J. Saunders Redding (1906-1988)

January 23, 2007 
/ Contributed By: W. Gabriel Selassie I

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J. Saunders Redding

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James Thomas Saunders Redding was born in Wilmington, Delaware on October 13, 1906 to Lewis Alfred Redding and Mary Ann Holmes.ย  Redding earned a bachelor of philosophy (Ph.B.) in 1928 and later a master of arts (M.A.) in 1932 from Brown University.ย  Redding also earned the right to Phi Beta Kappa honors but the racial climate of the time did not permit him to receive the distinction until 1943.ย  He later attended Columbiaโ€™s graduate school from 1933-34.

Reddingโ€™s career as an educator included both historically black and white colleges and universities.ย  John Hope hired Redding as an instructor at Morehouse College (1928-31).ย  He later taught at Louisville Municipal College (1934-36), Southern University, Baton Rouge (1936-38), and served as head of the English Department; Elizabeth City State College (1938-43).ย  He worked at Hampton Institute (1943-55), as professor of literature and creative writing. He was a member of the faculty at George Washington University (1968-69), and the first African American to hold the rank of professor in the College of Arts & Sciences and the first to hold an endowed chair at Cornell University (1970).ย  He was a Guggenheim Fellow (1944-45, 1959-60).

Redding made two significant contributions to African American thought. His criticism of Black Nationalism in On Being Negro in America (1951) illustrated the complications and perils of trying to create the social and economic machinery required to build a โ€œracial island,โ€ as he understood that African Americans were dependent upon the material resources of the United States.ย  Secondly, he reexamined W.E.B. DuBoisโ€™s concept of the double consciousness of black life in America.ย  Double consciousness, as written by DuBois and others, was held to negatively impact the psychological health of blacks. Redding, however, attributed much of the hostility and anger within the black community as โ€œfrustrated pride.โ€

Redding who was a member of Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, married Esther Elizabeth James and had two children from this union, Conway Holmes and Lewis Alfred II.ย  J. Saunders Redding died in Ithaca, New York on March 2, 1988.ย  He was 81 at the time of his death.

About the Author

Author Profile

W. Gabriel Selassie I is an assistant professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Northridge. He was born in Arizona and resided on the Navajo Indian Reservation before moving to California. He earned a Bachelors of Architecture (5 year professional) from Prairie View A & M University of Texas (HBCU). He earned an M.A. from the California State University at Dominguez Hills in Public History, He also earned an M.A. in African American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles where he did extensive course work in African American nationalism under Robert Hill. He also earned an M.A., and Ph.D. in history from the Claremont Graduate University.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Selassie I, W. (2007, January 23). J. Saunders Redding (1906-1988). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/redding-j-saunders-1906-1988/

Source of the Author's Information:

Steven J. Leslie and Alexis Walker, โ€œRedding, Jay Saunders,โ€ in Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (Detroit, 2006); Helen R. Houston, โ€œJ. Saunders Redding,โ€ in Notable Black Men in America (Detroit, 1999); Saunders Redding, No Day of Triumph (1942), and On Being Negro in America (New York, 1951).

Further Reading

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