NEW ORLEANS ― Just ask Dr. Kokavah Zauditu-Selassie if she’s ever been a member of the Modern Language Association, and suddenly the full professor of English at Coppin State University in Baltimore becomes deeply expressive.
“Never!” she says with a ring of defiance. “I don’t belong to any organization that didn’t allow Black people to be a member. When they finally opened up the door to us, I said, ‘I’m fine in the space you put me in.’”
For the last 25 years, Zauditu-Selassie has been an active member of the College Language Association (CLA), the scholarly organization that sprung up 77 years ago after the MLA — like many other academic organizations — abruptly shut their doors to the legions of African American scholars that were beginning to pave out careers within the academy.
While the MLA is quick to point out that there was never an official policy to exclude Blacks from participating in one of the world’s largest academic organizations, they concede that for decades its membership was less than eager to embrace African Americans into their scholarly ranks.
Faced with rejection, African Americans did what they have always done: they went out and created an organization of their own, spearheaded by the late Dr. Hugh Morris Gloster who was president emeritus of Morehouse College when he convened the first meeting of CLA. At the time, African American and Caribbean literature wasn’t even recognized as a formal course of study at most colleges and universities.
Fast forward to today.
