A ‘trailblazer’ honored: One of the first African Americans hired to faculty at UMass bestowed with study, gathering space in his name
Published: 12-16-2024 6:00 AM
Modified: 12-16-2024 10:13 AM |
AMHERST — On the cusp of celebrating his 100th birthday in January, Edwin D. Driver, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts and one of the first two African Americans ever hired to the faculty at a flagship state university, is having a study and gathering space for students and faculty formally named in his honor.
With a plaque unveiled during a Dec. 11 ceremony recognizing Driver’s nearly 40 years teaching at UMass, starting in 1948 as the only faculty member of non-European descent on campus, the common area on the 10th floor of Thompson Hall is now known as the Professor Edwin D. Driver Sociology Lounge.
“I feel very good about this,” Driver said at the event that brought out more than 50 people, including family, friends, colleagues, faculty and students.
And Driver said that he was not only glad to be present, but excited that his latest book,“Tulip for Tebeau,” will soon be published. That text will recount the arrival of the first Black male graduate at Oregon State University and the tulip-like sculpture placed in his remembrance on the Corvallis campus.
Driver’s name will also be on an annual $4,500 fellowship that will be provided to one UMass sociology student.
Driver encountered discrimination both on campus and in Amherst when he arrived, with housing options limited by restrictive covenants. Racial injustices included having his office in the basement of the Old Chapel and being passed over for promotions.
Even by 1967, when future Chancellor Randolph Bromery was hired as a geologist, Driver was one of just six Black faculty members on a campus with 36 Black students out of the 17,000 enrolled. The 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, though, prompted Driver to become became one of the founders of the Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black Students.
During the recognition ceremony, David Cort, professor and associate chairman of the Sociology Department, called Driver a “colleague and trailblazer” who led by example, strength, dignity and intellect.
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“He paved the way for generations of scholars of color, like myself, to stay at the University of Massachusetts,” Cort said.
The dedication of the lounge is a reflection of the department’s commitment to justice, opportunities and respect and ensuring they are never denied anyone again, making UMass a place where scholars can reach their full potential without marginalization. The lounge also has sweeping views of the campus.
Cort added that it’s never too late to make amends and acknowledge the painful chapters at all levels of UMass, the suffering of a faculty member by having a basement office and being intentionally kept apart to minimize his impact.
“A cruel attempt to marginalize” him, Cort said.
Cort reflected on growing up and spending time in Guyana and the need to avoid ebb tide, when the dugout boats children would use to get to school would pose a challenge.
“The time is right and tide is in our favor to make amends for our collective transgressions,” Cort said. The hope is to inspire UMass to continue to do right by Driver “This is not just a suggestion, I think it is an admonishment.”
Amilcar Shabazz, a professor of history and Africana Studies in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, also spoke about how a small gesture was being made to Driver.
“I think this place was fortunate in 1948 . When he came, he brought, his person, his spirit here,” Shabazz said.
Driver, married to the late Aloo Jhabvala Driver, a native of Mumbai, India who taught for many years at American International College in Springfield, was accompanied to the event by two of his three children, Shanta and Cyrus.
As they mingled, Shanta Driver recounted her involvement in the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger U.S. Supreme Court case, where she helped earn a victory for affirmative action and integration when the justices upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School. The justices ruled that a student admissions process favoring “underrepresented minority groups” was not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, so long as it took into account other factors evaluated on an individual basis for every applicant.
“Our defense was all about race and racism constructs and denied opportunities,” Driver said.
Also in attendance was Abbie Abbott, a local educator who helped push for Driver to be recognized. Abbott said she read a newspaper account in 2021, written in the context of the town of Amherst’s efforts to provide reparations to residents of African descent, and the struggles Driver faced at UMass. She then made up a flyer while teaching at Amherst Regional High School and talked to students there about what they could do for Driver, even making a mock up of what a sign honoring Driver with the renaming of the Old Chapel might look like.
A high school student wrote a letter to then UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy advocating for Driver to be celebrated: “We feel that as a community we need to show Dr. Driver that we value him and honor what he has contributed to our community.”
Among those greeting Driver at the recognition event was Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, a UMass sociology professor, who co-edits the bimonthly American Sociological Review at UMass Amherst. He brought a copy of “W.E.B. Du Bois: On Sociology and the Black Community,” a collection of sociological writings authored by Du Bois between 1898 and 1910 and which Driver co-edited in 1993, along with a 48-page essay summarizing Du Bois’ career. Driver signed Tomaskovic-Devey’s edition.
“Dr. Driver was the first African American professor on campus, and he has not been recognized as he should have been,” Tomaskovic-Devey said.
For Tomaskovic-Devey and his colleagues, there is appreciation for Driver understanding the importance of Du Bois, who has seen a renaissance after many years of being ignored by sociologists. Du Bois’ name is also on the main library on the UMass campus.
Du Bois was the first African American Phd at Harvard University and invented empirical sociology, which is more of a scientific approach, Tomaskovic-Devey said. “He’s the only person who sounds like a contemporary scientific sociologist,” Tomaskovic-Devey said.
Beyond the dedication of the lounge and the annual fellowship, the American Sociological Review has on its cover a Du Bois quote that was drawn from the book Driver co-edited: “We can only understand the present by continually referring to and studying the past; when there arises religious problems, political problems, race problems, we must always remember that while solutions lie in the present, their cause and their explanation lie in the past.”