Several factors, including the civil rights movement, student activism, and a growing sense of black consciousness and identity, drove the emergence of African studies as an academic discipline in the 1960s. After centuries of oppression, exclusion, and misrepresentation in academia and society at large, African Americans demanded institutions that would research, document, and teach the history and culture of black people from their perspective. Anderson and Stewart note in their textbook that Africana studies represent the maturation of a people’s long struggle to assert their humanity and demand that it be recognized and respected (Anderson and Stewart, p. 2). The 1960s provided a crucial window of opportunity for activists to push for this radical change in higher education. This essay discusses in detail why African studies were demanded in the 1960s.
One of the primary catalysts for African studies was the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. The non-violent protests, boycotts, marches, and civil disobedience led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr., and later the Black Power movement inspired by Malcolm X raised awareness of racial injustice and demanded change. The passage of civil rights legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 marked legal victories but also made clear the need for further progress in education, housing, and employment opportunities. Curricula that excluded or distorted the history of African Americans were one area activists targeted for reform. In his influential 1962 essay “The Negro Student’s Need for Black Studies,” Nathan Hare argued that black students must be taught “the grand heritage of his own black nationality” to overcome the damages of white supremacy (Anderson and Stewart, p. 4). The new field of Black Studies would serve this corrective purpose.
Secondly, campus protests proved pivotal in pushing colleges and universities to institute Africana Studies. In 1968, the longest student strike in U.S. history occurred at San Francisco State College, led by the Black Student Union and allies demanding a Black Studies department chaired by sociologist Nathan Hare (Umemoto, pp. 1-5). After five months of protests, sit-ins, rallies, and clashes with the police, the university agreed to establish the first Black Studies program and hire Hare as chair (Umemoto, pp. 38-41). Other institutions soon followed. In 1969, after similar protests, the University of California at Berkeley founded its Department of African American Studies. Student strikes for Black Studies spread across campuses in California and nationally. Reflecting on these student movements, historian Fabio Rojas revealed that the struggles were political and intellectual, and the history, culture and politics of minorities deserve serious examination (Rojas, pp. 2-3). Student activism was vital to placing Black Studies on the agenda.
The Black Consciousness Movement, along with growing interest in ethnic studies more broadly, also created an intellectual foundation for African studies. Drawing inspiration from anti-colonial movements abroad, the concept of “Black Power” took hold. Groups like the Black Panthers boldly asserted black identity, culture, and self-determination. The idea that Black history and life must be reevaluated outside white paradigms gained popularity. Pioneering Black scholars and community leaders stressed the need for an academic discipline to accurately document and analyze the experiences of those within the African diaspora from their perspective. In 1968, the Ford Foundation funded a national task force to assess the goals and directions for Black Studies. After extensive consultations at dozens of universities, the task force published a report in 1970 that lent legitimacy to the field and helped formalize curricular priorities (Rojas p. 104-105). Community support combined with scholarly leadership to advance the field.
Additionally, the rise of African studies was also fueled by the limitations of traditional liberal arts education. Calls for Black Studies highlighted the Eurocentric nature of college curricula that minimized or omitted the experiences of people of color. Demands for African American Studies were part of a more significant push to make higher education more multicultural and inclusive. Chicano, Native American, Asian American and women’s studies programs were established alongside Black Studies (Anderson and Stewart, pp. 32-35). Transforming academia required diversifying both the student body and the knowledge taught. Black students speaking out in the 1960s made clear that their histories, writers, artists and scholars were glaringly absent. Establishing dedicated Africana Studies departments, research centers, journals and degree programs was imperative to centering marginalized experiences and advancing intellectual pluralism.
Besides, increasing numbers of African American students attending predominantly white institutions in the 1960s and 70s helped drive the Black Studies movement. Black student enrollment rose significantly thanks to the openings created by civil rights activism. However, arrival on desegregated campuses brought experiences of alienation and racism. Campaigns for Black Studies programs sought to remedy isolation and create institutional support. Pioneering scholar Maulana Karenga reflected that Black students thought concretely that the curriculum should respond to their needs and interests rather than vice versa (Rojas, p. 67). Student advocacy groups like the Black Student Unions leveraged collective power to press administrations for reforms. Creating spaces of belonging was central to the mission.
While often led by students, successfully establishing formal academic programs requires credible faculty leadership. Once demands were put forward on campuses, veteran black professors and a new wave of young scholars stepped up to turn proposals into accredited realities. Finding qualified candidates for research and teaching in a still-emerging field proved challenging. But through extensive community outreach, bridge positions and non-traditional hires, a cohort of dedicated early faculty shaped robust curricula and scholarship. Their academic credentials and persistence in the face of scepticism were crucial in transitioning Black Studies from a noisy upstart to a permanent university fixture.
Furthermore, the connection of African studies to racial justice activism has remained central to its mission. In recent decades, programs have continued expanding offerings and updating approaches to address contemporary needs. The renewed Black Lives Matter movement has sparked fresh demands for curriculum reform focused on mass incarceration, police violence, and systemic racism (Anderson and Stewart, pp. 35-37). Canvassing current students and faculty, scholars find 21st century Black Studies still firmly views education as linked to liberation. The field’s innovative forms of knowledge production aim to empower marginalized populations. Rather than separatism, the transdisciplinary scholarship strives to democratize academia and transform society. The rise of African studies reflected a pivotal awakening of identity, yearning for representation, and belief in higher education’s potential to advance equality.
In conclusion, the emergence of Africana Studies as a recognized academic discipline in the 1960s from grassroots student protests, generational challenges to higher education’s exclusionary norms, and visionary leadership by black scholars and community members. The field grew organically from America’s struggles for civil rights and ethnic pride. Seeking to reinvigorate humanistic study, Africana Studies asserted the intellectual value of African American historical experiences and cultural creations. Despite ongoing struggles for resources and legitimacy within particular institutions, Africana Studies has enriched scholarship and enabled the rewriting of history from diverse perspectives. The field demonstrates how social change and expanded academic inquiry can be mutually reinforcing. Africana Studies reflects what a university education can and should be at its best: a path to greater freedom through knowledge. The pioneers of this new discipline believed in education’s power to transform society—a belief still animating the field today.
Works Cited
Anderson, Talmadge, and James Stewart. Introduction to African American Studies: Transdisciplinary Approaches and Implications. Black Classic Press, 2015. Pp. 1-40.
Rojas, Fabio. From black power to black studies: How a radical social movement became an academic discipline. JHU Press, 2010. 1-114.
Umemoto, Karen. “On strike!” San Francisco state college strike, 1968–69: The role of Asian American students.” Amerasia Journal 15.1 (1989): 3-41.
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