[td]
[td] [/td]
[/td]
[td] [/td]
Dr. John Henrik Clarke never officially received a Ph.D. until after he became a college professor.
Think about that.
At 10 years old he was told:
But Clarke spent the next 65 years proving that the erasure of African history was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on African minds.
What he discovered didn't just change his life, it infused life into the field of Black Studies.
And now, as they try to erase our history from museums and textbooks once again, Clarke's story reminds us:
They can only steal what we allow them to take.
This is the story of how one man's refusal to accept historical amnesia ignited a flame that continues to guide guides us through the darkness and throughout the ages.
As Dr. Clarke eloquently stated:
This profound understanding of history's purpose underscores why Clarke's work remains vital today.
History tells a people "where they have been, what they have been, where they are and what they are."
But crucially, it also reveals "where they still must go and what they still must do."
Clarke understood this intimately, concluding that "the relationship of history to the people is the same as the relationship of a mother to her child."
Just as a mother nurtures, protects, and guides her children, history nurtures, protects, and guides a people throughout their lives, and if we understand the power of epigenetics, it shapes the lives future generations.
Dr. Clarke lived this truth every day of his life.
He didn't just teach history—he showed us how to use our history as a tool for liberation.
And his own personal journey from Alabama to Harlem tells a story of intellectual awakening that still inspires us today.
His education was largely self-directed:
The lawyer responded: "I'm sorry, John, that you came from a people who have no history."
Many might have accepted this verdict.
Clarke did not.
Clarke recalled:
This article, written by the Afro Puerto Rician bibliophile Arthur Schomburg, transformed Clarke's understanding of himself and his people.
At 18 years old, Clarke took a freight train to New York. He was on a journey to find the author of that article.
Dr. Clarke now had a mission: to recover those missing pages. And what he discovered shook the very foundations of Western historical mythology, starting with the great civilizations of the Nile Valley that had been deliberately hidden from the world.
Clarke noted that:
But Dr. Clarke didn't stop with ancient Egypt.
He understood that African genius didn't end at the borders of Kemet. He traced the river of African achievement south to Kush, where another great civilization would carry the torch of African excellence into what he called our "last walk in the sun."
This period represented what Clarke poetically described as:
As the light dimmed in the east, it blazed anew in the west, where African genius created new centers of learning and power that would astonish medieval visitors from Europe.
Clarke exposed this historical distortion:
The archaeological evidence from these kingdoms reveals complex urban centers, sophisticated political organizations, and advanced educational systems centuries before colonial narratives claimed to bring "civilization" to Africa.
Understanding this continuous thread of African excellence—from the pyramids of the Nile to the libraries of Timbuktu—Dr. Clarke realized that our destiny wasn't tied to any single nation or region.
We are a global people with a global mission.
This realization led him to embrace and champion the philosophy of pan-Africanism.
He defined pan-Africanism as:
Clarke credited Garvey with rescuing the mind of millions of Black Americans from depression and self-doubt by advocating for self-determination and self-reliance.
This pan-African dream wasn't just theory for Dr. Clarke. He lived it.
And nowhere was this more evident than in his relationship with Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah—a bond that began in the intellectual ferment of Harlem and flowered into the first successful African independence movement.
As Clarke fondly recalled:
I recently learned that Nkruma was also a jazz musician who performed at jazz clubs in Harlem while he was a student at Lincoln between 1935-1945.
In those days, the Harlem History Club was a crucible where African students mixed with African-American intellectuals, sharing ideas about liberation and self-determination.
Clarke observed the young Nkrumah's evolution:
"The people of Ghana resisted British rule from the very beginning. In March of 1957, they become the first Africans to win their freedom," Clarke explained. This achievement represented the first crack in the colonial system dominating Africa.
Clarke's determination to experience this historical moment led him to Ghana in 1958.
His chance encounter with Nkrumah revealed how their Harlem connection had endured. As Clarke described it, Nkrumah spotted him in a crowd and ordered his motorcade to stop.
"'What the hell you doing in my country? You a long way from Harlem,'" Nkrumah asked.
Upon learning Clarke was struggling financially, Nkrumah remarked, "'You sure must love Africa,'" and offered him work at the Evening News.
This connection between an African head of state and an African-American scholar embodied the pan-African ideal.
The significance extended beyond personal friendship:
"His first vision of pan-Africanism was the physical unification of Africa. He said that Ghana's freedom won't mean anything until the rest of Africa is free."The spirit that drove Ghana's independence inspired liberation movements throughout Africa and the diaspora.
Back home in America, Dr. Clarke brought this same analytical lens to bear on the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, always asking the crucial question:
Are we pursuing real power or just symbolic gestures?
While he respected Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as "the spiritual leader of the Black movement" and "one of the finest theologians that we produced in recent years," he disagreed with nonviolence as a philosophy rather than a tactic.
Instead, Clarke found more substance in Malcolm X's analysis.
He knew Malcolm personally from 1958 until his death and sometimes saw him on a daily basis.
Clarke appreciated Malcolm's recognition that "we are African, and we happen to be in America. We're not Americans. We are people who formerly were Africans who were kidnapped and brought to America."
Malcolm's assassination deeply affected Clarke:
Dr. Clarke's deep personal involvement in these movements gave him unique insights into what separated genuine leadership from mere showmanship.
His critiques of contemporary Black leadership still ring true today, challenging us to move beyond ceremony to substance.
Assessing the Million Man March, he declared:
True leadership, Clarke argued, addresses fundamental questions:
Everything Dr. Clarke taught us—from the glories of ancient Kemet to the challenges of modern leadership—points to a simple truth:
We are the inheritors of a magnificent legacy, and it's our responsibility to carry it forward for future generations.
This scholar, this educator, this man who walked in the footsteps of ancestors while creating new paths for future generations, believed in Africa's potential to transform humanity once again: "if we gave the world its first humanity, maybe we have the capacity to give the world its next humanity."
As we continue Clarke's work of historical recovery and spiritual renewal, we honor his legacy by embracing his challenge to:
The footprints Dr. Clarke left for us point the way toward our collective liberation.
Will you follow them?
Thanks for reading
Anthony Browder
Ps.
On May 23rd at 7:00 PM EST, I'm hosting a special webinar: "Why History Matters: An Examination of Dr. Clarke's Search for the History of Black People."
In this 2-hour deep dive, you'll discover:
Because as Clarke taught us: "History is a clock that tells us what time it is."
And now it's time to wake up.
Reserve Your Seat Now
[/td]
[td]
[/td]
Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more |
How One Self-Educated Man From Alabama Became A Jegna to Malcolm X, Advisor to An African President, and A Pioneer of Black Studies
The Story of John Henrik Clarke
|
[td]
[/td]
 |
| |||
[td] [/td]
[td]
[/td]
SubscribedThink about that.
- The man who would become Malcolm X's intellectual guide
- Who would advise Ghana's first president (Kwame Nkruma)
- Who would pioneer Black Studies in American universities
At 10 years old he was told:
"I'm sorry, John, but you came from a people who have no history."
Any other 10-year-old might have believed that lie.But Clarke spent the next 65 years proving that the erasure of African history was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on African minds.
What he discovered didn't just change his life, it infused life into the field of Black Studies.
And now, as they try to erase our history from museums and textbooks once again, Clarke's story reminds us:
They can only steal what we allow them to take.
This is the story of how one man's refusal to accept historical amnesia ignited a flame that continues to guide guides us through the darkness and throughout the ages.
The Mother of Knowledge: History as Our Compass
History is more than dates, names, and events—it is the spiritual and intellectual foundation upon which people build their cultural identity.As Dr. Clarke eloquently stated:
[td]
[/td]
History tells a people "where they have been, what they have been, where they are and what they are."
But crucially, it also reveals "where they still must go and what they still must do."
Clarke understood this intimately, concluding that "the relationship of history to the people is the same as the relationship of a mother to her child."
Just as a mother nurtures, protects, and guides her children, history nurtures, protects, and guides a people throughout their lives, and if we understand the power of epigenetics, it shapes the lives future generations.
Dr. Clarke lived this truth every day of his life.
[td]
[/td]
And his own personal journey from Alabama to Harlem tells a story of intellectual awakening that still inspires us today.
From Alabama to Harlem: The Quest for Historical Truth
Clarke's journey began in Union Springs, Alabama, where he was born on New Year's Day, 1915.His education was largely self-directed:
"Officially, I never finished high school in the formal sense until later years. In fact, I taught two generations before I took time out to get my BA, my Master's, and my PhD… My university was the public library and well-chosen secondhand bookstores."
While many academics build careers within institutional frameworks, Clarke built his knowledge by questioning those very institutions. His fifth-grade teacher, Miss Evina Taylor, planted this seed of intellectual rebellion when she advised him:"It is better to be right and march into hell than to follow a bunch of fools into heaven."
Clarke's intellectual awakening came when he encountered the reality of historical erasure. Working for a white lawyer, he asked for a book about African people in early world history.The lawyer responded: "I'm sorry, John, that you came from a people who have no history."
Many might have accepted this verdict.
Clarke did not.
Clarke recalled:
"I continued to search, and I opened a book called 'The New Negro,' and I opened to an essay called 'The Negro Digs Up His Past.' For the first time, I knew that I came from a very old people—that we were older than slavery, older than oppression, older than Europe."
[td]
[/td]
[td]
[/td]
"Finally, I got to meet Arthur Schomburg… I went down to the 135th Street Library. He was on the third floor, and I… very humbly, asked the librarian, 'Do you know anybody who would give me a letter to see Arthur Schomburg?' And she said very sharply, very impatiently because she was short of help, 'You just have to walk up three flights.'... I walked up three flights, and Arthur Schomburg was holding down the desk. Being 18 and rash, I wanted to know the history of African people of the world henceforth, right now, within the hour, his lunch hour, all of it. He said, 'Sit down, son. What you are calling African history and Negro history are the missing pages of world history.' Then he said, 'Son, go study the history of your masters. Go study the history of the people who enslaved you and find out why they found it a necessity to remove an entire people from the respectful commentary of the history of the world.’"
This moment with Schomburg changed everything.Dr. Clarke now had a mission: to recover those missing pages. And what he discovered shook the very foundations of Western historical mythology, starting with the great civilizations of the Nile Valley that had been deliberately hidden from the world.
Nile Valley Civilizations: Africa's Gift to Humanity
Clarke's research into African history led him to the civilizations of the Nile Valley. Clarke explained that:"the concept of social order, the concept of an organized society came out of Nile Valley Civilization before there was any other society that has been known to man functioning any other place in the world."
Clarke championed the work of Senegalese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop, who proved scientifically that Egypt (Kemet) was an African creation."Cheikh Anta Diop was more than a historian, he's a scientist, Egyptologist, and he had proven that if he could get the pigment from some of the mummies, he could prove the African origins."
[td]
[/td]
"At the same time that Egypt was in its 24th Dynasty, Europe was just emerging from its preliterate past. The first show of European intellect was the book called 'The Iliad and the Odyssey'—that's about 850 BC. Whereas Egypt (Kemet) in 850 BC is old and tired and has gone through 24 dynasties."
This historical context is critical for understanding why European powers have systematically tried to disconnect Egypt from Africa—success in this erasure allows them to claim civilization as a European invention rather than an African gift.But Dr. Clarke didn't stop with ancient Egypt.
He understood that African genius didn't end at the borders of Kemet. He traced the river of African achievement south to Kush, where another great civilization would carry the torch of African excellence into what he called our "last walk in the sun."
The Kushite Dynasty: Kemet's Final Golden Age
Dr. Clarke characterized the 25th Dynasty as a "dynasty from the south that moved (down) north to tell their cousins, the Egyptians, how to rule a nation one more time."[td]
[/td]
"Africa's last walk in the sun. It was a Great and Mighty walk. That walk had lasted 10,000 years. Now it's coming to an end. Europe is just being born—the very word 'Europe' is not even being used."
Now, some might think Africa's story ended when the Nile Valley civilizations declined. But Dr. Clarke showed us that was far from the truth.As the light dimmed in the east, it blazed anew in the west, where African genius created new centers of learning and power that would astonish medieval visitors from Europe.
Ghana, Mali, and Songhai: When Africa Thrived During Europe’s ‘Dark Age’
As Europe suffered through its "Dark Ages," Africa created another golden age of learning and governance.Clarke exposed this historical distortion:
"three great kingdoms are emerging in West Africa: Mali, Ghana, and Songhai. These were lands of enormous wealth generated by their control of the trade routes across the Sahara and the abundance of their gold mines."
These nations weren't just wealthy, they were also intellectual powerhouses. Clarke noted that:"for a while in history, there were only two great universities: the University of Sankore at Timbuktu and the University of Salamanca in Spain. And the African was solely in charge of the one at Sankore and part in charge of the one at Salamanca."
[td]
[/td]
Understanding this continuous thread of African excellence—from the pyramids of the Nile to the libraries of Timbuktu—Dr. Clarke realized that our destiny wasn't tied to any single nation or region.
We are a global people with a global mission.
This realization led him to embrace and champion the philosophy of pan-Africanism.
Pan-African Awakening: Uniting a Global People
After his time in military service, Clarke explained:"I began to think more and more about the fact that African people would have to depend on themselves."
Clarke's understanding of African history naturally led him to pan-Africanism.He defined pan-Africanism as:
"the building of an African world community, the union of African people in different parts of the world—the African population in India and the Pacific Islands, the African population in the Caribbean and Brazil and South America."
The potential power of this global community was compelling to him:"The fact that we number a billion people on the face of the Earth. If you put them all together, they did one thing in unison—even if it was wrong—it might alter the world."
The "ultimate pan-Africanist," in Clarke's estimation, was Marcus Garvey, who boldly declared:"We of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are raising the cry of Africa for the Africans, those at home and those abroad."
[td]
[/td]
This pan-African dream wasn't just theory for Dr. Clarke. He lived it.
And nowhere was this more evident than in his relationship with Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah—a bond that began in the intellectual ferment of Harlem and flowered into the first successful African independence movement.
Ghana's Independence: From Harlem History Club to African Liberation
Dr. Clarke's connection with Kwame Nkrumah began long before Ghana's independence, back in the vibrant intellectual circles of Harlem.As Clarke fondly recalled:
"I met a young Kwame Nkrumah when he was a student at Lincoln University and frequented Harlem on weekends."
[td]
[/td]
In those days, the Harlem History Club was a crucible where African students mixed with African-American intellectuals, sharing ideas about liberation and self-determination.
Clarke observed the young Nkrumah's evolution:
"My impression of him was not as the future head of state but as an African who's going to go back and make a major contribution to his nation. He was a committed African."
Little did Clarke know that this young student would become the leader of Africa's first successful independence movement."The people of Ghana resisted British rule from the very beginning. In March of 1957, they become the first Africans to win their freedom," Clarke explained. This achievement represented the first crack in the colonial system dominating Africa.
Clarke's determination to experience this historical moment led him to Ghana in 1958.
His chance encounter with Nkrumah revealed how their Harlem connection had endured. As Clarke described it, Nkrumah spotted him in a crowd and ordered his motorcade to stop.
"'What the hell you doing in my country? You a long way from Harlem,'" Nkrumah asked.
Upon learning Clarke was struggling financially, Nkrumah remarked, "'You sure must love Africa,'" and offered him work at the Evening News.
This connection between an African head of state and an African-American scholar embodied the pan-African ideal.
The significance extended beyond personal friendship:
"Ghana's independence at that time gave spirit to the whole of the African world. It was a major impact on Black America because it came at the time that the Civil Rights Movement was reaching a crescendo."
Nkrumah's vision extended beyond Ghana's borders:"His first vision of pan-Africanism was the physical unification of Africa. He said that Ghana's freedom won't mean anything until the rest of Africa is free."
Back home in America, Dr. Clarke brought this same analytical lens to bear on the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, always asking the crucial question:
Are we pursuing real power or just symbolic gestures?
Civil Rights and Black Power
Clarke's analysis of the Civil Rights Movement revealed his strategic thinking about liberation.While he respected Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as "the spiritual leader of the Black movement" and "one of the finest theologians that we produced in recent years," he disagreed with nonviolence as a philosophy rather than a tactic.
Instead, Clarke found more substance in Malcolm X's analysis.
He knew Malcolm personally from 1958 until his death and sometimes saw him on a daily basis.
[td]
[/td]
Malcolm's assassination deeply affected Clarke:
"When I got the word of his death, I was in Connecticut... I went into that bathroom and just cried like a child for 15 minutes."
This personal connection transformed into a renewed purpose: "I was a good teacher before that. I was a better teacher and a better human being after that because I knew that being a good classroom teacher was my best work."Dr. Clarke's deep personal involvement in these movements gave him unique insights into what separated genuine leadership from mere showmanship.
His critiques of contemporary Black leadership still ring true today, challenging us to move beyond ceremony to substance.
Black Leadership: Vision Beyond Ceremony
Clarke was critical of movements that emphasized spectacle over substance.[td]
[/td]
"Marching is a strategy, and I think we have gotten enough out of the strategy. I think the march is a waste of shoe leather, gas, and energy."
He particularly objected to the exclusion of women:"I have some serious problems with any kind of march for our liberation that leaves out one half of the mentality of our people—the women."
The key to effective leadership, in his view, was developing a well-designed program for liberation where "if the leader dies while you're on page 13, move to page 14 and continue the struggle. Bury the man, continue the plan."True leadership, Clarke argued, addresses fundamental questions:
- How will my people stay on this Earth?
- How will they be educated?
- How will they be schooled?
- How will they be housed?
- And how will they be defended?
Everything Dr. Clarke taught us—from the glories of ancient Kemet to the challenges of modern leadership—points to a simple truth:
We are the inheritors of a magnificent legacy, and it's our responsibility to carry it forward for future generations.
Clarke's Enduring Influence
"My great, overpowering love affair has been the liberation and the maintenance of African people and to restore them to a status that they lost in the world."
[td]
[/td]
As we continue Clarke's work of historical recovery and spiritual renewal, we honor his legacy by embracing his challenge to:
- Learn our history
- Build our families
- Strengthen our communities, and
- Restore our rightful place in the human story.
The footprints Dr. Clarke left for us point the way toward our collective liberation.
Will you follow them?
Thanks for reading
Anthony Browder
Ps.
On May 23rd at 7:00 PM EST, I'm hosting a special webinar: "Why History Matters: An Examination of Dr. Clarke's Search for the History of Black People."
In this 2-hour deep dive, you'll discover:
- The first 995 pages of African history they don't want you to know
- How Clarke's mentors shaped the Black Studies movement
- Why they're erasing our history NOW and what we can do about it
- A practical blueprint for preserving truth in the age of deletion
Because as Clarke taught us: "History is a clock that tells us what time it is."
And now it's time to wake up.
Reserve Your Seat Now
[td]
[/td]
