UA Professor Publishes Book on African-Americans’ Struggle for Equality in Higher Education

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama American Studies assistant professor and director of the African-American Studies program, Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, has recently published a new book, “Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas” (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).

“Advancing Democracy” is a compelling book that discusses the history of struggle and hardships among African-Americans as they fought to end segregation and Jim Crow education laws in the state of Texas. Shabazz illustrates the great courage, conviction and self-determination that went into trying to increase diversity on the part of the black activists and supporters that worked to promote educational equality.

The book begins with Shabazz discussing the creation of the 1880’s Texas University Movement in which African-Americans lobbied for equal access to the complete range of educational programs including graduate school and professional degrees at the University of Texas and other state colleges that denied admission to blacks solely on account of race.

Throughout his book, Shabazz illustrates the development of higher education in Texas, a state known historically for having one of the largest college and university systems in the South. The book discusses a number of obstacles and hardships that African-Americans faced in efforts to erode the Jim Crow laws and diversify the higher education system.

The Jim Crow laws — that fought to keep segregation a part of education — dealt directly with African-American inferiority. This inferiority tried to produce in African-Americans feelings of hopelessness and shame. According to Shabazz, the main challenge against the Jim Crow laws was that African-Americans were seeking the highest form of education possible — law school, medical school and graduate school programs — programs that, in the past, black students in Texas had been barred from. This challenge was a direct hit to the Jim Crow Laws in attempts to desegregate the universities so African-Americans could take part in programs of higher learning.

According to reviewer James D. Anderson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Shabazz’s book “brings alive the tensions and conflicts, as well as the great discipline and determination with the black struggle.”

Shabazz also discussed many of the hardships that went into desegregating schools like the University of Texas from which he graduated in the 1980s. One of the first students to break the racial barrier was Heman Sweatt who was unable to attend the University of Texas Law School simply because he was of a different race.

After being denied admission, Sweatt received numerous donations, community support and hired a team of lawyers from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to help him challenge the “separate but equal” rule. The state legislature had four years to come up with an alternative to allowing blacks to attend the law school. After a number of failed attempts to satisfy the “separate but equal” rule, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Sweatt to be admitted to the University of Texas Law School in 1950. This order came four years before the more famous Brown v. Board of Education decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine.

As a trail blazer whose name had been in the news worldwide, Sweatt received constant death threats, harassment from other classmates and peers, as well as trouble from a number of teachers in class. Sweatt eventually left the University of Texas Law School, but not unnoticed.

Sweatt has since been credited as being one of the first students in helping lay the groundwork for desegregation for African-American students in higher education. Despite the progress over the years in diversifying higher education programs, there is still a lot of work left to be done in order to continue to improve equality Shabazz says.

“The broad history of African-Americans challenges people to look at our present policy debates and ask have we fully repaired the damage that segregation and prejudice produced?” Shabazz asks.

Shabazz is the author of a number of articles and book chapters, as well as co-editor of the book, “The Forty Acres Documents: What Did the United States Really Promise the People Freed From Slavery?” (Baton Rouge: Songhay, 1994).

Shabazz is currently working on another book researching how culture involving music, dance and art can unite groups of people together. He teaches UA courses on the African-American Experience and Studies in African-American Culture.

An image of the book cover can be found at http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-6648.html.