|
| |
 |
During the 1950s and 1960s African Americans' centuries long
struggle for freedom culminated in a series of events that led
up to and comprised the Civil Rights Movement. A similar movement
took place in the nation's colleges and universities. Across
the country students and concerned faculty members sought to
add to their schools' curricula by exploring the history, literature,
and culture of Africans in the Diaspora.
A milestone in the development of the Afro-American Studies
Program at Penn occurred in 1968. On February 8th the Daily
Pennsylvanian, the University's student newspaper, announced
that Theodore Hershberg had been chosen to teach the History
Department's first course in African American History, "The
Negro in America." At the time Hershberg was teaching "Controversial
Topics in Negro History" as part of an experimental seminar
program sponsored by the paper. During the spring semester of
1969 the course, "Black History," was also offered by the History
Department.
For the next two years student and faculty groups discussed how best to create a program in African American Studies.
In December of 1970, John Wideman, Associate Professor of English, was appointed chairman of the Black Studies
Committee and the Director of the newly formed Afro-American Studies Program. Wideman, a graduate of the class
of 1963, returned to the University of Pennsylvania as a faculty member in the English Department in 1967 and became
the second black tenured faculty member at Penn. He set about the task of creating a viable program in African
American Studies in the absence of faculty trained in the discipline and with only a handful of courses on African
Americans and the African Diaspora offered throughout the University.
With the institutionalization of Afro-American Studies and a commitment to the recruitment of faculty on the part of
the University, a curriculum was slowly developed. In addition, the Program began to develop co-curricular activities
that served to enhance the study of African Diaspora history and culture. Since the 1970s subsequent Directors have
led the Afro-American American Studies Program into new eras of curriculum development and co-curricular programming.
|
|
|
|
|
Back to top