Malik Simba, Author at

Academic Historian

Malik Simba received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota. He has held professorships in the departments of history at State University of New York at Binghamton and Clarion University in Pennsylvania. Presently, he is a senior professor and past chair of the History Department (2000-2003) at California State University-Fresno in California. Dr. Simba was awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1979, 1987, and 1990. He serves on the Board of the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program at California State University-Fresno.

Dr. Simba is the author of Black Marxism and American Constitutionalism: From the Colonial Background through the Ascendancy of Barack Obama and the Dilemma of Black Lives Matter (4th edition, 2019). He has contributed numerous entries in the Encyclopedia of African History, Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery, W. E. B. Du Bois Encyclopedia, Malcolm X Encyclopedia, African American Encyclopedia, and the Historical Dictionary of Civil Rights. Additionally, Dr. Simba has published the definitive analysis of race and law using critical legal theory in his “Gong Lum v. Rice: The Convergence of Law, Race, and Ethnicity” in American Mosaic. His essay, “Joel Augustus Rogers: Negro Historians in History, Time, and Space,” appeared in Afro-American in New York Life and History 30:2 (July 2006) as part of a Special Issue: “Street Scholars and Stepladder Radicals-A Harlem Tradition,” Guest Editor, Ralph L. Crowder. The essays on Rogers contributes to our knowledge of street scholars or historians without portfolios. Dr. Simba’s other published works include book reviews in the Chicago Tribune, Focus on Law Studies, and the Journal of Southwest Georgia History.

Claudine Gay (1970-)

On December 17, 2022, Dr. Claudine Gay was appointed president of Harvard University. She became the first Black president in Harvard’s nearly 400 years of existence, attaining her new position after a competitive search which included over 600 applicants. Dr. Gay had previously served as … Read MoreClaudine Gay (1970-)

The Evolution of Slavery in Virginia, 1619 to 1661

As you will see below, historians agree that the first twenty Africans landed in Virginia in 1619. What is in dispute is their exact status. Were they enslaved people from the beginning of their arrival or did they have some other status? Historian Malik Simba … Read MoreThe Evolution of Slavery in Virginia, 1619 to 1661

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 was the last major uprising of enslaved blacks and white indentured servants in Colonial Virginia. One consequence of the failed rebellion was the intensification of African slavery and the social separation of blacks and whites in Virginia. The origins of Bacon’s … Read MoreBacon’s Rebellion (1676)

CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Brief History

In the article below, legal scholar Malik Simba explains the development of Critical Race Theory, the legal concept that has now become one of the most hotly debated topics in the ongoing cultural wars in the United States between political conservatives and political liberals. The … Read MoreCRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Brief History

Nine Minutes in May: How George Floyd’s Death Shook the World

In the article below, California State University, Fresno, History and Africana Studies professor Malik Simba briefly examines the life and death of George Floyd and how the latter transformed the struggle for racial justice in and beyond the United States. George Floyd died on Memorial … Read More

Ralph L. Crowder (1947-2020)

Historian and scholar Dr. Ralph Le Roy Crowder was born on March 29, 1947 in Des Moines, Iowa, to parents Ralph L. Crowder and Allie Crowder. An only child, Crowder attended public schools in Des Moines where he played football, basketball, and track. He graduated … Read MoreRalph L. Crowder (1947-2020)

James E. Walton (1944-2019)

James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)

Homer Smith, Jr. (1909-1972)

Homer Smith, Jr., best known for his fourteen-year sojourn in the Soviet Union, was born in 1909 in Quitman, Mississippi to parents Mr. and Mrs. Homer Smith, Sr. In 1916, at the age of seven, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota with his parents. Between 1922 and 1928, Smith studied journalism at the … Read MoreHomer Smith, Jr. (1909-1972)

The Mississippi River Great Flood of 1927

The Mississippi River “Great Flood of 1927” inundated large areas in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. However, it was in Mississippi where the embankments overflowed, drowning hundreds, perhaps a thousand people, and became one of the largest natural disasters in US history in terms of loss … Read MoreThe Mississippi River Great Flood of 1927

Horatio Viscount “Berky” Nelson Jr. (1939-2015)

“Image Ownership: Christopher Nelson” Horatio Viscount “Berky” Nelson was a widely recognized scholar of 20th Century African American political history and particularly class dynamics in the modern black community. His first major work, The Rise and Fall of Modern Black Leadership, was a searing critique … Read MoreHoratio Viscount “Berky” Nelson Jr. (1939-2015)