When Hanes Walton, Jr. arrived at Morehouse College, one of the nationâs most venerated historical black colleges and universities (HBCUs ), none of his professors would have predicted that this young student would become a major political scientist of his generation. Hanes Walton, Jr. (1941â2013) became a pioneering and prolific scholar of African American politics and an architect of the modern scientific study of the subject. The first person to earn a Ph.D. in political science from Howard University, Walton devoted his career to laying the intellectual foundations for the study of race and politics, and lobbying the leading professional organization for political scientists, the American Political Science Association (APSA) for the establishment of what is commonly referred to as black politics as a subfield in the discipline.1
This book comprehensively analyzes the body of Professor Hanes Waltonâs writings, while providing a short history of the study of race in political science. It concludes with analysis of how the conceptualization and parameters of the field have changed since Waltonâs pioneering work, focusing particularly on intersectionality as an alternative to the traditional conceptualization of the black politics field.
The Making of a Black Scholar
Hanes Walton, Jr. was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1941. In 1948 the family moved to Athens, where his father worked as a janitor at the University of Georgia. Educated in Athensâ separate and unequal segregated schools, he earned his undergraduate degree in political science from Morehouse in 1963, a Masters from Atlanta University in 1964 and in 1967 he became the first person to earn the Ph.D. in political science (then called government) from Howard University. During the 1960s white universities awarded virtually all of the doctorates in political science earned by African Americans. Walton is therefore near unique among top-tier black scholars, having been educated entirely at historically black institutions (Paula McClain , a professor of political science at Duke University, is another example, receiving both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Howard). Walton treasured his experiences at these black institutions. In the prefaces to virtually all of his books he fulsomely praised the teaching and mentoring of Professors Robert Brisbane and Tobe Johnson at Morehouse; âthe ever-eruditeâ, as Walton frequently referred to Samuel DuBois Cook, at Atlanta University; and Emmett Dorsey, Bernard Fall, Harold Gosnell , Robert Martin and Nathaniel Tillman at Howard.
Waltonâs professors graduated from white universities, where they had been inculcated with the dominant conceptual framework of political science-pluralism, which largely ignored the problem of race and civil rights. Walton, however, was educated at a time and at places where black professors taught about inequality and were able to cite racial discrimination examples in cities like Atlanta and Washington D.C. When Walton was taking his graduate courses, few major white universities had African American political scientists. More importantly there were few articles or monographs on the subject of black politics. Thus Walton, working with his HBCU professors, began to construct this new field in a disciplinary vacuum. This became the essence of his lifeâs work.
When Walton received the Ph.D., few historically black colleges had political science departments, and few courses in political science were offered at these institutions. After graduation from Howard, Walton returned to his native Georgia to accept an appointment at Savannah State College, a HBCU. He was recruited to establish a political science program, with a faculty of two teaching eight different courses a year. He spent 25 years at Savannah State, from 1967 to 1992 when he joined the University of Michigan faculty where he remained until his death in 2013. Walton also spent a year on the faculty (1971â1972) at Atlanta University where he assisted in the design of the new doctoral program in political science.
In 1972 Walton was named a Fuller E. Callaway professor, one of the 40 endowed chairs established in 1961 by the Callaway Foundation to recruit and retain outstanding faculty at Georgia universities. The Callaway chair augmented his salary and reduced his teaching load, but nevertheless Savannah State was not an environment conducive to research productivity. Southern stateâfunded HBCUs have a history of being underfunded, with few graduate programs and insufficient research facilities. They were mostly teaching colleges. Savannah State College certainly did not provide the resources of the University of Michigan or other major research universities in terms of teaching one or two classes in a single field, research support, small seminars and teaching and research assistants. Indeed, what Walton wrote of his mentors at Morehouse, Atlanta and Howard applied to him as well during his tenure at Savannah State:
The scholars who are the founders and innovators in the study of African American politics literally created this scholarly subfield out of nothing. Working in small African American colleges, without major financial support or grants and with large numbers of classes and students, these scholars launched in small steps and limited ways a new area of academic study. They published in obscure and poorly diffused journals and little known presses, which resulted, in many instances, in their work being overlooked and undervalued. Racismâs manifestation in the academy allowed much valuable work to remain unseen. ⊠They persisted and persevered. And while their work is scattered and sometimes difficult to locate, it formed the basis for a new vision and perspective in political science.2
Professor Walton in his 25 years at Savannah was prolific, publishing 10 books and 28 articles or book chapters. A record for African American scholars that was unmatched at that time. His publication record at Savannah and to an extent at Michigan came at considerable cost in terms of money and time away from his family. Receiving only modest or no grants to support his research, he used the resources of the family to support his work which often involved extended travel to out-of-state libraries and archives and to conduct interviews. Married with two sons (Brandon and Brent), Walton was frequently away from his family for extended periods during the summer and semester breaks. Since he wrote longhand on legal pads and did not type his manuscripts, he had to hire secretariesâfor a long time Margaret Mitchell Ilugbo who lived in Mississippiâwho typed and retyped the manuscripts from his handwritten drafts. For many of his articles and books he also used extensive figures and graphs, which were also professionally prepared. Again, this involved a considerable drain on family financial resources since he earned extensive royalties only on the multiple editions of his second textbook that was first published in 2000.
Receiving an appointment as a full professor at a major university such as the University of Michigan represented an upgradation of his professional status within the political science discipline; one would think that it was also an overall advance for the Walton family . Actually the move to the University of Michigan took a toll on the family . He earned a substantially higher salary than at Savannah, taught fewer classes and had access to more resources to support his travel and research; but his wife Alice and sons remained behind at their home in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Maintaining two residences, one in Ann Arbor and Hilton Head, Walton lived like a graduate student in a small apartment near the campus. This sacrifice must have had a tremendous effect on Walton. Yet he was extremely productive, writing another 12 books and more than 30 articles and chapters.
Hanes Walton was an old-fashioned ebony and ivory tower scholar; for him it was workâteaching, advising and above all researchâthat mattered. Almost from the start of his career, he was a man with a missionâto use his abilities to further the work of his mentors, who he described as the âunheralded and the unsungâ,3 and to establish the study of black politics as a recognized subfield within the American science of politics. This mission of scholarship for Walton was almost single-minded. For example, although he admired and celebrated the political activism of a Ralph Bunche or a Ronald Walters as well as their administrative work as chair of Howardâs political science department, this was not his goal. In a letter in 1987 to William Keech at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, declining an invitation to apply for director of African American Studies, Walton explained his aversion to administrative work: âFirst, I have no interest in administrative jobs. Ever since graduation I have assiduously avoided such offers. My second reason stems from appreciation of the data problems in the area of black politics. ⊠Hence, administrative work would be at best a nuance (sic) at their worse, stumbling blocks.â4
Shy and retiring, Walton was equally reluctant to engage the media, especially television. It was his view that his participation with the media in general was a distraction. Often, for example, when contacted by reporters to discuss issues in the news related to black politics, he would demur and suggest that they get in touch with other black professors (including this writer). Although he occasionally did interviews, in general he saw this as a nuisance that all too frequently trivialized scholars and scholarship.
Professor Walton was widely hailed as a willing and engaged mentor to students and young political scientists. As one of the few blacks in the political science faculty at a major research university, he was often called upon to write letters of reference and recommendations for grants, faculty appointments and tenure and promotions. Unlike administrative and media work, he did not view this work as a nuisance or distraction. To the contrary, this was the work of scholarship and part of the long process of establishing the black politics field.
Hanes Walton was also that rarity among scholars in his willingness to share credit with colleaguesâjunior and senior colleagues, former students and graduate studentsâthrough co-authorships. Seven of...