The Equity Report #6: The Liberation of Black Studies: A Quest for Identity in Africana Studies
This Equity Report examines the intellectual and institutional evolution from Black Studies to Africana Studies, tracing the field’s expansion from a U.S.-centered academic intervention to a diasporic framework of global analysis. Building on the insurgent origins of Black Studies in the late 1960s, the essay explores how scholars confronted the limitations of national boundaries in understanding Black identity and racial capitalism. Drawing from Pan-African thought, diaspora theory, Afrocentric scholarship, and Black feminist critique, the report analyzes how Africana Studies emerged as a broader epistemological project that situates African-descended peoples within transnational histories of colonialism, migration, resistance, and cultural production. The essay argues that this shift was not a departure from Black Studies but its theoretical maturation. Africana Studies functions as both archive and horizon, preserving the political accountability of its origins while expanding its analytical scale to examine global anti-Blackness and diasporic identity formation. Ultimately, the report positions Africana Studies as a living discipline that continues to redefine knowledge production, institutional responsibility, and the global contours of Black self-determination.
—Telisa Nyoka King, M.A.
The Equity Report #4: The 100th Anniversary of Black History Month: From Negro History Week to a Global Framework for Historical Justice
This equity report essay examines the 100-year evolution of Black History Month, tracing its origins from Negro History Week in 1926 to its contemporary global observance. Founded by Carter G. Woodson as a corrective to the systematic erasure of Black people from dominant historical narratives, Negro History Week functioned as a political and educational intervention rather than a symbolic celebration. The essay analyzes how the expansion to Black History Month in 1976 marked both increased institutional recognition and the risk of containment, wherein historical inclusion substitutes for structural transformation. Drawing on equity frameworks, the essay distinguishes between representation and redistribution, arguing that visibility without shifts in power, resources, and curricular authority reproduces historical inequities. It further situates Black History Month within a transnational context shaped by colonialism and racial capitalism, while addressing contemporary backlash against Ethnic Studies and historical truth. The essay concludes that the centennial of Black History Month underscores unfinished work, calling for an equity-centered approach that embeds Black history as foundational to education, policy, and cultural production rather than confined to a designated timeframe.
—Telisa Nyoka King, M.A.