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By Brett Johnson Solomon
Associate Professor, Child Studies Program
Bannan Faculty Fellow, Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education
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In the winter of 2018, my 95-year old grandmother, Hazel Lee, was honored by the National Alumni Association of Spelman College as the founder of its Los Angeles chapter. Hazel founded the chapter in March 1955 in honor of her mother, my great-grandmother, Idenie Fitzgerald, who graduated from Spelman in 1916. Hazel’s vision for the chapter was social justice, support, and advocacy during a time of tremendous racial and ethnic turmoil in the United States.

Located in Atlanta, Georgia, Spelman College is our country’s only all-female historically black college or university (HBCU). Supported by the U.S. government, HBCUs were founded in the 1800s as a means of providing places of higher learning for African Americans who were not allowed to attend white colleges and universities. Spelman College served, and still does, as a place of academic rigor, support, and empowerment for African-American women who were (and some would argue still are) considered unequal and inferior in these United States of America. As I listened to the intelligent, insightful, successful African-American women reflect on how Spelman prepared them for the world, I was reminded of the pure “light” that existed amidst the social and racial storm that surrounded my great-grandmother and grandmother in the 19th and 20th centuries. I was reminded of the framework for racial and ethnic justice that generations before ours started, but now, we are charged to finish. I was reminded of the unrelenting need to power forward toward racial and ethnic justice in our common home.

 Being constituted in 2016, 100 years after my great-grandmother graduated from Spelman, our Racial and Ethnic Justice Bannan Faculty Collaborative¹ did not anticipate the threats to racial and ethnic justice that would be resurrected in our country. Topics such as racism and white allyship; rhetoric and cultural deficiency; immigration, relational citizenship, assimilation and difference; implicit-bias and the preschool to prison pipeline; race and mass incarceration; and truth and reconciliation were topics that my colleagues and I took on in an effort to find common good in our pre- and post-election homes. 

Motivated by the plight of our ancestors, our search for the common good started in the fall of 2016 with a panel discussion that was in part titled “Stronger Together, Making America Great Again,” and aimed to answer the question, “What is at stake for racial and ethnic justice in 2016?” Collectively, we discussed our research in the context of the upcoming election and emphasized what was at stake for criminalized adults, children of color in America’s schools, mass incarceration, social media, voter rights, and voter suppression. The above topics were salient prior to the election and remain vital to racial and ethnic justice today.²

In winter 2017, the Racial and Ethnic Justice Bannan Faculty Collaborative launched the first episodes of the INTEGRAL podcast series for the Bannan Institutes. All members of the collaborative provided a deeper lens into their interests and research during each podcast.³ In addition to the INTEGRAL podcasts, our faculty collaborative was busy with presentations and consultations throughout the United States. Over the past two years, we have produced over 10 professional or practical presentations, five publications, five works in progress, and seven new or ongoing research projects—all relating to racial and ethnic justice in our local, national, and international “homes.”

 In addition to the research, publications, presentations, and invited talks, the Racial and Ethnic Justice Bannan Collaborative was fortunate to welcome Vincent Lloyd, associate professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, to deliver our collaborative keynote address. Lloyd’s teaching and work centers on the philosophy of religion, religion and politics, and race. He delivered a compelling talk to the campus community about black religion as black radicalism.

Being part of the Racial and Ethnic Justice Bannan Faculty Collaborative has shaped our work as teachers and scholars in multiple ways. It has provided us space and time for our vocational and intellectual commitments to racial and ethnic justice by learning the perspectives of varied disciplines and applying them to our own. The engaged dialogue has been immensely valuable by deepening our understanding of interdisciplinary resources for understanding the history, nature, and implications of racism and ethnic bias today. Our common commitment has fostered rich and critical conversations, in which we have learned from and supported one another in our vocation as engaged scholars at this most critical time in our nation’s and world’s history.

In the name of all our grandmothers and greatgrandmothers who laid the foundation for social justice, support, and advocacy, there’s no doubt that the Racial and Ethnic Justice Bannan Faculty Collaborative has been powering toward a common good in our common home. Powering forward toward racial and ethnic justice has allowed us to influence initiatives on campus by collaborating with administrators, students, and colleagues. Powering forward toward racial and ethnic justice has contributed to new course development and new or expanded research programs for our collaborative members. Powering forward toward racial and ethnic justice has informed our service to the University through our participation on the Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion, the Campus Climate Workgroup, the University Grievance Committee, Faculty Senate, and serving as interim provost/s for Diversity and Inclusion. Simply stated, involvement in the Racial and Ethnic Justice Bannan Faculty Collaborative has served as a platform for us to power forward toward a common good in our common home. It is our hope that the next generation of faculty scholars continues to power forward toward racial and ethnic social justice for our most vulnerable populations.

BRETT JOHNSON SOLOMON is an associate professor in the liberal studies program at 91����Ƶ. She is the director of the 91����Ƶ Future Teachers project, a pipeline program for students of color who want to teach in urban and underserved communities. In 2016–17 she served as interim associate provost for diversity and inclusion and her research focuses on the school to prison pipeline. Solomon earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in educational psychology from UCLA. She also has a Master of Education in early childhood risk and prevention from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in social welfare from UC Berkeley.

Notes

1. One of four interdisciplinary Bannan Institute Faculty Collaboratives convening in 2016–18 to collaborate on research, teaching, and University initiatives that advance the common good and extend the Jesuit, Catholic vocation of 91����Ƶ as a transformative social force.
2. “What Is at Stake for Racial and Ethnic Justice in 2016? Stronger Together, Making America Great Again,” panel dialogue, 2016–18 Bannan Institute series, 91����Ƶ, October 5, 2016, a video of the full event is available online: .
3. Four seasons of the Bannan Institutes INTEGRAL podcast series are now available, including season one on Racial and Ethnic Justice and the Common Good, see: .