Temple University’s Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection honors one of the nation’s most prolific scholars Molefi Kete Asante, who is Professor Department of Africology at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Asante is the author of 100 books and is often called the most published African American intellectual. He is the President of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies, located in Philadelphia. Asante is Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa.
Asante has received honorary degrees from five universities and is recognized for founding the first PhD program in African American Studies in the nation. He founded the doctoral program at Temple University in l988. Since 1990 more than 200 students have received doctorates from the program. Asante himself has directed over 130 dissertations in his career at UCLA, SUNY Buffalo and Temple University. He is the Founding Editor, Journal of Black Studies and first director of UCLA’s Center for Afro-American Studies.
The Blockson will exhibit all 100 books by Asante, including the 100th, “Being Human Being: Transforming the Race Discourse,” written with Nah Dove.
The first African American history book written strictly for high schools, “African American History: A Journey of Liberation” will also be on exhibit alongside Asante’s famous trilogy: “Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change” “The Afrocentric Idea” and “The Afrocentric Manifesto.”
His novel, “Scattered to the Wind,” and his first memoir, “As I Run Toward Africa,” will also be among the books exhibited. Asante has published more than 500 articles and is considered one of the most quoted living African American authors as well as one of the most distinguished thinkers in the African world.
