The Atlanta School Tradition: Teaching Black Political Science

Abstract

This reflection focuses on my experiences teaching political science through a black worldview suggested by Dr. Mack H. Jones. In 1971, Dr. Mack H. Jones challenged black political scientists to subvert the efforts of white political scientists by creating an alternative frame of reference that focused on African American and African communities in the discipline. Moreover, Dr. Jones was the founder and chief visionary for the political science Ph.D. program at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University-CAU), which created an academic program by which every subfield was taught through the material conditions of black people in the U.S. and around the world. As an alum of CAU, I describe my efforts to answer Dr. Jones' call through my teaching at various Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) by recounting how I integrate the black experience in my political science courses by highlighting race, class, and gender in my teaching.