"For now he knew what Shalimar knew: If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it."
Toni Morrison. Song of Solomon
Since arriving in Nashville, the focus of my work has been on African American spaces and Public Memory. That is to say I pay attention to the built environment in both rural and urban spaces in African American history and what they reveal about the people that called these areas home. I also pay particular attention to the narratives
Since arriving in Nashville, the focus of my work has been on African American spaces and Public Memory. That is to say I pay attention to the built environment in both rural and urban spaces in African American history and what they reveal about the people that called these areas home. I also pay particular attention to the narratives that tell the histories of these places, what is celebrated, what is omitted, and who possessed the power to determine the people and places that fall into these categories.
At Tennessee State University, my students and I spend a lot of time looking at how African Americans are represented in Public spaces. Although we wrote a successful proposal for the Nashville Slave Market in 2018, there is still much work to be done in several areas of the Music City.
While working at my first job in Savannah, Georgia, I was asked by a former HBCU president and member of the NAACP about what I planned to do with my PhD.
I replied that some colleagues and I wanted to start at Black Studies program at the university (we did), I told him that I wanted to create a seminar in African American Intellectual
While working at my first job in Savannah, Georgia, I was asked by a former HBCU president and member of the NAACP about what I planned to do with my PhD.
I replied that some colleagues and I wanted to start at Black Studies program at the university (we did), I told him that I wanted to create a seminar in African American Intellectual History (did that too), and last, I told him how I wanted to increase the number of African American students enrolled in our graduate program.
He raised his eyes from the financial statements that he was reviewing and replied. “That’s very good, Dr. Williams, but what are you going to do for the people that do not attend your university?” He said, “People in this town had been waiting for you since the school opened, don’t you think you should do something for them as well.” I sat quietly for a moment and thought about what he just said. My mind immediately flashed to a point Carter G. Woodson made in his Miseducation of the Negro when he said, “ONE of the most striking evidences of the failure of higher education among Negroes is their estrangement from the masses, the very people upon whom they must eventually count for carrying out a program of progress.”
Once my head stopped reeling, I made a promise to myself that the majority of my project, papers, and activities going forward would focus on the study, amplification, and celebration of African American history and culture. My approach to history would be to focus on people, events, and spaces that had been marginalized, ignored and erased in the African American community.
Much of what you see on this site operates from this guiding principle.
