ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the ideological assumptions and principles of the Black Studies movement. It demonstrates how they were reflected in the scholarship and political activism of Dr W.E.B. Du Bois long before they were articulated by scholars such as Nathan Hare, Maulana Karenga, Molefi Asante, and others. Knowing and understanding Du Bois' biography and how it was shaped by the changing times in which he lived and struggled are critical for understanding his evolution as the intellectual grandfather of modern African American Studies. Black Studies or African American Studies as an academic discipline in American education grew out of struggles of Black students of the 1960s on campuses of both historically Black and traditionally White institutions. Black Reconstruction was an analysis of Reconstruction from an African centered or Black perspective and it was written to refute mainstream White supremacist interpretations and to celebrate the contribution of African Americans in that turbulent period.
