ABSTRACT
AS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN and as an educator, I turn with you to a critical assessment of Black Studies in liberal arts education.1 I dare to do so not in conflict with but rather in concert with other scholars and activists in this process. The Curriculum Development Project of the Institute of the Black World; the Howard University Fifteen Year Assessment of Black Studies Conference; the symposium on Black Studies and Women’s Studies entitled “An Overdue Partnership” organized by Smith College’s Afro-American Studies Department and the University of Massachusetts’ Women’s Studies Program; and the ongoing work of the National Council of Black Studies are only a few of the many organized discussions of the state and potential of Black Studies. Thus my comments and analysis should be viewed as a part of this widespread and ongoing discussion.
