• Professor, African and African American Studies
• Professor, American Culture Studies
• Professor, English
• Director, Center for the Humanities

Gerald L. Early

Download

• Ph.D. in English literature at Cornell University
• M.A. in English literature at Cornell University
• B.A. in English literature at University of Pennsylvania

Clips:

Showing Clips 1 through 9 of 9.  - Show Home

Show Home Page

Black Reverence for Jackson Is Now Unreserved Around the world, Michael Jackson was celebrated Sunday, but there was a special fervor in black neighborhoods and churches. Jackson is seen as a towering figure with crossover appeal, even if in life some of his black fans wondered if he was as proud of his race as his race was of him. Includes comments by WUSTL AFAS professor Gerald Early. References: June 29, 2009 — Black Reverence for Jackson Is Now Unreserved in the The New York Times and 11 others.

Black History Month has added meaning in 2009 WUSTL AFAS professor Gerald Early comments on the added meaning to this year's Black History Month Obama's election, and this year's 100th anniversary of the NAACP, means there has probably never been more reason to celebrate the annual February observance, black leaders and historians say. Includes comments by WUSTL AFAS professor Gerald Early. References: Feb. 2, 2009 — Black History Month has added meaning in 2009 in the USA Today and 3 others.

Taking Them Out to the Ballgame Interest in the baseball among black youths is a topic of concern for MLB. WUSTL professor Gerald Early comments. Interest in the baseball among black youths is a topic of concern for MLB as more of that demographic seems to be interested in football and basketball. WUSTL professor Gerald Early, an expert on black culture, attributes this to the lack of availability of baseball in many black communities. References: May 29, 2008 — Taking Them Out to the Ballgame in the The Washington Post

The day the music died Gerald Early comments on the effects of the riots and Motown Records upon Detroit Article looks at the devastating effect the 1967 Detroit riot had on black economic development and its entrepreneurial gem, Motown Records. It plunged the city into a four-decade economic decline that is only now beginning to turn around. WUSTL professor Gerald Early, author of One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture, is one of the experts commenting on the events of that time. References: July 20, 2007 — The day the music died in the The Wall Street Journal

Op-ed: In the center of it all During the month of February, WUSTL English professor and American culture specialist Gerald Early wrote an online column about American culture for the New York Times TimesSelect online service. Included are excerpts from his first column. References: Feb. 2, 2006 — Op-Ed: In the Center of It All in the New York Times online

Public still fascinated by aging Tyson The allure of Mike Tyson and why during his declining career he's still selling tickets. WUSTL professor Gerald Early comments. Writer reflects on why the public is still interested in Mike Tyson, despite his decline as a boxer. WUSTL professor and cultural critic Gerald Early comments. References: June 5, 2005 — Public still fascinated by aging Tyson in the MSNBC.com and 4 others.

A positive signal for quarterbacks For the first time in NFL history, black quarterbacks will be starting for opposing teams in a conference championship game, WUSTL African and Afro-American Studies professor Gerald Early comments. References: Jan. 19, 2005 — A positive signal for quarterbacks in the Washington Post and 1 others.

Gerald Early is advisor for new Ken Burns' film on boxer Jack Johnson Gerald Early is advisor for new Ken Burns' film on boxer Jack Johnson Burns was on hand to discuss his new four-hour film about Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion (1908-14), due to premiere on PBS in January. Burns said that time, study and exposure to black scholars such as WUSTL professor Gerald Early, a key consultant on "Baseball," "Jazz" and now "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," have given him - and thus his company's films - a more mature understanding of race in America. References: July 21, 2004 — He pulls no punches in the Newsday

Book review - The End of Blackness Book review of Debra Dickerson's The End of Blackness by Gerald Early, author and director of WUSTL Center for the Humanities. Early writes: "With the publication of ''The End of Blackness,'' a book not only about white racism but about black people's response to it, Debra J. Dickerson joins a growing and varied class of black public intellectuals that includes people like John McWhorter, Bell Hooks, Michael Eric Dyson, Patricia Williams, Henry Louis Gates, Shelby Steele, Thulani Davis, Stanley Crouch, Greg Tate, Ellis Cose and Brent Staples. Their views are sufficiently different that they might be said to represent distinct factions among African-Americans and, no less relevant, speak to distinct factions of educated whites." References: Feb. 1, 2004 — American Skin in the The New York Times

Showing Clips 1 through 9 of 9.  - Show Home

Show Home Page

Early is the author of The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture, which won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. The book was Early's sequel to his first volume of essays, Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture, which was published in 1989.

Other books he has written are One Nation Under a Groove: Motown & American Culture (1994), which describes how Motown gained acceptance in white America as well as how the Motown sound was marketed to fit into popular culture, and Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood (1994), which chronicles the everyday challenges and triumphs of fatherhood. Daughters was a semifinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1995, making it to the final 10 in the memoirs category. How the War in the Streets Is Won: Poems on the Quest of Love and Faith (1995) was his first book of poems.

He is the editor of numerous volumes, including This Is Where I Came In: Black America in the 1960s (2003); The Sammy Davis, Jr. Reader (2001); Miles Davis and American Culture (2001); The Muhammad Ali Reader (1998); Body Language: Writers on Sport (1998); and Ain't But a Place: An Anthology of African American Writings About St. Louis (1998).

Early edited the 1993 Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity and the Ambivalence of Assimilation, which later was named the "Outstanding Book" on the subject of human rights in North America. Early also wrote the introduction to the book. The Gustavus Meyer Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America presented the award.

He also edited My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen and two volumes of Speech and Power: The African-American Essay in Its Cultural Content.

He has been nominated twice for a Grammy Award in the Best Album Notes category for Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story (2000) and Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words From the Harlem Renaissance (2001).

For the academic year 2001-2002, Early was an invited fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina, where he worked on a book about African Americans and the Korean War. His next book will be a collection of essays called This Is Where I Came In, to be published by University of Nebraska Press.

Early, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air." He also has served as a consultant on Ken Burns' PBS documentaries on baseball and jazz and was a commentator on Burns' documentary on Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion.

Early joined the Washington University faculty in 1982 as an instructor in what was then known as the Black Studies Program. In 1990, he became a full professor of English and of African & African American studies. He served as director and co-director of the American Culture Studies Program from 1991-96 and director of what was then called the African and Afro-American Studies Program from 1992-99.

In 1988, Early was among 10 American writers to receive a $25,000 Whiting Writer's Prize. That same year, he was among six to earn a $5,000 General Electric Foundation Award for Younger Writers. His work was included in The Best Essays of 1986, edited by Elizabeth Hardwick, and in several subsequent volumes in that series.

In October 2006, Early received the Phi Beta Kappa Award for Distinguished Service to the Humanities at the 41st Triennial Council of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Early received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974, a master's degree from Cornell University in 1980, and a doctorate from Cornell in 1982, all in English literature.