African American Studies + Queer Studies = Real Education

“The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.” — James Baldwin

If James Baldwin were alive today, I am sure he would be quite eloquent and forceful on the current political attacks on African American studies and Queer studies by many conservative politicians. I envision one of his “letter” or “notes” essays addressed directly to the political hatred espoused by Ron DeSantis of Florida on African American history and culture and Queer studies within that discipline. Baldwin did not run from the battle.

But do not run either from this battle even though we don’t have Jimmy Baldwin. Face it and call Desantis out and everyone singing his ugly tune of division.

Desantis is an opportunistic politician. Here is what he said:

Desantis’ Department of Education also said that “African American studies” “lacks educational value.” They must be aware as educators how ridiculous that sounds. But I get it. So lets look at a few great Americans who would identify as LGBTQ and are critical to understanding American history and culture and who have to be included in an AP African American studies class.

Barbara Jordan

(February 21, 1936 — January 17, 1996) was an African American lawyer, educator, and politician. A graduate of Boston University Law School and a fierce Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. Jordan is known for her eloquent opening statement[3] at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon. In 1976, she became the first African-American, and the first woman, to ever deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors.

Bayard Rustin

March 17, 1912 — August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, in 1941, to press for an end to racial discrimination in employment. Rustin later organized Freedom Rides, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership and teaching King about nonviolence; he later served as an organizer for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.[1] Rustin worked alongside Ella Baker, a co-director of the Crusade for Citizenship, in 1954; and before the Montgomery bus boycott, he helped organize a group, called “In Friendship”, amongst Baker, Stanley Levison of the American Jewish Congress, and some other labor leaders.

Alvin Ailey

(January 5, 1931 — December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (later Ailey School) as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. A gay man, his work fused theater, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with Black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of Black life in America. On July 15, 2008, the United States Congress passed a resolution designating AAADT a “vital American cultural ambassador to the World.”

These are just three great human beings who are also Americans. And Black. Modern American history and culture is not full without them. This is why to teach Queer studies in African American studies is not an agenda; it is education. It is necessary.

Such a course is also not full without the writer, James Baldwin, the literary and feminist critic, Barbara Smith, poet, Essix Hemphill, filmmaker and poet, Michelle Parkerson, philosopher-scholar and architect of the Harlem Renaissance, Alain Leroy Locke, and poet, civil rights trailblazer and Episcopal priest, Pauli Murray.

How about Laverne Cox, actress, and advocate, blues legend, Ma Rainey, Alice Dunbar Nelson, poet and suffragist, Robin Roberts, media star, Lori Lightfoot, first LGBTQ mayor of Chicago, and so many more.

This is us. We have to fight for this history and culture. We have always had to (all of us) and we will fight now. There was once no African American studies classes at all or Women studies classes. We, the people, made that happen. We have to make this happen.

Do not to let people like Ron DeSantis divide us. The individuals I have listed above and the many others are American history and the American present. They are also African American. Their story is our story. Let us make sure it is preserved and respected and passed down to the next generations.

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This post was previously published on Brian G (aka ‘bumpyjonas’) – he/him.

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