The Sorry Number of Academic Chairs Named for African Americans

Abstract

This subject cannot be dismissed as a matter of inconsequen? tial tokenism. Chairs named after black people are important because these named professorships hold up for public honor the scholarly, commercial, and professional achievements of a group whose accomplishments in the United States have been largely supposed or ignored for three centuries. This past summer we conducted a careful survey of the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities and the 25 highestranked liberal arts colleges. From a total of 4,033 endowed pro? fessorships at the highest-ranked -___?__-____ universities, we were able to .Twm a mal of4Q33 e identify only 14 endowed chairs fl, {he highest-ranked urn named after African Americans. t0 identify on!y 14 endov At the nation's 25 highest-ranked A r ? A ? a,,-. ^ African Americans. At tl liberal arts colleges, it appears 7 -, 7.7 , , 7 & rr ranked liberal arts coL that only 4 of 649 endowed , 4 r , Ar. 7 t r only 4 of 649 endowe chan*s are named after African r . r . after African / Amencans. The minute number of en-