Black Faculty Embrace Challenge, Opportunity

Black faculty in the College say they have a responsibility, and an opportunity, that their colleagues may not share.

Their scholarship and teaching involve giving voice to a perspective that until the 1960s, was not heard in higher education.

"I feel a special pressure to encourage, to recognize and to legitimize the experience of a group of people the academy has tended to disregard, undervalue, to rate as lesser or inferior," says J. Lorand Matory, professor of Afro-American studies and anthropology.

Furthermore, black professors often feel that their students expect them to represent the vast and diverse black community.

"I think that there are some proportion of white students who look at me and don't just see professor but see Black Professor." Matory says. "They want to see what Black Professor has to say about X, Y and Z."

Because of their race, black professors such as Lawrence D. Bobo say they have "a heigtened social pressure to be a positive role model."

It is an obligation conferred on them "whether one wants it or not and whether one thinks it fair or not," says Bobo, professor of sociology and Afro-American studies.

For Matroy, Bobo and their colleagues in the Afro-Am department, these unique pressures are a challenge they accept willingly.

"As the old saying goes, `those to whom much is given, much is expected of as well,'" says Lawrence D. Bobo, professor of sociology and Afro-American studies.

`It Cried for an Explanation'

Werner Sollors, Cabot professor of English and professor of Afro-American studies, occupies a unique role in the Afro-Am department because he is currently its only white member.

Sollors says he first became interested in the field when he arrived in the U.S. from Germany at the height of the Watts Riots in 1968.

"I was really curious about such an explosive minority situation and wanted to find out more about the social configuration," he says. "It was something that cried for an explanation and there wasn't a very good explanation available."

In April 1969, under heavy pressure from students and a very small number of faculty members, the Afro-American studies department was founded at Harvard. A first, there was only one tenured black professor in the University, Martin L. Kilson, Thomson professor of government.

Kilson says there is a common thread that unites Afro-American studies professors with their colleagues in other previously-marginalized fields.

"The black intellectual scholar reality is the same as that of all the other ethnic white Americans, that is, to bring a deeper perspective to and open up another dimension of American history," he says.

As the first members of the department "opened up" that dimension, they encountered resentment and deep-rooted skepticism, Sollors says.

"There was an isolation surrounding Af-Am," he says. "There was an us vs. them mentality."

Sollors, who in 1993 co-edited "Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African-American Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe," says black professors at the College have historically been concentrated in certain academic fields.

"At northern Ivy League schools there has been a concentration in African-American Studies, English, Government, Sociology and History," he says.

The Afro-American studies department began attracting national attention in 1991, when Henry Louis "Skip" Gates came to Harvard as W.E.B. DuBois professor of the humanities and successfully hired several prominent scholars in the field.

Professors of Afro-American studies say that today, with the cross-listing of courses and the mounting prestige of the Afro-American studies department, they no longer feel as excluded from the rest of the university.

"Rather than being isolated, Harvard Afro-American studies is increasingly seen as the model of the engaged, dynamic and innovative scholar," Bobo says. "My appointment, like that of all my colleagues in the Afro-American studies department, is joint with another department."

Sollors says that not only is there a sense of community, but "an extraordinary sense of cordiality and sociable belonging."

Planting Seeds for the Future

Many professors of Afro-American studies say they hope to urge their students to challenge preconceptions.

"I hope that from my classes [my students] willemerge more commited to a fair understanding ofthings," he says, "to learn that the perspective,the values and priorities they grew up with arenot the only tenable ones."

Bobo says he wants to pass on to his students aconviction that scholarship can impact socialissues.

"I hope that I communicate the value ofrigorous social science research to helpilluminate important social processes and issuesthat confront us all," he writes. "[I hope] thatstudents are inspired to think in new and evermore creative ways about the African Americanexperience."

Kilson echoes Bobo's sentiments, saying hebelieves that his students have a moral obligationto help the marginalized sectors of society.

Calling the average income gap in America"morally inconscionable," he says "the top fifthshould take responsibility for the bottom fifth."

Beyond Black History Month

While the importance of African-Americans inthe nation's history is being celebrated thismonth, scholars of Afro-American studies say theywant to promote awareness of black culture andhistory within the community throughout the year.

"There is so much exciting stuff being doneday-to-day in the field," said Adam L. Biggs, ateaching fellow in the Afro-American studiesdepartment. "I celebrate [Black History Month]year-round by virtue of my studies."

Bobo says he hopes to communicate that AfricanAmericans' "struggle against long, hard odds" andtheir successes and achievements "constitutepowerful exemplars of all that it is to be trulyfree and human.

"I hope that from my classes [my students] willemerge more commited to a fair understanding ofthings," he says, "to learn that the perspective,the values and priorities they grew up with arenot the only tenable ones."

Bobo says he wants to pass on to his students aconviction that scholarship can impact socialissues.

"I hope that I communicate the value ofrigorous social science research to helpilluminate important social processes and issuesthat confront us all," he writes. "[I hope] thatstudents are inspired to think in new and evermore creative ways about the African Americanexperience."

Kilson echoes Bobo's sentiments, saying hebelieves that his students have a moral obligationto help the marginalized sectors of society.

Calling the average income gap in America"morally inconscionable," he says "the top fifthshould take responsibility for the bottom fifth."

Beyond Black History Month

While the importance of African-Americans inthe nation's history is being celebrated thismonth, scholars of Afro-American studies say theywant to promote awareness of black culture andhistory within the community throughout the year.

"There is so much exciting stuff being doneday-to-day in the field," said Adam L. Biggs, ateaching fellow in the Afro-American studiesdepartment. "I celebrate [Black History Month]year-round by virtue of my studies."

Bobo says he hopes to communicate that AfricanAmericans' "struggle against long, hard odds" andtheir successes and achievements "constitutepowerful exemplars of all that it is to be trulyfree and human.