Charles V. Hamilton: A Tribute

Charles V. Hamilton: A Tribute Judson L. Jeffries Charles V. Hamilton is among a long list of old school Black political scientists who have transitioned over the last ten years. The W. S. Sayre Professor Emeritus of Government and Political Science at Columbia University, Hamilton was both a giant and pioneering social scientist. A Chicago PhD, Dr. Hamilton first came to my attention during my freshman year in college in the early 1980s. I was enrolled in an Introduction to Government class where the assigned textbook was American Government by Charles V. Hamilton. I remember the text like it was yesterday. A hardback book with a Black cover accompanied by an image of the Lincoln Memorial that took up more space than was needed. After all those years the book remains in my possession in my parents' house on the East Coast, a property I inherited several years ago. Hamilton taught at several places before settling in at Columbia University. Among those institutions at which he taught are Roosevelt University (his alma mater), historically Black Tuskegee Institute (now University), and Lincoln University as well as Rutgers University. Hamilton is most noted for his widely heralded co-authored work with Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) titled Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. Many scholars credit Carmichael and Hamilton with entering the words institutional racism into the American lexicon. Before the book went to press in 1967 the folks at Random House threatened to cancel publication in response to Carmichael's association with Cuba's communist/socialist regime and his call for revolution. The authors and the press eventually came to terms by agreeing to insert a message before the first page that read: This book represents a political framework and ideology which represents the last reasonable opportunity for this society to work out its racial problems short of prolonged destructive guerrilla warfare. That such violent warfare may be unavoidable is not herein denied. But if there is the slightest chance to avoid it, the politics of Black Power as described in this book is seen as the only viable hope. End Page 89 Hamilton is also known for coining the term "deracialization," a political strategy that attempts to lift up historically marginalized communities by focusing on issues that transcend race such as education, taxes, healthcare, employment, and the environment, thus avoiding the kind of pushback that one typically experiences from Whites when one attempts to address matters that are typically associated with race such as welfare and the like. Hamilton's scholarship on deracialization laid the groundwork for scholars, one of whom happens to be this writer. Hamilton authored/co-authored six books: The Dual Agenda in 1997 with his wife Donna Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell in 1992, the earlier mentioned textbook American Government, Bench and the Ballot: Southern Federal Judges and Black Voters in 1974, The Black Preacher in America in 1972, and Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in 1967. At a time when many Blacks were advocating for integration, Hamilton stood out, arguing in the tradition of Malcolm X and James Baldwin that some Blacks hated themselves, and people who hate themselves do more harm to themselves than good by integrating because they only end up suppressing their identity and true selves. Furthermore, Hamilton contended that when Whites called for integration, they rarely did so from a place of good will, but instead out of a desire for Blacks to suppress their culture and carry themselves more like the very people who oppress them. Hamilton's position was not without merit, but rare among Black scholars. Charles V. Hamilton was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1929, but raised on Chicago's southside. He taught at Columbia University for nearly 30 years, retiring in 1998. Hamilton died at the age of 94 on the evening of November 18, 2023. He is one of the many Black political scientists on whose shoulders I have stood since earning my doctorate in political science in 1997 from the University of Southern California. Dr. Hamilton's work has without question stood the test of time, which is a testament to his contribution to the academy, generally, and political science, specifically. Copyright © 2024 Trustees...