Mapping the Origins and Evolutions of Black Scholar Activism
By: National Center For Institutional Diversity
Tags: Black Studies, Diversity Scholarship, Activism, Black Liberation, BlackLivesMatter

Social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name have made Black activism a buzzword. Yet, we must recognize the great sacrifices associated with such involvement, particularly for scholar activists. In the words of Dr. Alvaro Huerta, scholar activists are academics who are a bridge between the academy and the communities they serve. In this role, scholar activists are constantly navigating the tension of holding the academy accountable to community (i.e., eliminating practices of “parachuting into” and severing ties with a community once all data are collected). Simultaneously, these scholars must meet the demands of the tenure process to stay in the academy. Black scholar-activism comes with a heavy burden — ensuring racial uplift while securing and advancing one’s career. In academia, the life of the scholar activist may appear desirable in the age of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet a closer look into scholar activists’ lives reveals a more nuanced picture of the highs and lows of engaged Black scholar-activism.

In this piece, we outline how the intellectual tradition of W.E.B. Du Bois is an exemplar of the sacrifices required of scholar activists. We highlight the evolution of Du Bois’s perspective in scholar-activism today, revisiting the tensions that social progress requires. While the images, participants, and the issues in social justice spaces are constantly evolving, the sacrifice required of those who take on the scholar activist role remains consistent.

Defining Scholar-Activism: The Legacy of W.E.B. Dubois

W.E.B Du Bois’s emphasis on the intellectual uplift of the Black community through exposure to humanities, social sciences, and the continued pursuit of higher education is a common thread in modern Black social movements. Framing his position in classist notions of the Talented Tenth (i.e., educate only the most promising Black youth to represent and be responsible for the uplift of Blacks as a whole), Du Bois vocally advocated for more opportunities for Blacks to be integrated into higher education that was dominated by Whites.

Yet in his pursuits, Du Bois struggled to secure a position commensurable with his accomplishments, as a result of his scholar-activism and poignant critiques of US society. These challenges to pursue and disseminate his scholarship forced Dubois to create his own outlets, becoming a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and founder of The Crisis, a publication focused on the achievement, uplift, and racial discrimination experiences of Blacks. Yet, his efforts to disseminate his scholarship and to facilitate cultural awakenings of Black communities were often conducted with a communist perspective. Such leanings led to his exile to Ghana, as a result of the 1961 McCarren Act’s ban on issuing passports to communist sympathizers, where he lived until his death in 1963 (Aptheker, 1993).

Making the Sacrifice: The Tensions and Challenges of Scholar-Activism

How do Du Bois’s sacrifices translate into the ways that we think about scholar-activism today? Similar to Du Bois, modern scholar activists continue to work toward social inclusion and justice for both Black and other marginalized communities. And like Du Bois, these scholar activists often pay a personal and professional price in the pursuit of social change. However, these sacrifices are often overlooked in the dialogue about diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts made across college campuses today and in social justice efforts, writ large. While Black scholar-activism has indeed transformed as the mainstream has become more supportive of activism generally, tensions and compromises persist.

Scholar activists remain on the margins of the academy as their activism can often place their careers in jeopardy. For example, in 1970, the regents of the University of California targeted and eventually fired Dr. Angela Davis for being a member of the Black Panther and Communist parties (Marquez, 2014). Her outing as a communist professor in the mainstream media was followed with threats and attempts on her life (Davis, 1974). Dr. Davis paid a tremendous price in her pursuit of justice for marginalized communities. Yet, her contributions expanded activists’ and scholars’ ideas about social justice; she pushed social movements to think about social problems through an intersectional lens. Dr. Davis constantly highlighted the interconnectedness of oppression by centering the voices of Black women and LGBTQ+ people in struggles for justice. And alongside other Black scholar activists like Nikki Giovanni and Toni Morrison, she created platforms and outlets for the dissemination of Black women’s work which challenged societal norms. Like Dubois, Dr. Davis and her colleagues pushed their social justice advocacy through both intellectual creativity and fearlessness in creating new platforms to disseminate their work when few other options were available. Such creativity is key for the scholar activist to be prepared for potential consequences of their work.

Recent events suggest that more Black scholar activists are achieving the balance between enduring the rigors of the academy while successfully advocating and serving their communities. Professor Justin Hansford, a professor of law at St. Louis University School of Law, was immediately involved as both legal counsel and advocate in the protests following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. Despite being arrested and jailed for his efforts, Hansford has been supported by his institution and continues to raise awareness around police brutality of Black bodies through the #FergusontoGeneva campaign that brought global attention to Ferguson and police brutality as a human rights violation. Hansford also infuses his activism into his curriculum, as his publicly available syllabi present topics on #BlackLivesMatter, critical race theory, and global and economic justice. Dr. Gregory Ellison, II balances his time as associate professor at Emory University with his grassroots organization, Fearless Dialogues., which brings together individuals and groups from vastly different walks of life to engage in critical conversations that transform communities. Yet, in both of these cases, the institutions with which both of these professors are affiliated ultimately support their efforts, which, as shown by the experiences of Dr. Angela Davis, is not always the case. Take for example, the case of Dr. Tommy Curry, a professor at Texas A&M University, whose comments about the protection of Black communities were taken out of context by a conservative blogger. This led to threats to his life and calls for his termination. Texas A&M failed to stand behind Dr. Curry and instead the president of the university stated that Curry stood in contrast to the university’s mission. This created a chilling effect, undermining the academic freedom of Black scholars at Texas A&M and highlighting the precarity they are in as advocates for the Black community.

Assessing the Cost: Is It Worth it?

The realities of sacrificing one’s career in the name of social justice begs the question: is it worth the cost? The persistence of scholar activists, despite the costs associated with the work, has led to progress on a variety of fronts. The proliferation of Black studies and ethnic studies departments across American universities serves as an important exemplar for such progress. Beginning with the creation of the first Black studies department at San Francisco State University in 1968, Black students have been at the center of the evolution of scholar-activism on college campuses. As Black students voiced their concerns about needing to see their cultural perspectives reflected in their college curriculum (particularly in the face of racist and anti-Black curriculum), mounting pressure lead to the establishment and expansion of Black studies programs. For example, the demands of the Black Student Association during the San Francisco State Strike resulted in the creation of a Black studies department, with funding for 12 new faculty. Further, the Black Students Association partnered with the Third World Liberation Front students to meet the demand of establishing an ethnic studies department, ultimately modeling the ways that Black social movements make room for other marginalized groups to be centered in college spaces. Yet, even with the establishment of such departments, ethnic studies programs are often under constant scrutiny due to questions about the legitimacy of the programs, and in turn are often the first to see budget cuts (Hu-Dehart 1993).

Recently the role of scholar activism has expanded beyond Black and ethnic studies departments to the discussion and implementation of university-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Universities across the country including Duke, Harvard, and Northwestern are creating and enacting DEI plans with dedicated funding to support their development. For example, the University of Michigan, in collaboration with faculty and student scholar activists, has initiated a campus-wide DEI plan to make the process and outcomes of creating a diverse and inclusive university space more equitable. DEI efforts include restructuring hiring processes, restructuring curriculum, and providing resources for faculty, staff, and students to make campuses less marginalizing and oppressive. While this work has shown progress and promise, it has not ameliorated the tensions of marginalization and oppression that occur on campuses. For example, amidst the implementation of DEI programming, University of Michigan graduate student Dana Greene kneeled on the diag for 20 hours to protest hate crimes that were proliferating on campus. Student rallies challenged white supremacist Richard Spencer from coming to campus, and hundreds of graduate students held a sit-in to ensure financial support for student labor on diversity-related employment issues. Although the examples above represent the University of Michigan, similar tensions are occurring at other universities (i.e., Jonathan Butler’s hunger strike at the University of Missouri in protest of an administration not hearing student concerns). Despite the difficulty of navigating such conflicts, the progress of the scholar activism depends on these tensions and sacrifices to create sustainable and proactive change.

It is clear that with scholar activism comes great sacrifice. From DuBois’ exile from the United States, to attempts on Davis’ life, to Hansford finding balance in academics and advocacy, progress can come at great expense to the individuals driving social movements, and the communities they serve. Further, this sacrifice can seem lost in the tension between progress and concessions required for compromise. As scholar activists today, we face a similar dance as our predecessors, negotiating what we can and should sacrifice. As is evident from other prominent scholars, the work of Black scholar activism is hard, and the results can be slow despite the popularity of black social movements. Yet, we scholars have a responsibility to actively engage the work with fervor, clear vision, and demonstrated commitment to social change to honor those who came before us, and to make room for those who will most certainly come after us.