White money Black power : the surprising history of African American studies and the crisis of race in higher education

The history of African American studies is often told as a heroic tale, with compelling images of black power and passionate African American students who refused to take no for an answer. Noliwe M. Rooks argues for the recognition of another story, which proves that many of the programs that survived actually began as a result of white philanthropy. With unflinching honesty, Rooks shows that the only way to create a stable future for African American studies is by confronting its complex past. Contents 8 1 White Money/Black Power 12 A Story To Pass On 17 Remembering Freedom 20 Race, Higher Education, And The American University 24 Rise Of The Black Student Movement 26 McGeorge Bundy, The Ford Foundation, And Black Studies 37 2 By Any Means Necessary 42 Prelude To A Strike 43 San Francisco State: An Unlikely Place For A Revolution 46 The White Student Protest Movement: Port Huron Statement 50 The Strike In Black And White 55 Cornell University 67 3 Nation Building In The Belly Of The Beast 72 Race, Rebellion, And Black Studies 76 Structured Equality: Methodologies Of Blackness In The Early Years 79 The Ford Foundation And Black Studies: The Yale Conference 86 McGeorge Bundy And Black Power 91 Cleveland: Background Of An Election 96 Ocean Hill-brownsville 101 4 Black Studies In White And Black 104 Black Studies Grant Making And The Ford Foundation 105 White Philanthropy And Black Education: An Overview 113 The First Round Of Grants In Black Studies 117 Looking Back And Wondering: Surveying The Field Five Years Later 125 Maybe Wrong, But Never In Doubt 129 5 The Legacy In The Present 134 Travels In Time: Black Studies, African Americans, And Affirmative Action 138 Ford, Black Students, And The Post–civil Rights Era 142 Stories From The Front Lines: African American Studies In Contemporary America 146 Affirmative Action, And Higher Education, 1970–2003 157 From Black Studies To African Diaspora Studies: A Shift In Perspective 162 6 Everything And Nothing At All 166 Diversity In Black 171 Getting There From Here: The Future Of African American Studies 176 Profiles In Diversity In Higher Education, Or, What’s Race Got To Do With It? 180 Acknowledgments 190 Notes 192 Selected Bibliography 206 Index 216 The history of African American Studies is often told as a heroic tale, with compelling images of black power and passionate African American students who refuse to take "no" for an answer. Noliwe M. Rooks argues for the recognition of another story that proves that many of the programs that survived were actually begun due to heavy funding from the Ford Foundation or, put another way, as a result of white philanthropy. Today, many students in African American Studies courses are white, and an increasing number of black students come from Africa or the Caribbean, not the United States. This shift--which makes the survival of the discipline contingent on non-African American students--means that "blackness can mean everything and, at the same time, nothing at all." While the Ford Foundation provided much-needed funding, its strategies, aimed at addressing America"s "race problem," have left African American Studies struggling to define its identity in light of the changes it faces today. With unflinching honesty, Rooks shows that the only way to create a stable future for African American Studies is through confronting its complex past In 1968, while under the leadership of McGeorge Bundy, the former national security advisor in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the Ford Foundation began to craft and then fund a strategy aimed at ensuring a complication-free birth and life for African American Studies on college campuses.