the General Education Board (GEB), the Julius Rosenwald Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, and State Agents for Negro Schools. The GEB was a source of support for African American colleges, library collections, and, sometimes, library buildings. It also supported African American teachers and other aspects of education and welfare for African Americans. In its 31-year history, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, established in 1917, helped to build more than 5,000 rural schools for African Americans as a part of regular school systems in 15 Southern states. In various villages and counties, blacks and whites raised additional funds to support these schools. The fund also strengthened African American higher education. Early on, the Carnegie Corporation had provided grants to the Slater

and Jeanes programs. Later, the corporation built African American branches of public libraries in various cities in the South. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, several African American colleges received funds from the Carnegie Corporation and Andrew Carnegie himself to support the erection of library buildings. They included the institutions of Atlanta, Cheyney, Fisk, Howard, Tuskegee, and Wilberforce.

In addition, the SEF worked to prepare the South to resolve racial problems. When the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision was rendered in 1954, bringing about desegregation of public education, the SEF contributed to the decision by conducting studies of African American education in the South largely through support of the Ford Foundation. Its efforts to desegregate public education continued: those Southern states that failed to desegregate higher education were challenged by the lawsuit originally known as Adams v. Richardson. The SEF supported the Legal Defense Fund in litigation and helped dismantle the dual system of public education. It also supported conferences, studies, and publications dealing with desegregation of higher education. Its report Miles to Go, published in 1998, is an example of the SEF’s efforts. The study found that over two decades of efforts to desegregate higher education has left blacks in the South and elsewhere out of pace with whites in undergraduate and graduate school enrollment, rates of graduation, faculty diversity, among other areas.

Located in Atlanta since 1948, the SEF is now a public charity that has several interests including programs to increase the supply of minority teachers in the South and to strengthen African American colleges. The SEF, its predecessor agencies, and other private and public agencies, figure prominently in the history and progress of African American education.

AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

EARLY PROMOTERS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

From its beginnings, the purpose of African American studies has been to disseminate knowledge about the social, cultural, political, and historical experiences of Africans.

One of the forerunners in the field of African American studies, theologian and educator Reverend Alexander Crummell, along with a group of African American intellectuals, founded the American Negro Academy in Washington, D.C., in 1897. The purpose of the organization was to foster scholarship and promote literature, science, and art, among African Americans. The organization’s members hoped that through the academy, an educated African American elite would shape and direct society. Crummell first conceived the idea of an American Negro Academy while a student at Cambridge University in England. The organization’s founding members included Paul Laurence Dunbar, William Sanders Scarborough, and W.E.B. Du Bois, among other noted educators. Following Crummell’s death in 1908, Du Bois was elected president of the academy.

In September of 1915, Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard Ph.D. graduate, organized the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History). The association’s primary purpose was to promote research, encourage the study of African American history, and to publish material on African American history. In 1916, the organization began publishing the Journal of Negro History, for which Woodson served as editor until his death in 1950.

Other early scholars of African American studies include: sociologist E. Franklin Frazier (1894–1963); John Edward Bruce (1856–1924); Arthur Schomburg (1874–1938), founder of the Negro Society for Historical Research (1911); and Alain Locke (1885–1954), founder of the Associates in Negro Folk Education (1934).

THE END OF LEGAL SEGREGATION IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

In the years that followed the United States Supreme Court’s 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, segregation in public education became the general practice. Prior to the Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas African American children were often subjected to inferior educational facilities. However, by the 1930s, a string of school desegregation cases reached the Court.

When Lloyd Lionel Gaines, an African American, had been refused admission to the law school of the State University of Missouri in 1936, he applied to state courts for an order to compel admission on the grounds that refusal constituted a denial of his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. At that time, the state of Missouri maintained a practice of providing funds for African Americans to attend graduate and professional schools outside of the state, rather than provide facilities itself. The university defended its action by maintaining that Lincoln University, a predominantly African American institution, would eventually establish its own law school, which Gaines could then attend. Until then the state would allow him to exercise the option of pursuing his studies outside the state on a scholarship. Ruling in the case Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada in 1938, the United States Supreme Court ruled that states were required to provide equal educational facilities for African Americans within its borders.

Taking an even greater step, in 1950 the United States Supreme Court ruled that a separate law school for African Americans provided by the state of Texas violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. According to the Court, Herman Marion Sweat’s rights were violated when he was refused admission to the law school of the University of Texas on the grounds that substantially equivalent facilities were already available to African Americans at another Texas school. Ruling in the case Sweatt v. Painter, the Court ruled that the petitioner be admitted to the University of Texas Law School since “in terms of number of the faculty, variety of courses and opportunity for specialization, size of the student body, scope of the

library, availability of law review and similar activities, the University of Texas Law School is superior.”

In 1952, five different cases, all dealing with segregation in public schools, reached the United States Supreme Court. Four of the cases Brown v. Board of Education (out of Kansas), Briggs v. Elliott (out of South Carolina), Davis v. Prince Edward County School Board (out of Virginia), and Gebhart v. Belton (out of Delaware) were considered together; the fifth case Bolling v. Sharpe, coming out of the District of Columbia, was considered separately since the District is not a state.

After hearing initial arguments, the Court found itself unable to reach a decision. In 1953, the Court heard re-argument. Thurgood Marshall, legal consul for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, presented arguments on behalf of the African American students. On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled that segregation in all public education deprived minority children of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. (In the Bolling case, the Court determined that segregation violated provisions of the Fifth Amendment, since the Fourteenth Amendment is expressly directed to the states.)

AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Many African American students choose to attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); these schools continue to account for a significant number of African American graduates. According to reports from the U.S. Department of Education, fall enrollment at two-year and four-year HBCUs stood at 274,212 students in 1999. In 1964, over 51 percent of all African Americans in college were still enrolled in historically African American colleges and universities. By 1970 the proportion was 28 percent; 16.5 percent by the fall of 1978; and 6.2 percent by 1998. Yet despite the decline in percentages, as recently as 1999–2000, 24 percent of all African Americans

receiving baccalaureate degrees earned them at HBCUs. In 2000, Florida A&M University was the leading producer of African Americans receiving baccalaureate degrees. Between 1991 and 1995, Fisk University was grouped with such large institutions as the University of Michigan, Harvard University, and University of California, Berkeley in the number of African American undergraduates who went on to earn doctorates from the 13 most productive schools. Xavier University in New Orleans has led all colleges and universities in the number of African American students accepted into medical school each year since 1995. The academic and historical significance of HBCUs was honored in 2001 as President George W. Bush proclaimed September 24–30, 2001, National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week.

The racial composition of some African American colleges has changed dramatically; some of these colleges now have a predominantly white student body. Mandated by court order to raise its white population to 50 percent, the enrollment at Tennessee State University in 1998 was about 30 percent white. Those historically African American institutions with predominantly white enrollments by 1998 are Lincoln University in Missouri (72 percent white), Bluefield State College in West Virginia (89 percent white), and West Virginia State University (85 percent white).

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

For years independent schools have been founded in order to exert greater control, ensure quality in education, and to meet the needs of African American children.

In 1932, in order to promote religious growth in the African American Muslim community, the Nation of Islam founded the University of Islam, an elementary and secondary school to educate African American Muslim children in Detroit. Clara Muhammad, wife of Elijah Muhammad, served as the school’s first instructor. In 1934 a second school was opened in Chicago; by 1965 schools were operating in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The current system of African American Muslim schools, named for Clara Muhammad, is an outgrowth of the earlier University of Islam. There are currently 38 Sister Clara Muhammad schools in the United States.

Gertrude Wilks and other African American community leaders in East Palo Alto, California, organized the Nairobi Day School, a Saturday school in 1966. In 1969 the school became a full-time school. It closed in 1984.

Also founded as a Saturday school program in 1972, the New Concept Development Center in Chicago set out to create an educational institution which promoted self-respect, cooperation, and an awareness of African American history and culture. In 1975 public school teacher and nurse, Marva Collins founded the Westside Preparatory School in Chicago.

In recent years, the educational and social needs of urban youth, particularly African American males, have been given increased attention. Studies show that nearly 40 percent of adult African American males are functionally illiterate, and that the number of African American males incarcerated far outnumbers the number of African American males in college. Addressing these issues, large urban school systems, including Baltimore, Detroit, and Milwaukee, have attempted to create programs that focus on the needs of African American males.

Although African American students have shown improved performance on achievement tests, gaps between black and white students still exist. Progress has been made in the quality of education for African American children, yet inadequacies remain in the provision of resources for the education of African Americans. In recent years, efforts at creating alternative schools designed to meet the needs of African American children and to reflect the culture and social experiences of African Americans have received increased attention. In 1999 the Institute for Independent Education, an organization providing technical assistance to independent neighborhood schools, reported that an estimated 60,000 African American children attended independent community-based schools in the United States.

CURRENT EDUCATIONAL TRENDS

AFROCENTRISM

An educational methodology that has sparked both widespread praise and criticism is Afrocentrism. Afrocentrism is based, in part, on the belief that the ancient Greeks stole most of their great philosophical and mathematical thought from the Egyptians, an African people, that the Greek philosopher Aristotle gleaned much of his philosophy from books plundered from the Egyptian city of Alexandria, and that the notable Greek philosopher Socrates was black. Afrocentrists claim that the current educational system in America is deeply flawed and promotes white supremacy. It teaches history, arts, science, and other disciplines from a purely traditional European point of view, while African contributions to these fields of endeavor are ignored entirely or given inadequate consideration. Proponents of Afrocentrism theorize that teaching African American children from an African-centered perspective through the championing of black culture, history, and achievement will increase their feelings of self-worth and give them a greater sense of identity and ethnic pride.

The doctrine of Afrocentrism is not a new phenomenon. Such notable early twentieth century African Americans as activist Marcus Garvey and scholar Carter G. Woodson were among its most ardent supporters. Today, Afrocentrism is championed by African American scholars including, most prominently, Molefi K. Asante. Others include Leonard Jeffries, Asa Hillard, and, until his death, John Henrik Clark. Some public school systems with predominantly African American enrollment, such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Cleveland, Indianapolis, New York, Oakland, and Philadelphia have introduced African-centered principles into their curriculums.

Afrocentrism is not without its critics, however. Among them is Mary Lefkowitz, a professor of humanities at Wellesley College. In her book Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History (1996), Lefkowitz disagrees with the assertions of Afrocentrists that the Greeks stole their philosophical and mathematical thought from the Egyptians or that Socrates was black. She argues that Afrocentrist beliefs are based on myth and conjecture, not historical fact, and are designed to promote a political agenda. This criticism is echoed by Arthur Schlesinger, author of The Disuniting of America (1991). Schlesinger remarks that African-centered education is divisive, un-American, and promotes the teaching of inaccuracy and distorted history.

Whether one is a supporter or critic, it is clear that Afrocentrism will continue to inspire heated debate for many years to come.

EBONICS VS. STANDARD ENGLISH

Black English, considered by most linguists to be a dialectal form of English (that is, a dialect like, to pick just one example, Appalachian English), came to the forefront of discussion in 1996. The African languages that slaves brought to the United States influenced their learning and use of English. While Black English has been studied since the first half of the twentieth century, in 1996 some scholars renamed it Ebonics—a combination of the words “ebony” and “phonics.” In the 1960s and 1970s it was called Black Vernacular English (BVE); in the 1980s and 1990s it was known as African American Vernacular English (AAVE). It shares many basic characteristics with other dialects, the most important being distinct grammar and syntax patterns (dialects are learnable precisely because they are “rule based” in this sense). When the Oakland, California, school board passed a resolution in 1996 to make Ebonics “a second language” and declared that all of the teachers in the system should be trained in its grammar (and to respect it as the native form of speech spoken by many of their African American students), a storm of criticism followed nationally. Opponents contended that Black English was simply substandard grammar and, if regarded as a legitimate language, would be detrimental to African American students. As national attention spotlighted the controversy, in May 1997 the school board reaffirmed what it called its original intention: “to improve the English language acquisition and application skills of African-American students” and, as much as possible, to help students master Standard English. According to John and Russell Rickford in The Spoken Soul, the board never intended to replace Standard or mainstream English with Ebonics or any other “language” or dialect peculiar to any racial or ethnic group. In 1997 the U.S. Congress supported Oakland’s efforts by awarding the district $1 million to continue research on the linguistic and cultural resources of African American students. The perspective that The Spoken Soul embraces is that Black English is not only “the language of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and rap,” all currently popular in American culture, but is also the home dialect of many African Americans. Educators need to be aware of how and what their students actually speak in order to teach them additional, standard forms.

ABANDONING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

National debate, lawsuits, and voter reaction over the issue of affirmative action has impacted the education of African American students. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s validation of the use of race as a factor in college and university admissions programs in the case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), many race-conscious admissions policies have come under attack in courts of law. Recent decisions in federal courts cloud the issue, and may lead to another Supreme Court review of affirmative action policies at institutions of higher learning. In 2001, a decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Johnson v. Board of Regents of the University of Georgia struck down the race-conscious admissions policy for freshmen at the University of Georgia. The decision mirrored a 1996 Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that invalidated a similar policy at the University of Texas Law School. On the other hand, the affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan Law School was upheld by a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in May 2002.

In a number of states, voter initiatives and executive action have dealt race-conscious admissions policies more setbacks. Voters in California passed Proposition 209 in 1996. The law banned the use of race as a consideration for acceptance to the state’s universities. Washington voters passed a similar measure, Initiative 200, in 1998, and Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, instituted the “One Florida Initiative” in 2000. The effects of such measures can be severe in the drop in enrollment of African American students at state institutions of higher learning. A 2002 NAACP Education Department report, “NAACP Call for Action in Education,” points out that following the passage of California’s Proposition 209, only one African American student enrolled in a class of more than 300 at the University of California, Berkeley’s school of law in 1999. The same year, only two black students were among the entering law school class at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Advocates of race-conscious admission policies, Derek Bok and William G. Bowen, completed a major study that challenges much of the conservative thinking about affirmative action. In their findings, published in the book The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions (1998), the two scholars studied race-conscious admissions in elite higher education and confirmed that such practices “create the backbone of the black middle class.”

Some mainstream institutions have seen a decrease in the number of black students enrolled and responded by developing plans to rebuild that enrollment. That was seen, for example, in Kentucky, where over a third of college-bound African American students chose the University of Louisville over the University of Kentucky. This caused some state lawmakers and faculty at the University of Kentucky to question the university’s commitment to diversity. The university responded by adding a scholarship program to increase diversity on campus. The City University of New York (CUNY) launched a systemwide African American Male Initiative aimed “to improve the success and retention of the Black men on its 11 senior-college campuses.” Similar initiatives followed in the University System of Georgia and elsewhere. Although affirmative action organizations stifle such programs, the initiatives are viewed many leaders as well-intentioned.

VOUCHER SYSTEMS AND CHARTER SCHOOLS

Some educators regard voucher programs and charter schools as “logical parts of a broad educational mix.” The voucher idea originated 40 years ago; it aimed to permit students to transfer from failing public schools to successful private schools. Critics feared, however, that the brightest students, both black and white, would be drawn away, leaving the inner-city schools, in terms of characteristics, African American and poor. They also raised questions about the use of public funds in private institutions, particularly those maintained and operated by churches or religious organizations. Voucher systems have been initiated in a handful of cities, including Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Detroit, and are being considered in about half of the 50 states. The voucher programs that are operational serve low-income, largely African American and Hispanic American children. In July 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court validated the constitutionality of Ohio’s voucher program, opening the door for the wider use of school voucher programs throughout the nation.

Charter schools, or independent public schools, may be established by parents, community groups, local or state school boards, colleges and universities, or other individuals or groups. Some charter schools were once private schools, others were converted from existing public schools, and still others are newly established educational institutions. Generally, the schools report directly to the state and bypass local unions or other traditional bureaucracy. They are schools of choice for students and teachers; therefore, they must operate with the highest regard for equity and academic excellence. Supporters have little faith in traditional education systems and look to the charter schools as a viable solution to the problems of public school education. They see charter schools as a means of providing inner-city children the kind of education that students receive in the affluent suburbs. Some educators and parents see the charter school movement as another threat to public school education. By 2001, however, 37 states and the District of Columbia had passed charter school laws.

SINGLE-GENDER SCHOOLS AND RACE-BASED ENROLLMENT

The nation has seen a number of single-gender schools opened in recent years. One such school opened in the fall of 1996, when the Young Women’s Leadership School, an experimental public school for girls, opened in East Harlem. It emphasizes mathematics and science, subjects in which girls often lag behind boys in performance. The school originally provided for 56 seventh-grade girls, and had expanded to 360 students in grades 7–12 by the year 2000. Advocates of the school based the need on studies that showed that girls, particularly from poor communities, performed better when boys were not present. Some groups, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union, challenged the school, however, arguing that it would violate the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Federal statutory law. The group has challenged plans for other single-gender, single-race schools for young African American men in New York, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

Nearly a half-century after Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, segregated public schools continue. Evidence of racial isolation in urban schools, as seen in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1997, led the state’s highest court to issue a mandate to desegregate the schools. Under the order, racially isolated students in urban schools are able to enroll in predominantly white suburban schools on a space-available plan. The Connecticut decision seems to be running counter to the current trend to abandon racial “quotas” in schools, where predominance of one race is not necessarily grounds for legal relief unless the cause lies in segregation patterns of the past. The concern over affirmative action, however, is shifting from colleges and universities to public school districts. Districts that adopted voluntary desegregation plans, such as those in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Arlington, Virginia, wonder if they can continue race-conscious policies.

Desegregation orders imposed by the courts decades earlier are being lifted. In such cities as Nashville, Tennessee; Oklahoma City; Denver; Wilmington, Delaware; Cleveland; and in 2007 in Little Rock, courts have declared that past segregation practices have been remedied and judicial monitoring is no longer needed. A U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 28, 2007, struck down school integration plans in Louisville and Seattle, halting enrollment in public schools based on race.

AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES

A growing trend in education is a focus on leadership programs, whether or not they are gender-based. The North Carolina Community College System recently held a Conference on African American Males in Education as the community’s response to the African-American male’s success in post-secondary education. Historically Black Colleges and Universities have become more concerned about leadership training for their administrators. One HBCU, Hampton University, has offered leadership training for seven years by sponsoring an executive leadership summit called “On the Road to the Presidency.” That program is designed for newly-appointed college presidents and chancellors, provosts, vice presidents, deans, and others in executive posts. Other leadership training programs have been held or are operational at such HBCUs as Bennett College for Women, Fisk University, and Morehouse College.

ADMINISTRATORS, EDUCATORS, AND SCHOLARS

(To locate biographical profiles more readily, please consult the index at the back of the book.)

MOLEFI K. ASANTE (1942– ) Scholar

Molefi Kete Asante was born Arthur Lee Smith Jr. on August 14, 1942, in Valdosta, Georgia. His name was legally changed to Molefi Kete Asante in 1973. In 1962, Asante graduated with an associate’s degree from Southwestern Christian College. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Oklahoma Christian College in 1964, received an M.A. from Pepperdine University in 1965, and a Ph.D. from UCLA in 1968.

Asante has taught speech and communications at many universities in the United States. He was an instructor at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona (1966– 1967) and California State University at Northridge (1967). In 1968 he accepted an assistant professorship at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, where he remained until 1969 when he began teaching at UCLA. There he advanced from assistant to associate professor of speech and also served as the director of the Center for Afro-American Studies (1970–1973). In 1973 he accepted the position of professor of communications at the State University of New York. He soon became department chairman, a position he held until 1979 when he became a visiting professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. (1979–1980). In 1981 and 1982, he was a Fulbright professor at the Zimbabwe Institute of Mass Communications. Since 1980, he has been a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia in the Department of African American Studies.

Asante is a prolific author with over 33 books dealing with both communication theory and the African American experience. Some of his titles include: Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change (1980); African Culture: The Rhythms of Unity (1985); The Afrocentric Idea (1987); Afrocentricity (1987); Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge (1990); The Historical and Cultural Atlas of African-Americans (1991); Colored, on White Campus: The Education of a Racial World (1992); Fury in the Wilderness (1993); African American History: A Journey of Liberation (1995); African Intellectual Heritage: A Book of Sources (1996); The African-American Atlas: Black History and Culture (1998); The African American Book of Names and Their Meanings (1999); The Painful Demise of Eurocentrism: An Afrocentric Response to Critics (1999); The Egyptian Philosophers: Ancient African Voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten (2000); and (co-editor with Eungjun Min) Socio-Cultural Conflict Between African American and Korean American (2000); Erasing Racism (2003), Race, Rhetoric, & Identity (2005), The History of Africa (2007).

Asante is also a founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies and has been a member of the advisory board of the Black Law Journal (1971–1973) and Race Relations Abstract (1973–1977). Asante has also served as the vice president for the National Council of Black Studies and the African Heritage Studies Association.

HOUSTON BAKER. SEELITERATURE CHAPTER.

MARIA LOUISE BALDWIN (1856–1922) Educator

Born on September 13, 1856, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Maria Louise Baldwin was one of the most distinguished educators in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. She was the principal of the Agassiz school in Cambridge, where children of affluent and established white families attended—a rarity for a woman and an African American.

Educated in Cambridge, Baldwin taught first in Chestertown, Maryland, and then was appointed teacher in Agassiz Grammar School. Eventually she taught all grades in the school—from first to the seventh—and in 1889 was promoted to school principal. In 1916, a new school was erected with more grades added and Baldwin’s position was changed to master. She strengthened her credentials by enrolling in courses at nearby Harvard University. She remained at Agassiz until 1922.

Baldwin lectured throughout the country on such luminaries as Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson and on women’s suffrage, poetry, and history. During one of her lectures, she collapsed at Boston’s Copley Plaza Hotel on January 9, 1922, and died suddenly. The entire nation mourned her death. About a year later, Aggasiz school recognized her by unveiling a tablet created in her memory. Other memorials followed, including the naming in her honor of the Aggasiz school auditorium and a women’s residence center at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

LERONE BENNETT JR. (1928– ) Scholar

Born on October 17, 1928, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Lerone Bennett Jr. was educated at Morehouse College, receiving an A.B. in 1949. Bennett worked for the Atlanta Daily World, and Jet magazine before joining Ebony magazine in 1954. He was named executive editor in 1987. Beyond these positions though, Bennett has achieved fame for his essays and other writings.

His 1962 book Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America made him one of the best-known and most influential African American historians of the twentieth century. Before the Mayflower was revised in 1982 and has been reprinted several times. Bennett’s 1964 biography of Morehouse College classmate Martin Luther King Jr., What Manner of Man, was welcomed as an evenhanded analysis of the African American leader’s life and his role in fundamentally changing the nature of racial dynamics in the United States. Also in 1964, Bennett published The Negro Mood and Other Essays, a collection of essays that demonstrated a sharper editorial bite than his previous works. Probing such issues as the failed integration of African Americans into American life and the ways in which African Americans are denied the fruits of society, Bennett takes aim at the white liberal establishment for ignoring the accomplishments of African Americans and for just mouthing the words of racial justice rather acting on that creed. Bennett has also produced a number of other works including Pioneers in Protest (1968), The Shaping of Black America (1974), and Wade in the Water: Great Moments in Black History (1979).

Bennett served as a visiting professor at Northwestern University in 1968–1969. In addition, he was a senior fellow of the Institute of the Black World in 1969. In 2002 Bennett won an American Book Award for lifetime achievement from the American Book Association.

MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE (1875–1955) Founder, Educator

Born on July 10, 1875, near Mayesville, South Carolina, Mary McLeod received a sporadic education in local schools. She eventually received a scholarship and studied for seven years at the Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina. In 1893 she went on to study at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago in lieu of a missionary position in Africa. In 1895 she began teaching at the Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia. Between 1900 and 1904, she taught in Sumter, Georgia, and Palatka, Florida.

In 1904 she founded her own school in Daytona Beach, Florida—the Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls. John D. Rockefeller became an early admirer and supporter of the school after hearing a performance by its choir. Bethune went on to found the Tomoka Missions and, in 1911, the McLeod Hospital. In 1922 her school merged with the Cookman Institute to become Bethune-Cookman College.

Bethune’s work received national attention, and she served on two conferences under President Herbert Hoover. In 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt appointed her director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. During World War II, she served as special assistant to the Secretary of War, responsible for selecting WAC officer candidates of African American descent.

Bethune also served on the executive board of the National Urban League and was a vice president of the NAACP. She received the Spingarn Award in 1935, the Frances A. Drexel Award in 1936, and the Thomas Jefferson Medal in 1942. Bethune was also instrumental in the founding of the National Council of Negro Women. She retired from public life in 1950 on her 75th birthday and died five years later on May 18, 1955.

Much of Bethune’s philosophy concerned ennobling labor and empowering African Americans to achieve economic independence. Although a tireless fighter for equality, she eschewed rhetorical militancy in favor of a doctrine of universal love.

CHARLOTTE HAWKINS BROWN (1883–1961) School Founder, Educator, Civic Leader

Charlotte Hawkins Brown was a pioneer in quality preparatory education for African American youth. She set her ideas and experiments in place at the Palmer Memorial Institute, which she founded in Sedalia, North Carolina, and headed for more than half a century.

Born Lottie Hawkins on June 11, 1883, in Henderson, North Carolina, Hawkins was the granddaughter of slaves. She and 18 members of her family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1888 in search of better social and educational opportunities. By the time of her graduation from Cambridge English School, she had changed her name to Charlotte Eugenia Hawkins. In 1900 she enrolled in State Normal School in Salem, Massachusetts, and left in October 1901, to teach at the American Missionary Association’s Bethany Institute near McLeansville, North Carolina. The school closed at the end of the year. Hawkins returned to Cambridge in 1902 and discussed with benefactor Alice Freeman Palmer, whom she met at the end of her high school studies, her plan to start a school in Sedalia, North Carolina. Palmer and other Northern philanthropists provided Hawkins funds for the school and on October 10, 1902, Hawkins founded a school, the Alice Freeman Palmer Institute, which she named in honor of her friend. After Palmer died that fall, the school was renamed Palmer Memorial Institute and was incorporated on November 23, 1907. By then Hawkins had a diploma from Salem Normal School, had studied at Harvard University and Wellesley and Simmons colleges, and married Edward Sumner Brown.

By 1916, the school was housed in four buildings. Fires in 1917 and 1922 destroyed two buildings; one of these, Memorial Hall, was replaced in 1922 with the Alice Freeman Palmer Building. By 1922 the school had built a fine reputation as one of the country’s leading preparatory schools for African Americans. The junior college academic program that focused on agricultural and vocational training that Brown introduced in the mid-1920s gave way to secondary and post-secondary education. Later on the school also emphasized good manners and social graces as it prepared youth to assume positions in

society. The school’s presence, already felt strongly in the South, was now known across the country and students responded by enrolling in the institute in greater numbers. In 1922, Palmer graduated its first high school class.

Brown emerged as a national leader and was recognized for her work in directing the institute as well as her strong resolve in advancing the life of African Americans and African American women in particular. She was a staunch public opponent of lynching. She was an organizer of the North Carolina State Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs and was also active in the National African American Women’s Club Movement. She persuaded the state to establish homes for African American young women who were in legal difficulty, such as the Efland Home for Wayward Girls. As president of the North Carolina Teachers Association from 1935 to 1937, she helped effect change in the education of the state’s African American residents. She was a key figure in the Southern interracial women’s movement and also was the first African American member in the Twentieth Century Club of Boston.

Brown became known for her writings as well. Her works included Mammy: An Appeal to the Heart of the South (1919) and The Correct Thing to Do, to Say, and to Wear (1940). The latter work, originally used as a guide for Palmer’s students, attracted the attention of young people across the country and was reprinted five times.

After 50 years of service, Brown retired as president of Palmer on October 5, 1952, but remained on campus until 1955 as vice-chairman of the board of trustees and director of finances. Wilhelmina Marguerite Crosson replaced

Brown as president. By the end of the decade, the school enrolled annually about 200 junior and senior students who came from across the country, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Brown died in Greensboro on January 11, 1961, and was buried at the front of the Palmer campus. Although Brown’s spirit and ideals continued for a while, the school began to suffer from declining enrollment, the rising cost of maintenance, and reduced support from benefactors. Another fire in 1971 destroyed the Alice Freeman Palmer Building. In November of that year, Bennett College in nearby Greensboro assumed the institute’s debts and took over the site. The home that Brown had built on campus, Canary Cottage, has been preserved and, in 1983, was declared a state historic site. It was declared a national historic landmark in 1988. The institute’s campus was designated a state historic site in the previous year.

NANNIE HELEN BURROUGHS (1879–1961) Educator

Born in Orange Springs, Virginia, on May 2, 1879, Nannie Helen Burroughs was one of the most significant Baptist lay leaders of the twentieth century, a lifelong booster of women’s education, and a tireless civic organizer. She addressed the National Baptist Convention in Virginia in 1900 on the subject “How the Sisters are Hindered from Helping” and, from that time until her death more than 60 years later, she exercised pivotal leadership. She was elected corresponding secretary for the Woman’s Convention, Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., and in 1948 she became president of the Women’s Convention.

In 1901 Burroughs founded and presided over the National Training School for Women and Girls, which emphasized industrial arts and proficiency in African American history. After only one year, she had recruited 31 students. In honor of her efforts, the school’s curriculum was changed to accommodate elementary education, and its name was changed to the Nannie Helen Burroughs School.

Burroughs was active in the anti-lynching campaign and a life member of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. She helped organize the Women’s Industrial Club of Louisville and was responsible for organizing Washington, D.C.’s first African American self-help program. She also edited such periodicals as the Christian Banner and was the author of Roll Call of Bible Women. She died on May 20, 1961.

JOE CLARK (1939– ) Former Educator, Lecturer, Executive Director

Best known as the feisty, dedicated, baseball bat-wielding school principal portrayed by actor Morgan Freeman in the film Lean on Me, Clark has served as an exemplar of school discipline and boasts a distinguished record of achievements and laurels. A 14-year member of the New Jersey Board of Education and an elementary and secondary school principal until 1989, he has been honored by the White House, the NAACP, his alma mater Seton Hall University, and various newspapers and magazines.

Born in Rochelle, Georgia, in 1939, Clark served in the United States Army Reserve from 1958 to 1966. He received a B.A. from New Jersey’s William Paterson College in 1960 and his master’s degree from Seton Hall in 1974. From 1960 to 1974, Clark served on the board of education in Paterson, New Jersey. He was a coordinator of language arts from 1976 until 1979. Clark became a school principal for the first time in 1979 and quickly earned the admiration and respect of educators for his somewhat controversial, no-nonsense managerial style. In 1983, Clark received the NAACP Community Service Award and was named New Jerseyan of the Year by the Newark Star Ledger. The following year, New Jersey Monthly honored Clark as outstanding educator. In 1985, Clark appeared in Washington, D.C., to receive honors at a presidential conference on academic and disciplinary excellence and also gained awards from Seton

Hall and Farleigh Dickinson University. The National School Safety Center gave Clark the Principal of Leadership award in 1986, and the National Black Policemen’s Association bestowed their Humanitarian Award upon him in 1988.

In 1989, Clark ended his tenure as principal of East-side High School in Paterson, New Jersey, and traveled the country as a lecturer. He accepted a job as the director of the Essex County, New Jersey, Youth House, a juvenile detention center in Newark, in August of 1995.

KENNETH CLARK (1914–2005 ) Psychologist, Educator, Writer

Born on July 24, 1914, in the Panama Canal Zone, Clark was brought to the United States as a youth by his mother so that he could be educated. He was educated in Harlem and then attended Howard University. He was awarded a B.A. in 1935 and an M.S. in 1936 in psychology. In 1940 he became the first African American awarded a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. He then taught at the Hampton Institute, but left due to its conservative views, moving to City College of New York in 1942, an institution he was to remain at for the rest of his academic career.

Clark was deeply troubled by school segregation and studied its effects with his wife, the former Mamie Phipps. Clark came to the attention of the NAACP during its post-war campaign to overturn legalized segregation. Clark was intimately involved in the long legal struggle which culminated in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. He testified as an expert witness at three of the four cases leading up to the Supreme Court’s review of Brown v. Board of Education and his report on the psychology of segregation was read carefully by the justices. Brown v. Board of Education was not only a milestone in the modern Civil Rights movement, it also made Kenneth Clark into something of an academic superstar. Clark went on to become the most influential African American social scientist of his generation.

In the 1960s Clark was involved with the Great Society’s unsuccessful HARYOU program in New York and the MARC Corp.’s program in Washington, D.C. Both were efforts to improve integration of public schools and to set test score-based standards for schools and teachers. Both projects, however, were terminated by politics.

In 1975 Clark retired from CCNY and formed his own advisory company to counsel companies on integrating their workforces. Clark continued to write vehemently on the subject of integration, until he died on May 1, 2005.

SEPTIMA CLARK (1898–1987) Educator, Civil Rights Activist

In her unassuming, workmanlike way, Septima Clark made a major impact on the voting rights of thousands of African American Southerners, though many Americans have never heard of her. Clark dedicated her life to education and drove home through her actions a simple concept in which she believed, namely, that before one could get people to register and vote, one had to teach them to read and write. Born on May 3, 1898, in Charleston, South Carolina, Clark was a schoolteacher for most of her life. She dedicated her entire career to educating her community.

In 1937 Clark studied under W. E. B. Du Bois at Atlanta University. She later went on to receive her B.A. at Benedict College in 1942, and her M.A. from Hampton Institute four years later. After teaching for nearly ten years in the Charleston school system, Clark began the “citizenship schools” program, through her position at Tennessee’s Highlander Folk School, a center for civil organizing and dialogue in 1956. These citizenship schools taught people to write their names, balance check books, fill out a voting ballot, and understand their rights and duties as U.S. citizens. The schools were a success, and by 1961, had grown too big for Highlander to handle. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) expressed an interest in taking over, so Clark went to work for the SCLC as director of education.

After retiring from the SCLC in 1970, Clark stayed active in civil rights struggles. In 1974, at the age of 76, Clark was elected to serve on the Charleston school board—the same school board that had fired her 20 years earlier for her active involvement with the NAACP. She died in Charleston on December 15, 1987.

JOHNNETTA B. COLE (1936– ) College President

A distinguished scholar, Johnnetta Cole has served on the faculties of Washington State University, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Hunter College, and Spelman College, the historically African American women’s institution in Atlanta. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 19, 1936, Cole attended Oberlin College, which awarded her a B.A. in 1957. She went on to earn her master’s and doctorate degrees at Northwestern in 1959 and 1967, respectively.

In 1967, Cole began her first teaching assignment at Washington State University, where she taught anthropology and served as director of black studies. The university honored her as Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year for 1969–1970. From 1970 until 1983, Cole was professor of anthropology and African American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She left the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1983 for a position as professor of anthropology at Hunter College of the City of New York. Cole also served as director of Latin American and Caribbean studies at Hunter College from 1984 until 1987. In 1987, Cole was named president of Spelman College and became known as America’s Sister President. She retired in 1997 and took a professorship at Emory University in Atlanta. In 2002 she again became president of an historically black college, Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. She announced her retirement from the presidency of Bennett effective June 2007.

As an anthropologist, Cole has done field work in Liberia, Cuba, and in the African American community. A prolific writer, she has published in many mainstream periodicals as well as scholarly journals. Since 1979 she has been a contributor and advising editor to The Black Scholar. She is the author of Conversations: Straight Talk with America’s Sister President (1993) and Dream the Boldest Dreams: And Other Lessons of Life (1997). She is a member of the National Council of Negro Women and a fellow of the American Anthropological Association.

Cole has received numerous awards and over 40 honorary degrees. She was presented with the Elizabeth Boyer Award in 1988 and the Essence Award in Education in 1989. In 1990, Cole won the American Women Award, the Jessie Bernard Wise Woman Award, and was inducted into the Working Woman Hall of Fame. In 1994, she received the Jewish National Fund’s highest honor, the Tree of Life Award, which is named for the efforts of the Jewish National Fund to reclaim and develop barren land in Israel. She received the Smithsonian’s McGovern Behavioral Science Award in 1999. In 2001 she received the Alex de Tocqueville Award for community service from United Way of America. Cole received the Independent Sector’s 2006 John W. Gardner Leadership Award for her long commitment to advancing social justice nationally and globally.

MARVA DELORES NETTLES COLLINS (1936– ) Educator

Marva Delores Nettles Collins was born in Monroeville, Alabama, on August 31, 1936. She received a bachelor’s degree from Clark College in 1957 and pursued graduate studies at Chicago Teachers College and Columbia University from 1965 until 1967.

Collins’ teaching career began at the Monroe County Training School in her hometown in 1958. She taught at Chicago’s Delano Elementary School from 1960 until 1975. In 1975, Collins founded the Westside Preparatory School in Chicago and currently serves as its director.

Collins has conducted educational workshops throughout the United States and Europe, and has appeared on several television programs including 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, and The Phil Donahue Show. She has served as director of the Right to Read Foundation and has been a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships since 1981. Collins has also been a consultant to the National Department of Children, Youth, and Family Services and a council member of the National Institute of Health.

A number of organizations have honored Collins for her distinguished career including the NAACP, the Reading Reform Foundation, the Fred Hampton Foundation,

the Chicago Urban League, the United Negro College Fund, Phi Delta Kappa, and the American Institute for Public Service. Among the institutions that have given her honorary degrees are Washington University, Amherst College, Dartmouth University, Chicago State University, Howard University, and Central State University.

ANNA JULIA COOPER (1858/59–1964) Educator, Writer, Activist

Anna Julia Cooper was a strong proponent of justice, equality for women, and racial uplift. She was born on August 10, 1858 or 1859, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to a slave mother; her father was possibly the slave owner. Cooper attended Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute (now Saint Augustine’s College) in Raleigh and became a teacher at the school when she graduated. She was married briefly to George A. C. Cooper, who died in 1879.

Cooper graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1884, then taught modern languages at Wilberforce University in 1884–1885. The next year she returned to Saint Augustine’s and taught mathematics, Latin, and German. In 1888 she received an M.A. degree in mathematics from Oberlin and moved to Washington, D.C., where she taught at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth and was school principal from 1902 to 1906. The school later became the M Street High School, then the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. She protested the board of education’s plan to dilute the school’s curriculum and was removed from the principalship. She chaired the languages department at Lincoln University in Missouri from 1906 to 1910, then returned to the M Street School as Latin teacher. On March 23, 1925, at age 66, she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne and became the fourth African American woman to earn a doctorate and the first woman to do so in France.

Cooper also became established as a lecturer and writer. As early as 1890, while teaching full-time, she lectured to groups of educators and African American women’s groups. In 1900 she lectured on “The Negro Problem in America” at the first Pan-African Conference, then toured Europe. As a writer, she is best known for A Voice from the South (1892); the work marked her as a dedicated feminist and advocate for the African American race. Anna Cooper died on February 27, 1964, when she was 105 years old.

FANNY COPPIN (1837–1913) Educator

Fanny Coppin was born into slavery in 1837 and rose to prominence in the field of education. After her aunt purchased her freedom, Coppin went on to become the second African American woman to receive a degree from Oberlin College.

In 1865, Coppin was appointed principal of the women’s department of the Institute for Colored Youth, a high school established by Quakers in 1837, and later principal of the entire school. In 1894 Coppin founded the Women’s Exchange and Girls’ Home. She served as president of the local Women’s Mite Missionary Society and the Women’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society and as a vice president of the National Association of Colored Women.

Coppin, an active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, served as president of the AME Home Missionary Society and accompanied her husband, Levi J. Coppin, on a missionary venture to South Africa.

Before her death at her Philadelphia home on January 21, 1913, Coppin began writing an autobiography Reminiscences of School Life, and Hints on Teaching.

HOWARD DODSON JR. (1939– ) Historian, Educator, Curator

Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on June 1, 1939, Howard Dodson Jr. was always at or near the top of his class throughout junior high and high school. Out of 89 students at Chester High School, Dodson was one of nine who graduated from college. In 1961, he received a bachelor’s of science from West Chester State College and, in 1964, he received a master’s degree in history and political science from Villanova University. In 1964, driven by an interest in African people transplanted in the Western Hemisphere, Dodson worked in Ecuador as a member of the U.S. Peace Corps.

In 1969, Dodson entered the doctoral program in Black History and Race Relations at the University of California at Berkeley after spending one year in Puerto Rico. During that time, Dodson studied the socio-political factors behind the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the time. As part of his doctoral studies, Dodson earned a position at the Institute of the Black World, a research branch of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. Dodson served as director of the Institute from 1974 to 1979.

Dodson’s doctoral dissertation “The Political Economy in South Carolina: 1780–1830” demonstrates that African American slave workers were not victims of their circumstances but rather contributors to a complex socioeconomic system. In addition to his dissertation, Dodson has written widely on the subject of African American history. He served as editor-in-chief of Black World View magazine in 1977, and he has published books including Thinking and Rethinking U.S. History (1988), a book for children written with Madelon Bedell, and Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Years of Social Protest (1989), a book published by Williams College Museum of Art on which he collaborated with Deborah Willis.

In 1984, Dodson took a post as the head of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. In 1991, due to his ministrations and fund-raising, the Schomburg Center opened an expanded complex. Dodson has served as consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the African American Museums Association, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the National Council of Churches. He won the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History Service Award in 1976 and a Governor’s Award for African Americans of Distinction in 1982.

SARAH MAPPS DOUGLASS (1806–1882) Educator

The free-born Sarah Mapps Douglass was an outspoken anti-slavery activist and accomplished educator. She attended the Ladies Institute of the Pennsylvania Medical University. In the 1820s she organized a school for African American children in Philadelphia.

Douglass was an active member of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, which also provided support to Douglass’s school. Moreover, she served as vice chairman of the Freedman’s Aid Society and was a member of the New York Anti-Slavery Women.

In 1853 Douglass was appointed head of the girls’ department at the Institute of Colored Youth (forerunner of Cheney State College). She remained there until her retirement in 1877. Douglass died in Philadelphia on September 8, 1882.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON (1958– ) Educator and Writer

Michael Eric Dyson was born into a middle-class family in Detroit, Michigan, in 1958. He was ordained as a Baptist minister and attended divinity school at Tennessee’s Knoxville College, ultimately earning a bachelor’s degree in 1982 from Carson-Newman College. Three years later, he accepted a graduate fellowship at Princeton University, obtaining his master’s and doctorate degrees by 1993. Dyson went on to become an assistant professor at Brown University. A non-traditional scholar, he chose to target his interests to a larger audience. Dyson reviewed books and films for newspapers, contributed record reviews to Rolling Stone, and became a columnist for Christian Century and The Nation. Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism, Dyson’s first book-length collection of essays, addressed African American pop culture icons.

In 1994 Dyson published Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X. The book was written in response to a confrontation with some of Dyson’s African American male students at Brown University who objected to the presence of whites in his course on the radical Muslim leader. True to his goal of reaching beyond the scholarly community, Dyson’s book was deliberately marketed to a wide, youthful readership. In his third book Between God and Gangsta Rap, Dyson attempted to put gangsta rap in its cultural and social perspective and established himself as an authority. As a result, he was asked to testify on the genre before a congressional subcommittee, gained popularity as a lecturer, and became a sought-after guest on talk shows. He continued his writing, producing Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line (1996), I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr. (2000), and Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur (2001). Dyson has been considered one of a group of “new intellectuals.” In 1996, he headed the Institute of African American Research at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and continued to address issues of race and culture in both scholarly and popular publications. He next served as a visiting professor at Columbia University before taking a position with DePauw University in Chicago. In 2002, he joined the faculty at Penn State as the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and African-American Studies.

JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN (1915– ) Scholar

Franklin’s long and distinguished career includes the publication of numerous books of history and biography, his autobiography, numerous awards and honorary degrees, and a position of great stature in the scholarly community, and as a leader of a national dialogue about race.

Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, in 1915. He received his bachelor’s degree from Fisk University in 1935 and then began graduate work at Harvard, which awarded him a master’s in 1936 and a Ph.D. in 1941. He taught history at Fisk and St. Augustine’s College while working on his doctorate, later moving on to North Carolina College at Durham, Howard University, Brooklyn College (where he chaired the history department), Cambridge University, the University of Chicago, and Duke University.

Among his many publications are books such as From Slavery to Freedom, A History of Negro Americans, Militant South, Reconstruction After the Civil War, The Emancipation Proclamation, A Southern Odyssey, Race and History: Selected Essays (1947), and The Color Line: Legacy for the Twenty-First Century (1946). Even into his 80s, Franklin continued to produce scholarly works on race. In 1996 he co-wrote Black Intellectuals: Race and Responsibility in an American Life for which he won an American Book Award in 1997. He also co-wrote Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation, 1790–1860 in 1999. In 1998 he published a long-overdue biography of African American historian George Washington Williams, and in 2005 his autobiography, Mirror to America, was published.

Twice a Guggenheim Fellow, Franklin received honors from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, Encyclopedia Britannica and many other organizations, was made professor emeritus of history at Duke, and earned the Publications Prize of the American Studies Association established in his name in 1986. Franklin has received over 90 honorary degrees. In 1995, President Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. Franklin was honored with a Harold Washington Literary Award in 2000 for his impressive body of work, and that same year was awarded a Lincoln Prize for his distinguished contribution to the study of the Civil War. In 2006 he was co-recipient of the Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement, for his study of humanity.

In 1997 President Clinton named Franklin as chair of the White House Initiative on Race and Reconciliation, a position that enabled him to lead a year-long dialogue on race held in cities across the nation. He is currently the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University.

E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER (1894–1962) Educator, Sociologist, Activist

E. Franklin Frazier left a 30-year legacy of research and writings on the African American family, youth, the church, and middle class. He combined theory with practice, and his work remains an authoritative source for later generations of scholars.

Born on September 24, 1894, in Baltimore, Maryland, Frazier attended the segregated schools of Baltimore and graduated from the Colored High School. On scholarship, he entered Howard University in Washington, D.C., and used income from odd jobs to support his college career. He graduated cum laude in 1915 and a few months later began teaching mathematics at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama. He left two years later and taught at various African American schools and colleges. After spending some time in military service, he enrolled in Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1920 with a master’s degree in sociology.

Frazier was an American Scandinavian Foundation fellow from 1921 to 1922. In the fall of 1922, he moved to Atlanta and held a dual position as director of the School of Social Work and professor of sociology at Morehouse College. He remained productive in research and writing during his Atlanta years. He moved to Chicago and studied full-time for his doctorate at the University of Chicago. In 1929 he moved to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1931 completed his Ph.D. dissertation “The Negro Family in Chicago,” which was regarded as a landmark study. Frazier left Fisk in 1934 and moved to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he remained for 28 years as head of the Department of Sociology. While at Fisk and Howard, he also added to his body of research and writing. Prominent among his publications were The Negro intheUnitedStates (1949) and his most controversial book Black Bourgeoise (1955 and 1957).

Frazier later headed UNESCO’s Division of Applied Sciences for two years and traveled and lectured abroad as well. He retired from Howard University as professor emeritus in 1959, but continued to teach there and at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Frazier died on May 17, 1962; his book The Negro Church in America was published posthumously that year.

HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. (1950– ) Literary Scholar, Educator, Critic

Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, West Virginia. He was summa cum laude in 1973 at Yale University, where he earned a bachelor’s in history. He went on to receive a master’s in 1974 and a Ph.D. in 1979, from Clare College, Cambridge University. He served as a staff correspondent for Time magazine in London until 1975. There he studied with Nobel laureate playwright Wole Soyinka of Nigeria. His post-graduate studies examined African American literature as it has derived from the traditions of Africa and the Caribbean. He returned to the U.S. as a guest lecturer for Yale periodically from 1976 to 1979.

In 1979, Gates accepted an assistant professorship in the English department at Yale, where he served as director of the undergraduate Afro-American studies department until 1985. In 1981, the MacArthur Foundation awarded him $150,000 for his critical essays about African American literature. When he republished Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig, or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North, Showing That Slavery’s Shadows Fall Even There in 1983, he vaulted to the top of the world of African American scholarship. He has also been a Rockefeller Foundation fellow and has enjoyed grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. During this time, he created the PBS television series The Image of the Black in the Western Imagination, which aired in 1982. From 1985 to 1990, he served as a professor of English and African Studies at Cornell University and as a W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of Literature at Duke University from 1988 to 1990. He moved to Harvard in 1990, where he was named W. E. B. Du Bois Professor in the Humanities, and in 1991 became chair of the Department of African American Studies.

In 1989, Gates won the American Book Award for The Signifying Monkey and an Ainsfield-Wolfe Book Award the same year for Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. In 1994, Gates’s memoir Colored People was published; the work encompasses his experiences growing up in rural West Virginia. In 1996, Gates earned prestige for his African American studies department by attracting some of the country’s leading scholars to Harvard. In addition, Gates and Kwame Appiah edited Encarta Africana, a multimedia encyclopedia on compact disc released in January 1999.

Other works that Gates has contributed to or edited include: (Contributor) Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940 (1990); (Introduction) Josephine Baker and La Revue Negre: Paul Colin’s Lithographs of Le Tumulte Noir in Paris, 1927 (1998); (Co-editor) Pioneers of the Black Atlantic: Five Slave Narratives from the Enlightenment, 1772-1815 (1998); (Co-editor) Black Imagination and the Middle Passage (1999); (Co-editor) The Civitas Anthology of African American Slave Narratives (1999); (Contributor) Wonders of the African World (1999); (Editor) The Bondswoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, a Fugitive Slave, Recently Escaped from North Carolina (2002).

WILLIAM L. HANSBERRY (1894–1965) Historian, Educator

William Leo Hansberry was born on February 25, 1894, in Gloster, Mississippi. He earned a bachelor’s in anthropology in 1921. Determined to eliminate American ethnocentrism regarding Africa, he issued a manifesto to African American schools and colleges titled “Announcing an Effort to Promote the Study and Facilitate the Teaching of the Fundamentals of Negro Life and History.” The flier brought Hansberry three job offers from schools, and he accepted a post at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Beginning in 1922, he began designing courses on African and African American history.

Despite Hansberry’s ability to prove the material taught in his courses, the board of Howard University pulled his financial backing after spurious accusations by colleagues but agreed to keep the African studies program in place. Still, the scuffle cost him much in funds and promotions. Nevertheless, in 1932, Hansberry returned to Harvard to complete his master’s in anthropology and history, continuing his studies in the mid-1930s at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. His studies won him a Rockefeller Foundation grant that allowed him to study at Oxford University in England from 1937 to 1938, when Howard University finally recognized his achievements with an assistant professorship. But entrenched racial prejudice kept Hansberry from earning more grants and fellowships to continue his work.

Howard University made little effort to compensate him and after over 20 years of service, he remained only an associate professor in 1945. But then the university climate changed and Hansberry was appointed advisor to African students in 1946; in 1950, he was made Emergency Aid to the African Students’ Committee at Howard University in addition to his teaching load. Due to increased interest in African studies, Hansberry won a Fulbright scholarship to lecture at Cairo University and to study in Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sudan in 1953. He also visited Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Hansberry died in Chicago on November 3, 1965.

BELL HOOKS (1952– ) Social Activist, Educator, Writer

Feminist educator bell hooks (it is her preference that her name appear in lowercase letters) has done her most important work as a teacher in programs that allow a critique of racism that was absent during her own undergraduate years. She contributes essays to a variety of scholarly journals and also publishes fiction and poetry. hooks has gained notoriety as a writer of critical essays on systems of domination, making herself a prominent name in feminist debate. Her titles include: Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989); Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992); Killing Rage: Ending Racism (1995); Black Is a Woman’s Color (1996); and Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood (1996).

Born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, hooks grew up with five siblings in Hopkinsville, a small town in rural Kentucky. Despite her family’s poverty and hardship, hooks reveled in lessons of diligence and community. She attended segregated public schools, where her role models were single African American female teachers. Verbally and through poetry, hooks began defiantly resisting the sexism she perceived within her neighborhood. Rejecting her expected role as an obedient Southern girl, the writer eventually adopted a pseudonym to represent a new sense of self—a woman who spoke her mind and was not afraid to talk back.

When she won a scholarship to Stanford University, hooks sought out intellectual and political affirmation from the campus feminist movement. Disillusioned and alienated by the absence of material by or discussion about African American women, hooks began criticizing the persistent racism within feminism. Having gained her bachelor’s degree in 1973, hooks faced obstacles at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California at Santa Cruz, where male faculty members were determined to prevent her from becoming a university professor. In 1981, hooks published Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which was sharply criticized for its defiance of academic convention. Nonetheless, the work became central to discussions of racism and sexism. hooks persisted with her studies, earned a Ph.D. in 1983, and went on to teach African American and women’s studies at Yale University, Oberlin College, and City College of New York.

JOHN HOPE (1868–1936) Educator, Activist

The progress made in higher education for African American students has been strongly helped by the efforts of John Hope. His life was committed to improving the school system of his time to afford more minority access. Hope was one of the most influential leaders of his time in the field of higher education.

In 1894, Hope graduated from Brown University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was elected class orator for the commencement service. In later years, Hope would receive an honorary master of arts and law degree from Brown, along with admittance into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Upon graduating, Hope accepted a teaching job at Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee. Four years later he accepted a teaching position at Atlanta Baptist College, located in Georgia, the state of his birth. At the college, Hope began a long-time friendship with the educator W. E. B. Du Bois. They both attended the 1895 Macon Convention which turned into the Georgia Equal Rights Convention.

In 1906, John Hope became acting president of Atlanta Baptist College, and the next year he was named president. He was the first African American to be appointed president at a Baptist school. As president, Hope expanded the college with funds donated by John T. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. In 1913, the school was renamed Morehouse College and was very progressive in its stressing of the dignity of its African American students. During the 1920s, the college continued to expand as Hope developed the Atlanta School of Social Work.

In 1929, Hope fulfilled his lifelong ambition to establish a formal relationship among Atlanta’s African American schools by having the Atlanta University Affiliation signed by the presidents of Atlanta University, Spelman, and Morehouse College. Hope was appointed president of Atlanta University while continuing as president of Morehouse College. Hope received the Harmon Award in 1930 for distinguished achievement in education. He died in Atlanta on February 20, 1936.

FREDERICK HUMPHRIES (1935– ) College and University President, Educator

Frederick Humphries was born in Apalachicola, Florida, on December 26, 1935. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Florida A&M University in 1957. Following two years as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Security Agency, Humphries spent the next five years working on his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh while earning a living as an academic tutor. He received his doctorate in 1964, and took an associate professorship at his alma mater.

In 1967, Humphries became a full professor at Florida A&M after spending two years at the University of Minnesota. Along with the professorship, Humphries also became a program director of the Thirteen-Colleges Curriculum Program, which initially involved 13 historically African American colleges. As director, Humphries advocated new methods of looking at the particular problems facing African American students with the intent of improving students’ overall educational progress. Humphries and his colleagues instituted successful experimental curriculum changes that made classrooms “student-centered academic environment(s).” A scientist himself, Humphries also strived to increase African American students’ accessibility in math and science.

Tennessee State University hired Humphries as its president in 1974. He served in the post until 1985, when he returned, once again, to his alma mater—this time as its president. Under Humphries, Florida A&M’s status as an institute of higher learning was greatly elevated. In 1992, 1995, and 1997, the school attracted more National Achievement Scholars, the nation’s top African American students, than any other institution. At the same time, Florida A&M’s enrollment more than doubled under the leadership of Humphries; innovative programs that increased the number of African American students going on to pursue graduate studies were implemented. Humphries retired on June 30, 2001.

CHARLES S. JOHNSON (1893–1956) Scholar

Charles Spurgeon Johnson was born in Bristol, Virginia, in 1893. He earned a B.A. from Virginia Union University and worked on a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.

Johnson occupied a number of diverse positions, from editor to administrator. He served as the assistant executive secretary of the Chicago Commission on Race Relations and as research director of the National Urban League, where he founded the organization’s journal Opportunity.

In 1928 Johnson was made chairman of Fisk University’s Department of Social Sciences. While at Fisk he established the Fisk Institute of Race Relations. In 1933 he was appointed director of Swarthmore College’s Institute of Race Relations. In 1946 Johnson was appointed president of Fisk University—the first African American to hold the position.

Johnson wrote several books before his death on October 27, 1956, including The Negro in American Civilization (1930), The Economic Status of the Negro (1933), The Negro College Graduate (1936), and Educational and Cultural Crisis (1951).

MORDECAI W. JOHNSON (1890–1976) Former College President, Minister

As president of Howard University in Washington, D.C., for 34 years, Mordecai W. Johnson became a highly respected minister, educator, and orator of international note. He built the university into a highly visible academic institution that became known as the “Capstone of Negro Education.”

Johnson was the son of former slaves. He was born in Paris, Tennessee, on December 12, 1890, and attended Roger Williams University in Nashville and the Howe Institute in Memphis, both of which are now defunct. He transferred to Atlanta Baptist College, now known as Morehouse College, where he completed the secondary and undergraduate programs. He taught at the college for a year, then continued his studies at the University of Chicago where he received a second undergraduate degree. Johnson earned his bachelor of divinity degree from Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York.

He was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia, for nine years. In 1912 he took a leave of absence to study at Harvard University Divinity School graduating in June of 1922. In 1926, when he was 36-years old, Johnson was elected 11th president and the first African American president of Howard University. Johnson first concentrated on providing financial stability for the school. Starting with the medical school, he received solid support from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the General Education Board. Then he moved to strengthen the law school and appointed Charles Hamilton Houston as dean of the school; he approached the country’s top law schools for recommendations for Howard’s law school faculty. One of its most notable graduates was Thurgood Marshall. The law school also engaged in research and analysis involving important civil rights issues that went before the court. Johnson was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1928, the NAACP’s highest award.

During the first half of his tenure, Johnson faced sharp criticism because he lacked a terminal academic degree and because some faculty and staff opposed his administrative style. He survived the controversy, maintained the support of the board of trustees, and continued fruitful contacts with foundations for financial support. He attracted outstanding scholars to the Howard faculty including philosopher Alain Locke, cell biologist Ernest E. Just, chemist Percy Julian, political scientist Ralph Bunche, historian Rayford Logan, and Charles Drew, who became known for his work with blood plasma. Johnson also erected new buildings and founded several honor societies on campus including a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Johnson traveled widely; his lectures, given without notes, often lasted 45 minutes and held audiences spellbound. His themes often focused on racism, segregation, and discrimination. He retired from the presidency of Howard in 1960 and died on September 10, 1976, when he was 86 years old.

LAURENCE CLIFTON JONES (1884–1975) School Founder, School Administrator

Laurence Clifton Jones founded a school in the deep woods of Mississippi’s Black Belt and made it possible for thousands of African American youths to receive elementary and high school education. He uplifted the community as well by helping uneducated men and women to enhance their lives. He became known as “The Little Professor of Piney Woods.”

Jones was born on November 21, 1884, in St. Joseph, Missouri, and worked his way to a degree from Iowa State University. Booker T. Washington inspired Jones first through his writings and later when he offered Jones a position at his school, Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). Jones declined and, instead, in 1910 founded what he called a “country life school” in Piney Woods, Mississippi. Officially, the school was established on May 17, 1913. He garnered the moral support of the community, and when the students lacked money for school expenses, he accepted payments in produce.

On June 29, 1912, Jones married Grace M. Allen, whom he had met while he was in college. Together the Joneses enabled the school to grow and engaged in fund-raising activities. Grace taught useful skills to community residents and also became a member of the school’s faculty. With the help of the Cotton Blossom Singers—the school’s ambassadors of music—the Joneses traveled the United States performing fundraising concerts. Laurence Jones organized the International Sweethearts of Rhythms in the late 1930s and engaged that group in fundraising concerts until the group, which became known worldwide, severed its relationship with the school in April of 1941.

The school then expanded, adding a department for blind children. Jones later became known through the television program This Is Your Life aired in December of 1954. An appeal for support made during the program resulted in substantial funding for Piney Woods. Jones retired from the presidency in 1974, but continued to travel on official school business until he died in 1975.

E. J. JOSEY (1924– ) Librarian, Activist, Author

Elonnie Junius Josey was born in Norfolk, Virginia on January 20, 1924. He studied music and played the church organ until 1943, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving for three years. Josey, known simply as E. J., went on to complete his education at Howard University’s School of Music, later moving on to Columbia University’s master’s program in history and the State University of New York’s Library School. In 1953, Josey began his career in libraries and rapidly became a leader in confronting segregation within them.

After his initial struggle against the Georgia Library Association when they denied him membership in 1960, Josey persevered in a diverse public and academic library career and gained a reputation as a wise, impassioned speaker on social issues. His publication The Black Librarian in America was a pioneering look into conditions for African Americans within librarianship. Its 1994 sequel The Black Librarian in America Revisited was an appraisal of changes that had been made in intervening years. Josey helped organize the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, which combated institutional racism and widespread discrimination both within the profession and in conjunction with library services.

As president of the American Library Association from 1984 to 1985, Josey fostered awareness of the value of libraries as an integral part of the nation’s infrastructure. Fighting against severe budget cuts imposed by the Reagan administration, Josey rallied library advocates in Washington, D.C., to march with him in protest. Josey has, in addition to his professional achievements, led community advocacy for civil and human rights as a leading member of the NAACP, was a contributor to intellectual development in emerging African countries, and was awarded four honorary doctorates. From the late 1980s until his retirement in 1995, Josey joined the faculty of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh and devoted himself to achieving a racial balance in library education. For his long service to promoting reading and diverse library selections, Josey was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 2001.

MAULANA KARENGA (1941– ) Activist-scholar, Educator, Ethicist

Dr. Maulana Karenga is professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, where he also chairs the President’s Task Force on Multicultural Education and Campus Diversity. He holds Ph.D. degrees in political science from United States International University and in social ethics with a focus on the classical African ethics of ancient Egypt from the University of Southern California. He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa for his “intellectual and practical work on behalf of African people.”

Karenga came to prominence in the 1960s as founder of The Organization Us, a cultural and social change group whose name he explains, “simply means us Black people and stresses the communitarian focus of the organization and its philosophy Kawaida, which is an ongoing synthesis of the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world.” Karenga and Us have greatly influenced the development of the discipline of black studies, the black arts and black student movements, Afrocentricity, and ancient Egyptian studies. They have also advanced the independent school and rites of passage movements through the Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles of Kawaida).

Moreover, Karenga and Us played important roles in the founding of the initial Black Power conferences in the 1960s and the National Black United Front in the 1980s. More recently they were in the forefront of organizing the National African American Leadership Summit and the Million Man March/Day of Absence. Karenga was a member of the executive council for the landmark 1995 gathering in Washington and authored its mission statement, co-editing the subsequent volume The Million Man March/Day of Absence: A Commemorative Anthology. Having celebrated its 33rd anniversary in 1998, The Organization Us continues its declared commitment to “[s]truggle, service and institution-building.”

An internationally recognized activist-scholar, Karenga has published numerous scholarly articles and books, among them the widely used Introduction to Black Studies; his retranslation and commentary on ancient Egyptian texts; Selections from the Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt; and the influential Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture. In fact, he created the Kwanzaa celebration now observed throughout the world African community. He has lectured throughout the United States and the world and earned numerous scholarship, leadership, and community service awards.

ELIZABETH DUNCAN KOONTZ (1919–1989) Educator, Organizational Official

As teacher, assistant state school superintendent, leader in state and national teachers’ associations, and the first African American president of the National Education Association (NEA), Elizabeth Duncan Koontz served the education needs of her constituents. Born on June 3, 1919, in Salisbury, North Carolina, she was the youngest of seven children. She graduated from Livingstone College with honors in 1938 and received a master’s degree from Atlanta University in 1941. Beyond this, she studied at the graduate level in several colleges and universities.

Koontz moved from being an elementary school teacher in Dunn, North Carolina, to Aggrey Memorial School in Landis, then to Fourteenth Street School in Winston-Salem, and finally taught special education classes at Price High School in Salisbury. Her participation in the NEA began in 1952, when she was a member of the North Carolina Negro Teachers Association. That group was later admitted to the state chapter of the NEA. She served two terms as secretary, one as vicepresident,and one as president-elect of the NEA’s Department of Classroom Teachers. In 1965, she became the department’s first African American president. On July 6, 1968, Koontz was installed as the first African American president of the NEA. During her tenure, she brought a shift in the association from traditionally conservative to liberal. She supported agitation and, if necessary, strikes to bring about necessary change. She endorsed militant teachers and strongly supported teacher commitment and responsibility.

In January of 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Koontz as director of the U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, making her the first African American director. Later she became deputy assistant secretary for Labor Employment Standards. In the latter capacity, she became the U.S. delegate to the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women. She was active in numerous civic, religious, and educational organizations, and received approximately three dozen honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. Koontz held other positions until she retired in April of 1982. She suffered a heart attack at home in Salisbury and died on January 6, 1989.

LUCY C. LANEY (1854–1933) Educator, School Founder

Lucy Craft Laney spent her life assuring African Americans, particularly women, that they would be educated and had the freedom to educate others. She was born to former slaves on April 11, 1854, in Macon, Georgia. At age 15, Laney entered Atlanta University and graduated in 1873 in the school’s first class. She then did graduate study at the University of Chicago during the summer months.

Although virtually penniless, in 1883 Laney opened a school for Augusta, Georgia’s African American youth, held in Christ Presbyterian Church. The school was chartered in 1886 under Georgia law as a normal and industrial school. Haines Normal and Industrial Institute established the city’s first kindergarten and nurse education department in the early 1890s. Later the nurse education department became the school of nursing at Augusta’s University Hospital. By the 1930s, Haines dropped elementary education and offered a four-year high school program and some college-level courses. The Presbyterian Board of Missions, the schools’ primary source of funds, withdrew support during the Great Depression. Haines school declined, then closed its doors in 1949. Later, a new public structure, the Lucy C. Laney High School, was built on the site. Laney died on October 23, 1933, in Augusta, and later was recognized as a leading African American educator in the South.

SARA LAWRENCE-LIGHTFOOT (1944– ) Educator, Sociologist, Writer

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s sociological writing has been an attempt to create a clearer picture of the reality of African Americans lives. She has felt much of what has been previously written is a distorted view of who African Americans really are.

Lawrence-Lightfoot’s 1994 book I’ve Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation details life in the African American middle class through interviews with six African American professionals. It was chosen as a Book-of-the-Month Club main choice. In 1978, her book Worlds Apart promoted cooperation between parents and teachers for the education of children. Her third book The Good High School: Portraits of Character and Culture chronicles the positive methods of six schools in the United States, offering the book as a catalyst for institutional change. She co-wrote a sequel to The Good High School in 1997 under the title The Art and Science of Portraiture. She also wrote Respect: An Exploration in 1999.

Lawrence-Lightfoot departed from her sociological writings to write a personal account of her mother’s life in her 1988 book Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer. She received a MacArthur Award to fund the writing of the book. Along with writing her books, teaching at Harvard University as a professor of education, and conducting her research, Lawrence-Lightfoot gives lectures and serves on numerous committees and national boards, among them the National Academy of Education, the Boston Globe, and the John D. and Catherine T. Mac-Arthur Foundation, the last of which she became chair in 2002.

DAVID LEVERING LEWIS (1936– ) Educator, Writer

David Levering Lewis was born May 25, 1936, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He earned a bachelor’s in history from Fisk University in 1956 and continued his studies at Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree in 1958. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1962. He published his first paper as an undergraduate, titled “History of the Negro Upper Class in Atlanta, Georgia 1890–1958.”

Lewis eventually began studying African American history after years as a scholar of French history, teaching at the University of Ghana, Notre Dame University, and Howard University. In 1971, he published a scholarly biography of Martin Luther King Jr., titled Martin Luther King: A Critical Biography. Lewis followed this work with one on anti-Semitism called Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair in 1973 at which time he accepted a teaching post at Federal City College in Washington, D.C. In 1974, he became a full professor of history at the University of the District of Columbia.

Throughout the 1970s, he studied the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, writing a work of definitive scholarship on the subject, published in 1981, as When Harlem Was in Vogue: The Politics of the Arts in the Twenties and Thirties. Next, Lewis tackled W. E. B. Du Bois, the great scholar and writer, in his biography W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919, which won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1994 and a National Book Award the same year. In 1999 he accepted a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” to continue his research, and published W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963 in 2000. He won a second Pulitzer Prize for that work. By the time his Du Bois biography was published in 1993, Lewis had taken a position as the chair of the history department of Rutgers University. He is now Julius Silver University Professor and professor of history at New York University. Lewis contributes regularly to scholarly journals and the Washington Post.

ALAIN LOCKE (1886–1954) Scholar

Born on September 3, 1886, in Philadelphia, Locke graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1907. He was then awarded a

Rhodes scholarship for two years of study at Oxford University in England and did further graduate study at the University of Berlin (1910–1911). Upon returning to the United States, Locke took an assistant professorship in English and philosophy at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1918 and the same year was made chairman of the philosophy department at Howard where he stayed until his retirement in 1953.

In 1934 Locke founded the Associates in Negro Folk Education. In 1942 he was named to the Honor Roll of Race Relations. A prolific author, Locke’s first book was entitled Race Contacts and Inter-Racial Relations (1916). His best known works include The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925), a book that introduced America to the Harlem Renaissance, and The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art (1940). Locke died in New York City on June 9, 1954.

BENJAMIN E. MAYS (1894–1984) Former Morehouse College President

In addition to occupying the president’s office at More-house, Benjamin Mays wrote, taught mathematics, worked for the Office of Education, served as chairman of the Atlanta Board of Education, preached in a Baptist church, acted as an advisor to the Southern Christian Leadership Council, and was a church historian.

Born in Epworth, South Carolina, in 1894, Mays attended Bates College and later received his master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He served as a pastor at Georgia’s Shiloh Baptist Church from 1921 to 1924, and later taught at Morehouse College and South Carolina’s State College at Orangeburg. After a stint at the Tampa Urban League, he worked for the YMCA as national student secretary and then directed a study of African American churches for the Institute of Social and Religious Research. From 1934 to 1940, he acted as dean of Howard University’s School of Religion, before taking up the presidency of Morehouse from 1940 to 1967. He served in several other distinguished posts including the Atlanta Board of Education chairmanship and positions at HEW and the Ford Foundation. Awards earned by Mays include 43 honorary degrees, the Dorie Miller Medal of Honor, and the 1971 Outstanding Older Citizen Award. He died at his Atlanta home on March 21, 1984.

JESSE EDWARD MOORLAND (1863–1940) Archivist, Clergyman

Jesse Moorland was born on September 10, 1863, in Coldwater, Ohio. Following the untimely death of his parents, Moorland was reared by his grandparents. His early education consisted of sporadic attendance at a small rural schoolhouse and being read to by his grandfather. Moorland eventually attended Normal University in Ada, Ohio, married, and taught school in Urbana, Ohio. He went on to attend Howard University in Washington and graduated with a degree in theology in 1891.

Moorland was ordained a congregational minister and, between 1891 and 1896, he served at churches in South Boston, Virginia, Nashville, and Cleveland. In 1891 he also became active in the YMCA, an association he would maintain for much of his life.

In 1909 Moorland’s well-known essay “Demand and the Supply of Increased Efficiency in the Negro Ministry” was published by the American Negro Academy. In it, Moorland called for a more pragmatic ministry, both in terms of the education of its members and its approach to social issues.

By 1910 Moorland had become quite active in the YMCA and was appointed secretary of the Colored Men’s Department. In this position, Moorland raised millions of dollars for the YMCA’s construction and building fund.

Having reached the mandatory retirement age in 1923, Moorland resigned from the YMCA and began devoting his time and considerable energy to other pursuits. Moorland was active with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, the National Health Circle for Colored People, and the Frederick Douglass Home Association.

From 1907 and onward, Moorland served as a trustee of Howard University. In 1914 he donated his private library of African American history to the university. Out of this gift grew the Moorland Foundation. The collection was renamed the Moorland-Spingarn Collection and later renamed the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. This collection of documents on African American history and culture was the first African American research collection at a major American university. Moorland died in New York on April 30, 1940.

ROD PAIGE (1935– ) Secretary of Education

Rod Paige was born on June 17, 1935 in Brookhaven, Mississippi. He attended Lawrence County Training School, where he was a both a solid student and a stand-out football player. His athletic skills earned him a scholarship to Jackson State University, where Paige earned a bachelor of science degree in 1955, graduating with honors. Following graduation, Paige became a head football coach, first at Utica Junior College, and then at Jackson State from 1962–1969. During this period, he also earned a master of science degree in 1964 and a doctorate in physical education in 1969, both from Indiana University.

In 1971, Paige took the coaching job at Texas Southern University. With it came the position of Athletic Director and a faculty appointment. By 1984, he had risen to the post of dean of the school of education. He served in that capacity through 1990. Paige was elected to the Houston Independent School District Board of Education in 1989. He was named district superintendent in 1994. During his tenure, Paige helped to turn around the state’s largest school district by giving more responsibility to effective principals, addressing the issue of unqualified teachers, and making Houston’s schools a safe place for students and faculty. Within five years, the district’s test scores had risen substantially, and the dropout and violent crime rates had fallen.

Paige was honored in 1999 by the Council of Great City Schools, who named him one of the top two educators in the nation. The next year he was named as the first African-American education secretary by President George W. Bush. In his first two years in the post, Paige helped to create and promote the administration’s vision for education reform, which focused on the issues of national assessment testing and school vouchers.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS PATTERSON. SEENATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CHAPTER.

BENJAMIN F. PAYTON (1932– ) Former Tuskegee University President

Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in 1932, Benjamin Franklin Payton took a bachelor’s degree with honors from South Carolina State College in 1955. He earned a B.D. from Howard University in 1958, a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1960, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1963. He took a position as assistant professor at Howard University before working for the National Council of Churches as the Commission on Religion and Race’s executive director of social justice—a position which he retained even as he took over the presidency of Benedict College in 1967. He left Benedict in 1972 for a position at the Ford Foundation, where he remained until he became the president of Tuskegee University in 1981. Payton has sought to increase the visibility of the university during his tenure, and in 1999 he was instrumental in establishing the nation’s first African-American bioethics center on the campus.

Payton holds honorary degrees from Eastern Michigan University, Morris Brown, Benedict, and Morgan State. A recipient of the Napoleon Hill Foundation Gold Medal Award and the Benjamin E. Mays Award, he served as educational advisor to Vice President George Bush on Bush’s seven-nation tour of Africa in 1982. Payton has also served as a member of several organizations including the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the Alabama Industrial Relations Council, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the Executive Board of the National Consortium for Educational Access.

ARTHUR A. SCHOMBURG (1874–1938) Archivist, American Negro Academy President

Born in Puerto Rico in 1874, Arturo Schomburg led a richly varied public life. He worked as a law clerk and was a businessman, journalist, editor, lecturer, New York Public Library curator, and teacher of Spanish.

In 1911 Schomburg co-founded the Negro Society for Historical Research. He was also a lecturer for the United Negro Improvement Association. Schomburg was a member of the New York Puerto Rico Revolutionary Party and served as secretary of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. In 1922 he headed the American Negro Academy, an organization founded by Alexander Crummell in 1879 to promote African American art, literature, and science.

Schomburg, who died on June 10, 1938, collected thousands of works on African American culture over his lifetime. In 1926 Schomburg’s personal collection was purchased by the Carnegie Corporation and given to the New York Public Library. In 1973 the collection became known as the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and History; the name was later changed to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

SHELBY STEELE (1946– ) Scholar

Steele was born January 1, 1946, in Chicago but grew up in Phoenix, Illinois, a blue-collar suburb of Chicago. He attended high school in Harvey, Illinois, where he was student council president his senior year prior to graduating in 1964. Steele then attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was active in SCOPE—an organization associated with Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He graduated in 1968 and, in 1971, received an M.S. in sociology from Southern Illinois University. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Utah in 1974. While at Southern Illinois University, he taught African American literature to impoverished children in East St. Louis. Steele is currently research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, where he concentrates on issues of race.

In 1990 Steele published The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this controversial book, Steele argued that African-American self-doubt and its exploitation by the white and black liberal establishment is as great a cause of problems for African Americans as more traditional forms of racism. He published A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America in 1998. Steele has also written articles on this theme for such respected publications as Harper’s, New Republic, American Scholar, and Commentary.

Because of his beliefs, Steele has been identified as part of an emerging African American neo-conservative movement, but in an interview with Time magazine (August 12, 1991), he categorized himself as a classical liberal focusing on the freedom and sacredness of the individual.

H. PATRICK SWYGERT (1943– ) University President, Lawyer

Since taking office as the 15th president of Howard University in Washington, D.C., H. Patrick Swygert has worked to craft a strategy to move the institution into the twenty-first century. He aims to place the university on a firmer financial footing and sees Howard’s role as one of shaping and implementing an academic and research agenda for African Americans.

Born on March 11, 1943, in Philadelphia, Swygert graduated from Howard University in 1965 with an A.B. degree and received his J.D. from the Howard University School of Law in 1968. After graduation, Swygert was law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Hastie of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit in Philadelphia, and later served as administrative assistant to Congressman Charles B. Rangel. He held various positions at Temple University, first as vice president for university administration, then special counsel to the president, and later acting dean of the law school. He was also a full professor on the law school faculty. After serving as visiting professor at the University of Ghana and Tel Aviv University, he was a visiting lecturer in Cairo, Egypt; Rome, Italy; and Athens, Greece.

Swygert has also held several positions with the U.S. government including general counsel to the U.S. Service Commission. He was president of the State University of New York at Albany for five years, until he became president of Howard University on August 1, 1995. He is committed to sustaining Howard’s stature among higher education institutions that serve African Americans.

IVAN VAN SERTIMA (1935– ) Scholar

Born in British Guyana in 1935, anthropologist, linguist, and literary critic Ivan Van Sertima is currently professor of African studies at Rutgers University.

In 1977 Van Sertima published They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America. Drawing from various disciplines, Van Sertima presents evidence of pre-Columbian contact with the New World by Africans. The book earned him the Clarence L. Holte Prize in 1981, although it also drew criticism from anthropologists who argued that he ignored critical evidence that would disprove his theory.

In 1979 Van Sertima founded The Journal of African Civilizations, which presents a revisionist approach to world history. He is also the author of Caribbean Writers, a collection of essays, and Early America Revisited, published in 1998.

CORNEL WEST. SEE RELIGION CHAPTER.

CLIFTON R. WHARTON JR. (1926– ) Former University President and Deputy Secretary of State

Clifton R. Wharton, born on September 13, 1926, was the first African American to head the largest university system in the United States—the State University of New York. He was also president of Michigan State University and served as chairman and CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund. He also served briefly as President Clinton’s deputy secretary of state.

A native Bostonian, Wharton took a bachelor’s degree cum laude from Harvard in 1947. He received a master’s at Johns Hopkins the following year, as the first African American admitted into the university’s School for Advanced International Studies. In 1956 he took a second M.A. from the University of Chicago, which awarded him a Ph.D. in 1958. Between master’s degrees he worked as a research associate for the University of Chicago. He then proceeded to the Agricultural Development Council, Inc., where he worked for 12 years. He also held a post as visiting professor at the University of Malaya and served as director and eventually vice president of the American Universities Research Program. Wharton took over the presidency of Michigan State in 1970 and stayed there for eight years; he moved on to the SUNY system from 1978 to 1987. He then became chief executive of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), which is the largest pension fund in the world, and later became the first African American to chair the Rockefeller Foundation. Wharton achieved yet another first in 1993 when President Clinton selected him as his deputy secretary of state, the first African American to achieve that post. He was only at the job eight months, however, before he resigned in frustration over political struggles within the administration. He then returned to TIAA as an overseer, and also became a director of the New York Stock Exchange and Harcourt General. As of 2000 he was working as an economist and vice president of the Agricultural Development Council.

Wharton won the President’s Award on World Hunger in 1983 and has earned honorary degrees from more than 45 colleges and universities.

CARTER G. WOODSON (1875–1950) Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History Cofounder, Historian, Writer, Publisher, Black History Month Founder

Often called “The Father of Black History,” Carter Godwin Woodson was a tireless advocate of African American history in school curriculum, the promotion of African American achievements through the work of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History that he co-founded, and the promotion of the African American heritage through Negro History Week (now Black History Month).

Woodson was born to former slaves in 1875, in New Canton, Virginia. In 1898, he studied at Berea College in Kentucky, then taught school in Fayette County, West Virginia. In 1900, he was appointed principal of his alma mater, Douglass High School, then returned to Berea until the school, racially integrated at first, was forced to close its doors to African American students because of the state’s segregation laws. Woodson then studied at the University of Chicago and returned to Berea after it readmitted African Americans.

Woodson then taught school and later served as school supervisor in the Philippines. He spent a semester at the Sorbonne, where he improved his French-speaking skills. He returned to the University of Chicago, where he received a B.A. in 1907 and M.A. degrees in history, romance languages, and literature in 1908. Woodson began studying for his doctorate at Harvard University in 1908 and later taught at several schools in the District of Columbia; his longest tenure was at the M Street High School where he remained from 1911 to 1917. He completed his dissertation and received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912, becoming the second African American man to receive such a degree from that institution (the first was W. E. B. Du Bois).

Deeply devoted to the study and promotion of African American history and to the preservation of the culture of his race, Woodson joined several other men in founding the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History in 1912 (ASALH). Wood-son’s obsession with the history of African Americans remained foremost throughout his life’s work. In 1916, the association began publishing the widely recognized Journal of Negro History.

Woodson held several positions in academia in the District of Columbia: principal of Armstrong Manual Training School (1918–1919); faculty member, dean, and head of the graduate faculty at Howard University (1919–1920); and dean at West Virginia Collegiate Institute (1920–1922). After that, he concentrated on the work of the ASALH. In 1921, he organized Associated Publishers, the publishing arm of ASALH. Among his own works issued by the press were The History of the Negro Church (1921) and The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933).

Woodson remained concerned that young people, teachers, laymen, and others should know about African American history. As a partial solution, beginning February 1926, he promoted a special commemoration, or Negro History Week, to incorporate the birthdays of Booker T. Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass. The celebration had national appeal and, later, in 1976, Negro History Week became Black History Month. To further promote African American history among the schools, Woodson founded the Negro History Bulletin in 1937. On April 3, 1950, Woodson died in Washington, D.C. In 1976, ASALH changed its name to the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History.

HISTORICALLY AND PREDOMINANTLY AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Alabama A&M University
PO Box 908
Normal, AL 35762
Telephone: (800) 553-0816
Web site: www.aamu.edu
Established 1875.

Alabama State University
915 South Jackson Street
Montgomery, AL 36104
Telephone: (800) 253-5037
Web site: www.alasu.edu
Established 1867.

Albany State University
504 College Dr.
Albany, GA 31705
Telephone: (800) 822-7267
Web site: crystal.asurams.edu/asu/
Established 1903.

Alcorn State University
100 ASU Drive
Lorman, MS 39096
Telephone: (800) 222-6790
Web site: www.alcorn.edu
Established 1871.

Allen University
1530 Harden St.
Columbia, SC 29204
Telephone: (803) 376-5780
Established 1870.
Web site: www.allenuniversity.edu/enter.html

Arkansas Baptist College
1600 Bishop St.
Little Rock, AR 72202-6099
Telephone: (501) 374-7856
Established 1884.

Atlanta Metropolitan College
1630 Stewart Avenue, SW
Atlanta, GA 30310
Telephone: (404) 756-4004
Web site: www.atlm.edu/
Established 1974.

Barber-Scotia College
145 Cabarrus Ave.
Concord, NC 28025
Telephone: (800) 610-0778
Established 1867.

Benedict College
Harden and Blanding Sts.
Columbia, SC 29204-1086
Telephone: (800) 868-6598
Web site: www.benedict.edu
Established 1870.

Bennett College for Women
900 E. Washington St.
Greensboro, NC 27401-3239
Telephone: (800) 413-5323
Web site: www.bennett.edu
Established 1873.

Bethune-Cookman College
640 Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114-3099
Telephone: (800) 448-0228
Web site: www.bethune.cookman.edu
Established 1904.

Bishop State Community College
351 N. Broad St.
Mobile, AL 36603-5898
Telephone: (334) 438-6801
Web site: www.bscc.cc.al.us
Established 1965.

Bluefield State College
219 Rock St.
Bluefield, WV 24701
Telephone: (304) 327-4000
Web site: www.bluefield.wvnet.edu
Established 1895.

Bowie State University
14000 Jericho Park Rd.
Bowie, MD 20715-3318
Telephone: (301) 464-3000
Web site: www.bsu.umd.edu
Established 1865.

Central State University
1400 Brush Row Rd.
Wilberforce, OH 45384-9999
Telephone: (800) 388-2781
Web site: www.ces.edu
Established 1887.

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Cheyney, PA 19319-0200
Telephone: (610) 399-2000
Web site: www.cheyney.edu
Established 1837.

Chicago State University
9501 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.
Chicago, IL 60628-1598
Telephone: (773) 995-2000
Web site: www.csu.edu
Established 1867.

Claflin College
College Ave., NE
Orangeburg, SC 29115
Telephone: (803) 534-2710
Web site: www.icusc.org/cchome.htm
Established 1869.

Clark Atlanta University
James P. Brawley Dr. at Fair St., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-4385
Telephone: (404) 880-8000
Web site: www.cau.edu
Established 1988.

Clinton Junior College
PO Box
968 Rock Hill, SC 29731
Telephone: (803) 327-5587
Established 1894.

Coahoma Community College
3240 Friars Point Rd.
Clarksdale, MS 38614-9799
Telephone: (662) 627-2571
Web site: www.ccc.cc.ms.us/
Established 1949.

Compton Community College
1111 E. Artesia Blvd.
Compton, CA 90221-5393
Telephone: (310) 900-1600
Web site: gopher://compton.cc.ca.us
Established 1927.

Concordia College
1804 Green St.
Selma, AL 36701
Telephone: (334) 874-7143
Web site: www.cuis.edu/www/cus/cual.html
Established 1922.

Coppin State College
2500 W. North Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21216-3698
Telephone: (410) 383-5400
Web site: www.coppin.umd.edu
Established 1900.

Cuyahoga Community College, Metropolitan Campus
2900 Community College Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115
Telephone: (216) 987-4000
Web site: www.tri-c.cc.oh.us
Established 1963.

Delaware State University
1200 N. DuPont Hwy.
Dover, DE 19901
Telephone: (302) 857-6353
Web site: www.dsc.edu
Established 1891.

Denmark Technical College
Solomon Blatt Blvd., PO Box 327
Denmark, SC 29042-0327
Telephone: (803) 793-3301
Web site: www.den.tec.sc.us/
Established 1948.

Dillard University
2601 Gentilly Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70122-3097
Telephone: (504) 283-8822
Web site: www.dillard.edu
Established 1869.

J.F. Drake State Technical College
3421 Meridian St.
Huntsville, AL 35811
Telephone: (256) 539-8161
Web site: www.dstc.cc.al.us
Established 1961.

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
1621 E. 120th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90059-3025
Telephone: (323) 563-4800
Web site: www.cdrew.edu
Established 1966.

Elizabeth City State University
Parkview Drive
Elizabeth City, NC 27909
Telephone: (800) 347-3278
Web site: www.ecsu.edu
Established 1891.

Fayetteville State University
1200 Murchison Rd., Newbold Station
Fayetteville, NC 28301-4298
Telephone: (800) 222-2549
Web site: www.uncfsu.edu
Established 1867.

Fisk University
1000 17th Ave., N.
Nashville, TN 37208-3051
Telephone: (615) 329-8500
Web site: www.fisk.edu
Established 1866.

Florida A&M University
1500 Wahnish Way
Tallahassee, FL 32307
Telephone: (850) 599-3000
Web site: www.famu.edu
Established 1887.

Florida Memorial College
15800 NW 42nd Ave.
Miami, FL 33054-6199
Telephone: (800) 553-0816
Web site: www.fmc.edu
Established 1879.

Fort Valley State University
805 State College Drive
Fort Valley, GA 31030-4313
Telephone: (912) 825-6211
Web site: www.fcsc.edu
Established 1895.

Grambling State University
100 Main Street
Grambling, LA 71245-3091
Telephone: (318) 274-2000
Web site: www.gram.edu
Established 1901.

Hampton University
Hampton, VA 23668-0199
Telephone: (800) 624-3328
Web site: www.hamptonu.edu/
Established 1868.

Harris-Stowe State College
3026 Laclede Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63103
Telephone: (314) 340-3366
Web site: www.hssc.edu/
Established 1857.

Hinds Community College, Utica Campus
Highway 18 West
Utica, MS 39175-9599
Telephone: (800) 446-3722
Web site: www.hindscc.edu
Established 1917.

Mary Holmes College
Hwy.50 W., PO Drawer 1257
West Point, MS 39773-1257
Telephone: (601) 494-6820
Web site: www.maryholmes.edu
Established 1892.

Howard University
2400 6th St., NW
Washington, DC 20059-0001
Telephone: (202) 806-6100
Web site: www.howard.edu
Established 1867.

Howard University School of Law
2900 Van Ness St., NW
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: (202) 806-8000
Web site: www.law.howard.edu
Established 1869.

Huston-Tillotson College
1820 East Eighth Street
Austin, TX 78702
Telephone: (512) 505-3000
Web site: www.htc.edu
Established 1876.

Interdenominational Theological Center
700 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
Telephone: (404) 427-7700
Web site: www.itc.edu
Established 1958.

Jackson State University
1400 John R. Lynch St.
Jackson, MS 39217
Telephone: (800) 848-6817
Web site: www.jsums.edu
Established 1877.

Jarvis Christian College
PO Box 1470, Highway 80 W.
Hawkins, TX 75765-9989
Telephone: (903) 769-5700
Web site: www.jarvis.edu
Established 1912.

Kennedy-King College
6800 S. Wentworth Ave.
Chicago, IL 60621-3798
Telephone: (773) 602-5000
Web site: www.ccc.edu/kennedyking/
Established 1976.

Kentucky State University
400 E. Main St., Box PG-92
Frankfort, KY 40601-2355
Telephone: (502) 227-6000
Web site: www.kysu.edu.
Established 1886.

Knoxville College
901 College St.
Knoxville, TN 37921
Telephone: (800) 743-5669
Web site: www.knoxvillecollege.edu/
Established 1875.

LaGuardia Community College
31-10 Thompson Ave.
Long Island City, NY 11101
Telephone: (718) 482-5000
Web site: www.lagcc.cuny.edu
Established 1971.

Lane College
545 Lane Ave.
Jackson, TN 38301
Telephone: (901) 426-7000
Web site: www.lanecollege.edu/
Established 1882.

Langston University
PO Box 907
Langston, OK 73050-0907
Telephone: (405) 466-4000
Web site: www.lunet.edu
Established 1897.

Lawson State Community College
3060 Wilson Rd., SW
Birmingham, AL 35221
Telephone: (205) 925-2515
Web site: www.ls.cc.al.us/
Established 1965.

LeMoyne-Owen College
807 Walker Ave.
Memphis, TN 38126
Telephone: (901) 774-9090
Web site: www.lemoyne-owen.edu/
Established 1862.

Lewis College of Business
17370 Meyers Rd.
Detroit, MI 48235
Telephone: (313) 862-3000
Web site: www.lewiscollege.edu
Established 1906.

Lincoln University (Missouri)
820 Chestnut St.
Jefferson City, MO 65101-9880
Telephone: (573) 681-5000
Web site: www.lincolnu.edu
Established 1866.

Lincoln University of Pennsylvania
Lincoln University
PA 19352
Telephone: (800) 790-0191
Web site: www.lincoln.edu
Established 1854.

Livingstone College
701 W. Monroe St.
Salisbury, NC 28144
Telephone: (704) 797-1000
Web site: www.lsc.edu
Established 1879.

Medgar Evers College of City University of New York
1650 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11225
Telephone: (718) 270-6021
Web site: www.greatcollegetown.com/medgar.html
Established 1969.

Meharry Medical College
1005 D.B. Todd Jr. Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37208
Telephone: (615) 327-6000
Web site: www.mmc.edu
Established 1876.

Miles College
5500 Myron Massey Boulevard
Birmingham, AL 35064
Telephone: (205) 929-1656
Web site: www.miles.edu
Established 1905.

Mississippi Valley State University
14000 Hwy. 82 W.
Itta Bena, MS 38941
Telephone: (662) 254-9041
Web site: www.mcsu.edu
Established 1946.

Morehouse College
830 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
Telephone: (404) 681-2800
Web site: www.morehouse.edu
Established 1867.

Morehouse School of Medicine
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30310-1495
Telephone: (404) 752-1500
Web site: www.msm.edu
Established 1984.

Morgan State University
Cold Spring Lane and Hillen Road
Baltimore, MD 21251
Telephone: (443) 885-3000
Web site: www.morgan.edu
Established 1867.

Morris Brown College
643 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., NW
Atlanta, GA 30314
Telephone: (404) 738-1000
Web site: www.morrisbrown.edu
Established 1881.

Morris College
North Main Street
Sumter, SC 29150
Telephone: (803) 775-9371
Web site: www2.morris.edu/index.asp
Established 1908.

New York City Technical College
300 Jay St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Telephone: (718) 260-5500
Web site: www.nyctc.suny.edu
Established 1946.

Norfolk State University
700 Park Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23504-3989
Telephone: (757) 683-8600
Web site: www.nsu.ed
Established 1935.

North Carolina A&T State University
1601 E. Market St.
Greensboro, NC 27411-0001
Telephone: (336) 334-7500
Web site: www.ncat.edu
Established 1891.

North Carolina Central University
PO Box 19717, Shepherd Station
Durham, NC 27707
Telephone: (919) 560-6100
Web site: www.nccu.edu
Established 1910.

Oakwood College
7000 Adventist Road
Huntsville, AL 35896
Telephone: (256) 726-7000
Web site: www.oakwood.edu
Established 1896.

Paine College
1235 15th St.
Augusta, GA 30910
Telephone: (706) 821-8200
Web site: www.paine.edu
Established 1882.

Prairie View A&M University
PO Box 3089
Prairie View, TX 77446-4019
Telephone: (936) 857-3311
Web site: www.pvamu.edu
Established 1876.

Paul Quinn College
3837 Simpson Stuart Rd.
Dallas, TX 75241-4398
Telephone: (214) 302-3613
Web site: www.pqc.edu
Established 1872.

Roxbury Community College
1234 Columbus Ave.
Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120-3400
Telephone: (617) 541-5310
Web site: www.rcc.mass.edu
Established 1973.

Rust College
150 Rust Ave.
Holly Spring, MS 38635
Telephone: (662) 252-8000
Web site: www.rustcollege.edu
Established 1866.

Saint Augustine’s College
1315 Oakwood Ave.
Raleigh, NC 27611
Telephone: (919) 516-4000
Web site: www.st-aug.edu/
Established 1867.

Saint Paul’s College
406 Windsor Ave.
Lawrenceville, VA 23868-9988
Telephone: (804) 848-3111
Web site: www.saintpauls.edu
Established 1888.

Savannah State University
3219 Falligant Avenue
Savannah, GA 31404-5255
Telephone: (912) 356-2336
Web site: www.savstate.edu
Established 1890.

Selma University
1501 Lapsley St.
Selma, AL 36701
Telephone: (334) 872-2533
Established 1878.

Shaw University
118 E. South St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
Telephone: (919) 546-8200
Web site: www.shawuniversity.edu/
Established 1865.

Shorter College
604 Locust St.
North Little Rock, AR 72114
Telephone: (501) 374-6305
Established 1888.

Simmons University Bible College
1811 Dumesnil St.
Louisville, KY 40210
Telephone: (502) 776-1443
Web site: www.sbcollege.edu/
Established 1879.

Johnson C. Smith University
100 Beatties Ford Rd.
Charlotte, NC 28216
Telephone: (704) 378-1000
Web site: www.jcsu.edu
Established 1867.

Philander Smith College
812 W. 13th St.
Little Rock, AR 72202-3799
Telephone: (501) 370-5310
Web site: www.philander.edu
Established 1877.

Sojourner-Douglass College
500 N. Caroline St.
Baltimore, MD 21205
Telephone: (410) 276-0306
Web site: www.sdc.edu/
Established 1972.

South Carolina State University
300 College St., NE
Orangeburg, SC 29117-0001
Telephone: (803) 536-7000
Web site: www.scsu.edu
Established 1896.

Southern University and A&M University at Baton Rouge
PO Box 9901
Baton Rouge, LA 70813
Telephone: (221) 771-4500
Web site: www.subr.edu
Established 1880.

Southern University at New Orleans
6400 Press Dr.
New Orleans, LA 70126
Telephone: (504) 286-5000
Web site: www.suno.edu
Established 1956.

Southern University at Shreveport
Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.
Shreveport, LA 71107
Telephone: (318) 674-3312
Web site: www.susbo.edu
Established 1964.

Southwestern Christian College
200 Bowser Circle
Terrell, TX 75160
Telephone: (972) 524-3341
Web site: www.swcc.edu/
Established 1949.

Spelman College
350 Spelman Ln., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
Telephone: (404) 681-3643
Web site: www.spelman.edu/
Established 1881.

Stillman College
PO Box 1430, 3600 Stillman Blvd.
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403-1430
Telephone: (205) 349-4240
Web site: www.stillman.edu
Established 1876.

Talladega College
627 W. Battle St.
Talladega, AL 35160-2354
Telephone: (256) 362-0206
Web site: www.talladega.edu
Established 1867.

Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Telephone: (888) 463-6878
Web site: www.tnstate.edu
Established 1912.

Texas College
2404 N. Grand Ave.
Tyler, TX 75712
Telephone: (903) 593-8311
Web site: www.texascollege.edu
Established 1894.

Texas Southern University
3100 Cleburne Ave.
Houston, TX 77004
Telephone: (713) 313-7011
Web site: www.tsu.edu
Established 1947.

Tougaloo College
300 E. County Line Rd.
Tougaloo, MS 39174
Telephone: (601) 977-7700
Web site: www.tougaloo.edu
Established 1869.

Trenholm State Technical College
1225 Air Base Blvd.
Montgomery, AL 36108
Telephone: (334) 832-9000
Web site: www.tstc.cc.al.us
Established 1963.

Tuskegee University
Tuskegee, AL 36088
Telephone: (334) 727-8500
Web site: www.tusk.edu
Established 1881.

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
1200 University Dr.
Pine Bluff, AR 71611
Telephone: (800) 264-6585
Web site: www.uapb.edu
Established 1873.

University of Maryland—Eastern Shore
Princess Anne, MD 21853-1299
Telephone: (410) 651-2200
Web site: www.umes.umd.edu
Established 1886.

University of the District of Columbia
4200 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: (202) 274-5000
Web site: www.udc.edu
Established 1976.

University of the Virgin Islands
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
U.S. Virgin Islands, 00802
Telephone: (340) 776-9200
Web site: www.uvi.edu
Established 1962.

Virginia Seminary and College
2058 Garfield Ave.
Lynchburg, VA 24501
Telephone: (804) 528-5276
Web site: www.vsu.edu
Established 1888.

Virginia State University
Petersburg, VA 23806
Telephone: (804) 524-5000
Web site: www.vsu.edu
Established 1882.

Virginia Union University
1500 N. Lombardy St.
Richmond, VA 23220
Telephone: (804) 257-5600
Web site: www.vuu.edu
Established 1865.

Voorhees College
1411 Voorhees Rd.
Denmark, SC 29042
Telephone: (803) 703-3351
Web site: www.voorhees.edu
Established 1897.

Edward Waters College
1658 Kings Rd.
Jacksonville, FL 32209
Telephone: (904) 366-2715
Established 1866.

Wayne County Community College
801 W. Fort Ave.
Detroit, MI 48226-3010
Telephone: (313) 496-2500
Web site: www.wccc.edu
Established 1967.

West Virginia State College
P.O. Box 1000
Institute, WV 25112-1000
Telephone: (800) 987-2112
Web site: www.wvsc.edu
Established 1891.

Wilberforce University
1055 N. Bickett Rd.
Wilberforce, OH 45384
Telephone: (937) 376-2911
Web site: www.wilberforce.edu
Established 1856.

Wiley College
711 Wiley Ave.
Marshall, TX 75670
Telephone: (800) 658-6889
Web site: www.wiley.edu
Established 1873.

Winston-Salem State University
601 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.
Winston-Salem, NC 27110
Telephone: (336) 750-2000
Web site: www.wssu.edu
Established 1892.

Xavier University of Louisiana
7325 Palmetto St.
New Orleans, LA 70125
Telephone: (504) 486-7411
Web site: www.xula.edu
Established 1915.

RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS

African Heritage Studies Association, Africana Studies & Research Institute, Queens College
65-30 Kissena Blvd.
Flushing, NY 11367
Telephone: (718) 997-2845

Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture
1901 Ft. Pl., S.E.
Washington, DC 20020
Telephone: (202) 287-3369

Association for Study of Afro-American Life and History, Inc.
7961 Eastern Ave., Ste. 301
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Telephone: (301) 587-5900
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.asalh.com

Bennett College for Women, Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity and Inclusion Institute
900 E. Washington St.
Greensboro, NC 27401-3239
Telephone: (336) 517-2272
E-mail: [email protected]

Black Arts Research Center
30 Marion St.
Nyack, NY 10960
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: barc0.tripod.com/

Boston University, African American Studies Center
138 Mountfort St.
Brookline, MA 02146
Telephone: (617) 353-2795
Web site: www.bu.edu/afam/

Bowie State University, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
14000 Jericho Park Rd.
Bowie, MD 20715-3318
Telephone: (301) 464-3000
E-mail: [email protected]

Brooklyn College of City University of New York, Africana Studies
2900 Bedford Ave., 3105 James Hall
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Telephone: (718) 951-5597
Web site: depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/africana/

Brown University, Africana Studies Department
155 Angell St., 2nd Fl., PO Box 1904, Churchill House
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3137
Web site: www.brown.edu/Departments/African_American_Studies/

The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
PO Box 1886
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3080
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.brown.edu/Departments/Race_Ethnicity/index.shtml

The Watson Institute
111 Thayer Street, PO Box 1970
Providence, RI 02912-1970
Telephone: (401) 863-2809
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.watsoninstitute.org/index2.cfm

Center for Third World Organizing
1218 E 21st St.
Oakland, CA 94606
Telephone: (510) 533-7583
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.ctwo.org

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
1621 E 120th St., MP 11
Los Angeles, CA 90059
Telephone: (310) 668-3177
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.cdrewu.edu/

City University of New York, Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC)
365 5th Ave., Rm. 7114
New York, NY 10016-4309
Telephone: (212) 817-2071
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.gc.cuny.edu/research_centers_pages/IRADAC.htm

Claflin University, Center for Excellence in Teaching
400 Magnolia Street
Orangeburg, SC 29115
Telephone: (803) 535-5219
E-mail: [email protected]

Claflin University, Jonathan Jasper Wright Institute for the Study of Southern African History, Culture, and Policy
400 Magnolia Street
Orangeburg, SC 29115
Telephone: (803) 535-5092
E-mail: [email protected]

Claflin University, South Carolina Center for Biotechnology
400 Magnolia Street
Orangeburg, SC 29115
Telephone: (803) 535-5253
E-mail: [email protected]

Clark Atlanta University, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
James P. Brawley Dr. at Fair St. SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-4385
Telephone: (404) 880-6790
Web site: http://www.cau.edu/acad_prog/default.html
Web site: http://www.cbn-atl.org

Clark Atlanta University, Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development
James P. Brawley Dr. at Fair St. SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-4385
Telephone: (404) 880-6763, ext. 6763
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.ccrtd.cau.edu

Clark Atlanta University, Environmental Justice Resource Center
Telephone: (404) 880-6911
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.ejrc.cau.edu

Clark Atlanta University, Research Center for Science and Technology
James P. Brawley Dr. at Fair St. SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-4385
Telephone: (404) 880-6996
Web site: http://www.cau.edu

Clark Atlanta University, Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy
James P. Brawley Dr. at Fair St. SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-4385
Telephone: (404) 880-8087
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.scspp.org/

Clemson University, Charles H. Houston Center for the Study of Black Experience Affecting Higher Education
213 Martin St.
Clemson, SC 29631-1555
Telephone: (864) 656-0313
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.houston.clemson.edu

College of Staten Island of City University of New York, History Department 2N215
2800 Victory Blvd.
Staten Island, NY 10314
Telephone: (718) 982-2870
E-mail: [email protected]

Colorado State University, Center for Applied Studies in American Ethnicity
Clark C127
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1790
Telephone: (970) 491-2418
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.colostate.edu/Depts/CASAE

Columbia College, Center for Black Music Research
600 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605-1996
Telephone: (312) 344-7559
Web site: www.cbmr.org/

Columbia University, The Institute for Research in African-American Studies
758 Schermerhorn Extension, Mail Code 5512, 1200 Amsterdam Ave.
New York, NY 10027
Telephone: (212) 854-7080
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/

Cornell University, Africana Studies and Research Center
310 Triphammer Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14853
Telephone: (607) 255-4625
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.asrc.cornell.edu/

Delaware State University, College of Agriculture and Related Sciences
1200 N Dupont Hwy.
Dover, DE 19901
Telephone: (302) 857-6400
E-mail: [email protected]

Duke University, Center for Documentary Studies
1317 W Pettigrew St.
Durham, NC 27705
Telephone: (919) 660-3663
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www-cds.aas.duke.edu/

Duke University, Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, Division of Student Affairs
201 West Union Bldg., Box 90880
Durham, NC 27708-0880
Telephone: (919) 684-3814
Web site: www.mlw.studentaffairs.duke.edu

Fisk University, Center for Phototonic Materials and Devices
1000 17th Ave.N
Nashville, TN 37208-3051
Telephone: (615) 329-8654
E-mail: [email protected]

Fisk University, Center for Physics and Chemistry of Materials
1000 17th Ave, N
Nashville, TN 37208-3051
Telephone: (615) 329-8654
E-mail: [email protected]

Race Relations Institute
1000 17th Ave., N.
Nashville, TN 37208-3051
Telephone: (615) 329-8575
Web site: www.fiskrri.org

Florida A&M University
PO Box A-19
Tallahassee, FL 32307
Telephone: (850) 599-3325
E-mail: [email protected]

Florida International University, African-New World Studies Program, University Park
1120 SW 8th St.
Miami, FL 33199-0001
Telephone: (305) 348-2000
Web site: www.fiu.edu/~efricana/

Florida State University, African American Studies Program
106 Bellamy Bldg.
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2151
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.fsu.edu/~blkstudy/

Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute
8260 Willow Oaks Corporate Dr., PO Box 10444
Fairfax, VA 22031-4511
Telephone: (703) 205-3570
Web site: www.patterson-uncf.org/rbooks.htm

Hampton University, Center for the Study of the Origin and Structure of Matter
School of Science
Hampton, VA 23668-0199
Telephone: (800) 624-3328
Web site: www.hamptonu.edu/academics/schools/science/cosm/htm

Harvard University, Civil Rights Project
444 Gutman Library
Cambridge, MA 02136
Telephone: (617) 496-6367
Web site: www.law.harvard.edu/civilrights/

The W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Afro-American Research, Barker Center
12 Quincy St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Telephone: (617) 495-4113
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: web-dubois.fas.harvard.edu/

Howard University, Center for Drug Abuse Research
2441 4th St., NW
Washington, DC 20059
Telephone: (292) 806-7340 Web site: www.howard.edu/schooleducation/programs/cdar/htm

Howard University, Center for Urban Progress
1739 7th St., NW
Washington, DC 20001
Telephone: (202) 806-4433
Web site: www.howard.edu/centerurbanprogress

Howard University, The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center
500 Howard Pl. NW
Washington, DC 20059
Telephone: (202) 806-7240
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.founders.howard.edu/moorland-spingarn/default.html

Howard University, National Human Genome Center, College of Medicine
2041 Georgia Avenue, NW, Cancer Center Bldg., Room 615
Washington, DC 20060
Telephone: (202) 806-6284
Web site: www.genomecenter.howard.edu/intro.htm

Howard University, Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center
2218 Sixth St., NW
Washington, DC 20059
Telephone: (202) 806-4363

Indiana State University
Holmstedt Hall, Rm. 315
Terre Haute, IN 47809
Telephone: (812) 237-2436
E-mail: [email protected]

Indiana University Bloomington, Archives of African American Music and Culture
Smith Research Center, Suites 180-181, 2805 E. Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47408-2601
Telephone: (812) 855-8547
Web site: www.indiana.edu/~aaamc/

Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center
275 N. Jordan Ave. Suite A226
Bloomington, IN 47405
Telephone: (812) 855-9271
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.indiana.edu/~aacc

Institute for the Preservation and Study of African-American Writing
PO Box 50172
Washington, DC 20004
Telephone: (202) 727-4047

Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Global Studies in Culture, Power & History
Baltimore, MD 21218
Telephone: (410) 516-7794
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.jhu.edu/~igscph

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
1090 Vermont Ave. NW, Ste. 1100
Washington, DC 20005-4961
Telephone: (202) 789-3500
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.jointcenter.org

Kent State University, Department of Pan-African Studies
101 Oscar Ritchie Hall
Kent, OH 44242-0001
Telephone: (330) 672-2300
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: dept.kent.edu/pas/htmfiles/deptpas.htm

Kentucky State University, Center of Excellence for the Study of Kentucky African Americans
400 E. Main St.
Frankfort, KY 40601

Langston University
Hwy. 33, PO Box 1600
Langston, OK 73050
Telephone: (405) 466-3346
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.lunet.edu/lib/

Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc.
449 Auburn Ave. NE
Atlanta, GA 30312 Telephone: (404) 526-8900
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.thekingcenter.com

Mississippi Valley State University, Delta Cultural Research Institute
14000 Hwy. 82 W.
Itta Bena, MS 38941
Telephone: (662) 254-3794

Mississippi Valley State University, Institute for Effective Teaching
14000 Hwy. 82 W.
Itta Bena, MS 38941
Telephone: (662) 254-3718

Morehouse College, Andrew Young Center for International Affairs
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
Telephone: (404) 215-2746
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.morehouse.edu/centers/andrewyoungctr/index/html

Morehouse College, Bonner Offices of Community Service
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
Telephone: (404) 681-2800, ext. 3360; 2535
E-mail: [email protected]

Morehouse College, Brisbane Institute
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3733
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.morehouse.edu:16080/centers/brisbane/index.html

Morehouse College, Center for Teacher Preparation & Instructional Improvement
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
Telephone: (404) 614-8552
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.morehouse.edu/academics/cenins/center_teach/home.html

Morehouse College, Entrepreneurship Center
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
Telephone: (404) 509-0533
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.morehousecenter.org/

Morehouse College, Leadership Center at Morehouse College
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
Telephone: (404) 614-8565
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.morehouse.edu:16080/centers/leadershipcenter/index.html

Morehouse College, Morehouse Research Institute
160 Euhrlee St.
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
Telephone: (404) 215-2676
Web site: http://www.morehouse.edu:16080/centers/mri/about.html

Morehouse College, Public Health Sciences Institute
720 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.morehouse.edu:16080/centers/phsi/index.html

Morgan State University, Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education0
101 Jenkins Bldg., Cold Spring Lane and Hillen Road
Baltimore, MD 21251
Telephone: (443) 885-3134

Morgan State University, Center for Global Studies
Turners’ Armory Room 208, Cold Spring Lane and Hillen Road
Baltimore, MD 21251
Telephone: (443) 885-4027
Web site: www//jewel.morgan.edu/~cglobal

Morgan State University, Center for Health Disparities Solutions
Montebello Complex, D102, Cold Spring Lane and Hillen Road
Baltimore, MD 21251
Telephone: (443) 885-4030
Web site: www.morgan.edu/academics/special/HealthDisparities.index.asp

Morgan State University, Estuarine Research Center
10545 Mackall Road
St. Leonard, MD 20685-2433
Telephone: (410) 586-9700
Web site: http://jewel.morgan.edu

Morgan State University, Institute for Urban Research
Montebello Complex, D216, 1700 E. Cold Spring Ln.
Baltimore, MD 21251
Telephone: (443) 885-4800
Web site: www.morgan.edu/academics/special/IUR/index.asp

Morgan State University, Minority Mental Health Research Scholars Program
Psychology Department, Cold Spring Lane and Hillen Road
Baltimore, MD 21251
Telephone: (443) 885-2728
Web site: http://jewel.morgan.edu/%7Enimh_cor

Morgan State University, National Transportation Center
Montebello Complex, D206, 1700 E. cold Spring Ln.
Baltimore, MD 21251
Telephone: (443) 885-3666
Web site: www.eng.morgan.edu/~ntc/index.html

National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center
1350 Brush Row Rd., PO Box 578
Wilberforce, OH 45384
Telephone: (937) 376-4944
E-mail: [email protected]

National Black Child Development Institute
1101 15th St. NW, Ste. 900
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: (202) 833-2220
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.nbcdi.org

National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, Inc.
1424 K St. NW, Ste. 500
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: (202) 637-8400
E-mail: [email protected]

National Council for Black Studies, College of Arts & Science
California State University, Dominguez Hills, 1000 E Victoria St.
Carson, CA 90747
Telephone: (310) 243-2169
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.eiu.edu/~ncbs

National Urban League, Research Department
1111 14th St., NW, 6th Fl.
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: (202) 898-1604

New York University, The Institute of African American Affairs
269 Mercer St., Ste. 601
New York, NY 10003-6687
Telephone: (212) 998-2130
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/africana/institute-set.html

Niagara University, Center for the Study and Stabilization of the Black Family
PO Box 367
Niagara University, NY 14109
Telephone: (716) 285-1212

North Carolina A & T State University, Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies
1601 E. Market St.
Greensboro, NC 27411-0001
Telephone: (336) 256-2261
E-mail: [email protected]

North Carolina A & T State University, Institute for Public Health
1601 E. Market St.
Greensboro, NC 27411-0001
Telephone: (336) 256-0858

North Carolina Central University
New Education Bldg., Ste. 2027
Durham, NC 27707
Telephone: (919) 560-6367
E-mail: [email protected]

Northern Illinois University, Center for Black Studies
DeKalb, IL 60115-2854
Telephone: (815) 753-1709
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.niu.edu/depts/cbs/

Ohio University, African American Studies Department
300 Lindley Hall
Athens, OH 45701
Telephone: (740) 593-9178
E-mail: [email protected]

Princeton University, The Program in African American Studies at Princeton
112 Dickinson Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544-1017
Telephone: (609) 258-4270
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.princeton.edu/~aasprog/

Purdue University, African American Studies and Research Center
1367 Steven C. Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education (BRNG)
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1367
Telephone: (765) 494-5680
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/idis/african-american/

Rutgers University, Institute of Jazz Studies
Dana Library, 4th Fl.
Newark, NJ 07102
Telephone: (973) 648-5595
Web site: www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rulib/abtlib/danlib/jazz.htm

Savannah State University, Center of Excellence in Marine Sciences
P.O. Box 20600
Savannah, GA 31404-5255
Telephone: (912) 356-2336

Savannah State University, Center of Excellence in Mass Communications
P.O. Box 20634
Savannah, GA 31404-5255
Telephone: (912) 356-2336

Savannah State University, Center of Excellence in Social Work
P.O. Box 20553
Savannah, GA 31404-5255
Telephone: (912) 356-2336

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Blvd.
New York, NY 10037-1801
Telephone: (212) 491-2200
Web site: www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html

South Carolina State University, Center for Excellence in Transportation
300 College St., NE
Orangeburg, SC 29117-0001
Telephone: (803) 536-8863
E-mail: [email protected]

South Carolina State University, Environmental Policy Institute
300 College St., NE
Orangeburg, SC 29117-0001
Telephone: (803) 536-8863
E-mail: [email protected]

Spelman College, Center for Biomedical Research
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
E-mail: [email protected]

Spelman College, Center for Environmental Sciences Education and Research
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
E-mail: [email protected]

Spelman College, Center for Molecular Biology
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
E-mail: [email protected]

Spelman College, Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
Telephone: (404) 270-5713
Web site: http://www.spelman.edu/academics/research/rise/

Spelman College, MacVicar Health Center for Education and Research
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
E-mail: [email protected]

Spelman College, Minority Access to Research Careers
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www/spelman.edu/academics/research/marc

Spelman College, Model Institutions for Excellence Program
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
E-mail: [email protected]

Spelman College, Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
Telephone: (404) 270-5781
Web site: http://www.spelman.edu/academics/research/rimi/

Spelman College, Women’s Research & Resource Center
350 Spelman Lane, SW, Box 115, Cosby 2nd Floor
Atlanta, GA 30314
Telephone: (404) 681-3643 (Ext. 2161)

Spelman College, Women in Science and Engineering
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
Telephone: (404) 270-5859
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.spelman.edu/academics/research/wise/

State University of New York, New York African American Research Foundation
State University Plaza, Central Administration Bldg.
Albany, NY 12246
Telephone: (518) 443-5798

Temple University, The Center for African American History and Culture
Weiss Hall, Ste. B18, 1701 N 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Telephone: (215) 204-4851
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.temple.edu/caahc

Tennessee State University, Center for Health
3500 John Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Telephone: (888) 463-6878

Tennessee State University, Center of Excellence for Battlefield Sensor Fusion
3500 John Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Telephone: (888) 463-6878

Tennessee State University, Center of Excellence for Research and Policy in Basic Skills
3500 John Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Telephone: (888) 463-6878

Tennessee State University, Center of Excellence in Information Systems
3500 John Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Telephone: (888) 463-6878

Tennessee State University, Small Business Development Center
2500 John Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Telephone: (888) 463-6878

Tulane University, Amistad Research Center
6823 St. Charles Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70118
Telephone: (504) 865-5535
Web site: www.tulane.edu/~amistad/

University at Albany, State University of New York, Department of Africana Studies
Business Administration 115
Albany, NY 12222
Telephone: (518) 442-4730
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.albany.edu/africana/

University of Alabama, Center for Southern History and Culture
PO Box 870342
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0342
Telephone: (205) 348-7467

University of California at Berkeley, The Department of African American Studies
660 Barrows Hall #2572
Berkeley, CA 94720-0318
Telephone: (510) 642-7084
Web site: socrates.berkeley.edu/~africam/

University of California, Los Angeles, Center for African American Studies
160 Haines Hall, Box 951545
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1545
Telephone: (310) 825-7403
Web site: www.sscnet.ucla.edu/caas/

University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Sociology
2201 Hershey Hall, 375 Portola Place
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551
Telephone: (310) 206-7107
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/index.html

University of California, Riverside, Center for the Advanced Studies of the Americas
Humanities Bldg., Rm. 3609
Riverside, CA 92521
Telephone: (909) 787-2196
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site:www.chass.ucr.edu/csbsr/casa.html

University of California, Riverside, Paul Robeson Center for Legal and Historical Research
Humanities Bldg., Rm. 3612
Riverside, CA 92521
Telephone: (909) 787-2196
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.chass.ucr.edu/csbsr/robeson.html

University of California, San Francisco, Center for Aging in Diverse Communities
3333 California St., Ste. 335
San Francisco, CA 94143-0856
Telephone: (415) 476-9933
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: medicine.ucsf.edu/cadc/

University of California, Santa Barbara, Center for Black Studies
South Hall, Rm. 4603
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3140
Telephone: (805) 893-3914
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: research.ucsb.edu/cbs/

University of Charleston, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
125 Bull St.
Charleston, SC 29424
Telephone: (843) 953-7609
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.cofc.edu/~averyrsc

University of Chicago, Committee on African and African-American Studies
5828 S. University Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
Telephone: (773) 702-0902

University of Cincinnati, The Department of African Amercian Studies
P.O. Box 210370
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0370
Telephone: (513) 556-0350
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: asweb.artsci.uc.edu/afamstudies/

University of Connecticut, Institute for African American Studies
241 Glenbrook Rd., Box U2162
Storrs, CT 06269-2162
Telephone: (860) 486-3630
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.ucc.uconn.edu/~aasadm03/

University of Florida, African American Studies Program
330 Little Hall, PO Box 118120
Gainesville, FL 32611
Telephone: (352) 392-5724
Web site: www.clas.ufl.edu/afam/

University of Georgia, Institute for African American Studies
312 Candler Hall
Athens, GA 30602
Telephone: (706) 542-5197
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.uga.edu/~iaas

University of Houston, African American Studies Program
Agnes Arnold Hall, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Houston, TX 77204-3747
Telephone: (713) 743-2811
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.hfac.uh.edu/aas

University of Illinois at Chicago, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
324 CUPPA Hall, M/C 347, College of Urban Planning & Public Affairs, 412 S Peoria
Chicago, IL 60607-7066
Telephone: (312) 996-9145
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.uic.edu/cuppa/irrpp/

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The Afro-American Studies and Research Program
1201 W Nevada St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Telephone: (217) 333-7781
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.aasrp.uiuc.edu

University of Kansas, Institute for Life Span Studies
1028 Dole Center
Lawrence, KS 66045-0048
Telephone: (785) 864-3990
E-mail: [email protected]

University of Maryland at College Park, David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora
2114 Tawes Fine Arts Building
College Park, MD 20742-1211
Telephone: (301) 314-2615
Web site: www.driskellcenter.umd.edu/

University of Maryland at College Park, Nyumburu Cultural Center
Bldg. 232, Ste. 1120, Office of the VP for Academic Affairs
College Park, MD 20742
Telephone: (301) 314-7758
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.inform.umd.edu/nyumburu

University of Massachusetts at Boston, The William Monroe Trotter Institute
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
Telephone: (617) 287-5880
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.trotterinst.org

University of Michigan, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies
106 West Hall Bldg., 550 E University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092
Telephone: (734) 764-5513
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.umich.edu/~iinet/caas/

University of Michigan, The Program for Research on Black Americans
5062 Institute for Social Research, 426 Thompson St., PO Box 1248
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
Telephone: (734) 763-0045
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.isr.umich.edu/rcgd/prba/

University of Mississippi, Center for the Study of Southern Culture
Barnard Observatory
University, MS 38677
Telephone: (662) 232-5993
Web site: www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/

University of Oklahoma, Center for Research on Multi-Ethnic Education
455 Lindsey St., Rm. 804
Norman, OK 73019-0535
Telephone: (405) 325-4529

University of Pennsylvania, Afro-American Studies Program
3451 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Telephone: (215) 898-5000
Web site: www.sas.upenn.edu/afams/

University of Rochester, Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies
302 Morey Hall
Rochester, NY 14627-0440
Telephone: (716) 275-7235

University of Texas at Austin, Center for African and African-American Studies
Jester Center, Rm. A232A, CMC D7200
Austin, TX 78705
Telephone: (512) 471-1784
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.utexas.edu/depts/caaas/

University of Virginia, Center for the Study of Civil Rights
1512 Jefferson Park Ave.
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Telephone: (804) 924-3109

University of Virginia, The Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies
108 Minor Hall, PO Box 400162
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4162
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.virginia.edu/~woodson

University of Wisconsin—Madison, The African Studies Program
205 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Telephone: (608) 262-2380
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/afrst/asphome.html

Vanderbilt University, Kelly Miller Institute on Black Church Studies
411 21st Ave. S
Nashville, TN 37240
Telephone: (615) 343-3981
Web site: divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/kmsi/default.htm

Virginia State University, Center for Diplomacy and International Economics
Petersburg, VA 23806
Telephone: (804) 524-6756

Virginia State University, Institute for Race Relations
Petersburg, VA 23806
Telephone: (804) 524-5556

Virginia State University, Office for International Education
Petersburg, VA 23806
Telephone: (804) 524-5986

Voorhees College, Rural Health Center
5480 Voorhees Road
Denmark, SC 29042
Telephone: (803) 703-1073
E-mail: [email protected]

Voorhees College, James Clyburn Economic Development Center
5480 Voorhees Road
Denmark, SC 29042
Telephone: (803) 703-7021
E-mail: [email protected]

Wayne State University, Walter P. Reuther Library
5401 Cass Ave.
Detroit, MI 48202
Telephone: (313) 577-4024
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.reuther.wayne.edu/

Wesleyan University, Center for African American Studies
343 High St.
Middletown, CT 06459
Telephone: (860) 685-3568
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.wesleyan.edu/afam/

Western Michigan University, Africana Studies Program
330 Moore Hall
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Web site: www.wmich.edu/blackamericanastudies/

Xavier University of Louisiana, Center for International Studies
7325 Palmetto St.
New Orleans, LA 70125
Telephone: (504) 520-5490
E-mail: [email protected]

Xavier University of Louisiana, Center for the Advancement of Teaching
7325 Palmetto St.
New Orleans, LA 70125
Telephone: (504) 520-7477
E-mail: [email protected]

Xavier University of Louisiana, Center for Undergraduate Studies
7325 Palmetto St.
New Orleans, LA 70125
Telephone: (504) 520-7408
E-mail: [email protected]

Yale University, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
PO Box 208206
New Haven, CT 06520-8206
Telephone: (203) 432-3339
Web site: www.library.yale.edu/training/gilderle.htm

AFRICAN AMERICANS HOLDING ENDOWED UNIVERSITY CHAIRS, CHAIRS OF EXCELLENCE, OR CHAIRED PROFESSORSHIPS (2007)

Endowed university chairs are an honor—both for the person for whom the chair is named as well as for the person who is named to the chair. Endowments are bestowed upon academicians of great talent who have distinguished themselves in their careers. Usually an organization separate from a collegiate institution will approach a university in hopes of setting up a chair and endowment fund. The reverse may also occur, as universities seek funds to attract, support, and recognize distinguished faculty by having a chair endowed for them. Such chairs may also bring a level of prestige to the institution.

In 2001, 136 African American professors were known to hold endowed chairs, including at least ten of those named for African Americans. Many such professors have either retired from endowed chairs, are professors emeriti, or are deceased, including T. J. Anderson (Tufts University); David C. Driskell (University of Maryland); Edgar G. Epps (University of Chicago); John Hope Franklin (three: Cambridge University, Duke University, and University of Chicago); James Lowell Gibbs Jr. (Stanford University); Edmund Gordon (Columbia Teachers College); Harry E. Groves (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); James E. Jones Jr. (University of Wisconsin); Barbara C. Jordan (University of Texas at Austin); C. Eric Lincoln (Duke University and Clark University); Bertha Maxwell-Roddy (University of North Carolina, Charlotte); Samuel DeWitt Proctor (Rutgers University); William H. Peterson (Campbell University); Charlotte H. Scott (University of Virginia); Nathan A. Scott (University of Virginia); John B. Turner (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); and Marilyn V. Yarborough (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

By 2007, twenty-two chairs have been identified as endowed and named for African American men and women, including Sterling A. Brown, Ray Charles, Constance E. Clayton, William and Camille Cosby, Charles R. Drew, W. E. B. Du Bois, Grace Towns Hamilton, Benjamin L. Hooks, John E. Jacob, James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones, Ernest Everett Just, Martin Luther King Jr., James M. Lawson, LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., Benjamin E. Mays, Wade H. McCree Jr., Ronald E. McNair, Willa B. Player, Samuel DeWitt Proctor, Paul Robeson, and Roy Wilkins. At least 186 African American scholars scattered throughout the country now hold endowed chairs.

Kofi Agawu, Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University.

Delores P. Aldridge, Grace Towns Hamilton Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, Emory University.

Gloria Long Anderson, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry, Morris Brown College.

Maya Angelou, Reynolds Professor of American Studies, Wake Forest University.

Regina Austin, William A. Schnader Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania.

Mario J. Azevedo, Frank Porter Graham Professor, University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Randall Bailey, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Hebrew Bible, Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta.

Houston A. Baker Jr., Distinguished University Professor, Vanderbilt University.

Oscar A. Barbarin, L. Richardson and Emily Preyer Bicentennial Distinguished Professor for Strenghthening Families, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Elizabeth Barron, Clarence Jupiter Professor in the Humanities, Xavier University of Louisiana

Colin O. Benjamin, Eminent Scholar, Management/International Business, Florida A & M University.

Estrada J. Bernard Jr., Van L. Weatherspoon Jr. Professor of Neurosurgery and Chief, Division of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania.

Richard J. M. Blackett, Andrew Jackson Chair of History, Vanderbilt University.

Lawrence Bobo, Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor, Stanford University.

Thomas Bonner, W. K. Kellogg Professor of English, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Gerald Boodoo, The Drexel Society Professor of Black Catholic Studies, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Kofi Bota, K. A. Huggins Professor of Chemistry, Clark Atlanta University.

Joanne M. Braxton, Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of English and the Humanities, College of William and Mary.

Frank Brown, Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Herrington J. Bryce, Life of Virginia Professor of Business Administration, College of William and Mary.

Roy S. Bryce-Laporte, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology, Colgate University.

Robert Bullard, E. A. Ware Professor of Sociology, Clark Atlanta University.

Walter G. Bumphus, Professor and Sid W. Richardson Regents Fellow, Community College Leadership Program, University of Texas at Austin.

John S. Butler, The Herb Keller Chair in Entrepreneurship and Small Business, and The Gale Chair in Entrepreneurship, University of Texas at Austin.

Carolyn M. Callahan, Doris M. Cook Chair of Accounting, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas

Clive O. Callender, LaSalle D. Leffall Professor of Surgery, Howard University College of Medicine.

John O. Calmore, Reef C. Ivey II Research Professor of Law, UNC Law School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

J. W. Carmichael, Xavier University State of Louisiana Chair in Sciences, Xavier University of Louisiana

Loftus C. Carson II, Ronald D. Krist Professor in Law, University of Texas at Austin.

Stephen L. Carter, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Yale University Law School.

Robert G. Clark, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Delta Cutural Research Institute, Mississippi Valley State University.

Pearl Cleage, Cosby Endowed Chair, Humanities, Spelman College.

Richard Collins, RosaMary Foundation Professor of English, Xavier University of Louisiana

James P. Comer, Maurice K. Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University.

William W. Cook, Israel Evans Professor of Oratory and Belles Lettres, Dartmouth College.

Xavier Creary, Charles L. Huisking Professor of Chemistry, University of Notre Dame.

William A. Darity Jr., Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Economics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Research Professor of Public Policy Studies, African American Studies and Economics, Duke University.

Leon Dash, Swanlund Professor of Journalism, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

N. Gregson G. Davis, Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Duke University.

Thadious M. Davis, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Thought and Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania.

Addie Dawson-Euba, Community Coffee/Frank Hayden Professor of Visual Arts, Southern University A & M College, Baton Rouge.

Charles Edward Daye, Henry P. Brandis Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dennis C. Dickerson. James M. Lawson Chair of History, Vanderbilt University.

Katherine Dobie, Endowed Professor, Economics and Transportation/Logistics Institute, North Carolina A & T State University.

Gary Donaldson, John LaFarge Professor of Social Justice, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Ronald Dorris, Class of’58 Professor of Liberal Arts, Xavier University of Louisiana

Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English, University of Virginia.

Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

Gerald Early, Merle S. Kling Professor of Modern Letters, Washington University in St. Louis.

Harry J. Elam Jr., Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University..Donna Y. Ford, Betts Chair of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University.

Edward Fort, Endowed Professor, School of Education, North Carolina A & T State University.

Frances Smith Foster, Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women’s Studies, Emory University.

Henry Frye, Distinguished Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, North Carolina A & T State University.

Vivian Gadsen, William T. Carter Professor in Child Development in Education, University of Pennsylvania.

Steven H. Gale, Endowed Professor of Humanities, Whitney M. Young Jr. College of Leadership Studies, Kentucky State University.

Oscar H. Gandy Jr., Herbert I. Schiller Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

Jacquelyn Grant, Fuller E. Calloway Professor of Systematic Theology, Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta.

Fannie Gaston-Johansson, Elsie M. Lawler Professor, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University.

Sylvester James Gates Jr., John S. Toll Professor of Physics, University of Maryland.

Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, The Zellerbach Family Fund Chair in Social Policy, Community Change and Practice, University of California at Berkeley.

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Associate Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, Colby College.

Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor, Virginia Tech University.

Richard A. Goldsby, John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer and Professor of Biology, Amherst College.

Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University.

William B. Gould IV, Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Stanford University.

Kenneth Gray, Eminent Scholar, Management/ International Business, Florida A & M University.

Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, Spelman College.

John H. Hall Jr., Bruce Rauner Professor of Chemistry, Morehouse College.

Raymond L. Hall, Orvil Dryfoos Professor of Public Affairs, Department of Sociology, Dartmouth College.

Michael S. Harper, I. J. Kapstein Professor of English, Brown University.

Trudier Harris, J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Winifred Harris, Howard Hughes Professor of Biology, Clark Atlanta University.

J. K. Haynes, David E. Packard Professor in Science, Morehouse College.

James A. Hefner, Thomas and Patricia Frist Chair of Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Tennessee State University.

Asa Grant Hilliard III, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education, Georgia State University.

Darlene Clark Hine, Board of Trustees Professor of African American Studies and History, Northwestern University.

Matthew Holden Jr., Henry L. and Grace M. Doherty Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia.

Karla F.C. Holloway, William Rand Kenan Professor of English, Duke University.

Robert Holmes, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Clark Atlanta University.

Thomas Holt, James Westphall Thompson Professor, Department of History, University of Chicago.

Alton E. Hornsby, Fuller E. Calloway Professor of History, Morehouse College.

James O. Horton, Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History, George Washington University.

Maureen Hurley, Claude H. and Elizabeth Organ Professor of Biology, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Tasha R. Inniss, Clare Booth Luce Professor of Mathematics, Trinity College, Washington, D.C.

Shubha Ireland, W. K. Kellogg Professor of Liberal Arts, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Edward Irons, Distinguished Professor of Finance, Clark Atlanta University.

Jacqueline Irvine, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Urban Education, Emory University.

Francesina R. Jackson, Evelyn Berry Chair of Education, Paine College.

Willie Jennings, Research Professor of Theology and Black Church/Cultural Studies, Duke University.

Charles Johnson, S. Wilson and Grace Pollock Professorship for Excellence in English, University of Washington.

James H. Johnson Jr., William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Richard A. Joseph, Asa G. Candler Professor of Politics, Department of Political Science, Emory University.

Kathleen Kennedy, Malcolm Ellington Professor of Pharmacy, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Preston King, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership Studies, Morehouse College.

Paul Kwame, Curb/Beaman Chair for the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Fisk University.

David Lanoue, W. K. Kellogg Professor of Teaching II, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education, Harvard University.

LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery, Howard University College of Medicine.

David Levering Lewis, Julius Silver University Professor and professor of history, New York University.

Richard A. Long, Atticus Haygood Professor, Emory University.

Kenneth R. Manning, Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and the History of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ali Mazrui, Albert Schweitzer Professor of Political Science, SUNY, Binghamton.

Reuben R. McDonald Jr., Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Regents Chair in Health Care Management, University of Texas at Austin.

Patricia McFadden, Cosby Endowed Chair, Social Sciences, Spelman College.

John McFaddon, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Benjamin Elijah Mays Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina.

Donald E. McHenry, Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy and International Affairs, Georgetown University.

Ruth G. McRoy, Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor in Services to Children and Families, University of Texas at Austin.

Ronald E. Mickens, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Physics, Clark Atlanta University.

Ivor Mitchell, Christine McEachern Smith Professor of Marketing, Clark Atlanta University.

Joseph Monroe, Jefferson Pilot/Ronald McNair Professor of Computer Science and Dean of the College of Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University.

Kathleen Morgan, Keller Foundation Professor of Science, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Toni Morrison, Robert F. Goheen Professor, Council of the Humanities, Princeton University.

John Howard Morrow Jr., Franklin Professor of History, University of Georgia.

V. Y. Mudimbe, Newman Ivey White Professor of Literature, Duke University.

Samuel L. Myers Jr., Roy Wilkins Professor of Human Relations and Social Justice, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Celestine A. Ntuen, Distinguished Professor, Cognitive Engineering Simulation, Human-Machine Systems Engineering, North Carolina A & T State University

Tumani Nyajeka, Dorothye and Cornelius Henderson Chair and E. Stanley Jones Associate Professor, Interdenominational Theological Seminary, Atlanta.

Robert G. O’Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University.

Bernard Oliver, Ewing Kauffman/Missouri Chair, School of Education, University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Reginald Owens, F. Jay Taylor Eminent Scholar of Journalism, Louisiana Tech University.

Nell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of American History Emerita, Princeton University.

Colin Palmer, Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University.

Peter J. Paris, Elmer G. Hornrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Princeton Theological Seminary.

Nell A. Parker, Herbert G. Kayser Professor of Civil Engineering, City University of New York, City College.

Orlando H. L. Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology, Harvard University.

Charles Payne, Sally Dalton Robinson Professor of History, African American Studies, and Sociology, Duke University.

Gayle Pemberton, William Rand Kenan Professor of the Humanities, Wesleyan University.

Arlie O. Petters, William & Sue Gross Associate Professor of Mathematics, Duke University.

Leslie Pollard, Callaway Professor of History, Paine College.

Richard I. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art History, Duke University.

Albert Jordy Raboteau, Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion, Princeton University.

Arnold Rampersad, Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University.

William J. Raspberry, Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy, Dewitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, Duke University.

Joe Ritchie, Knight Professor of Journalism, School of Journalism, Media and Graphic Arts, Florida A&M University.

Rosalie Richards, Kaolin Endowed Chair in Science, Georgia College and State University.

John R. Rickford, Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of Linguistics, Stanford University.

Charlotte H. Scott, University Professor of Commerce and Education, University of Virginia.

John Scott, Victor Labat Professor of Fine Arts, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Lemma W. Senbet, William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, University of Maryland at College Park. This is as she submitted

William Serban, Ernest N. Morial Professor of Public Affairs and Public Policy, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Lonnie Sharpe Jr., Massie Chair of Excellence, Professorship of Engineering in the Environmental Disciplines, Tennessee State University.

George Shirley, Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Professor of Voice, University of Michigan.

Diana T. Slaughter-Defoe, Constance E. Clayton Professor in Urban Education, University of Pennsylvania.

Jessie Carney Smith, William and Camille Cosby Professor of the Humanities and University Librarian, Fisk University.

Earl Smith, Dr. Ernest Rubin Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies, Wake Forest University.

Edwin M. Smith, Leon Benwell Professor of Law, University of Southern California.

Barbara J. Solomon, Stein/Sachs Professor, University of Southern California.

Jon Michael Spencer, Tyler and Alice Haynes Professor of American Studies, University of Richmond.

Margaret Beale Spencer, Board of Overseers Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Pennsylvania.

Hortense Spillers, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor, Vanderbilt University.

Susan Spillman, William Arcenaux Professor of French, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Claude M. Steele, Lucie Sterns Professor in the Social Sciences, Stanford University.

Cheryl Klein Stevens, Margaret W. Kelly Professor of Chemistry, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Chuck Stone, Walter Spearman Professor Emeritus, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dorothy S. Strickland, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Professor of Education; State of New Jersey Professor of Reading, Rutgers University.

Lawrence Strout, BellSouth Professor of Communications, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Quintard Taylor, The Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History, University of Washington.

Stephen B. Thomas, Philip Hallen Chair in Community Health and Social Justice, School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh.

Gerald E. Thomson, Samuel Lambert Professor of Medicine, Columbia University.

Susanne Tropez-Sims, Joy McCann Endowed Professor, Meharry Medical College.

Shirley Verrett, James Earl Jones Distinguished Professor of Voice, University of Michigan.

Gloria Wade-Gayles, The Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair, Spelman College.

Sheila S. Walker, Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor and Director, Center for African and Afro-American Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin.

Maurice O. Wallace, William R. Kenan Professor of English, Duke University.

Jerry W. Ward Jr., Lawrence Durgin Professor of English, Tougaloo College.

John Ware, Keller Foundation Professor of Arts and Humanities, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Leland Ware, Louis L. Redding Professor for the Study of Law and Public Policy, University of Delaware.

Isiah M. Warner, Philip W. West Professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Louisiana State University.

Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor, Princeton University.

Michael White, The Rosa and Charles Keller Jr. Chair in the Arts and Humanities, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Kevin Eric Whitfield, Research Professor, Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University.

Roger W. Wilkins, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture, George Mason University.

DeWayne Wickham, Distinguished Professor, Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies, North Carolina A & T State University.

James H. Williams Jr., School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Excellence, Charles F. Hopewell Faculty Fellow, and professor of applied mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John A. Williams, Paul Robeson Professor of English, Rutgers University.

John E. Williams, Mills Bee Lane Professor of Banking and Finance, Morehouse College.

Lisa R. Williams, Oren Harris Chair in Logistics, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.

Preston Noah Williams, Houghton Research Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change; Director, Summer Leadership Institute, Harvard University.

Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Professor of Economics, George Mason University.

Scott C. Williamson, Robert H. Walkup Professor of Theological Ethics, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Type of school attended by student and household characteristics: 1993 and 2003 [In percent, except total in thousands (33,900 represent 33,900,000). For students in grades 1 to 12. Includes homeschooled students enrolled in public or private school, 9 or more hours per week. Based on the Parent and Family Involvement Survey of the National Household Education Survey Program; see source and appendix III for details]
	Public				Private
	Assigned		Chosen		Church-related		Not church-related
Characteristic	1993	2003	1993	2003	1993	2003	1993	2003
¹Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
SOURCE: U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, Condition of Education, 2004, NCES 2004-077, June 2004.
Total students (1,000)	33,900	35,300	4,700	7,400	3,200	4,000	700	1,100
Percent distribution	79.9	73.9	11.0	15.4	7.5	8.4	1.6	2.4
Grade level:
1 to 5	78.6	71.6	11.6	16.6	8.3	9.7	1.5	2.1
6 to 8	81.3	75.0	9.9	14.5	7.4	7.9	1.5	2.5
9 to 12	80.6	76.0	11.2	14.4	6.5	6.9	1.8	2.6
Race/ethnicity:
White, non-Hispanic	81.0	74.7	8.6	12.9	8.6	9.7	1.8	2.7
Black, non-Hispanic	77.2	68.1	18.6	24.0	3.4	5.7	0.8	2.2
Other, non-Hispanic	73.0	70.1	14.9	19.3	9.0	7.2	3.1	3.4
Hispanic¹	79.2	77.9	13.7	15.1	6.4	6.2	0.7	0.8
Family type:
Two-parent household	80.1	73.6	9.3	14.1	8.8	9.7	1.8	2.6
One-parent household	78.9	74.5	15.2	18.3	4.8	5.3	1.1	1.9
Nonparent guardians	83.7	74.7	13.5	20.0	2.1	3.7	0.7	1.5
Parents’ education:
Less than high school	83.6	77.6	13.7	19.7	2.4	2.1	0.2	0.6
High school diploma or equilvalent	83.5	79.3	11.4	15.8	4.6	3.7	0.5	1.2
Some college, including vocational/technical	79.8	75.8	11.1	15.8	7.7	6.7	1.4	1.7
Bachelor’s degree	75.8	69.0	9.2	13.7	12.5	14.5	2.6	2.8
Graduate/professional degree	72.7	66.2	9.8	14.1	13.1	14.1	4.4	5.6
Region:
Northeast	77.8	73.5	9.3	11.6	10.5	11.0	2.4	3.9
South	82.0	75.9	10.9	15.8	5.4	8.1	1.7	2.1
Midwest	79.6	71.6	10.4	14.4	9.2	12.1	0.8	1.9
West	78.7	73.6	13.4	18.6	6.5	5.8	1.5	2.0

William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University.

Herbert Graves Winful, The Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan.

May L. Wykle, Florence Cellar Professor of Nursing, Florence Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University.

College Population by Selected Characteristics: 1998 [In thousands (209,831 represents 209,831,000), except percent. As of October. For persons 15 years old and over. Based on the Current Population Survey.]
		Enrolled in college
			Type of school				Percent employed
Characteristic	Total population	Total	2-year	4-year	Graduate school	Percent enrolled full time	Total	Full time	Part time
¹Includes other races, not shown separately.
²Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P20-521.
Total¹	209,831	15,546	4,234	8,275	3,037	65.5	63.7	33.6	30.1
Male	101,114	6,905	1,845	3,777	1,284	67.6	62.6	34.7	27.9
Female	108,718	8,641	2,389	4,499	1,754	63.9	64.6	32.8	31.8
White	175,028	12,401	3,389	6,632	2,379	64.6	65.9	34.1	31.8
Black	25,117	2,016	628	1,063	326	63.7	61.9	39.1	22.8
Hispanic origin²	21,817	1,363	640	560	164	58.8	62.1	37.0	25.1
15 to 19 years old	19,752	3,793	1,301	2,447	45	88.9	48.6	9.7	38.9
20 and 21 years old	7,131	3,092	701	2,318	73	86.6	56.7	16.8	39.9
22 to 24 years old	10,474	2,561	619	1,406	537	73.8	64.5	30.3	34.2
25 to 34 years old	38,601	3,414	838	1,261	1,314	45.0	75.2	54.6	20.6
35 years and older	133,871	2,685	772	839	1,070	26.4	77.6	63.3	14.3

College enrollment—summary by sex, race and Hispanic origin: 2003 [In thousands (16,638 represents 16,638,000), except percent. As of October. Covers civilian noninstitutional population 15 years old and over enrolled in colleges and graduate schools. Based on Current Population Survey, see text, Section 1, Population and Appendix III]
	Race and Hispanic origin
		Sex		White²
Characteristic	Total¹	Male	Female	Total	Non-Hispanic	Black²	Asian²	Hispanic³
¹ Includes other races, not shown separately. ² For persons who selected this race group only. ³ Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, unpublished data. See Internet site <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html>.
Total enrollment²	16,638	7,318	9,319	12,870	11,295	2,144	1,162	1,714
15 to 17 years old	150	61	89	100	90	28	16	12
18 to 19 years old	3,512	1,568	1,944	2,833	2,486	374	209	379
20 and 21 years old	3,533	1,551	1,982	2,796	2,419	415	219	407
22 to 24 years old	3,320	1,578	1,742	2,521	2,225	435	264	329
25 to 29 years old	2,164	982	1,181	1,585	1,371	289	228	224
30 to 34 years old	1,330	607	723	960	832	214	108	156
35 years old and over	2,630	970	1,660	2,075	1,872	388	116	207
Type of school:
2-year	4,384	1,782	2,603	3,320	2,741	654	221	626
					763	143	74	171
15 to 19 years old	1,178	544	634	910	959	237	87	244
20 to 24 years old	1,589	700	889	1,193	1,019	274	61	211
25 years old and over	1,618	538	1,080	1,217
4-year	8,985	4,120	4,865	7,069	6,224	1,156	533	918
					1,795	250	152	217
15 to 19 years old	2,455	1,079	1,376	2,003	3,158	541	312	461
20 to 24 years old	4,547	2,133	2,415	3,577	1,271	365	69	240
25 years old and over	1,983	908	1,075	1,488
Graduate school	3,268	1,416	1,852	2,481	2,331	334	408	170
15 to 24 years old	745	302	443	566	545	81	85	33
25 to 34 years old	1,399	685	714	1,025	957	122	234	75
35 years old and over	1,123	429	694	889	829	131	90	61
Public	13,109	5,711	7,399	10,102	8,743	1,773	833	1,480
2-year	3,999	1,619	2,381	3,032	2,499	601	194	578
4-year	6,981	3,173	3,808	5,468	4,739	942	377
Graduate	2,129	919	1,210	1,602	1,505	230	262	790
								112
Percent of students:
Employed full-time	31.7	34.1	29.8	32.2	32.4	34.7	20.6	30.9
Employed part-time	45.7	46.5	45.1	49.2	49.9	29.8	32.4	44.7

Degrees earned by level and race/ethnicity: 1981 to 2003 [For school year ending in year shown. Based on survey; see Apppendix III]
	Total						Percent distribution
Level of degree and race/ethnicity	1981¹	1985¹	1990	1995	2002²	2003²	1981	2003²
¹ Excludes some persons whose race/ethnicity was unknown and are slight undercounts of degrees awarded. ² In this table, data beginning in 2000 reflect the new classification of instutitutions. SOURCE: U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, annual.
Associate’s degrees, total	410,174	429,815	455,102	538,691	564,933	632,912	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	339,167	355,343	376,816	420,656	408,772	437,794	82.7	69.2
Black, non-Hispanic	35,330	35,791	34,326	47,067	60,221	75,430	8.6	11.9
Hispanic	17,800	19,407	21,504	35,962	51,573	66,175	4.3	10.5
Asian or Pacific Islander	8,650	9,914	13,066	20,677	27,782	32,610	2.1	5.2
American Indian/Alaskan Native	2,584	2,953	3,430	5,482	6,497	7,462	0.6	1.2
Nonresident alien	6,643	6,407	5,960	9,847	10,088	13,441	1.6	2.1
Bachelor’s degrees, total	934,800	968,311	1,051,344	1,160,134	1,237,875	1,348,503	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	807,319	826,106	887,151	914,610	929,106	994,234	86.4	73.7
Black, non-Hispanic	60,673	57,473	61,046	87,236	108,013	124,241	6.5	9.2
Hispanic	21,832	25,874	32,829	54,230	75,059	89,030	2.3	6.6
Asian or Pacific Islander	18,794	25,395	39,230	60,502	77,912	87,943	2.0	6.5
American Indian/Alaskan Native	3,593	4,246	4,390	6,610	8,719	9,816	0.4	0.7
Nonresident alien	22,589	29,217	26,698	36,946	39,066	43,239	2.4	3.2
Master’s degrees, total	294,183	280,421	324,301	397,629	457,056	512,645	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	241,216	223,628	254,299	293,345	320,485	341,735	82.0	66.7
Black, non-Hispanic	17,133	13,939	15,336	24,166	35,874	44,272	5.8	8.6
Hispanic	6,461	6,864	7,892	12,905	19,253	24,974	2.2	4.9
Asian or Pacific Islander	6,282	7,782	10,439	16,847	23,218	27,245	2.1	5.3
American Indian/Alaskan Native	1,034	1,256	1,090	1,621	2,246	2,837	0.4	0.6
Nonresident alien	22,057	26,952	35,245	48,745	55,980	71,582	7.5	14.0
Doctor’s degrees, total	32,839	32,307	38,371	44,426	44,808	46,024	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	25,908	23,934	26,221	27,846	27,843	27,698	78.9	60.2
Black, non-Hispanic	1,265	1,154	1,149	1,667	2,246	2,517	3.9	5.5
Hispanic	456	677	780	984	1,305	1,561	1.4	3.4
Asian or Pacific Islander	877	1,106	1,225	2,689	2,420	2,426	2.7	5.3
American Indian/Alaskan Native	130	119	98	130	160	196	0.4	0.4
Nonresident alien	4,203	5,317	8,898	11,130	10,834	11,626	12.8	25.3
First-professional degrees, total	71,340	71,057	70,988	75,800	80,057	80,810	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	64,551	63,219	60,487	59,402	59,637	58,678	90.5	72.6
Black, non-Hispanic	2,931	3,029	3,409	4,747	5,555	5,715	4.1	7.1
Hispanic	1,541	1,884	2,425	3,231	3,865	4,086	2.2	5.1
Asian or Pacific Islander	1,456	1,816	3,362	6,396	8,584	9,790	2.0	12.1
American Indian/Alaskan Native	192	248	257	413	564	586	0.3	0.7
Nonresident alien	669	861	1,048	1,611	1,852	1,955	0.9	2.4

Educational attainment by race and Hispanic origin: 1960 to 2004 [In percent. For persons 25 years old and over. 1960, 1970, and 1980 as of April 1 and based on sample data from the censuses of population. Other years as of March, and based on the Current Population Survey; see text, Section 1, Population, and Appendix III.]
					Hispanic³
Year	Total¹	White²	Black³	Asian and Pacific Islander²	Total⁴	Mexican	Puerto Rican	Cuban
NA Not available. ¹Includes other races, not shown separately. ²The 2003 Current Population Survey (CPS) allowed respondents to choose more than one race. Beginning 2003 data represent persons who selected this race group only and exclude persons reporting more than one race. The CPS in prior years only allowed respondents to report one race group. See also comments on race in the text for Section 1. ³Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. ⁴Includes persons of other Hispanic origin, not shown separately. ⁵Though 1990, completed 4 years of high school or more and 4 years of college or more. ⁶Starting in 2003, data are for Asians only, excludes Pacific Islanders.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Census of Population, U.S. Summary, PC80-1-C1 and Current Population Report P20-550, and earlier reports, unpublished data, and data published on the Internet. See Internet site <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html>.
High school graduate or more⁵
1960	41.1	43.2	20.1	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
1970	52.3	54.5	31.4	(NA)	32.1	24.2	23.4	43.9
1980	66.5	68.8	51.2	(NA)	44.0	37.6	40.1	55.3
1990	77.6	79.1	66.2	80.4	50.8	44.1	55.5	63.5
1995	81.7	83.0	73.8	(NA)	53.4	46.5	61.3	64.7
2000	84.1	84.9	78.5	85.7	57.0	51.0	64.3	73.0
2001	84.1	84.8	78.8	87.6	56.8	50.7	64.6	72.2
2002	84.1	84.8	78.7	87.4	57.0	50.6	66.8	70.8
2003	84.6	85.1	80.0	87.6⁶	57.0	50.9	69.7	70.8
2004	85.2	85.8	80.6	86.8	58.4	51.9	71.8	72.1
College graduate or more⁵
1960	7.7	8.1	3.1	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
1970	10.7	11.3	4.4	(NA)	4.5	2.5	2.2	11.1
1980	16.2	17.1	8.4	(NA)	7.6	4.9	5.6	16.2
1990	21.3	22.0	11.3	39.9	9.2	5.4	9.7	20.2
1995	23.0	24.0	13.2	(NA)	9.3	6.5	10.7	19.4
2000	25.6	26.1	16.5	43.9	10.6	6.9	13.0	23.0
2001	26.2	26.6	15.7	47.5	11.1	7.8	12.9	19.3
2002	26.7	27.2	17.0	47.2	11.1	7.6	14.0	18.6
2003	27.2	27.6	17.3	49.8⁶	11.4	7.8	12.3	21.6
2004	27.7	28.2	17.6	49.4	12.1	7.9	14.0	24.0

Educational attainment by race, Hispanic origin, and sex: 1960 to 2004 [In percent]
	All races¹		White²		Black²		Asian and Pacific Islander²		Hispanic ³
Year	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
NA Not available. ¹Includes other races, not shown separately. ²Beginning 2003 for persons who selected this race group only. ³Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. ⁴Through 1990, completed 4 years of high school or more and 4 years of college or more. ⁵Starting in 2003, data are for Asians only, excludes Pacific Islanders.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Census of Population, 1960, 1970 and 1980, Vol. 1; and Current Population Reports, P20-550, and earlier reports; and data published on the Internet. See Internet site <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html>.
High school graduate or more⁴
1960	39.5	42.5	41.6	44.7	18.2	21.8	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
1970	51.9	52.8	54.0	55.0	30.1	32.5	(NA)	(NA)	37.9	34.2
1980	67.3	65.8	69.6	68.1	50.8	51.5	(NA)	(NA)	67.3	65.8
1990	77.7	77.5	79.1	79.0	65.8	66.5	84.0	77.2	50.3	51.3
1995	81.7	81.6	83.0	83.0	73.4	74.1	(NA)	(NA)	52.9	53.8
2000	84.2	84.0	84.8	85.0	78.7	78.3	88.2	83.4	56.6	57.5
2001	84.1	84.2	84.4	85.1	79.2	78.5	90.3	85.1	55.5	58.0
2002	83.8	84.4	84.3	85.2	78.5	78.9	89.5	85.5	56.1	57.9
2003	84.1	85.0	84.5	85.7	79.6	80.3	89.5	86.0	56.3	57.8
2004	84.8	85.4	85.3	86.3	80.4	80.8	88.7⁵	85.0⁵	57.3	59.5
College graduate or more⁴
1960
1970	9.7	5.8	10.3	6.0	2.8	3.3	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
1980	13.5	8.1	14.4	8.4	4.2	4.6	(NA)	(NA)	7.8	4.3
1990	20.1	12.8	21.3	13.3	8.4	8.3	(NA)	(NA)	9.4	6.0
1995	24.4	18.4	25.3	19.0	11.9	10.8	44.9	35.4	9.8	8.7
2000	26.0	20.2	27.2	21.0	13.6	12.9	(NA)	(NA)	10.1	8.4
2001	27.8	23.6	28.5	23.9	16.3	16.7	47.6	40.7	10.7	10.6
2002	28.2	24.3	28.7	24.0	15.3	16.1	52.3	43.2	10.8	11.4
2003	28.5	25.1	29.1	25.4	16.4	17.5	50.9	43.8	11.0	11.2
2004	28.9	25.7	29.4	25.9	16.7	17.8	53.9	46.1	11.2	11.6
	29.4	26.1	30.0	26.4	16.6	18.5	53.7⁵	45.6⁵	11.8	12.6

Students who are homeschooled by selected characteristics: 2003 [As of spring. (50,707 represents 50,707,000). For students 5 to 17 with a grade equivalent of K-12. Homeschoolers are students whose parents reported them to be schooled at home instead of a public or private school. Excludes students who were enrolled in school for more than 25 hours a week or were homeschooled due to a temporary illness. Based on the Parent and Family Involvement Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program; see source and Appendix III for details]
	Number of students			Percent distribution
Characteristic	Total (1,000)	Home-schooled (1,000)	Precent home schooled	All students	Home-schooled	Non-homeschooled
¹Excludes those ungraded. ²Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
SOURCE: U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program, unpublished data.
Total	50,707	1,096	2.2	100.0	100.0	100.0
Grade equivalent:¹
K-5	24,269	472	1.9	47.9	43.3	48.0
Kindergarten	3,643	98	2.7	7.2	9.0	7.2
Grades 1 to 3	12,098	214	1.8	23.9	19.7	24.0
Grades 4 to 5	8,528	160	1.9	16.8	14.7	16.9
Grades 6 to 8	12,472	302	2.4	24.6	27.8	24.5
Grades 9 to 12	13,958	315	2.3	27.5	28.9	27.5
Sex:
Male	25,819	569	2.2	50.9	51.9	50.9
Female	24,888	527	2.1	49.1	48.1	49.1
Race/ethnicity:
White, non-Hispanic	31,584	843	2.7	62.3	77.0	62.0
Black, non-Hispanic	7,985	103	1.3	15.7	9.4	15.9
Hispanic²	8,075	59	0.7	15.9	5.3	16.2
Other²	3,063	91	3.0	6.0	8.3	6.0
Number of children in the household:
One child	8,005	110	1.4	15.8	10.1	16.0
Two children	20,510	308	1.5	40.4	28.0	40.8
Three or more children	22,192	679	3.1	43.8	62.0	43.3
Number of parents in the household:
Two parents	35,936	886	2.5	70.9	80.8	70.7
One parent	13,260	196	1.5	26.2	17.9	26.3
Nonparental guardians	1,511	14	0.9	3.0	1.3	3.0
Parents’ participation in the labor force:
Two parents-one in the labor force:	10,545	594	5.6	20.8	54.2	20.1
Two parents-both in labor force	25,108	274	1.1	49.5	25.0	50.1
One parent in labor force	12,045	174	1.4	23.8	15.9	23.9
No parent in labor force	3,008	54	1.8	5.9	4.9	6.0
Household income:
$25,000 or less	12,375	283	2.3	24.4	25.8	24.4
$25,001 to 50,000	13,220	311	2.4	26.1	28.4	26.0
$50,001 to 75,000	10,944	264	2.4	21.6	24.1	21.8
$75,001 or more	14,167	238	1.7	27.9	21.7	28.0
Parents’ highest educational attainment:
High school diploma or less	16,106	269	1.7	31.8	24.5	31.9
Voc/tech degree or some college	16,068	338	2.1	31.7	30.8	31.7
Bachelor’s degree	9,798	274	2.8	19.3	25.0	19.2
Graduate/professional school	8,734	215	2.5	17.2	19.6	17.2

Proficiency test scores for selected subjects, by characteristic: 1977 to 2001 [Based on The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Tests which are administered to a representative sample of students in public and private schools. Reading, writing, mathematics, and social science based on NAEP Long-Term Assessments. Test scores can range from 0 to 500, except as indicated. For details, see source]
							Parental education
		Sex		Race					More than high school
Test and year	Total	Male	Female	White ¹	Black ¹	Hispanic origin	Less than high school	High school	Total	Some college	College graduate
NA Not available. ¹Non-Hispanic ²Writing scores revised from previous years; previous writing scores were recorded on a 0to400 rather than 0 to 500 scale.³Civics uses a scale of 0 to 300.
SOURCE: U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, annual, and NAEP 1998 Civics Report Card for the Nation; and NAEP 2001 Geography and History Report Card for the Nation.
Reading
9 year olds:
1979–80	215	210	220	221	189	190	194	213	226	(NA)	(NA)
1987–88	212	208	216	218	189	194	193	211	220	(NA)	(NA)
1998–99	212	209	215	221	186	193	199	206	220	(NA)	(NA)
13 year olds:
1979–80	259	254	263	264	233	237	239	254	271	(NA)	(NA)
1987–88	258	252	263	261	243	240	247	253	265	(NA)	(NA)
1998–99	259	254	265	267	238	244	238	251	270	(NA)	(NA)
17 year olds:
1979–80	286	282	289	293	243	261	262	278	299	(NA)	(NA)
1987–88	290	286	294	295	274	271	267	282	300	(NA)	(NA)
1998–99	288	282	295	295	264	271	265	274	298	(NA)	(NA)
Writing2
4th graders:
1983–84	204	201	208	211	182	189	179	192	217	208	218
1987–88	206	199	213	215	173	190	194	199	212	211	212
1995–96	207	200	214	216	182	191	190	203	(NA)	205	214
8th graders:
1983–84	267	258	276	272	247	247	258	261	276	271	278
1987–88	264	254	274	269	246	250	254	258	271	275	271
1995–96	264	251	276	271	242	246	245	258	(NA)	270	274
11th grade:
1983–84	290	281	299	297	270	259	274	284	299	298	300
1987–88	291	282	299	296	275	274	276	285	298	296	299
1995–96	283	275	292	289	267	269	260	275	(NA)	287	291
Mathematics
9 year olds:
1977–78	219	217	220	224	192	203	200	219	231	230	231
1985–86	222	222	222	227	202	205	201	218	231	229	231
1998–99	232	233	231	239	211	213	214	224	(NA)	237	240
13 year olds:
1977–78	264	264	265	272	230	238	245	263	280	273	284
1985–86	269	270	268	274	249	254	252	263	278	274	280
1998–99	276	277	275	283	251	259	256	264	(NA)	279	286
17 year olds:
1977–78	300	304	297	306	268	276	280	294	313	305	317
1985–86	302	305	299	308	279	283	279	293	310	305	314
1998–99	308	310	307	315	283	293	289	299	(NA)	308	317
Science
9 year olds:
1976–77	220	222	218	230	175	192	199	223	233	237	232
1985–86	224	227	221	232	196	199	204	220	235	236	235
1998–99	229	231	228	240	199	206	213	218	(NA)	234	237
13 year olds:
1976–77	247	251	244	256	208	213	224	245	264	260	266
1985–86	251	256	247	259	222	226	229	245	262	258	264
1998–99	256	259	253	266	227	227	229	243	(NA)	261	268
17 year olds:
1976–77	290	297	282	298	240	262	265	284	304	296	309
1985–86	289	295	282	298	253	259	258	277	300	295	304
1998–99	295	300	291	306	254	276	264	281	(NA)	297	307
History, 2001
4th graders	209	209	209	220	188	186	177	177	(NA)	214	216
8th graders	262	264	261	271	243	243	243	241	(NA)	264	270
12th graders	287	288	286	292	269	267	274	263	(NA)	287	296
Geography, 2001
4th graders	209	212	207	222	181	184	186	197	(NA)	216	216
8th graders	262	264	260	273	234	240	238	250	(NA)	265	272
12th graders	285	287	282	291	260	270	263	274	(NA)	286	294
Civics,1997–98³
4th graders	150	149	151	159	132	126	124	153	(NA)	150	153
8th graders	150	148	152	159	133	127	123	144	(NA)	143	160
12th graders	150	148	152	158	131	130	124	140	(NA)	145	160

School enrollment by race, Hispanic origin, and age: 1980 to 2003
[47,673 represents 47,673,000]
	White¹			Black¹			Hispanic origin ²
Age	1980	1990	2003	1980	1990	2003	1980	1990	2003
NA Not available.
¹Beginning 2003 for persons who selected this race group only. ²Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, PPL-148; and earlier PPL and P-20 reports; and data published on the Internet. See Internet site <http:/www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html>.
Enrollment (1,000)
Total 3 to 34 years old	47,673	48,899	55,218	8,251	8,854	10,971	4,263	6,073	11,679
3 and 4 years old	1,844	2,700	3,550	371	452	714	172	249	728
5 and 6 years old	4,781	5,750	5,670	904	1,129	1,049	491	835	1,386
7 to 13 years old	19,585	20,076	21,377	3,598	3,832	4,541	2,009	2,794	5,073
14 and 15 years old	6,038	5,265	6,427	1,088	1,023	1,315	568	739	1,415
16 and 17 years old	5,937	4,858	6,311	1,047	962	1,267	454	592	1,242
18 and 19 years old	3,199	3,271	3,812	494	596	651	226	329	614
20 and 21 years old	2,206	2,402	2,890	242	305	458	111	213	454
22 to 24 years old	1,669	1,781	2,559	196	274	459	93	121	353
25 to 29 years old	1,473	1,706	1,621	187	162	297	84	130	240
30 to 34 years old	942	1,090	1,001	124	119	220	54	72	174
35 years old and over	1,104	2,096	2,173	186	238	438	(NA)	145	250
Enrollment rate
Total 3 to 34 years old	48.9	49.5	55.4	53.9	51.9	59.2	49.8	47.4	49.6
3 and 4 years old	36.3	44.9	55.3	38.2	41.6	55.6	28.5	29.8	43.7
5 and 6 years old	95.8	96.5	94.7	95.4	96.3	94.4	94.5	94.8	91.6
7 to 13 years old	99.2	99.6	98.3	99.4	99.8	98.3	99.2	99.4	98.0
14 and 15 years old	98.3	99.1	97.3	97.9	99.2	97.9	94.3	99.0	96.7
16 and 17 years old	88.6	92.5	95.0	90.6	91.7	94.3	81.8	85.4	92.1
18 and 19 years old	46.3	57.1	64.4	45.7	55.2	61.9	37.8	44.1	50.5
20 and 21 years old	31.9	41.0	48.2	23.4	28.4	41.3	19.5	27.2	33.7
22 to 24 years old	16.4	20.2	26.7	13.6	20.0	27.4	11.7	9.9	16.1
25 to 29 years old	9.2	9.9	11.0	8.8	6.1	12.2	6.9	6.3	6.2
30 to 34 years old	6.3	5.9	6.2	6.8	4.4	8.6	5.1	3.6	4.6
35 years old and over	1.3	2.1	1.8	1.8	2.1	2.8	(NA)	2.1	1.8

School Enrollment by Race, Hispanic Origin, and Age: 1980 to 1998
[As of October (47,673 represents 47,673,000). Covers civilian noninstitutional population enrolled in nursery school and above. Based on Current Population Survey.]
	White			Black			Hispanic origin ¹
Age	1980	1990	1998	1980	1990	1998	1980	1990	1998
NA Not available. ¹Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P20-521; and earlier reports.
ENROLLMENT (1,000)
Total 3 to 34 years old	47,673	48,899	44,898	8,251	8,854	10,800	4,263	6,073	9,274
3 and 4 years old	1,844	2,700	2,623	371	452	731	172	249	565
5 and 6 years old	4,781	5,750	4,805	904	1,129	1,321	491	835	1,316
7 to 13 years old	19,585	20,076	17,776	3,598	3,832	4,426	2,009	2,794	4,037
14 and 15 years old	6,038	5,265	5,031	1,088	1,023	1,167	568	739	1,018
16 and 17 years old	5,937	4,858	4,978	1,047	962	1,153	454	592	908
18 and 19 years old	3,199	3,271	3,394	494	596	732	226	329	487
20 and 21 years old	2,206	2,402	2,270	242	305	402	111	213	287
22 to 24 years old	1,669	1,781	1,772	196	274	298	93	121	275
25 to 29 years old	1,473	1,706	1,407	187	162	344	84	130	227
30 to 34 years old	942	1,090	842	124	119	226	54	72	154
35 years old and over	1,104	2,096	2,062	186	238	358	(NA)	145	253
ENROLLMENT RATE
Total 3 to 34 years old	48.9	49.5	56.0	53.9	51.9	59.2	49.8	47.4	50.3
3 and 4 years old	36.3	44.9	54.2	38.2	41.6	58.3	28.5	29.8	39.7
5 and 6 years old	95.8	96.5	96.0	95.4	96.3	95.3	94.5	94.8	93.3
7 to 13 years old	99.2	99.6	98.9	99.4	99.8	98.6	99.2	99.4	98.9
14 and 15 years old	98.3	99.1	98.9	97.9	99.2	98.8	94.3	99.0	96.8
16 and 17 years old	88.6	92.5	95.1	90.6	91.7	92.9	81.8	85.4	89.1
18 and 19 years old	46.3	57.1	66.8	45.7	55.2	61.1	37.8	44.1	40.3
20 and 21 years old	31.9	41.0	48.9	23.4	28.4	39.9	19.5	27.2	25.6
22 to 24 years old	16.4	20.2	26.3	13.6	20.0	20.8	11.7	9.9	16.3
25 to 29 years old	9.2	9.9	11.5	8.8	6.1	13.9	6.9	6.3	8.7
30 to 34 years old	6.3	5.9	6.3	6.8	4.4	8.8	5.1	3.6	5.5
35 years old and over	1.3	2.1	2.0	1.8	2.1	2.5	(NA)	2.1	2.3

High School Dropouts by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1975 to 1998
[In percent. As of October]
Item	1975	1980	1985	1990 ¹	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
¹Beginning 1990 reflects new editing procedures for cases with missing data on school enrollment. ²Percent of students who drop out in a single year without completing high school. For grades 10 to 12. ³Includes other races, not shown separately. ⁴Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. ⁵Percent of the population who have not completed high school and are not enrolled, regardless of when they dropped out. For persons 18 to 24 years old.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P20-521.
EVENT DROPOUTS²
Total³	5.8	6.0	5.2	4.0	4.0	4.3	4.2	5.0	5.4	4.7	4.3	4.4
White	5.4	5.6	4.8	3.8	3.7	4.1	4.1	4.7	5.1	4.5	4.2	4.4
Male	5.0	6.4	4.9	4.1	3.6	3.8	4.1	4.6	5.4	4.8	4.9	4.4
Female	5.8	4.9	4.7	3.5	3.8	4.4	4.1	4.9	4.8	4.1	3.5	4.4
Black	8.7	8.3	7.7	5.1	6.2	4.9	5.4	6.2	6.1	6.3	4.8	5.0
Male	8.3	8.0	8.3	4.1	5.5	3.3	5.7	6.5	7.9	4.6	4.1	4.6
Female	9.0	8.5	7.2	6.0	7.0	6.7	5.0	5.7	4.4	7.8	5.7	5.5
Hispanic⁴	10.9	11.5	9.7	8.0	7.3	7.9	5.4	9.2	11.6	8.4	8.6	8.4
Male	10.1	16.9	9.3	8.7	10.4	5.8	5.7	8.4	10.9	9.2	10.4	8.6
Female	11.6	6.9	9.8	7.2	4.8	8.6	5.0	10.1	12.5	7.6	6.7	8.2
STATUS DROPOUTS⁵
Total³	15.6	15.6	13.9	13.6	14.2	12.7	12.7	13.3	13.9	12.8	13.0	13.9
White	13.9	14.4	13.5	13.5	14.2	12.2	12.2	12.7	13.6	12.5	12.4	13.7
Male	13.5	15.7	14.7	14.2	15.4	13.3	13.0	13.6	14.3	12.9	13.8	15.7
Female	14.2	13.2	12.3	12.8	13.1	11.1	11.5	11.7	13.0	12.1	10.9	11.7
Black	27.3	23.5	17.6	15.1	15.6	16.3	16.4	15.5	14.4	16.0	16.7	17.1
Male	27.8	26.0	18.8	13.6	15.4	15.5	15.6	17.5	14.2	17.4	17.5	20.5
Female	26.9	21.5	16.6	16.2	15.8	17.1	17.2	13.7	14.6	14.7	16.1	14.3
Hispanic⁴	34.9	40.3	31.5	37.3	39.6	33.9	32.7	34.7	34.7	34.5	30.6	34.4
Male	32.6	42.6	35.8	39.8	44.4	38.4	34.7	36.1	34.2	36.2	33.2	39.7
Female	36.8	38.1	27.0	34.5	34.5	29.6	31.0	33.1	35.4	32.7	27.6	28.6

High school dropouts by race and Hispanic origin: 1975 to 2003
[In percent. As of October]
Item	1975	1980	1985	1990¹	1995	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
¹ Beginning 1990, reflects new editing procedures for cases with missing data on school enrollment. ²Percent of students who drop out in a single year without completing high school. For grades 10 to 12. ³Includes other races, not shown separately. ⁴Beginning 2003, for persons who selected this race group only. ⁵Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. ⁶Percent of the population who have not completed high school and are not enrolled, regardless of when they dropped out. For persons 18 to 24 years old. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, PPL-148; and earlier PPL and P-20 reports; and data published on the Internet. See Internet site <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html>.
Event dropouts²
Total³	5.8	6.0	5.2	4.5	5.4	4.3	4.4	4.7	4.5	4.7	3.3	3.9
White⁴	5.4	5.6	4.8	3.9	5.1	4.2	4.4	4.4	4.3	4.6	3.0	3.7
Male	5.0	6.4	4.9	4.1	5.4	4.9	4.4	4.1	4.7	5.3	3.0	3.9
Female	5.8	4.9	4.7	3.8	4.8	3.5	4.4	4.7	4.0	3.8	3.0	3.4
Black⁴	8.7	8.3	7.7	7.7	6.1	4.8	5.0	6.0	5.6	5.7	4.4	4.5
Male	8.3	8.0	8.3	6.9	7.9	4.1	4.6	5.2	7.6	6.1	5.1	4.1
Female	9.0	8.5	7.2	8.6	4.4	5.7	5.5	6.8	3.8	5.4	3.8	4.9
Hispanic⁵	10.9	11.5	9.7	7.7	11.6	8.6	8.4	7.1	6.8	8.1	5.3	6.5
Male	10.1	16.9	9.3	7.6	10.9	10.4	8.6	6.9	7.1	7.6	6.2	7.7
Female	11.6	6.9	9.8	7.7	12.5	6.7	8.2	7.3	6.5	8.7	4.4	5.4
Status dropouts⁶
Total ³	15.6	15.6	13.9	14.4	13.9	13.0	13.9	13.1	12.4	13.0	12.3	11.8
White⁴	13.9	14.4	13.5	14.1	13.6	12.4	13.7	12.8	12.2	13.4	12.2	11.6
Male	13.5	15.7	14.7	15.4	14.3	13.8	15.7	13.9	13.5	15.3	13.7	13.3
Female	14.2	13.2	12.3	12.8	13.0	10.9	11.7	11.8	10.9	11.4	10.6	9.8
Black⁴	27.3	23.5	17.6	16.4	14.4	16.7	17.1	16.0	15.3	13.8	14.6	14.2
Male	27.8	26.0	18.8	18.6	14.2	17.5	20.5	16.3	17.4	16.9	16.9	16.7
Female	26.9	21.5	16.6	14.5	14.6	16.1	14.3	15.7	13.5	11.0	12.5	12.0
Hispanic⁵	34.9	40.3	31.5	37.7	34.7	30.6	34.4	33.9	32.3	31.7	30.1	28.4
Male	32.6	42.6	35.8	40.3	34.2	33.2	39.7	36.4	36.8	37.1	33.8	31.7
Female	36.8	38.1	27.0	35.0	35.4	27.6	28.6	31.1	27.3	35.5	25.6	24.7

Degrees Earned by Level and Race/Ethnicity: 1981 to 1997
[For school year ending in year shown. Data exclude some institutions not reporting field of study and are slight undercounts of degrees awarded]
	Total						Percent distribution
Level of degree and race/ethnicity	1981	1985	1990	1995	1996	1997	1981	1997
SOURCE: U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, annual.
Associate’s degrees, total	410,174	429,815	450,263	538,545	553,625	563,620	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	339,167	355,343	369,580	419,323	425,028	424,364	82.7	75.3
Black, non-Hispanic	35,330	35,791	35,327	47,142	51,672	55,260	8.6	9.8
Hispanic	17,800	19,407	22,195	36,013	38,163	42,645	4.3	7.6
Asian or Pacific Islander	8,650	9,914	13,482	20,717	23,091	24,829	2.1	4.4
American Indian/Alaskan Native	2,584	2,953	3,530	5,492	5,556	5,927	0.6	1.1
Nonresident alien	6,643	6,407	6,149	9,858	10,115	10,595	1.6	1.9
Bachelor’s degrees, total	934,800	968,311	1,048,631	1,158,788	1,163,036	1,168,023	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	807,319	826,106	884,376	913,377	904,709	898,224	86.4	76.9
Black, non-Hispanic	60,673	57,473	61,063	87,203	91,166	94,053	6.5	8.1
Hispanic	21,832	25,874	32,844	54,201	58,288	61,941	2.3	5.3
Asian or Pacific Islander	18,794	25,395	39,248	60,478	64,359	67,969	2.0	5.8
American Indian/Alaskan Native	3,593	4,246	4,392	6,606	6,970	7,409	0.4	0.6
Nonresident alien	22,589	29,217	26,708	36,923	37,544	38,427	2.4	3.3
Master’s degrees, total	294,183	280,421	322,465	397,052	405,521	414,882	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	241,216	223,628	251,690	292,784	297,558	302,541	82.0	72.9
Black, non-Hispanic	17,133	13,939	15,446	24,171	25,801	28,224	5.8	6.8
Hispanic	6,461	6,864	7,950	12,907	14,412	15,187	2.2	3.7
Asian or Pacific Islander	6,282	7,782	10,577	16,842	18,161	18,477	2.1	4.5
American Indian/Alaskan Native	1,034	1,256	1,101	1,621	1,778	1,924	0.4	0.5
Nonresident alien	22,057	26,952	35,701	48,727	47,811	48,529	7.5	11.7
Doctor’s degrees, total	32,839	32,307	38,113	44,427	44,645	45,394	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	25,908	23,934	25,880	27,826	27,756	28,344	78.9	62.4
Black, non-Hispanic	1,265	1,154	1,153	1,667	1,636	1,847	3.9	4.1
Hispanic	456	677	788	984	999	1,098	1.4	2.4
Asian or Pacific Islander	877	1,106	1,235	2,690	2,646	2,607	2.7	5.7
American Indian/Alaskan Native	130	119	99	130	158	173	0.4	0.4
Nonresident alien	4,203	5,317	8,958	11,130	11,450	11,325	12.8	24.9
First-professional degrees, total	71,340	71,057	70,744	75,800	76,641	77,815	100.0	100.0
White, non-Hispanic	64,551	63,219	60,240	59,402	59,456	59,852	90.5	76.9
Black, non-Hispanic	2,931	3,029	3,410	4,747	5,016	5,251	4.1	6.7
Hispanic	1,541	1,884	2,427	3,231	3,476	3,553	2.2	4.6
Asian or Pacific Islander	1,456	1,816	3,362	6,397	6,617	7,037	2.0	9.0
American Indian/Alaskan Native	192	248	257	412	463	511	0.3	0.7
Nonresident alien	669	861	1,048	1,611	1,613	1,611	0.9	2.1