News & Events
Professor James Brings Wealth of Experience To Discussion of African Americans’ Role In Brooklyn Waterfront Development
“Black people have always been connected with the water,” says Stephen James, professor of African American Studies at New York City College of Technology (City Tech). “Let’s remember,” he adds, “crossing the water is how we got here.”
On Wednesday, October 29, from 3 to 5 p.m., in the Atrium Amphitheater on the College’s Downtown Brooklyn campus, James will moderate a discussion focusing on the connections and disjunctions between African Americans and the Downtown Brooklyn environment.
The event’s keynote speaker will be Craig Wilder, author of A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn, a masterful examination of more than two centuries of social history in Brooklyn that delves into the complex and evolving relationship between race, ideology and power. Wilder, born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, is professor of history at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The public is invited to attend this free event.
James is one of five “lead faculty” and 13 additional faculty members who are part of a year-long project, “Water and Work,” funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which focuses on the Brooklyn waterfront. This fall, the project looks at such issues as environmental justice, conservation and pollution.
James brings a unique perspective to the “Water and Work” project -- actual experience working on the waterfront. “Two years after I dropped out of high school,” he says, “I needed a job to support my new family and signed up for a program that prepared members of underrepresented groups to take and pass tests for entry into the various construction unions. By the luck of the draw, I went into the dockbuilders union.”
As a dockbuilder, James worked from 1972 to 1977 on the Hudson River on what is now called the North River Sewage Treatment Plant. He worked aboard a floating platform creating temporary constructions and also as a member of the “rubber crew,” providing a sealant to the bottoms of concrete forms to protect them from the salty water.
The subject matter of City Tech’s October 29 event is obviously of great interest to James. “Black people’s connection with the water is deep and significant,” he says. “During the revolutionary war, blacks comprised one-third of the U.S. Navy. They made up a large percentage of the stevedores and longshoremen who led the union movement on the docks. In the time of slavery, the underground railroad utilized escape routes that depended, in large part, on the waterways of America.
“And today,” he says, “there is a strong, if little-known, environmental movement among African Americans. Our most celebrated writers -- most especially Nikki Giovanni -- wrote eloquently about environmental issues as they affect people of color. Here in Brooklyn,” he explains, “‘Project Green’ is focusing on utilizing the waterfront to its fullest extent to benefit Brooklynites. We expect to have its founder, Bernice Green, in attendance at our symposium.”
The intervening years -- between being a dockworker and becoming a City Tech professor of African American Studies -- led James through some interesting twists and turns. Becoming a bus driver in 1978 gave him time to attend college (Lehman). During his off-hours, he pursued his interest in cycling (75 miles a day when he was in training), took up the cello, became a top-notch basketball player and a cross-country runner, a professional carpenter and a construction worker. In addition to the cello, he plays the organ and the guitar, and has devoted much of his time to studying the ancient Chinese martial art of Tai Ji Quan.
James’ post-undergraduate odyssey is a story in itself: After graduating from Lehman College summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1987, he was accepted into the PhD program at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. Shortly after this, he was contacted by Harvard, which had learned that he did not apply there only because he couldn’t afford to pay more than one application fee. They waived their $40 fee and awarded him a full six-year fellowship. He then completed his PhD in English and American Literature there.
Now a 56-year-old grandfather of two (11-year-old Kevin and seven-month-old Cadence -- children of his daughter, Joy), James describes his primary research interest as “American Culture, the relationship between history and contemporary life in the United States.” Issues raised by changing attitudes towards development of the Brooklyn waterfront -- the evolution in maritime technology from labor-intensive break-bulk shipment to containerization, conflicting views on the scale and type of residential construction permitted, changes in ethnic and racial populations -- “all have roots in historical precedent and reflect current communal interests,” he says.
As part of the NEH project, James and his faculty colleagues from a range of disciplines are studying the works of scholars who specialize in urban literature, history and ecology. The project’s partners, the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, are making their resources available to the faculty and leading them on field trips to the Brooklyn waterfront.
“The culmination of the overall project,” explains James, “will be presentations by the faculty that synthesize their ‘Water and Work’ experiences, with the goal of introducing a newly enriched interdisciplinary curriculum for the benefit of City Tech students.”
10.22.08
