African American Studies, Temple University

For 4 years, from 1997 to 2001, an ideological struggle was waged over the philosophical direction of the Department of African American Studies (DAAS) at Temple University (TU) in Philadelphia. The department had gained national and international fame in the late 1980s for its Afrocentric orientation, as well as for being the first program in the country to grant a Ph.D. in African American Studies (AAS), under the leadership of Molefi Kete Asante, the founder of the Afrocentric paradigm. However, the department started drawing negative attention in 1996 when a serious effort was made by a group of white and black professors and administrators to have Molefi Asante's tenure at Temple terminated. They had charged Asante with abuse of power, but the real issue, as was later revealed, was the widespread discussion on [Page 21]campus about the Afrocentric orientation of the department.

The Ford Foundation refused to grant funding to the department, claiming that it was too political. Those who attacked Asante wanted to find a more agreeable black person to run the department. Although their efforts to railroad Asante out of office failed, this was only the first open attack on the department from the Temple administration, to be followed by many more. Asante, whose term was expiring on June 30, 1997, announced during the fall of 1996 that, for personal reasons, he would not seek reelection as chair of the DAAS. The dean, Carolyn Adams, quickly seized this opportunity to attempt to implement a drastic philosophical change in the DAAS. This change, it seems, was to be part of a broad revamping of Temple University's public image, with a serious commitment to luring students from the suburbs. A highly visible DAAS, whose philosophical orientation was perceived as hostile to white supremacy, could have seriously undermined the success of the plan.