This is a drawing of a one of the attendees at the C-19 conference back in the spring. It was held at UC Berkeley and it drew 19th century American literature specialists from all over the country. In the panel on the future of 19th-Century African American literature studies, this scholar asked a great question. Oddly, although I can remember that I really enjoyed his question, I cannot remember anything about what he asked. I can remember that he identified himself as a graduate student, but that’s about it. I guess his question was so amazing that my mind to was not able to store it without exploding from its brilliance.

In the background of this drawing are W.E.B. DuBois and other African American scholar-activists from the Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization founded in 1905. I have incorporated this image into the background as an acknowledgement of the debt that all scholars of African descent, around the nation and the world, owe to DuBois and his compatriots. We truly stand on the shoulders of these men and women (none of whom a picture here, incidentally) who fought so many battles to create a space for the Black intellectual.

Ajuan Mance