dean conducts conversations on race with students from four nashville universities

professor’s 2018 project grows into student-focused, multi-university racial equity awareness project.

janel shoun-smith | 615.966.7078 | 06/16/2021

after an eye-opening encounter with a professor of african american christianity at the end of a presentation on his book, myths america lives by, author richard hughes was inspired to revise his book, which he became convinced had left out the most important of all american myths: the myth of white supremacy.

hughes, one of the foremost church of christ scholars in the nation who came to lipscomb in 2015, did revise the book, now called myths america lives by: white supremacy and the stories that give us meaning. still motivated by that project, he followed up by coordinating a conversation series for faculty at five of nashville’s christian universities: two that are hbcus and three that are not.

in the 2020-21 school year, lipscomb’s david holmes, dean of the college of liberal arts & sciences, and aerial ellis, assistant professor in the department of communication and journalism, used that same format to engage student leaders at the five universities, leading up to a chance to hear a talk by ibram x. kendi, one of america’s foremost experts on antiracism, at lipscomb’s christian scholars conference in june.

the project was carried out thanks to donated funding from the lipscomb black alumni council, the center for christianity and scholarship and the student government association and lipscomb’s colleges of leadership & public service, education and liberal arts & sciences.

holmes and ellis gathered 25 students from lipscomb, belmont and trevecca nazarene universities, all with a primarily white student body; and from fisk university and american baptist college, institutions with primarily african american student bodies, once a month to discuss racial issues, white privilege and how to address those issues on college campuses.

as a framework for the discussion, the student group read kendi’s best-seller how to be an antiracist. the final session was a discussion of concrete actions with two civil rights leaders. each college also sent one “sponsor” to the discussions, to be trained and inspired to hold similar conversation groups on their own campus, said holmes.

michelle steele, associate dean of academics for the college of leadership & public service, and prentice ashford, dean of community life, were faculty mentors for the lipscomb students involved.

the goal was to build bridges and collaboration on behalf of a deeper understanding of the dynamics of racism and white supremacy on college campuses and to inspire mutual action on the part of student leaders.

“we were very interested as a group in looking at the notion of anti-racism from a faith-based background, asking what does it mean for faith-based institutions,” said holmes. “we looked at the bible and how the lord extended mercy and stood in judgement.”

“listening to our students, as well as other students across the city from other institutions, i learned new ways to share examples, especially subtleties that they sometimes miss,” said steele. “kendi talks about the need for allies in his book. i learned by listening to what allies need from me in order to be better at being an ally.” 

the discussions also informed her work as associate professor and director of the urban studies program, steele said.

“kendi writes about the numerous policies that exist to institutionalize systemic racism. as a faculty member, going through this process with the students illuminated and reiterated the need for the courses that i teach as there is a lot of mis/disinformation out there especially in my field,” she said.

the idea for the student conversation groups grew out of the previous conversation series hughes coordinated in 2018 for faculty at the five universities. that initiative was funded by a $12,500 grant from the lilly fellows program, a network of church-related colleges and universities supported, in part, by the lilly endowment, a private philanthropic foundation supporting causes of community development, education and religion.

“i think these conversations with students were even more productive because of what has transpired over the last year and a half. the time was right,” said hughes. 

after the 2018 faculty conversations, participant jonathan thorndike, professor of english and senior fellow at belmont university, encouraged the belmont teaching center to include hughes’ book, myths america lives by, in the summer reading groups for faculty, said thorndike, who was the faculty senate liaison for the inclusion, diversity and equity committee. as a result, many belmont faculty read myths and had conversations about diversity, inclusion and equity over the summer of 2019.

myths has also been used in several classes at lipscomb, including history and freshmen experiences courses.

holmes, a former director of african american studies and director of american studies at pepperdine university, has also written on racial issues. he is currently working on his third book in “the civil rights movement: facts and fictions” book series. holmes' research interests include  religious rhetoric, african american preaching, civil rights movement film, fiction and rhetoric, harlem renaissance literature and culture among others.