Equity in Journals Publishing Spotlight Series: Journal of Black Studies
The Journal of Black Studies (JBS), founded by Afrocentricity scholars Dr. Molefi Kete Asante and Dr. Robert Singleton, is the first journal of its kind to publish interdisciplinary research on the Black American experience. For decades, each JBS article has worked to displace Eurocentric systems of thought and instead emphasize Afrocentric and Pan-African research practices. The journal is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary with a collection of open articles, video messages from renowned scholars in the Black Studies field, and a scholarship award.
JBS’s wide array of social science research provides dynamic approaches to dismantle the structural inequalities and violence the Black community faces. The journal also promotes the study of empowering oral history, Black imagination and expression, and community care. Humanity, liberation and innovation are central to the findings published.
Since its inception, the journal has promoted nuanced insights for skilled scholars. As Dr. Asante notes in a 2020 editorial, the idea for JBS came to Dr. Singleton and Dr. Asante after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Their idea was “to create a journal that would address African American issues from a transdisciplinary perspective. Hence the original idea of JBS was a comprehensive response to all conceivable social issues in society… [Black studies] was not to be a field defined simply by the discipline of history but we sought to ‘sustain a full analytical’ treatment of African people.”
And the work hasn’t stopped. In 2020, JBS released the special collection “Body Politics: Making Black Lives Matter.” The collection allows any interested reader to freely access articles that address the structural roots and implicit biases beneath the official and unofficial brutalities directed toward Black people.
This year, the journal has also teamed up with SAGE Publishing to create an annual scholarship, called the SAGE Asante Award, for graduate research at Temple University’s College of Liberal Arts.
Dr. Asante created the Black Studies discipline, and co-created JBS, as an anti-racist platform to share knowledge outside of a Eurocentric paradigm. Through sustained work and invention, JBS has radically changed the scope of sociological, political, and historical analyses. Readers can access the multimedia collection of works honoring the journal’s first 50 years here.
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