Out of the Revolution: Development of African Studies

Out of the Revolution: Development of Studies; Delores P. Aldridge and Charlene Young. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books 2003. 583 pp., paper. This book attempts to provide the reader with a frame of reference for understanding the beginning, the development, and implementation of Studies. This frame of reference is provided in Part Two. In Part One, an essay by James Stewart, Field and Functions of Studies: Towards an Accurate Assessment of the state of Studies in 1970s and 1980s, identifies the National Council for Studies (NCBS) as the national professional organization of scholars of black history. The Council has discovered that there are about 220 identifiable Studies units in higher education. A variety of names are used: Afro-American and African-American Studies. These designations refer principally to Americans in the United States, although studies of classical civilizations, postclassical Africa and the diaspora are integral components of the database. In the essay, African Studies and Epistemology, Russell Adams traces the origins of the movement which he says began between 1918 and 1929 when black scholars actively participated in the mass awakening of the general black population. By the mid-1930s the question of AfroAmerican studies was entirely the domain of the black intelligentsia. Then there was a lull around World War II and a revival of interest roughly around 1960. In Part Three, the development of Studies curricula with the introduction to the university and the subsequent development is discussed. William Wilson's essay on Black Student Activism and the Academy, recognizes that American universities are conservative institutions and usually are reluctant to respond to the urgent needs of urban America. It is only when there is active social protest that American universities respond. Having few avenues to influence power within the university, the black students have been compelled to pursue a form of mass politics based on omnipresent threat of violent disruption (p. 79). This essay deals thoroughly with the Equal Educational Opportunities Program at the University of Illinois and how the program got off on the wrong foot because of inadequate planning. Also the A.C.T.O.N. program of The Ohio State University is discussed. An examination of student activist programs suggests that campus activist programs must be tied to larger community mobilization efforts. The involvement of the university through its black newspapers, black business groups, and black churches can keep the pressure on because university officials sometimes think that the campus activism will wan over time. In the essay, African Studies at Tennessee State University: Traditions and Diversity, the establishment of Studies at that university is discussed and a detailed chronology is presented. Also in this section of the book there are essays on the founding of the Association of Negro Life and History under Carter G. Woodson, the Heritage Studies Association, and the National Council for Studies. An essay, Education in a Multicultural Society: The Role of Studies, ends this section. In this essay the point is made that our society is diverse and we cannot plan a curriculum for the public schools that ignores the diversity of cultures. One of the great impediments to the development of effective multicultural curricula is culturally insensitive teachers and a school that has an all-white administration and an all-black custodial staff. There is a need to include Studies in teacher education programs so that the traditional European notion of curriculum is changed. In Part Four, Women and in Chapters 11-14, the book presents essays on the role of black women in Studies. In the essay, Black Women, Feminism, and Studies, it is noted that black women do not support white Women's Studies because they believe that white feminist theory is an inappropriate model for women who have never shared the same experiences with sexism as white women have. …