An African-American studies program, or Black studies, was created at colleges and universities to offset the dominant views of American society, much of which was built upon the foundations of White supremacy. Its roots go all the way back to the first efforts to publicize the historical contributions of African-Americans in Black newspapers in the early 1800 and later by Black scholars W.E.B. DuBois and Carter G. Woodson. Black studies seek to reveal the racialized nature of the American historical process and the struggle of African- Americans against racism, and to reveal their place in the historical record.
It is an interdisciplinary academic field dedicated to the inquiry of the history, culture, and politics of African-Americans. In its broadest sense, Black studies examine not only the cultures of people of African descent in the United States, but the cultures of the entire African dispersion or Diaspora, from the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, and other places. It may also study the national liberation movements in the colonies and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
It is a study of the Black experience and their contributions to the development of America and other areas of the world in a world where White supremacy ruled for hundreds of years. The goal of Black studies is to educate and also serve to undermine racialized interpretations, omissions, and erasures of Black History. Black Studies deals with these issues in history, family structures, social and economic forces, historical stereotypes, and gender- related issues. The field includes researchers in the areas of African-American politics, psychology, literature, history, anthropology, religion, sociology, and other disciplines within the humanities and social sciences.
Programs of Black Studies were first fashioned in the heat of the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s as a result of student protests at many colleges and universities. The movement for a Black Studies program was sparked in part by a five-month student strike at San Francisco State University.  Finally, during Black History Month in 1968, the university hired well-known sociologist Nathan Hare to manage the first Black studies program and write an application for the first Department of Black Studies.
The division was created in September of that year and gained official status in the spring semester of 1969. The establishment of programs and departments in Black studies was a repeated demand of protests and sit-ins by minority students and their allies across the country, who felt that their cultures and interests were ignored by White educational institutions.
One of the goals of any Black studies program is to educate not only African-Americans, but also other members of the world community. Any discipline that ignores the negative effects of racism and the role it has played in brainwashing the population is part of the problem. This is why Eric Holder made the remark that America is a nation of cowards when it comes to talking about race.
Interestingly, the use of history books, political science texts, and the writings of other disciplines still ignore or fails to adequately discuss the issues of race, and how these ideas have ruined the academic world in many instances.
Denial of Black studies has been part of the colonial racist mindset in the United States producing a dance that allows certain leaders to become “respectable” to the White elite. These conformists promote acceptance of the status quo in their appointed position.
This would include Blacks and other minorities that have been adopted by White racists in the Republican Party to spew their rhetoric. Black study programs can expose the inner working of a racialized society, and if applied in as many settings as possible can be a tool to rid America of racist doctrines. Racism has suffered a severe blow with the election of Obama.
I even heard a few Blacks repeat the lie that Obama was Muslim, because that were brainwashed by the ritual of racism. African- American study programs have the potential of destroying the basis of White supremacy and help to hasten the day when racialized thinking begins to be destroyed.