Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience

In the wake of the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s, a new discipline called black studies emerged in America's universities in the early 1970s. Now, as demonstrated in this diverse collection, black studies is firmly entrenched in the academic realm. But what is black studies? According to Columbia University professor Manning Marable, editor of Dispatches from the Ebony Tower, "the black intellectual tradition has always been descriptive, that is, presenting the reality of black life and experience from the point of view of the blacks themselves.... It has attempted to challenge and to critique the racism and stereotypes." Though the writers, poets, historians, and academics featured in this book cross many political and ideological lines, they all adhere to the spirit of this definition in their collective critiques. Among the highlights: Maulana Karenga and Molefi Kete Asante review the overall history of black studies and outline the doctrines of Afrocentricity; Marable and Henry Louis Gates Jr. debate the role of activism in black studies; Kamala Kempadoo and Brian Meeks chronicle the plight of black prostitution in the Caribbean and the political dimensions of Jamaica; Cornel West deconstructs Louis Farrakhan and the future of African American progressive leadership; esteemed historian John Hope Franklin offers a personal history of his life; and Amiri Baraka looks at the impact of, and resistance to, global white supremacy. In all, Dispatches from the Ebony Tower is a strong indication that African American intellectualism is alive and well. --Eugene Holley Jr.