Biography

In 1968, Father General Pedro Arupe’s published and distributed a letter to Jesuit colleges and universities titled “Inter-Racial Apostolate” to Jesuit Colleges and universities. Around the same time in 1967, discussions between President Michael Walsh, SJ, and Boston community leaders Mel King and Bryant Rollins, were being held to discuss how Boston College should do better by its Black students and members of the neighboring communities. The Black Forum, a group composed of Black students attending Boston College, wanted a Black Studies Program to be developed at Boston College. In 1969 President W. Seavey Joyce declared that he was in favor of such a program.

In 1970, the Educational Policy Committee approved for the first time a slate of accredited courses. In 1981, Amanda V. Houston was appointed as the first permanent Director. Houston laid the groundwork for the Black Studies minor, established in 1985, and for the structure, goals, and mission of the program.

In 1990, Boston College student Joseph DeJames petitioned to have his fourteen Black Studies courses classified as a major, and his petition was granted, making him the first student at Boston College to graduate with a Black Studies major. At that time, the number of students enrolled in the minor was 1,251, of whom 85% were white.

In 1993 Professor Frank Taylor, a tenured Associate Professor of Caribbean History, became the first full-time faculty member to assume the position of Director of Black Studies. His directorship was defined by an expanded focus on the Caribbean. The 1996 “Blacks in Boston” Conference featured Boston’s Afro-Caribbean connections and, with Taylor’s encouragement, students and community members made greater use of the John J. Burns Library’s Caribbeana and Nicholas M. Williams Ethnological Collections on Caribbean politics and culture. Also in 1993 the University Core requirements were revised to include one course designated “Cultural Diversity” for the entering class of 1997. Several Black Studies offerings fit easily under this rubric, thus Black Studies courses began to enroll an even broader range of BC students from all four undergraduate schools.

In July 2005 Associate Professor of English Cynthia Young was hired as the new Director of Black Studies. In January 2006 the program was renamed the African and African Diaspora Studies Program to reflect the minor’s broadened focus on Africa and its worldwide diaspora.

In July 2009 Rhonda Frederick became the Program’s fourth director. Professor Frederick is committed to initiatives begun by Cynthia Young, Frank Taylor, and Amanda Houston, while forging new connections with Boston’s African Diaspora communities by joining forces with the New England area and international Africana Studies programs, and increasing AADS’s profile within BC academic and intellectual communities. In April 2016, Frederick revived the "Blacks in Boston" conference series.

Today, the program’s mission is to introduce histories, cultures, and experiences of African descended peoples to the widest range of students; to support serious academic research on Africa and the African Diaspora; to give African descended students and their peers opportunities to examine the depth and breadth of African legacies on this continent and in all parts of our world; to link local Black communities more closely with BC; and to project the significance of realities of people of African descent to the intellectual life of BC and larger communities.

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