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KANSAN.COM
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ARTS & CULTURE
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Professor's work highlights history of race in U.S.
Sarah Wright/KANSAN
African and African-American Studies professor Shawn Alexander works to create conversations about racial issues and conflict Sarah Wright/KANSAN
▶ HANNAH COLEMAN
@hecoleman3.3
As a professor of African and African-American Studies, Shawn Alexander's work and teaching aims to bring light to the influential activists and thinkers of the past.
Alexander writes books that surround the American history of racial issues and racial conflict. He has published five books with two in progress.
Alexander emphasized the importance of drawing parallels between historical racial conflicts and the political climate that exists today.
"I would say one of the most frustrating things about what I've studied and taught is the realization of how the American people are not honest with themselves about the issues of race and racism and its centrality to the American experience," Alexander said. "And how we keep dealing with the same issues, because America continues to deny that race and racism matter. And in doing that, we fail to overcome our past."
Alexander said the recent election and the reappearance of white supremacist and racist ideas have striking semblances to the issues of the past. He also said he thinks that there is now a space for people to feel comfortable in expressing racist ideas.
Alexander said he recognized the importance of understanding issues of race and the historical figures that initiated action on behalf of these issues early on in his life. He pursued African and African American studies in college right away.
Initially, he was intrigued by apartheid in South Africa, as it was frequently in the news, and he soon became involved in the anti-apartheid movement and began reading about South Africa and its apartheid system.
As his studies progressed, Alexander found he was more intrigued in the history of African-American political thought rather than the African side, and focused his research on that subject area. After completing his doctorate in African and African-American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Alexander moved on to teach at several other universities including Yale and Gettysburg College.
Then, Alexander decided to come to the University, looking forward to the opportunity to focus on African and African American studies exclusively. He was also drawn to the large group of people outside of his department that dealt with issues of race and culture.
American people are not honest with themselves about the issues of race and racism and its centrality to the American experience
Shawn Alexander Professor of African and African-American Studies
"That's a unique situation to have on any campus, to have that many people," Alexander said. "So I found it as a place that I could possibly do work and find a good intellectual home."
Along with extensive research, Alexander has written books covering the subjects of the writings and thoughts of T. Thomas Fortune, including "An Army of Lions," "Reconstruction Violence and the Ku Klux Klan Hearings," "The Aftermath of Slavery," and "W.E.B du Bois: An American Intellectual and Activist." His current projects center around Booker T. Washington, another African-American intellectual, and a larger project that writes on a new perspective on the history of the NAACP in the 1930s.
"The saddest thing to wrap our heads around is, how much have we changed if we're arguing over the same issues?" Alexander said. "The links in the chain may be slightly different, but the chain is the same, and that's frustrating, eye opening, but it's also important for students to understand because history matters. Things have not happened in a vacuum, and it's important to understand for example in our current historical moment of a major movement happening with Black Lives
Alexander said he can link the events surrounding the NAACP in 1930s to events occurring in 2017. Alexander points to how the recently confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions caused an uproar within the organization, as did the nomination of John Parker for the Supreme Court in 1929. The NAACP protested both nominations - fighting both times to keep racism out of the government.
Matter."
In becoming the director of the Langston Hughes Center at the University, Alexander has created spaces for different communities to intermingle and discuss the problem of race.
Alexander said the Langston Hughes Center is meant to study race, culture and African-American studies in America, and how that plays out in society. Langston Hughes is often
the vehicle used to talk about these issues.Not only known as a poet,Hughes was a major figure in bringing about change and fighting for civil rights.
The center aims to follow Hughes' example and start conversations on diversity and race. Recently, the center co-sponsored a symposium on the issue of black athlete activism and how it has played out in history. Alexander also taught a class
on a similar subject of race and sports, which graduate student Alyssa Cole said she found fascinating.
"Those discussions with Professor Alexander regarding that topic were so important, and I think really impacted a lot of people in the class," Cole said. "The discussions challenged conventional stereotypes and helped us to understand all of the aspects involved in college athletes' experiences, so we left with a more wholesome view and a greater level of understanding than we previously had."
Along with monthly talks, the center has organized "diverse dialogues" that are held in the Lawrence Public Library every month over various issues. This month, the discussion will center around education and the achievement gaps.
"It's been very rewarding to have these discussions where we're bringing people, students and faculty and staff from campus are going down into the community and intermingling with people from the community to talk about these issues," Alexander said. "Often times there's too much of a divide between, as they say town and gown. And we're trying to break that down because these issues effect us all."
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