Du Bois Scholar Talk: Richard D. Benson, "Creating a Du Boisian Anthology: Examining the ‘Randolph Wilson Bromery’ Effect"

This presentation explicates the planning processes, organizing methods, and collective input that contributed to creating a forthcoming anthology on W.E.B. Du Bois, Seeds of W. E. B. Du Bois: Musings, Lineal Impressions & Critical Introspections. The anthology is a collaborative effort which emerged from the conversations and the socio-academic interactions of the W. E. B. Du Bois Fellows representing the diverse academic cohorts originally assembled by the WEB Du Bois Center Fellowship Program.

This lecture provides insights on how the contributing scholars participated in the necessary project checkpoints for the successful completion of this forthcoming anthology on W.E.B Du Bois. While preparing the content for specific sections of the anthology, it became clear to the project editors (Drs. Richard D. Benson II & Whitney Battle-Baptiste) that the historical impact of the late University of Massachusetts Chancellor, Dr. Randolph Wilson Bromery, cannot be understated. As early as 1972, Dr. Bromery proactively strategized to construct a physical space of critical learning, anti-oppressive academic programs, and a site of community support in the legacy of WEB Du Bois. Due to his energies, and the concerted efforts of Black scholar-activists, that intended site became the W.E.B. Bu Bois Center. Thus, this presentation highlights the innovative work of Dr. Bromery while centering the legacy of the WEB Du Bois Center, and the WEB Du Bois archives which all undergird the aims and objectives of this work.

Dr. Richard D. Benson II was appointed as Associate Director of the Center for Urban Education and is Associate Professor of the Black Radical Tradition in Education in the department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy in the Fall of 2022. Benson received his PhD in Educational Policy Studies specializing in History of Education from the University of Illinois in 2010. As a historian of education, Benson specializes in the Black Freedom Movement, the Black Radical Tradition, and transnational social movements.

Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh faculty, Benson was an Associate Professor in the Education Department at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Benson has published extensively and he has also received several grants, fellowships and awards including the 2019/2020 Robert A. Corrigan Visiting Professor in Social Justice at the San Francisco State University (SFSU) College of Ethnic Studies; and the W. E. B. Du Bois Visiting Scholars Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2018/2019 and (2022/2023). He is the award-winning author of Fighting for our Place in the Sun: Malcolm X and the Radicalization of the Black Student Movement 1960-1973 (Peter Lang Publishing, 2015), which is a text that examines the linkages and inter-generational continuity of the Black Freedom Movement that evolved from the social pedagogy and political influences of Malcolm X. Dr. Benson is currently working on two book manuscript projects, Funding the Revolution: Black Power, White Church Money, and the Financial Architects of Black Radicalism 1966-1976 (State University of New York Press) and Harold Washington: Black Power Politics and United Front Radicalism in the City of Wind (Polity Press).