Elijah Muhammad's Great Grandson Heads Schomburg Library

Monday, November 22, 2010

Elijah Muhammad's Great Grandson heads Schomburg

Weknow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Clara Muhammad are smiling toknow their great grandson Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad will head theworld's greatest collection of black history that is housed at theSchomburg Library in Harlem. We think Malcolm and Betty Shabazz aresmiling as well.
--Marvin X

Meet the new director of Schomburg
http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/meet-next-director-schomburg-center-drkhalil-gibran-muhammad?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4ceabfb290a32b30,0#comment-3131

Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad to head the Schomburg Center



By Herb Boyd
Special to the Amsterdam News
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a scholar of African-American history fromIndiana University, has been named the new director of the SchomburgCenter for Research in Black Culture.

There were more than 200nominees or scholars seeking the position since the announcement thatDr. Howard Dodson, Jr. would retire from the position next year. Dr.Muhammad, who is the son of the noted New York Times photographer OzierMuhammad and the great-grandson of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,assumes the position next July.


“I amextremely excited to be selected to fill this prestigious position,”Dr. Muhammad said in an interview Wednesday afternoon at the AbyssinianBaptist Church. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I hope Ican fulfill the legacy left by Dr. Dodson.”

Over the lastseveral months the Schomburg Center has been mired in rumors that thecenter was imperiled and ever more so upon the notice that Dr. Dodsonwould no longer be at the helm. Furthermore, there was an outcry fromthe community with the demand that Dr. Molefi Asante of TempleUniversity be appointed the new director.

“Yes, I am well awareof all the controversy and the first thing I want to do is to securethe trust of the community and the staff here at this historicinstitution,” Dr. Muhammad said. “This position affords me a nationalplatform to contribute to conversations and even policy debates onissues pertaining to the arts and culture.”

A native of Chicago,Dr. Muhammad served as assistant professor of history at IndianaUniversity for five years, where he completed a major scholarly work TheCondemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern UrbanAmerica (Harvard University Press, 2010).

According to Dr.David Levering Lewis, who nominated Dr. Muhammad for the position, thenew director’s book “renders an incalculable service to civil rightsscholarship by disrupting one of the nation’s most insidious,convenient, and resilient explanatory loops: whites commit crimes, butblack males are criminals.”

“I am currently working a book thatwill deal with the history of racial politics surrounding the creationand swift dissolution of Prohibition-era ‘tough-on-crime’ laws,specifically New York’s four-strikes law of 1926,” he said.


Whenasked about some of his immediate plans, Dr. Muhammad said he woulddevote time and attention to some of the programs already underway atthe Schomburg and initiated by Dr. Dodson. “I certainly will continuehis thrust into digital technologies, particularly as we reach out tothe younger members of our community.”

At 38, Dr. Muhammad, whogrew up on the Southside of Chicago, is vitally in touch with the mood,attitude and aspirations of many in the Black and Latino community. A1993 graduate of University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in economics,he received his Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University in2004, specializing in 20th century U.S. and African American history.

“Iknow that his career at the Schomburg Center will be one of excellenceand innovation,” said Dr. Paul LeClerc, president of the NYPL.

Dr.Muhammad, who is married with three children, said that he will beconvening a town hall meeting to get to know the community and for thecommunity to get to know him.

“There has never been a moreexciting time in the history of the Schomburg Center,” said searchcommittee member Aysha Schomburg, great-granddaughter of ArturoSchomburg, the center’s founder. “Without any doubt, Khalil has theskills and the passion to build on the legacy. This is a great dayfor New York and especially for Harlem. We welcome him.”
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