Georgia State University, specifically, the Urban Teacher Leadership Master’s Degree Program, lost a giant on August 13, 2007 when educator, psychologist and historian Asa G. Hilliard III died while leading a study tour in Egypt. Asa Hilliard was the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education. Some of his many accomplishments included: serving as Dean of School of Education at San Francisco State University, an expert witness in landmark federal cases on test validity, consultant to schools in Liberia, West Africa, VP and founding member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations. Dr. Hilliard taught for many years and exclusively in the UTL Master’s Degree Program and later, Ph.D. level seminars in the College of Education. Hilliard’s classes focused on understanding the reality of the power of teaching and schooling to produce either excellent achievement or failure.

Born in Galveston, TX on August 22, 1933 to Asa G. Hilliard II and Dr. Lois O. Williams, Dr. Hilliard graduated from Manual High School (1951) in Denver, CO. He received a B.A. from the University of Denver (1955) and taught in the Denver Public Schools before joining the U.S. Army, where he served as a First Lieutenant, platoon leader, and battalion executive officer in the Third Armored Infantry (1955-1957). He later received his M.A. in Counseling (1961) and Ed.D. in Educational Psychology (1963) from the University of Denver. In pursuit of his education, Dr. Hilliard worked in many occupations including as a teacher in the Denver Public Schools, as a railroad maintenance worker, and as a bartender, waiter and cook.

The professional career of Dr. Hilliard spans the globe. He was on the faculty at San Francisco State University; consultant to the Peace Corp in Liberia, West Africa; superintendent of schools in Monrovia, Liberia; and returned to San Francisco State as department chair and Dean of Education. At the time of his death, Dr. Hilliard was the Fuller E. Calloway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta where he held joint appointments in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education.

Dr. Hilliard was a Board Certified Forensic Examiner and Diplomat of both the American Board of Forensic Examiners and the American Board of Forensic Medicine. He served as lead expert witness in several landmark federal cases on test validity and bias, including Larry P. v. Wilson Riles in California, Mattie T. v. Holliday in Mississippi, Deborah P. v. Turlington in Florida, and also in two Supreme Court cases, Ayers v. Fordice in Mississippi, and Marino v. Ortiz in New York City. Dr. Hilliard has lectured at leading universities and other institutions throughout the world, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Geographic Society.

As a distinguished consultant, Dr. Hilliard has worked with many of the leading school districts, publishers, public advocacy organizations, universities, government agencies and private corporations on valid assessment, African content in curriculum, teacher training, and public policy. Several of his programs in pluralistic curriculum, assessment, and valid teaching have become national models. Dr. Hilliard designed the approach and selected the essays that appeared in The Portland Baseline Essays (Portland, OR) which represent the first time that a comprehensive global and longitudinal view of people of African ancestry has been presented in a curriculum.

In 2001, Dr. Hilliard was enstooled as Development Chief for Mankranso, Ghana and given the name Nana Baffour Amankwatia, II, which means "generous one." Dr. Hilliard spent more than thirty years leading study groups to Egypt and Ghana, as part of his mission of teaching the truth about the history of Africa and the African Diaspora. He co-chaired the First National Conference on the Infusion of African and African- American Content in the School Curriculum in Atlanta. Dr. Hilliard was a founding member and First Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and a founding member of the National Black Child Development Institute. Dr. Hilliard was also a key advisor for the African Education for Every African Child Conference, held in Mali and sponsored by the government of Mali.

Dr. Hilliard has authored more than a thousand publications including journal articles, magazine articles, special reports, chapters in books, and books. Some of his publications include The Maroon Within Us: Selected Essays on African American Community Socialization (Black Classic Press 1995); SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind (Makare Publishing 1997), and African Power: Affirming African Indigenous Socialization in the Face of the Cultural Wars (Makare Publishing, 2002), to name a few. Also, he has received hundreds of awards and recognitions from many prestigious organizations and institutions including the Morehouse College "Candle in the Dark Award in Education," National Alliance of Black School Educators "Distinguished Educator Award," American Evaluation Association, President's Award, and the Republic of Liberia Award as Knight Commander of the Humane Order of African Redemption.

"We do not know who we are, cannot explain how we got here, and have no sense of our destiny beyond mere survival. Most of us hope to hitch a ride on someone else's wagon with no thought whatsoever as to where that wagon may be going. We have no destination of our own. Ask our leadership, ask our women, men or children on the street what our agenda is. Ask them what plans Africans have and what we want to build for ourselves within the next five, ten, twenty-five, seventy-five or one-hundred years? We are so used to having others make long-term plans for us that the idea of our own five-year plan is petrifying to us."
-Asa G. Hillard, III

Crim Center Legends

Dr. Lisa Delpit

Executive Director/Eminent Scholar, Center for Urban Education & Innovation, Florida International University
EdD., Harvard Graduate School of Education
M.A., Harvard Graduate School of Education
B.A. Antioch College

Dr. Delpit founded the Center in 1997. At that time the name of the organization was The Center for Urban Educational Excellence. Alonzo A. Crim was added after Dr. Crim passing in 2000.

Research Areas:
Dr. Delpit has won accolades for her work on teaching and learning in urban schools and in diverse cultural settings. She has studied education in both Alaska and New Guinea, published several books, and is a sought-after speaker. Delpit's placement as one of the foremost educators and writers on the subject of culturally-relevant approaches to educating students of color began with a series of eloquent, plain-spoken essays in the Harvard Educational Review. These essays questioned the validity of some popular teaching strategies for African-American students and were eventually spun off into a book titled, Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. The book, published in 1995 has been cited for the ongoing debate surrounding what she describes as "finding ways and means to best educate urban students, particularly African-American, and other students of color".

Activities & Honors:
Dr. Lisa Delpit received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Education in 1993 from Harvard Graduate School of Education, which hailed her as a "visionary scholar and woman of courage." Her work on school-community relations and cross-cultural communication was cited when she received her MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. Delpit has also been selected as the Antioch College Horace Mann Humanity Award recipient for 2003, which recognizes a contribution by alumni of Antioch College who have "won some victory for humanity."

Selected Publications:
* Delpit, Lisa. (1995). Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. NY: New Press.
* Delpit, Lisa. (1998). The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Children (co-edited with Theresa Perry). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
* Delpit, Lisa. (2002). The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom (co-edited with Joanne Kilgour Dowdy). NY: New Press.

Crim Center Legends

Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for, not failure, but low aim, is sin.

- Benjamin E. Mays

This quote embodies the very epitome of the message that Benjamin Elijah Mays spent his life relaying to everyone around him. Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, a scholar, mentor, pastor, consultant, teacher, leader, civil rights activist, and friend to many, has bestowed to the world a life of educating the masses, fighting for equal opportunity, and providing direction for present and future leaders. His voice and actions spoke towards the sanctity of enlightenment, the importance of social justice, and the development of those individuals whom would generally have lower financial, political, and/or social means to reach their potential. His influence has been spread widely over the world and it is important to step back and take a look at this historical figure’s life.

Benjamin E. Mays life began in a humble wooden cabin in Epworth, South Carolina in 1894. Growing up in this town was not easy for the African-American race. Black individuals received much negative attention from racist groups and town members and suffered from extreme poverty. One of Mays’ first memories was that of a White mob forcing his father to take off his hat and bow before them repeatedly in humble servitude (Mays House Museum). Mays’ early days of experiencing and witnessing acts of hatred and inequality marked a time in which he resolutely decided that he wanted more for himself, his family, and for the African-American population at large. Therefore, it is not hard to believe that despite all of the racism and stifling factors associated with poverty in his small town, Mays still managed to cherish and understand the value of education at a young age as he became valedictorian of his high school class (Butts, 2006). After proving his intellectual abilities in secondary school, he matriculated into Bates College where he graduated with honors in 1920 amongst a predominantly White class. His education continued with his acquisition of a Masters and Doctorate degree in Religion from the University of Chicago in 1935.

Dr. Mays felt that his primary calling was to end racism and better the American people as a whole, remarking that “The chief sin of segregation is the distortion of human personality…it damages the soul of both the segregator and the segregated." After gaining the necessary knowledge to enlighten his own mind, he became an instructor for higher mathematics at Morehouse College, while also serving as the Pastor for Shiloh Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia from 1921-1924. From there, he instructed English at South Carolina State for one year, followed by serving as the Dean of the School of Religion at Howard University from 1934-1940. While a Dean at Howard, he helped to increase the enrollment, improve the faculty, secure endowments, amongst many other projects. It was, however, his time as president at Morehouse University that marked his widest influence on civil action and education from 1940-1967. It was here that he mentored many young African-American men and helped to pave the way for their educational, emotional, spiritual, physical, and holistic development. Among these mentees are Alonzo A. Crim, the first African-American superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, and the widely known civil rights activist, Martin Luther King. It was at Morehouse and through Mays where King gained the necessary tools and guidance to fight for his beliefs and challenge the status quo that defined America during this time (Mays House Museum). After effecting much change in Morehouse and the urban community, Dr. Mays retired in 1967.

Although Dr. Mays retired in 1967, his activities did not wane. In 1969, he was a consultant for the Office of Education’s U.S Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and in 1970, he was a consultant for the Ford Foundation (Mays House Museum). Also, he was elected to the Atlanta Board of Education in 1969, and served three of his nine years on the Board as its president. Member of the Advisory Council of the Peace Corps and the National Commission for the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, & Cultural Organization, and advisor to President Johnson and Carter are also to be included on his list of work activities and achievements.

In addition to acquiring an education during a time where it was made nearly impossible for African-American individuals to achieve, increasing the quality of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, mentoring young African-American men, and guiding future leaders, Dr. Mays managed to publish over 2000 articles and nine books. Due to the sheer caliber of his dedication to the world, he was awarded over 55 honorary degrees from educational institutions and has become one of America’s greatest leaders and legends. Here at the Crim Center, we are honored to have launched a Lecture Series (Benjamin E. Mays Lecture Series) dedicated to Dr. Mays and the continuance of spreading the word on issues that will help to improve the state of the urban community.