What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People?

Description

It is rare that a major leader of a protest movement also becomes an accomplished scholar who provides valuable insight into the movement in which he participated. Yet this was precisely what Ronald W. Walters (1938–2010) did. Born in Wichita, Kansas, the young Walters led the first modern sit-in protest during the summer of 1958, nearly two years before the more famous Greensboro sit-in of 1960. After receiving a doctorate from American University, Walters embarked on an extraordinary career of scholarship and activism. Shaped by the civil rights and black power movements and the African and Caribbean liberation struggles, Walters was a pioneer in the development of black studies and "black science" in political science. A public intellectual, as well as advisor and strategist to African American leaders, Walters founded numerous organizations that shaped the post–civil rights era. A must read for scholars, students, pundits, political leaders, and activists, What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People? is a major contribution to the historiography of the civil rights and black power movements, African American intellectual history, political science, and black studies.
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Robert C. Smith

Part I

1. Our Tallest Tree: An Essay toward a Biography of Ronald Walters
Robert G. Newby

2. The Groundbreaking Wichita Sit-In Movement: An Essay in Appreciation of Ronald Walters’ Scholarly and Political Contributions
Aldon Morris

3. Reflections
Ronald W. Walters

Part II

4. The Black Science in Political Science
Katherine Tate

5. Black Intellectuals in the Age of New Democratic Politics: Reflections on Ronald Walters, the Maryland Years
Cedric Johnson

Part III

6. A Modest Proposal: A Call for Leadership Specialization and the Recognition of Multiple Black Constituencies
Andra Gillespie

7. Still Waters Run Deep: Synthesizing Ronald Walters’ Theses on Black Leadership and Black Nationalism
Errol Henderson

Part IV

8. Usurper-in-Chief? White Nationalism, the Tea Party Movement, and President Barack Obama
Adolphus G. Belk Jr.

9. White Nationalism, Black Interests, and Contemporary American Politics
Corey Cook

Part V

10. Ronald Walters and the District of Columbia: Action Research and the Odyssey of the Capital Colony
Lenneal J. Henderson

11. Ronald Walters as a Political Empowerment Theorist: The Concept of Leverage Strategies
Hanes Walton Jr.

Part VI

12. Ronald Walters: Theory and Practice of Foreign Policy Justice
Karin L. Stanford

13. Ronald Walters: Pan Africanism and International Struggles for Social Justice
Horace Campbell

14. Reparations, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity
Charles P. Henry

Part VII

15. Civil Rights and the First Black President: Barack Obama and the Politics of Racial Equality
Ronald W. Walters with the assistance of Robert C. Smith

Afterword
Robert C. Smith

About the Editors and Contributors
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• Ethnic studies
• 20th century
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 03 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438450933
• Langue: English

Extrait

What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People?
SUNY SERIES IN A FRICAN A MERICAN S TUDIES
John R. Howard and Robert C. Smith, editors
What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People?
The Impact of Ronald W. Walters on African American Thought and Leadership
Edited by Robert C. Smith, Cedric Johnson, and Robert G. Newby
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Jenn Bennett Marketing by Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
What has this got to do with the liberation of Black people? : the impact of Ronald W. Walters on African American thought and leadership / edited by Robert C. Smith, Cedric Johnson, and Robert G. Newby. pages cm. — (SUNY series in African American studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5091-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. African Americans—Politics and government—20th century. 2. African Americans—Politics and government—21st century. 3. African American leadership—History—20th century. 4. African American leadership—History—21st century. 5. Walters, Ronald W. 6. Political scientists—United States—Biography. 7. African American political scientists—Biography. I. Smith, Robert C. (Robert Charles), 1947- author, editor of compilation. II. Johnson, Cedric, 1971- author, editor of compilation. III. Newby, Robert G., author, editor of compilation.
E185.615.W436 2014
323.1196'073—dc23
2013019518
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Pat
Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
R OBERT C. S MITH
Part I
1. Our Tallest Tree: An Essay toward a Biography of Ronald Walters
R OBERT G. N EWBY
2. The Groundbreaking Wichita Sit-In Movement: An Essay in Appreciation of Ronald Walters’ Scholarly and Political Contributions
A LDON M ORRIS
3. Reflections
R ONALD W. W ALTERS
Part II
4. The Black Science in Political Science
K ATHERINE T ATE
5. Black Intellectuals in the Age of New Democratic Politics: Reflections on Ronald Walters, the Maryland Years
C EDRIC J OHNSON
Part III
6. A Modest Proposal: A Call for Leadership Specialization and the Recognition of Multiple Black Constituencies
A NDRA G ILLESPIE
7. Still Waters Run Deep: Synthesizing Ronald Walters’ Theses on Black Leadership and Black Nationalism
E RROL H ENDERSON
Part IV
8. Usurper-in-Chief? White Nationalism, the Tea Party Movement, and President Barack Obama
A DOLPHUS G. B ELK J R .
9. White Nationalism, Black Interests, and Contemporary American Politics
C OREY C OOK
Part V
10. Ronald Walters and the District of Columbia: Action Research and the Odyssey of the Capital Colony
L ENNEAL J. H ENDERSON
11. Ronald Walters as a Political Empowerment Theorist: The Concept of Leverage Strategies
H ANES W ALTON J R .
Part VI
12. Ronald Walters: Theory and Practice of Foreign Policy Justice
K ARIN L. S TANFORD
13. Ronald Walters: Pan Africanism and International Struggles for Social Justice
H ORACE C AMPBELL
14. Reparations, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity
C HARLES P. H ENRY
Part VII
15. Civil Rights and the First Black President: Barack Obama and the Politics of Racial Equality
R ONALD W. W ALTERS , with the assistance of R OBERT C. S MITH
Afterword
R OBERT C. S MITH
About the Editors and Contributors
Index
Tables and Figures Table 1.1 Wichita’s Population, Size, and Percent Black, 1900–1960 Table 4.1 Percent of U.S. Population with High School Diploma for Blacks and Whites, 1940–2000 Figure 8.1 Unemployment Rate, Seasonally Adjusted by Race and Ethnicity, January 2001 to September 2011 Table 8.1 Median Net Worth of U.S. Households by Race: 2005 and 2009 Table 8.2 Demographics of the Tea Party: 2010 Table 8.3 Distrust and Anger toward Government: 2010 Table 8.4 The Tea Party and President Barack Obama: Matters of Personality, 2010 Table 8.5 The Tea Party and President Barack Obama: Matters of Policy, 2010 Table 9.1 All Co-Sponsorship in the U.S. House of Representatives 1991–1998, Coded by White Interest and Black Interest Substantive Legislation Table 9.2 Multivariate Analysis of White Interest Legislative Sponsorship in the House Table 9.3 Multivariate Analysis of White Interest Legislative Co-Sponsorship in the House Table 9.4 Multivariate Analysis of White Interest Roll Call Votes in the House
Acknowledgments
W e should first like to acknowledge the work of Scottie Smith in editing the papers and preparing the volume for publication. Michael Rinella, State University of New York Press’ senior acquisitions editor, early on recognized the significance of a collection of essays on Walters and expeditiously facilitated the review and production processes. The anonymous reviewers also recognized the significance of the volume and provided generous and discerning commentary. We appreciate the consideration of Transaction Publishers and the University Press of Florida in granting permissions, without costs, to include previously published essays by Walters in this volume.
The volume is dedicated to Patricia “Pat” Walters, Ron’s wife of forty-seven years. Without Pat’s support—emotional, intellectual, and financial—Ron Walters could not have done his work.
Shortly before the book was accepted for publication, Hanes Walton Jr. died. Like Walters, Walton was an architect of the modern study of African American politics. His contribution to this volume is among his last publications. But over four decades of prodigious research and conceptual refinement he helped to make the study of African American politics a major field of study in American political science. His death, like Walters’, leaves a large void in the field. His passing as this book went to press is melancholy, but his intellectual legacy is an abiding source of comfort and inspiration.
Introduction
ROBERT C. SMITH
F or more than a decade I tried to persuade Walters to write his memoirs. Indeed, in my last email communication with him days before he entered the hospital for the last time I raised the issue. I was writing in response to his “Reflections” essay published in this volume and wrote that the essay “gets me to thinking of the perhaps not so dead horse I’ve been beating for lo these many years—you need to write the MEMOIR man—you owe it to the young, and to the intellectual and political understanding of one of the most critical periods of our history.” 1 In trying to persuade him to write the memoir, I would occasionally compare him with Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the distinguished liberal historian and political activist who in 2000 published the first volume of his memoirs. 2 Although he did not particularly care for the comparison, I would say, “Through Schlesinger’s writings and career one can trace the history of post-war liberalism in the United States, and through your writings and career we can trace the history of post–civil rights era black politics in America.” 3
Walters would always respond by saying something like “no one is interested in reading about me,” or “I am not interested in writing about me,” or “maybe I will get to it when I finish my book on” whatever he was working on at the time. Unfortunately, he died before he could “get to it” if indeed he ever would have gotten to it. This is unfortunate, because as uncomfortable as he might have been with the comparison to Schlesinger, his memoir would have been to black politics what Schlesinger’s was to American liberalism. That is, his-story was not about him but about history; a history that, like Schlesinger, he not only chronicled but shaped. Indeed, Walters’ history goes back to the civil rights era itself, for in 1958 at the age of twenty when he was president of the NAACP Youth Council in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, he helped to organize the first modern lunch counter sit-in. 4 This was almost two years before the more famous Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in, which historians view as a pivotal event in the development of the protest phase of the civil rights movement and the eventual passage of the landmark civil rights laws of the 1960s. 5 At the time of his death in September 2011 at the age of seventy-three, Walters was internationally recognized as the foremost scholar of race politics in the United States and as the most influential strategist in black politics since Bayard Rustin. 6
From Wichita to Washington
Ronald William Walters was born in Wichita on July 20, 1938. The eldest son in a family of seven children, his father was Gilmar “Butler” Walters, a “Buffalo Soldier,” Tuskegee airman and a professional musician. His mother, Maxine, was a civil rights investigator for the state of Kansas. Walters’ parents were racially consci