Introduction

African American Studies is vital to the mission of the academy and transformative for students, educators, and communities. The discipline continues to evolve in the twenty- fi rst century, is proven to be resilient, and should be sustained. The story of African American Studies has always been about finding a place to stand—securing a footing in the academy, finding a clearing (opening) for pedagogy, and being integral to the process of discovering, transmitting, and creating knowledge without the Black focus being assimilated, diluted or commodified by the (typically) White power structure within the academy.

Up to this point, much of the narrative of African American Studies is cast within the politicized frame of Black liberation and self- determination amidst White resistance and strategies that foster second- class citizenship or institutional vulnerability. But at its core, African American Studies is more than freedom as opposition; it is freedom as greater understanding and expression. It not only challenges the academy, but revitalizes it through its systematic enquiries into: (1) African modes of thought and traditions; (2) the international impact of the Diaspora; (3) American culture (past, present, and future); and (4) theoretical perspectives on race (forged experientially from the vantage point of the oppressed).

Maulana Karenga says the “very meaning of Black Studies” is “to speak African people's special cultural truth and make their own unique contribution to the flow of human history”—not just as a “variant discourse,” but as a specific and unique field of study.

On student days

JRD I’d like to begin our interview by asking you about back in the 1960s so that we can cover your experience of the history of the student movement at San Francisco State College. I know you were involved in the efforts for Black Studies so I want you to recall the genesis of the student action and your collective motivations and goals and your hopes. You’ve talked before to me about the “collective vision.”

DG I think there are very unique circumstances which bring people together at any moment and, without a doubt, for an historic moment. It was not only what happened with the students at San Francisco State, but what was happening in the community surrounding the area. And that's the moment at the center. Most of my activity took place within and around specific communities. We had a distinct Hispanic community, a distinct Asian community, and two distinct African American communities. One was Hunter's Point and the other Fillmore, now called Western Addition. All of those communities intersect in some way. San Francisco State was unique also because, being a teachers’ college, in order to provide opportunities for work- study for students, they had tutorial programs.

What I think happened, and was important, was that the BSU [Black Student Union] was able to recognize, even though we were a small minority on the campus, the inherent power that lies within the structure that existed.

The story of African American Studies is one of strength, resilience, accomplishment, and empowerment. African American Studies scholars have, and will continue to have, unique and far- reaching contributions within universities—intellectually, aesthetically, spiritually, politically, and culturally. At the same time, in many ways, African American Studies exemplifi es the quintessential story of race in the United States, with all the challenges, power dynamics, and hard- fought successes too long in coming. As with the larger national context, so goes it for African American Studies. We have come a long way, but still have a long way to go.

With a history reaching back to Black intellectual education pioneers like W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, E. Franklin Frazier, and many others, within the field of education and in other professional arenas, and reaching beyond to scholars, activists, and artists in Africa and the Diaspora, African American Studies has a remarkable foundation. Building on that foundation, professors and students, and people from the community, in the late 1960s demanded that education within the “ivory towers” become relevant to Black students and other students of color, with their efforts coming to fruition in the birth of formal Black Studies. Since then, African American Studies has continued to grow. In measurable ways, development in scholarship, curriculum building, and creative production has been extraordinary.

To understand African American Studies, one must understand the historical context, the ongoing political and institutional struggle existing for programs and departments.

Jeanette R. Davidson's volume marks a valuable moment for recognition of the status that African- American Studies has achieved as a body of knowledge and a field of studies. This is a book about accomplishments in African American Studies and, in some cases, about recognizing that fundamental cultural issues do not get resolved so much as reframed. This book marks a point of maturity in which, for the first time, it is possible to see African American Studies—with nearly half a century of history behind it—in the act of renewing itself for the twenty- first century.

This renewal is strengthened by the presence in this volume of figures synonymous with innovative inquiry. Molefi Asante is the principal figure who has defined Afrocentricity in African American Studies. The actor and director Danny Glover reflects on African Americans in fi lm and the arts. Manning Marable, Charles Jones, and Nafeesa Muhammad explore the dimension of social activism that is inextricable in African American Studies, and they are joined by a cadre of talented scholars who investigate the arts and social thought in a manner in keeping with the Black intellectual tradition.

This volume also shows that, beneath the interpretation of the social sciences and the arts in African American Studies, is a deeper concern. This volume demonstrates that the great power of African American Studies has never been limited to its choice of areas to investigate, but includes a commitment to critique the relationship of race and power in America—the relationship of the African American community and American society at large.

On the commitment to the public

JRD You have intimated that you believe Black Studies should be for the public. I wanted to ask first, what exactly do you mean by that and why is it important?

MM For me, Black Studies is the African American intellectual tradition. It is grounded in, and an analysis of, the lived experience of Black folk through their history and the consciousness derived from that experience. African American Studies is the interdisciplinary interrogation of that experience. As a body of critical texts, it has over the years acquired certain characteristics. African American Studies is, first and perhaps foremost, “descriptive.” It provides, if we use Geertz's expression, “thick description.”

It provides a thick description, a nuanced approach to the realities of Black life, of love, of work, of faith, of activism, of triumph and tragedy. It is a thick description of Black life as Black people understand it to be. It is “corrective” in that much of Black Studies literature is a defense of the humanity of Black people. So much of the Social Sciences, and especially the Natural Science literature about people of African descent, is a running “dis” of Black people. So someone has to defend us as human beings and our innate capacities like other human beings to think, to reason, and to be worthy of civil and human rights. And so Black Studies defends Black people and it is “prescriptive.” Black Studies seeks not only to interpret but to transform the world in ways that empower Black people.