In Memoriam: Dr. Asa Hilliard 1933-2007
By J. Herman Blake
The news spread rapidly: Brother Asa Hilliard had died. It was like one had to tell another and another because one could not believe Asa had transitioned to join the elders. Telling others helped convince ourselves that the unbelievable was true: His voice was silenced and his presence was no longer among us. Quiet meditations and deep reflections followed this realization.
In my mind Asa, Brother Asa, may no longer be a presence among us, but to me Asa, Brother Asa, will “keep on keeping on” in the transformed lives of countless numbers of younger sisters and brothers who will stop and grieve, sing and pray in tribute, but will then shoulder his mantle and continue his work.
Asa and I met when he was a professor at San Francisco State University and I was a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz — 75 miles away. Even though we were in different institutions, our lives paralleled each other. We were teachers, scholars, active researchers and administrators. We were both seeking to empower African-American students through self-knowledge, wisdom and understanding. At the same time we sought to create fundamental changes in institutions of higher education that were rooted in medieval structures and values that once denied our very existence. Through subtle patterns of vision and communication, we fueled each other’s struggle. As warriors in daily battle, we held up each other’s arms.
In time we both left California but we still met and strengthened each other. Many times we would join Dr. Ike Tribble at meetings of his McKnight Black Doctoral Program in Tampa, Fla.
Asa loved to challenge, motivate and counsel the incredible young people. Asa saw the future in these aspiring scholars and he not only inspired them with words, he was a model of what he expected of them. He shared his intellectual odyssey with them, his growing studies of Africa and the foundations of our Black as well as human communities. His lectures were profound and left each of us seeking to do better in our teaching, to do more in our scholarship; as well we had the desire to hear more of his learning and wisdom. He was truly inspirational.
