ABSTRACT
This chapter chronicles the development of my political awakening as a member of the generation of “Negro” youth of the 1950s and 60s, both on and off college campuses, who were coming into racial and self-awareness—“wokeness” in the twenty-first-century metaphorical construct. The quest for knowledge of self and people was and is linked to the quest for liberation. The demand for Black History, Black Literature, and other “Black” domains of study and intellectual exploration were the precursors of the Black Studies Movement. As a pioneer in this Movement, I detail my involvement as a scholar-activist in the development of Harvard’s Afro-American Studies Department and my long-term service as Director of the Center for Black Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit.
