African American Studies

Abu S. Abarry

African American (or Black) Studies is the systematic and critical analysis of the thought and practices of African-descended peoples in their historical, modern, contemporary, and current contexts. As such, it studies the cultures of African peoples in the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and other parts of the world. It embraces scholars of African American literature, history, politics, religion, philosophy, sociology, social work, and many other fields within the humanities and social sciences. This entry describes the origins of African American (or Black) Studies, its development as a discipline, and its current status. The roots of the discipline now known as African American Studies lie in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The period provided the historical moment when a call for a change in societal and academic structures needed to be made. Seizing the moment, various organizations, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ...

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