Amilcar Shabazz
W. E. B. DU BOIS DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES
330 NEW AFRICA HOUSE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
AMHERST, MA 01003-6210 OFFICE PHONE: 413.545.2751
Education
B.A. Economics University of Texas 1982
M.A. History Lamar University 1990
Thesis: “The Desegregation of Lamar State College of Technology: An Analysis of Race and Education in Southeast Texas.” Committee Chair: John Carroll.
Texas State Board for Educator Certification, Secondary Social Studies (Grades 6-12), Lifetime validity, effective 3/20/1991.
Ph.D. History University of Houston 1996
Areas: U.S., Latin America, Theory & Narrative in Historical Studies. Dissertation: “The Opening of the Southern Mind: The Desegregation of Higher Education in Texas, 1865-1965” (nominated for the Society of American Historians’ Nevins Prize).
Professional Positions
Since 2007 University of Massachusetts Amherst: Professor, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies (Chair from 2007-2012; 2016-2018); Faculty Advisor to the Chancellor for Diversity and Excellence (2013-2016) | http://www.umass.edu/afroam/
2005-2007 Oklahoma State University: Associate Professor of History, Director of the American Studies Program and Founding Director of the Center for Africana Studies & Development
2006 University of Oklahoma: Visiting Lecturer, African & African American Studies
1997-2005 The University of Alabama: Associate Professor of American Studies and Director of the African American Studies Program (Assistant Professor, 1997-2003)
1992-1997 University of Houston: Research Associate, Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Programs & Faculty Affairs & Postdoctoral Fellow in History (1996-1997); Lecturer, African American Studies Program and Department of History
1994-1996 University of Houston-Downtown: Instructor/Conoco Dissertation Fellow
1993-94 Prairie View A&M University: Banneker Honors Instructor of History
1992 Houston Community College: Instructor, Department of History
1992 Lee College: Adjunct Instructor, Division of Social Sciences
1989-1991 Lamar University: Lecturer, Department of History
1989-1991 Beaumont Independent School District: Subst. School Teacher
Awards and Honors Received
2014 Winner of the National Council for Black Studies Presidential Award for exemplary service
2013 UnityFirst ‘Common Ground’ Award for Leading by Example in Springfield, MA
2009 Named a member of the Texas Institute of Letters for distinctive literary achievement
2005 The T. R. Fehrenbach Book Award for Advancing Democracy
History of Education Society Outstanding Book Honorable Mention for Advancing Democracy
Essence Magazine Top-Ten Recommended Book
2004-09 Fulbright Senior Specialist on Higher Education (São Paulo, Brazil)
2003-04 Gubernatorial appointment to the State of Alabama’s Brown 50th Anniversary Commission
2001 Scholar Award, Milwaukee Area Technical College Black Student Union
1982 Community Service Award, Sankhore Holistic Health Institute, Austin, TX
While at Oklahoma State University
2006 The African Students Organization Outstanding Achievement Award
While at the University of Alabama
2005 The Lahoma Adams Buford Peace Award – School of Social Work
2003-04 Flaming Torch Award – NAACP student chapter
2002-03 Sam S. May Commitment to Service Award (co-recipient)
2001 National Alumni Association Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award
2000 Carl Elliott Society Significant Commitment to Public Service Award
1999 Autherine Lucy Foster Award for Significant Contribution to the Community
1998 Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars Inductee
While at the University of Houston
1996-97 Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Higher Education
1994-96 Conoco Dissertation Fellow in History (Downtown campus)
1991-95 Miller Dissertation Research Grants and Del Barto Scholarship
1991-93 Cullen Graduate Scholarship
1991-92 Stella Ehrhardt Memorial Fellowship
While at Lamar University
1990 Outstanding Member of the Graduating Class
1990 Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges
1990 Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society for History, Mu Chi Chapter
1990 Academic Achievement Award, Black Student Association
1989 Blue Key National Honor Fraternity
1989 Academic Achievement Award, Black Student Association
While at Pratt Institute
Student Government Association Outstanding Contributions Award
While at the University of Texas at Austin
1980 Omicron Delta Epsilon Honor Society for Economics Majors
1980 Christopher Marshall Memorial Scholarship, Economics Department
1978 Alpha Lambda Delta, Freshmen Honor Society (Dean’s List)
1977 Thomas Lee Memorial Scholarship, Knights of Saint Peter Claver
Research and Publications
Books & Monographs
Women and Others: Perspectives on Gender, Race, and Empire. Co-editor with Celia R. Daileader and Rhoda Johnson Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas. University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
The Forty Acres Documents: What Did the United States Really Promise the People Freed from Slavery? The Malcolm Generation, 1994.
The Desegregation of Higher Education in Texas: A Statistical Summary and Research Report. Institute for African American Policy Research, University of Houston. 1992.
Refereed Articles & Book Chapters
“Ahmad A. Rahman’s Making of Black ‘Solutionaries’” (2015). The Journal of Pan African Studies. 102. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/afroam_faculty_pubs/102
“The Shoulders We Stand On: Black Professionals & the Transformation of U.S. Society” introduction to A Quest for Justice: Louis A. Bedford Jr. and the Struggle for Equal Rights in Texas by Darwin Payne. Southern Methodist University Press (2009).
“Carter Wesley & the Making of Houston’s Civic Culture before the Second Reconstruction.” The Houston Review vol. 1, no. 2 (2004): 8-13, 49-50.
“Carter Wesley: Sounding the Ram’s Horn for Human Rights,” in Ty Cashion & Frank de la Teja, eds., The Human Tradition in Texas (Scholarly Resources, 2001) 161-75.
“One for the Crows, One for the Crackers: The Strange Career of Public Higher Education in Houston, Texas.” The Houston Review XVIII, 2 (1998): 124-143.
“Art Truths: Houston’s Artistic Traditions and the Problem of Respectability,” ArtLies (Summer 1997): 20-22.
“Blacks and the Vietnam War,” in James Olson, ed., The Vietnam War: Handbook of the Literature and Research (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1993), pp. 319-334.
“The African American Educational Legacy in Beaumont, Texas: A Preliminary Analysis.” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record 27 (1991): 56-76.
Essays, Reviews, & Encyclopedia Entries
Statement on the International Year of People of African Descent and the Historic Demand for Reparations.” The Journal of African American History, co-authored with Akinyele Umoja, vol 96, no. 3 (Summer 2011): 440-41. Appears at this link.
“Andrew J. Smitherman,” “Inman Edward Page,” and “James Edward ‘Jimmy’ Rushing,” in African American History in the American West: Online Encyclopedia of Significant People and Places, ed. Quintard Taylor (2006-2009) http://www.blackpast.org/?q=contributor/shabazz-amilcar
Review of The Political Use of Racial Narratives: School Desegregation in Mobile, Alabama, 1954-97 by Richard A. Pride, in The Alabama Review (October 2006): 300-302.
Review of They Too Call Alabama Home by Richard Bailey, in The Alabama Review (January 2002): 75-76.
“Muhammad Ahmad (Maxwell Stanford),” in Malcolm X Encyclopedia by Robert L. Jenkins and Mfanya D. Tryman, eds. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002): 62-63.
“How Deep the Well: From Selma to Timbuktu.” The Bus Stop (Fall 2001).
Review of Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston by William H. Kellar, in Southwestern Historical Quarterly 105 (Oct. 2001): 377-78.
“African American Entrepreneurs in Alabama: The Roots of Black Business History.” The Net Work Directory Vol. 4 (2000-2001): 50-51.
Review of A Walk to Freedom: The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth & the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights by Marjorie White, in Alabama Review (July 2000): 237-38.
Review of From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo by Mary Stanton, in The Journal of Mississippi History (Winter 1999): 401-02.
“What is the Value and Meaning of Black History Month?” Mobile Register, Feb. 21, 1999.
“Putting Black Voices in Print.” Review of Lift Every Voice: African American Oratory by Philip Foner & Robert Branham, in Black Issues in Higher Education. April 16, 1998.
Review of African American Political Thought, 1890-1930: Washington, Du Bois, Garvey & Randolph by Cary Wintz, in Southwestern Historical Quarterly 101 (October 1997): 267-68.
“A Clear Voice: Remembering Betty Shabazz,” The Source: The Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics (September 1997): 80-81.
Review of Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence by Daniel J. Wideman and Robyn B. Preston, in The Journal of Negro History82, issue 3 (Summer 1997): 345-46.
“David McGee: Stepin Fetchit Amongst the Nobles,” ArtLies (April-June 1996): 26-28.
Review of Promises to Keep: A Call for a New American Revolution by Richard N. Goodwin, in The Texas Journal of Political Studies (Spring-Summer 1996): 79-81.
“Gangs in the Nation: The Copycat Syndrome and Media Tricks,” The Source: The Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics (April 1996): 77.
“Activist Organizations Working to Free Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War,” The Source: The Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics (October 1995): 82.
“Giving Back to the Community! — Interview with Gil Scott-Heron,” with Larvester Gaither, Gaither Reporter v. 3, n. 2, (February 1995): 13.
Review of Calculating Visions: Kennedy, Johnson, and Civil Rights by Mark Stern, in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 98(January 1994): 582?83.
Review of Essays on the Civil Rights Movement by John Dittmer, George Wright, and Marvin Dulaney, in Southwestern Historical Quarterly 98 (July 1994): 166-67.
“Are HBCU’s Bastions of Black Nationalism?” National Honors Report (Sum. 1994): 2-4.
Review of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson, in By Any Means Necessary! (October 1990).
Creative & Digital Activity
2010 Consultant/Interviewee, Discovering Du Bois: The Niagara Movement: Learning through digitized primary source documents—a website project of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as part of its effort to improve use of the Du Bois papers in the UMass Library. http://discoveringdubois.weebly.com/index.html & http://discoveringdubois.weebly.com/multimedia.html
2008-2009 Cyberresurrection of Academic Journal Archive @ http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs/
“Contributions in Black Studies: a Journal of African and Afro-American Studies (CIBS) is a free full-text academic journal, we placed online. The CIBS journal ran from 1977 to 1997, and all issues are now online for free…This will be a useful resource for those working in Black Studies, and especially for those seeking to track the changing ideas within this field over several decades. The website also has a short history of the journal and its editors.” –From Intute: http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/fullrecord.pl?handle=20090313-16162768
2009 Narrator of poems “Gotham City” and “An International Rage,” in For Victims and Survivors of September 11, a composition by Frederick C. Tillis, performed at the Jazz Ensemble I Concert, Jeffrey W. Holmes, director, November 23, 2009, UMass Amherst.
Talking head in entry on the “Rosenwald Schools in Alabama,” published in the Encyclopedia of Alabama, May 5, 2009. Excerpted from “Alabama Experience,” a Public Television series. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-4127
2007-2008 Co-organized “Max Roach Tribute,” with Jeffrey Cox, chair of the Department of Music & Dance, and John H. Bracey, March 2008. Events included a Photo Gallery Presentation by Ed Cohen, a reading by Martín Espada, and a performance by an Alumni Jazz Ensemble: Jake Epstein, Andy Jaffe, Genevieve Rose, Avery Sharpe and Royal Hartigan. The Influence of Max Roach at UMass Amherst & Beyond, a panel discussion held in New Africa House featured Herb Boyd, Sonia Sanchez, Billy Taylor, Frederick Tillis and Randy Weston, with Professor Bracey serving as moderator. The 27th Annual Jazz Showcase Concert ended the tribute with Jazz Ensemble I, Chapel & Vocal Jazz Ensembles, Jazz Lab Ensemble, and Chamber Jazz Sextets performing with special guests including the Lark String Quartet, Yusef Lateef, Billy Taylor, Frederick Tillis, Randy Weston, Reggie Workman and others.
“Mapping the 3rd Ward in Houston: Story Work in the Face of Redevelopment,” a collaboration with Carroll Parrott Blue’s The Dawn Project, the University of Houston’s College of Education, and the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) of Berkeley, CA. A 9-12 December 2006 workshop led to the creation of a StoryMap for the 3rd Ward of Houston, Texas (www.storycenter.org/placemeant.html). By placing short memoirs that combine creative writing, the family album, digital audio and video editing on an online map it integrates Digital Storytelling with mapping technologies (Geo-tagged images on Flickr, story-based GoogleMaps, Windows Live virtual tours, and walking tours via local cell phone, Bluetooth, and other imbedded wireless stories). My StoryMap, “Luddington’s Café,” is online at http://www.storycenter.org/thirdward.html. Uploaded 2007.
“My Grandmother is a Warrior”: The Story of Versie Lee Jackson and the Integration of Lamar University in Texas” (2007), produced by UTOPIA of the University of Texas Libraries. As a volunteer historical consultant to and talking head in this 20-minute documentary, I worked with content librarians, graphic designers, Web site builders, writers, programmers, information architects, videographers and more to break down the physical boundaries between the University and the world. Online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Fcv9d8yEA
Research & Development Grants
2010 “Africana Studies Network,” Co-PI with Mwangi wa Githinji, Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M3) Team Grant Program, AY09-10, $6,110; UMass Office of Faculty Development
2009 “African American Studies Faculty Cluster,” Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M3) Team Grant Program, AY08-09, $10,000; UMass Office of Faculty Development
2008-2010 “Visions of Empowerment: A Du Bois Classroom on Art & Freedom,” Co-PI with James Smethurst, $17,500, for event series and Black Power/Black Arts conference in 2010.
2008 Reading New England: Using Digital Resources to Explore Landmark Texts. Co-PI with Susan Gallagher, Department of Political Science, UMass Lowell. $46,980. President’s Creative Economy Fund. $5,000 for Digital Edition of The Souls of Black Folk.
2004-2005 A Real & Virtual Knowledge Project: Analyzing American Studies in the Big XII Conference. $2,003 from OSU-Big XII Faculty Fellowship Program Grant. Declined.
2002 Women & Others. $2,000. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Co-PI with Rhoda Johnson.
2001-2003 Safe House Historic Museum. $41, 990 from the Michael Figures Initiative-University of Alabama Black Belt Studies Research Institute. Project Director.
2001 Folks & Arts in the Black Belt. $10,000 from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. ASCA Grant # FY2002-0760. Project Director.
2001 Hale County Civil Rights Museum Development. $5,000 from the West Alabama Planning & Development Council. Project Director.
1999-2000 Coalition of Alabamians Reforming Education Replacing Inequity in Schools with Excellence in Hale County “Alert” Schools. $150,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. Co-Investigator with Rhoda Johnson.
1999 Community Arts 2000: A Vision from the Black Belt. $10,000 from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. ASCA Grant # FY99-0744. Project Director.
1999 An Institute on Culturally Responsive Teaching Practice (one of five set up across the U.S.). $10,000 mini-grant from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and MetLife. Co?Principal Investigator with Jerry Rosiek.
1997 Redefining Place. A $1,000 grant from the Tuscaloosa Consortium for Higher Education. Project Co?Director with Robert Heath of Stillman College.
1995 Building the New Texas/Understanding Other Nations. Texas Committee for the Humanities Major Grant. TCH Grant # FY95-2334. Project Co-Director.
1993-1994 Faculty Development Grants. University of Houston African American Studies Program, Summer 1994 (General Education designation for the Introduction course), Spring 1993 (Syllabus for “Inside Invisible Houston” course)
1992 Texas Higher Education Desegregation Study. University of Houston Institute for African American Policy Research.
Conference Organizing and Presentations to Scholarly Meetings
Participant, “Are You On Fire?: A Hands-On Workshop for Preparing Submissions to Fire!!! The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies,” and Presenter, “New Digitizing Projects for Black History and Scholarship,” Association for the Study of African-American Life & History 97th annual meeting, Pittsburgh, PA.
Plenary presenter, “Africana Studies in the Americas from Estudios Afrocubanos to Estudios Afrodiasporicos,” The International Colloquium of the 32nd Annual Festival del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba.
Invited Guest Speaker, “Education for Life: The Du Bois Doctorate of African American Studies and Its First Forty Years of Unity and Struggle,” at Northwestern University’s A Beautiful Struggle: Transformative Black Studies in Shifting Political Landscapes–A Summit of Doctoral Programs in Evanston, IL. Part of news stories on the conference in Diverse Issues in Higher Education (July 5, 2012), The Daily Northwestern (April 13, 2012), and The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 12, 2012).
Invited Panelist, “‘Bodies Acting Together’: Collaborating and Colliding in the Academy,” UMass English Graduate Organization Interdisciplinary Conference Forces at Play: Bodies, Power, and Spaces, at UMass Amherst.
Presenter, “Developments in the Digital Humanities, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the History of Afro-Latin American Studies,” at The 3rd Annual Negritud Conference at the Center of Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico & the Caribbean, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Attended board meetings of the NCBS and chaired two panel sessions at its annual meeting, in Atlanta, GA.
Presenter, “Melvin Tolson: Radical as Educator,” March 2, at the Texas State Historical Association’s Annual Meeting, Houston, TX. Paper read in my absence.
Internationalization trip to Colombia with Prof. Agustin Lao-Montes. Made presentations on Afro-American Studies at universities and community-based cultural centers in Bogotá, Buenaventura, and Cali.
Presenter, “Du Bois and the Strengthening of Trans-Atlantic Connections: Digital Discoveries in the Afro-German Experience,”—The Black German Cultural Society’s 1st Annual Convention at the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC.
Invited Guest Speaker, “African American Studies: Perceptions, Realities, Possibilities,” African American Studies 40th Anniversary Program, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS.
Organizer/presenter, at the National Council for Black Studies 34th annual meeting, New Orleans, LA: Discussant, “Black Studies in the Americas beyond the U.S.: A Roundtable on Epistemological and Political Challenges;” Presenter, “Black Power in Newsprint: Radical and Mainstream;” in Emerging Research on the Black Press and Black Power session.
Organizer/presenter, at the National Council for Black Studies 33rd annual meeting, Atlanta, GA. Chair, created Session, “Look Back and Wonder: The Genesis of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst;” Chair, created Session: “Transdisciplinary Directions in Africana Studies: A Multi-departmental Cluster Hire and Mutual Mentoring Program in Year One;” and Presenter, “No Deed but Memory: Using Library e-Repositories to Promote and Disseminate Black/Africana Studies Knowledge,” in Digital Tools in Black Studies Research session.
Invited lecture: “The Color Complex,” at the Smith College Black Students Alliance Aesthetics of Blackness conference, Northampton, MA.
Invited lecture: “Making African American History: From W. E. B. Du Bois to Barack Obama,” at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, Saint Louis, MO.
Organizer/presenter/chair, at the 93rd Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of African American Life & History, Sheraton Birmingham, AL: Chair, “Black Student Activism and Efficacy: Past and Present” session; Chair, created Session, “African American Life and History in Museums, Archives, and Historic Places in Alabama;” Chair, created Session, “Look Back and Wonder: The Genesis of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst;” and Presenter, “The Promise and Pitfalls of e-Publishing for Afro American Studies” in No Deed but Memory: Using Library e-Repositories to Promote & Disseminate Knowledge of African American Life session.
Invited lecture: “The Miseducation of the New Negro,” in the session on The Black Press. at The University of Connecticut’s Institute for African American Studies conference on “The Harlem Renaissance Revisited: Politics, Arts & Letters,” Storrs, CT.
Invited lecture: “African Americans and Higher Education: Prelude to the New Negro Renaissance,” Africana Studies Department, Wellesley College.
Presenter & Session Organizer: “The State of African American Public History” & “The African American Press,” Association for the Study of African American Life & History
92nd Annual Meeting, Hilton University Place Charlotte, NC.
Plenary moderator: “Little Rock Crisis: A 50-year Perspective” Conference on the High School Desegregation Crisis, University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Invited lecture: “Transformations of American Democracy” session, at The Jamestown 400th Federal Commission’s Foundations and Future of Democracy-International Conference Series, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
Session Chair, National Council on Black Studies meeting, San Diego, California.
Panelist, “The History of African American Women in Texas: State of the Field,” Texas State Historical Association meeting, San Antonio, TX.
Presenter, “African American East Texans from Juneteenth to Rita: Navigating between Clio & Mnemosyne,” East Texas Historical Association meeting, Beaumont, TX.
Presenter & Session Co-organizer, “In Katrina’s Wake: African American Narratives of Destruction & Reconstruction,” Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc. meeting, Baton Rouge, LA.
Presenter, “Frederick Douglass,” The Teaching of History Conference, Department of History & The College of Arts and Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX.
Presenter, “The history, structure, & influence of the black struggle for reparations,” Mid-America Conference on History, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK.
Panelist, “Critics Meet Author: James W. Loewen’s Sundown Towns.” The Society for the Study of Social Problems 56th Annual Meeting, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Presenter, “When the public in Greensboro, Alabama, determines its own interests: Lessons from a collaboration between social justice academics and grassroots community-based projects in the Southern Black Belt,” a special session of the American Educational Research Association annual conference and The Edge of Each Other’s Battles Project, San Francisco, CA.
Presenter, “Reparations across the Americas,” 8th Annual IAAR/International Scholars Conference of the Institute for African American Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC. www.unc.edu/depts/iaar/ISC/isc2006.htm
Co-organizer, Symposium on Literature, Race, and Ethnicity: “Women & Others: Racial and Gender Difference in Anglo-American Literature and Culture.”
Presenter, Hernandez v. Texas Symposium, Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance, University of Houston Law Center, Houston, TX.
Presenter, “Race & Education in Difficult Times: Panel Discussion on New Books,” History of Education Society conference, Kansas City, MO.
Program Committee Member, 2004 Southern Regional Conference: Practicing American History in the South of the Organization of American Historians. Presenter, “State of the Field: African American History;” Session Chair, “Civil Rights Era & Beyond,” Atlanta, GA.
Session Chair, “African American English,” Language Variety in the South III with the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics LXX, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Presenter, “Brown and the Meaning of History: Scholarly Activism for Justice and Advocacy for Change in Critical Perspective,” American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
Presenter, “Narratives of Racial Justice” SIG Featured Presentation, American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
Keynote Address, “Civil Rights, Affirmative Action, & Reparations in the Biography of a Struggling Race.” Brian Bertoti History Conference, Virginia Tech.
“The American Democratic Tradition & the Quest for Access & Equity in Higher Education: The Browns & Blues of Social Change.” Cornell Law Review Symposium Revisiting Brown v. Board of Education: 50 Years of Legal & Social Debate, Ithaca, NY.
Presenter, “Racial Terror & Attempts to Stop the Desegregation of Lamar State College of Technology.” Beaumont History Conference, Beaumont, TX.
Convener, “African Studies and Technology Plenary” with Henry Louis (Skip) Gates, Tracey Weis, and Abdul Alkalimat. Association for the Study of African-American Life & History 88th Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“Before Affirmative Action: Double Taxation and the Campaign for Out-of-State College Tuition Assistance in Texas.” Association for the Study of African-American Life & History 88th Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Presenter, “The Black Challenge to Jim Crow Education in Texas.” Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, El Paso, Texas.
Panelist, “The African American/American Studies Relationship in Global Context Making Peace, or Just Another Low-Intensity Operation?” Southern American Studies Association Biennial Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Participating Scholar, “Double Takes on Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama–The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution” with author Diane McWhorter. Fifth Annual Alabama Writers Symposium, Montevallo, AL.
“When Power Concedes Nothing: The Texas University Movement.” African American History in Texas Conference: On the Civil Rights Movement in the Lone Star State, The Dallas African American Museum, Dallas, TX.
Session Chair, “Coming of Age: Margaret Meade’s Philosophy & Philanthropy.” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
Discussant, “Recording the Culture of a Black Community.” Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc., San Antonio, TX.
Presenter, “Loving a Hated Aesthetic: The Walter Evans Collection of African American Art.” The Gibbes Museum of Art & College of Charleston Symposium on African American Arts: Preserving a Cultural Legacy, Charleston, SC.
Presenter, “The Black Pacific: Chronotopias Lost and Found.” Japan Black Studies Association, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
Presenter, “G. I. Forum v. Texas Education Agency: A Reflection.” National Council of Teachers of English National Conference, Birmingham, AL.
Presenter, “Shooting All Sheriffs: The Reggae Aesthetic & Class Struggle.” Southern American Studies Association Biennial Conference, Atlanta, GA.
“Facing the Facts of Miseducation: The Afrocentric Tradition.” The Inter-Diaspora Conference on Education of the African Child for the New Millennium, Bamako, Mali.
Presenter, “Adolescents in Low-Income Neighborhoods in Mobile & Prichard, Alabama: Cultural Criticism & the Study of the Post-Industrial U.S.” The Lonnie E. Mitchell National Substance Abuse Conference, Baltimore, MD.
Commentator, “Women in Politics: Evolving Issues and Research Directions.” Southwestern Social Science Association, San Antonio, TX.
Presenter, The Black Belt South, Black Atlantic, & African World: Needs & Prospects for Research & Stretching & Locking Arms in Cultural Solidarity.” University of Alabama-Birmingham 1st African American Studies Conference, Birmingham, AL.
Discussant, “Roundtable on Activism in the Black Community.” Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc., Houston, TX.
Commentator, “Jim Crow and Civil Rights.” Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc., Houston, TX.
Presenter, “An Ideological Shootout in Texas: Separate Equality vs. Racial Integration, 1940?1950.” Southern Historical Association, Birmingham, AL.
Commentator, “The Cradle Rocks: The Civil Rights Movement in Sixties Alabama.” Southern American Studies Association, Birmingham, AL.
Presenter, “Plowing Around Desegregation to Get on with Maintaining White Supremacy: Texas Universities and the Evasion of Equity after Brown.” East Texas Historical Association, Nacogdoches, TX.
Presenter, “Black Panther Kuwasi Balogun’s Journey to Anarchism and Guerrilla Warfare: An Exploration of International Influences to the U.S. from Spain & Cuba.” Southwest Council of Latin American Studies, Havana, Cuba.
Presenter, “Globalizing the Struggle: Towards an Understanding of African-American Social Movement Organizations & International Linkages” (with C. Davenport). National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Chicago, IL.
Commentator, “Creating New Paradigms in the Black Experience.” Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, Charleston, SC.
Presenter, “College Desegregation in South Texas: ‘We Never Had Any Problems.’” Southwestern Social Science Association, Houston, TX.
Presenter, “Inclusivity & Exclusivity in Public Representation: A Colored View of the Museum of Fine Arts.” South Central Modern Language Association, Houston, TX.
Presenter, “The Texas Campaign for Nonracial School Access: The Road to Brown.” Southwestern Social Science Association, Dallas, TX.
Presenter, “Negro Higher Education in Texas from Promise to Problem.” Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA.
Presenter and Panel Coordinator, “The How’s and Why’s of Going to Graduate School.” Great Plains Honors Council, College Station, TX.
“Islam Matters: Social Crisis and Religious Change in the U.S.” and “The Black Muslims: Cultural Persistence in the Belly of the Beast.” Interdisciplinary Humanities 1994 Spring Symposium, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA.
Presenter, “The Integration of Texas Higher Education.” Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc., Dallas, TX.
Presenter, “The Desegregation of Higher Education in Texas.” Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, Baltimore, MD.
“Honors Cooperation.” National Collegiate Honors Council, St. Louis, MO.
“Advanced Freshmen Honors Education.” National Association of African American Honors Program, Savannah, GA.
Presenter, “One for the Crows, One for the Crackers: The Strange Career of Higher Education in Houston.” Texas State Historical Association, Houston, TX.
Presenter, “Desegregation of East Texas Universities: Jim Crow’s Fatal Hour.” East Texas Historical Association, Huntsville, TX.
Presenter, “During the Sixties Were Black Texans Apathetic?” African American History in Texas Conference of the Dallas Museum of African-American Life and Culture, Dallas, TX.
Presenter, “Watching God in Beaumont, Texas: Seeing Blacks as Historical Actors.” Beaumont History Conference; Beaumont, TX.
Presenter, “The NAACP in Southeast Texas.” African American History in Texas Conference of the Dallas Museum of African-American Life and Culture, Dallas, TX.
Presenter, “Black Business Activity in Southeast Texas, 1865-1945,” East Texas Historical Association, Beaumont, TX.
Presenter, “The NAACP in Southeast Texas: The Radical Years, 1918-1954.” Southwestern Social Science Association, San Antonio, TX.
Public Presentations
Moderator, “Racism Here & Now: Stillwater Voices Speak Out” panel, Progressive Interfaith Coalition & OSU Sociology Graduate Students; Stillwater, OK.
“Black Professionals in U.S. History: The Case of Carter Wesley—Race Man or Uncle Tom,” OSU Phi Alpha Theta Colloquium Series; Stillwater, OK.
Invited guest lecturer, “My Journey in American Studies and Yours.” American Studies Student Organization at OSU Tulsa; Tulsa, OK.
Public lectures and book signings on the pre-release of Advancing Democracy at Odom Academy and Nu World of Books, Beaumont, TX.
Introduced/organized the visit of Christian Davenport of the University of Maryland to the University of Alabama as the Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Lecturer & John Henrik Clark Visiting Scholar, Tuscaloosa, AL. See MLK Lecture Series.
Masters of Ceremony, 3rd anniversary celebration of the Safehouse Museum.
Co-organized the West Tuscaloosa Cluster Schools Parent Partnership Initiative Education Conference featuring noted author Jawanza Kunjufu, Shelton State Community of College Fredd Campus, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“A Voteless People is a Hopeless People,” Voter Empowerment Forum, Stillman College Epsilon Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Study!” Address to the Tuscaloosa County Hillcrest Middle School African American Culture Club Induction Ceremony, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of the 2003 John Henrik Clark Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Bakari Kitwana, Hip Hop Summit Keynote Address, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Lessons and Comparisons of Landmark Legal Cases of Racial and Sexual Others in the U.S.” The University of Alabama Queer-Straight Alliance, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“The Meaning of Juneteenth.” Safehouse Historic Museum’s Freedom Festival, Greensboro, AL.
Introduction of Religion in Culture Lecturer Eddie Glaude of Princeton University, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Kwanzaa: Past, Present & Future.” Kiwanis International of Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Cuban Culture—Insights.” Address to the University of Alabama’s International Advisory Board Meeting, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of John Henrik Clarke Distinguished Lecturer Kwame Dawes, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Human Rights for All or No Rights at All.” Keynote address to the 2001 Conference of the University of Alabama Model United Nations, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of African American Studies Teach-In on the World Conference on Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (Durban, South Africa), University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Keynote Speaker at “Annual Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration.” The Metropolitan Optimist Club and The Girls and Boys Support Group of Central High School, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Rev. James Lawson. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer and Performing Artist Series, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Career Awareness Day Motivational Keynote Speaker.” Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Remarks to the 2000 Spring Initiation Ceremony.” Alpha Lambda Delta National Scholastic Honor Society at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Moderator. Black Scholar’s Day at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Guest Speaker at “The Love Amongst Our People Forum.” Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Michael Eric Dyson, Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer & Performing Artist Series, University of Alabama & Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Address to the March Back to the Schoolhouse Door. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Dr. Richard Bailey. African American Studies Program Black Heritage Month Author’s Talk, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Joan Browning. Distinguished American and African American Studies guest lecturer, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer and Performing Artist Series, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Dr. Will Coleman. Religious Studies and African American Studies guest lecturer, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Ossie Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer & Performing Artist, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Panelist on “Experience, Ethnicity, and the Diaspora” for Blount Undergraduate Initiative Convocation University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“To Test or not to Test? Help & Harm in the Practice of Standardized Testing.” Phi Delta Kappa Chapter, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of James Anderson, Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“African American Student Activism in Historical Perspective.” The National Pan-Hellenic Council of The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Introduction of Dr. James Salem, American Studies and African American Studies Program author’s book talk, Murphy African American Museum, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“The Global Implications of The Prison Industrial Complex.” The 180 Student Movement for Democracy in Education, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Cultural Diversity at UA Today.” The University of Alabama Office of Residential Life, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Black History Month Keynote Lecture. The Tuscaloosa Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“The House of Civil Rights in the U.S. & the NAACP.” University of Alabama Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Affirmative Action Town Hall Meeting: Reparations vs. Reverse Discrimination” panelist, University of Alabama Black Law Students Association, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Keynote address, “African Americans in Business: The Path towards Empowerment,” Parkview Alternative Learning Center Black History Month 1998, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Remembering Our Past, Building Bridges to the Future: The Role and Direction of African American Studies.” University of Alabama Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Black History Program, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“International Dimensions of the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Stafford Global Studies Center Address to Fourth Grade Classes, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Program Moderator and Organizer, “Great Conversations: The Era of Slavery.” Stillman College & University of Alabama African American Studies, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“Black Love: Where is it and Where is it headed?” University of Alabama 21st Century Leadership Alliance Discussion Panelist, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“The NAACP and American Higher Education.” University of Alabama Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Tuscaloosa, AL.
“American Higher Education: Retrospect and Prospect.” Benjamin Banneker Honors College Banquet and Pinning Ceremony Keynote Address, Prairie View, TX;
“We Ain’t All Multiculturalists Now.” University of Houston Council of Ethnic Organizations Awards Banquet Keynote Address, Houston, TX.
“From Myth to History or How I Found Out Why Black Folks Were Never on The Wild, Wild, West.” Latina Coalition and MEChA, Houston, TX.
“From Charles Rhinehart to Marguerite Ross Barnett: Struggling for Access & Equity at the University of Houston.” Society of History Students @ UH, Houston, TX.
“The Civil Rights Movement Texas-Style.” Prairie View A&M University History Department and Banneker Honors College, Prairie View, TX.
“From Plessy to Hopwood: A Hundred Years of White Supremacy and Unleveled Playing Fields in Texas Higher Education.” Prairie View A&M University, TX.
“They Carry It On Straight Ahead: The Hidden Legacy of Black Political Prisoners in the U.S.” African American Studies Minors Association, University of Houston, TX.
“The Meaning of History.” Pan-Afrikan People for Progressive Action and Council of Ethnic Organizations, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
“‘Does this Colored Man Want Social Equality with Whites?’ University Desegregation in Texas Before Brown.” Nia Becnel Seminar, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
“From the Nile Valley and Aztec Civilizations to the Present: African and Mexican Intellectual and Creative Traditions.” Bernard Harris Science Camp, Houston, TX.
“Blacks and the U.S. Criminal Justice System.” Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
“The Origin of Black History Month.” Jack Yates High School, Houston, TX.
“Malcolm X: U-N-I-T-Y.” Black Student Union Black History Month Symposium, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
“Malcolm X Panel Discussion.” University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX.
“Malcolm X-International Hero.” Black Student Union, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
“El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.” Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Black History Month Program, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX.
Biographical Note
Dr. Amilcar Shabazz is professor and former chair of the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was born in Beaumont, Texas, and after he graduated from Monsignor Kelly High School he went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in economics from The University of Texas at Austin, his masters from Lamar University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Houston, both in history. He was an associate professor of History and Director of the American Studies Program at Oklahoma State University, as well as the founding director of the Center for Africana Studies & Development. Prior to that he served as the first director of the African American Studies Program at The University of Alabama while also a tenured professor of American Studies.
His book Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas (University of North Carolina Press, 2004), received numerous honors including the T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award and being ranked a top ten nonfiction book by Essence Magazine. Shabazz has also published The Forty Acres Documents, a sourcebook on reparations, along with journal articles, book chapters, reviews and writings in publications as diverse as The Source Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics. His newest book co-edited with Celia R. Daileader and Rhoda E. Johnson, is Women & Others: Perspective on Race, Gender, and Empire (Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2007). An international scholar, he was named a Fulbright Senior Specialist and has done work in Brazil, Ghana, Japan, Cuba, Mali, France, Nicaragua, and Jamaica. In recognition of his work as a teacher, in 2001, The University of Alabama National Alumni Association awarded him its coveted Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award. He presently completing an historical biography of an African American newspaper publisher and human rights activist entitled Carter Wesley: Master of the Blast.
Educational development and historic preservation are major parts of his professional and volunteer service work. He has served as chair of the Board of Directors for the Coalition of Alabamians Reforming Education and, in 2004, was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley to the Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission. He was also the District 7 Representative on the Black Heritage Council of the Alabama Historical Commission and served on the Alabama state review panel for the National Register of Historic Places. He counts as one of his proudest accomplishments his work with the Safe House Historic Museum in Greensboro, of which he is the founding executive director.
For a biographical essay, see “Amilcar Shabazz: The Heart of the African-American Experience,” Cardinal Cadence March-May 2004 (vol. 322), pp. 36-38. Available online as a PDF file at: http://www.lamar.edu/newsevents/cc/issues/LR_cadence_vol322.pdf