The Struggle to “Think. Work. Serve.”: Reflections on Africana Studies at Tennessee State University in the
Age of the Geier Case
By Andrea Ringer, PhD and Sekh Ra Maat, PhD
Associate Professor of History and Affiliate Faculty in Africana Studies, Tennessee State University
Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Tennessee State University
Published in Freedom: Volume 3
Keywords
HBCU, Africana Studies, Black Studies, higher education, Geier court case
Abstract
In 1968, during the onset of the Black power movement and the new call for Black Studies units on campuses nationwide, TSU faculty Rita Geier sued the state of Tennessee, launching what would become a thirty-eight-year lawsuit to challenge racial segregation in public higher education in Tennessee. The lawsuit also served as a correction for the systemic underfunding that had plagued Tennessee State University (TSU), a historically Black college and university (HBCU), since its founding in 1912 in Nashville. Although 1960s student activism did not prove successful in bringing about a Black studies department or unit at TSU, the changing and challenging campus dynamics, because of the lawsuit, inspired student activists in the late 1980s to once again demand the creation of an Africana studies department to meet the needs of students on a culturally and demographically changing campus. “The Struggle to “Think. Work. Serve.”” chronicles the rise and fall of the Department of Africana studies at TSU, during one of the longest desegregation cases on an American university campus.
Digital Object Identifier
DOI: https://DOI.org/10.65373/BSJA2439
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