Guide to African American reference
Guide to Afro-Caribbean reference
Mar 16, 2009
by Dawn Turner Trice,
Reporting from Chicago
(Source: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-black-studies5-2009mar05,0,3451680.story)
Around the country this year, college campuses are celebrating the 40th anniversary of African
American studies programs. Although blacks make up the majority of the faculty, white scholars
increasingly are making their mark.
It may be the ultimate in inclusion, as well as irony, in a discipline that emerged out of
the Black Power movement of the late 1960s to challenge the white status quo.
White scholars have pursued doctorates in African American history in relatively large
numbers. But whites with doctorates in black studies -- as well as those who teach in the field --
remain fairly rare.
What's changed most dramatically in the discipline over 40 years is the student body, which is
far more racially diverse.
dtrice@tribune.com