Black Women as Scholars and Social Agents: Standing in the Gap

Headnote

Abstract

The number of Black women in the academy is small. Further, that number decreases as the academic and administrative ranks increase. Yet, these scholars and social agents play roles vital to education. This reflective essay describes the experiences of three Black female scholars at Predominately White Institutions. Using personal narratives as an analytical framework, the authors discuss how they use their research, teaching, community service, and mentoring opportunities to affect social change. This autoethnographical work seeks to heighten awareness of those who use their profession, despite the systemic barriers as a catalyst for transformation and emancipation both within and outside the academy.

Introduction

Education has consistently been at the center of the Black community. Upon emancipation from human bondage, reconstruction governments led by Black legislators instituted free public schools along with other forms of democratic government and social legislation that broadened participation for all citizens (Wallace, Hinton-Hudson, Moore, Hart & Wilson, 2010). Because education was one of the most respectable professions that was open to Blacks before and after emancipation, American life and education are inconceivable without their presence (Harley, 2008; McKay, 1997). Many Black educators played prominent roles as scholars and social change agents at all levels of education. Black women in the academy, in particular, began in human bondage and emerged as early as 1850 as formal educators in newlyformed Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). They served as both scholars and social change agents who specialized in the "humbler trades" - nursing, home economics, and moral teaching - and who focused on the moral, social, and educational development of young Black women as "uplifters" of their race as opposed to a liberal arts education like their White female counterparts (Collins, 2001, p. 32; Gregory, 1995; Harley, 2008). As authors and the subjects of this paper, we focus on Black women currently in the academy, who like these early pioneers, continue to "stand in the gap" as dual scholars and agents of social change defined here as "an alteration of social structures or culture over time" (Thomas, 2001, p. 83).

As Black women who are educators we believe that a career in the academy can be very rewarding. It provides us as administrators and faculty the freedom to pursue our own...