DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704030585

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER 

                                            LENGTH:   80 lines

BANKS TRACES BLACK INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT

BLACK INTELLECTUALS

Race and Responsibility in American Life

WILLIAM M. BANKS

W.W. Norton. 335 pp. $29.95.

William M. Banks' Black Intellectuals: Race and Responsibility in American Life is an insightful, thorough history of the role of the African-American intellectual in the United States.

Banks, a professor of African-American studies at the University of California at Berkeley, starts with Africans who arrived as slaves, and ends with well-known historical and contemporary thinkers, such as sociologist E. Franklin Frazier; Harvard University professor Cornell West; Derrick Bell, formerly at Harvard law school, and now a visiting professor at New York University, and poet Toni Morrison.

In between, he looks at the abolitionist, civil rights and black militant movements, and evaluates the influences of Marxism and Pan-Africanism. It's a broad reach.

Banks, who has been a fellow at the National Humanities Center at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, asks and answers some basic questions: How did race define these thinkers? How did race influence their life choices and attitudes? What were the main controversies among black intellectuals? And what controversies existed between black intellectuals and their white counterparts?

According to Banks, priests and medicine men in Africa were the original thinkers. They interpreted natural phenomena, preserved cultural mores and provided leadership and guidance. With the emergence of the slave trade, the priest's role evolved into that of the conjurer, who provided moral and spiritual guidance.

African Americans' search for knowledge helped shape history during slavery, Banks writes. Underground resistance and a growing interest in literacy among slaves were the seeds for rebellion and change, particularly as economic conditions changed in the South. Black spiritual leaders were essential in providing hope for escape from bondage, he says, especially in the afterlife.

Banks tells of a convention of educated blacks from five northern states who met in Philadelphia in 1831 to discuss the plight of their race and develop recommendations for change. Many other such conventions were held; they were the only available forum for structured intellectual exchange among blacks. Within them, Frederick Douglass emerged as a prominent leader.

Also during this intellectual development, a schism became apparent. While there was a growing emphasis by the black intelligentsia on getting the poor masses into the educational stream and thereby improving their lives, opinions diverged. W.E.B. DuBois advocated for the inclusion of blacks in liberal arts and advanced collegiate studies. But DuBois' strongest critic, educator Booker T. Washington, insisted that vocational training was the most valuable means of elevating blacks.

Banks also details the marginally successful quest by black women to create a space for themselves within the intellectual movement. In spite of the works of thinkers such as Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells and Anna J. Cooper, Douglass once wrote: ``I have thus far seen no book of importance written by a Negro woman. . . ''

In his disregard of women's contributions, Douglass differed little from his 19th- and 20th-century ``male intellectual cohorts,'' writes Banks, who analyzes the intellectual venues that existed for black women, such as the National Association of Colored Women, founded in 1896. He also chronicles the emergence and accomplishments of many female scholars and activists, including Zora Neale Hurston, Mary McLeod Bethune and Nell Irvin Painter.

The changing landscape of American culture made the strides by black intellectuals seem nominal, Banks argues. Their impact was diluted by the world wars, the deterioration of the agrarian culture, the emergence of urban areas, capitalist influence and the belief that blacks were genetically inferior. Thus, the work of black intellectuals was dismissed and devalued.

Banks concludes, however, that contemporary thinkers have gained respect by bringing their arguments for social justice and racial discourse into the mainstream.

Though Banks loses his focus when trying to incorporate black musical and visual arts performers into his historical and socioeconomic analysis, he generally succeeds with Black Intellectuals. It is an excellent survey. MEMO: Angelita Plemmer is a staff writer.

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