African American Criminological Thought

Conclusion

175 CONCLUSION Throughout this book we have presented the contributions of each scholar to criminological thought. Here we will focus more specifically on their influence within criminology and criminal justice. While the individuals included in this book and their works are known to some, their influence on the discipline has never been studied and is very difficult to assess without additional research. We do know they have influenced each other as well as others studying crime and the administration of justice. We also know that they have been excluded within the discipline (Young and Sulton, 1991) and that efforts are underway to incorporate their research into the curricula (Young and Taylor Greene, 1995). The question of influence is one that resonates when one thinks of pioneers and important scholars in any discipline, particularly a discipline that is emerging and seeking to lay down its founders and their important disciples. Moreover, some scholars measure the importance of an individual by either their impact on the discipline or their influence on a central figure who later becomes an influential scholar. Consequently, we focus our conclusion on three areas. First, we examine who may have been influenced by the scholars profiled here. Second, we examine the significant contributions of these scholars to an emerging discipline. And finally, we review directions for future research in this area. Although this work began by profiling African American scholars such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W. E. B. Du Bois, earlier African American writers were also interested in achieving “Justice.” While it was justice in a broader sense, which included the activities of African American abolitionists and other “activist/scholars” (see, for example, Douglass, 1845, 1855, 1881; Walker, 1830; Delaney, 1852), these issues were forerunners to the post–Civil War practice of using the criminal justice system to criminalize African Americans. The treatises of these early scholars centered on the “Negro question,” which was largely concerned with attaining full citizenship and equality. Our scholars were no doubt influenced by these early writers. In seeking to determine influences during the historical era, it is almost impossible to say definitively that someone was influenced by the work of the profiled scholars. Because, while we can find a scholar who may have cited the profiled scholars, one cannot presume that this shows influence. However, this does suggest that, at the very least, the citing scholar was familiar with the work of the cited African American. Additionally, during the historical era, very few white scholars would have openly admitted being influenced by the work of an African American or, for that matter, the scholarship of a woman. 176 Conclusion As with earlier African American scholars, the early writers focused on issues concerning race. They were essentially race men or women. According to Anderson: A race man (or woman) was a particular kind of black leader who lived in a segregated society and felt strongly responsible to the black race, especially in front of whites or outsiders to the community. Often, he felt as though he carried the whole weight of the race on his shoulders, and in public had the need to put matters of race first. Such a person was intent on “advancing the race” by working as a role model, both to uplift the ghetto community and to disabuse the wider society of its often negative view of blacks. (1997, p. 116) This commitment resulted in their focus on similar issues, which in turn probably resulted in mutual influence. For example, Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s work more than likely had an impact on Du Bois, who later became an activist/scholar against lynching. As for Monroe Work and E. Franklin Frazier, Work was influenced by Du Bois having collaborated with him on a few Atlanta University studies, while Frazier openly acknowledged his intellectual heritage, dedicating his 1949 publication, The Negro in the United States, to both Du Bois and Robert E. Park. The influence of the historical period scholars on white scholars is less clear. We can only speculate who may have been influenced by their work. While her radical and aggressive manner may have bothered some observers, Ida B.Wells-Barnett’s antilynching work was successful in drawing support from liberal whites. Many of those same liberal whites became involved in organizations such as the NAACP. Along with these liberal white activists...