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- William Paterson University
Toppling Old Barriers Sparks
Charley Flint
to Action
by Robert A. Manuel
"I
always tell people I did my doctorate out of spite," chuckles
Professor Charley Flint in describing how she became the first
African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in sociology from Rutgers
University in 1981. Laughter comes easily to this sociologist,
which
belies a certain notoriety - tough and reserved - among William
Paterson students. Her self-admitted shyness may account for
this undeserved reputation. However, Charley's true measure resides
in her intelligence and integrity, anchored by a healthy dose
of self-assurance and tenacity.
All these attributes define this woman who overcame the Jim Crow
society of southern South Carolina in the 1950s and '60s by becoming
a high school valedictorian, by excelling at an historically
black college, by overcoming de facto racism in the North and,
finally, by thriving as a William Paterson sociology professor.
She accomplished this with affability and steely optimism, both of which were grounded in values cultivated by the rural, homogeneous, African-American world where she grew up. Those values - community, education, and social activism - nourished Charley as a young girl and allowed her to triumph over entrenched racial barriers. To this day, such spiteful hindrances still don't succeed.
Why? Because, Charley explains, "I have a strong connection to my family and community. My mother encouraged me at home, and people in my church and community did likewise. That is where I got my lifelong habit of giving back to the community."
As a youngster, she remembers playing with her friends - mostly cousins - and being disciplined, if needed, by neighbors who were family members. Such a situation sounds improbable in twenty-first century America. But, in 1947, when Charley was born, this circumstance was much more common.
"When I went to college, support structures were in place for me," Charley recalls. "My mother paid the billsbut my church helped, my cousins helped. Every-one contributed a little and it all mounted up. When I needed a dress for a special occasion, I would call my aunt who was a seamstress and she'd make it for me."
The South has remained a fulcrum, exerting its influence throughout her life. Born in Asheville, North Carolina, her mother moved back to her family in Martin, South Carolina, almost immediately after because Charley's father died two weeks before her birth. About Martin she says, "I don't know if you would call it a town. The nearest neighbor was two miles away. My mother took in wash, and children and other adults worked in the cotton fields." Charley has four sisters and three brothers.
In addition to cotton, other common crops raised around Martin included corn, watermelon, and peanuts. Most of her extended family farmed those fields. However, Charley relates, "We weren't poor, deprived, 'colored' people." She describes her family as hard-working, rural folk and, in fact, her step-grandmother, called "Big Mama," owned a large farm. "People worked for her," Charley points out.
In such an enriching and sustaining environment, Charley flourished physically and intellectually. That her earliest schooling took place in a one-room country schoolhouse only adds to the charm of Charley's seemingly idyllic childhood. Not so charming, however, was the three-mile walk each way to St. Mary's School, run by black St. Mary's Baptist Church. One instructor taught 20 pupils in grades one through eight; the teacher, Rev. Price, taught one grade level before moving on to the next.
People might think that Charley was deprived of a good education. "That's not so," she asserts. "What happened in that one-room schoolhouse was one of the most exciting parts of my educational exper-ience. Once we finished our part of the lesson plan, we could sit in on the other classes if we wanted to. I really liked the idea of learning from and helping each other. We'd see how classwork was related to other parts of our lives."
This unique educational experience proved to be just right for Charley. But, it is the rest of the day, and how a child spends it outside of school, that also determines success. Charley was fortunate that constant loving support enveloped in close family relationships was her family's way of life.
Charley elaborates: "There was always an adult around for the children as well as positive, black role models. We had our own everything - schools, churches, colleges, and universities. And, people expected high things from everybody. Education was the key! It wasn't, 'Hattie's daughter is going to college.' It was, 'Our child is going.' The black community might not have been your blood relatives, but they were your kin." She insists this communal attitude enabled her to succeed.
However, Charley's ideal educational universe changed forever in the fourth grade when the state closed one-room schools and she was bussed to a facility for African-Americans 20 miles away. While she was still in the fourth grade, her family moved 30 miles to Snelling. Charley again attended a segregated school system in Barnwell, a predominantly white town of 20,000.
Upon entering Barnwell's Butler High School, which included grades seven through twelve, Charley was one of the "smart" kids who were considered college bound. They were allowed instruction in courses such as math via in-class television.
"All the TV instructors were white males," Charley explains. "My in-class math teacher, Miss Counts, was black and much more competent and exciting than her white male TV counterpart. She was an early role model for me. Math has always been easy for meand I think it had to do with her."
Charley
became valedictorian of her 33-student graduation class. She
was also elected Miss Butler High. "There were high expectations
and no social promotion," she recalls. Upon graduating,
Charley entered North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State
University (A&T) as an engineering major. At A&T she
became interested in the issues that came to the fore in the
1960s: civil rights and women's liberation. During this time
of social activism and tumult, Charley, in her junior year, chose
to major in sociology. And, she participated in taking over an
administration building in 1969.
"We felt the college was not dealing with students," Charley explains. "We wanted more input, wanted the college to be more involved with the community. One student was killed, and the National Guard was called in." Although the school closed temporarily, she managed to enroll the following fall at Rutgers University where she eventually obtained both her master's degree and doctorate.
Charley's time at Rutgers bedeviled her. "The university was culture shock," she explains. "I graduated from A&T, a black institution. At Rutgers, at the graduate level, I was sitting in mostly all-white classrooms. I'd go all day and never see another person who looked like me. And, segregation was different in the South from here. At home, you knew where to go and where not to. Here, you didn't. I had lived de jure segregation in the South and now I was living de facto in the North.
"I felt isolated and found I had to be the spokesperson for everything relating to blacks. I knew I couldn't fail because of the mistaken, but pervasive, sentiment that all blacks fail. What saved me was Quaker House, a multicultural residence where I lived and met the man I eventually would marry."
To regain her balance after earning her master's, Charley taught sociology at A&T from 1972 to 1974. Upon returning to Rutgers to earn her doctorate, she began teaching criminology part-time. Her interest in criminal justice took Charley's career in a new direction.
This avocation, discovered in North Carolina when an A&T student brought her to an inmates' prerelease program, quickly evolved into a vocation as Charley increasingly volunteered more often. In 1974, at Rutgers, she took students from her crime and society course to a state prison. Eventually, when she wasn't with students conducting fieldwork during the week, she could be found there most weekends for the next 15 years working with the juvenile awareness program, popularly referred to as the lifer's program. Charley's social activism, instilled in her since birth, had found a new outlet.
Today, Charley has a record of working in New Jersey corrections helping to prepare inmates for rehabilitation. And, according to fellow William Paterson Sociology Professor Peter Stein, "Charley's increased mastery of the subject is recognized internally and externally. The large number of invitations to attend conferences and speaking engagements attests to the growing awareness of her expertise in the field."
At the University, Charley is coordinator of the criminal justice program, the largest concentration in sociology. Externally, she is president of the board of trustees of the New Jersey Association on Corrections, and she has testified before the state legislature on juvenile crime.
Although Charley has worked primarily with male inmates over the years, her current basic research now centers on women. "The first program I worked with women was after they left the joint," she recalls. "I did some groups, presentations, and conferences for those who had gotten out and who were involved in a jobs-skills program. I've subsequently learned there is not much hands-on work with women because nobody listens to them. The noise they make is not as loud as the noise men make; they get less attention."
In 1981, while her professional career was arcing upwards due to her corrections work, Charley's personal life was reaching new heights, too. That year she married Jeff Hitchcock after a seven-year courtship. Charley explains she didn't rush into marriage because she and her husband were different in many ways: he was white, she was black; he was Quaker, she was Baptist; he was a suburban northerner, she was a rural southerner. Asked if any of these differences had caused them problems, she replies, "Not really. Both of us were raised to be nonjudgemental and to appreciate differences."
Today, they and their two sons, fifth-grader Matthew, 10 (adopted four days after his birth), and second-grader Nathaniel, 7, reside in Roselle, New Jersey. Jeff is cofounder/executive director (and Charley, the president) of the Center for the Study of White American Culture. The organization, which has an Internet site, examines what it means to be white in a nonsupremacist, nonracist way. In addition to busy professional lives, one of their hobbies is working on home improvement projects. Travel is another outlet; both love to stay in bed-and-breakfast inns.
Charley's life took another dramatic direction in 1984 when she came to William Paterson. Dr. Stein had known her at Rutgers where they had once worked together. Now, he helped welcome Charley to the University's Sociology Department. He's never been sorry.
"I've always been impressed with her handling of such diversity issues as black/white, gender, age, and sexual orientation," he marvels. "She's always been sensitive to the multifaceted aspects of diversity. As an African-American woman, she's attuned to the issues minorities face. I also like her energy. She's actively engaged. That's useful, especially when she sees injustices."
And, when it comes to her reputation among students, Peter is similarly laudatory. "She's outstanding with them," he continues. "Students of color feel especially comfortable with her, but Charley is equally available to everyone. When you pass by her office, you always see at least one or two students if not one or two of her colleagues there."
Students concur. Louis Cruz graduated in 1996 after majoring in sociology and minoring in criminal justice and is a detective for the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. Louis, who has worked for years in criminal justice as a corrections officer and a police officer, says, "I'm in awe of Professor Flint's knowledge of all aspects of the field. If an individual needs her help, she always makes herself available as she did for me. I owe her a lot. In fact, she's influenced me so much that, if it all works out, I'll be an adjunct professor at William Paterson starting in September."
A student of Charley's from Rutgers, Riki Jacobs, executive director of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation in New Brunswick, also claims Charley changed her life. "She got me excited and motivated to learn," she says reverently. "Charley helps process what's really going on, which means political and economic as well as academic factors. She looks at issues with race and class in mind, but she integrates them into the totality without students feeling polarized. She also teaches how to be ethical and humane, probably the most important lessons of all. I still feel close to my friend Charley."
According to William Paterson Political Science Professor Lois Wolf, Charley has been a boon for the University. "She is a leader, she is principled, and she speaks out," Lois relates with warmth and admiration. "People at William Paterson got to know her early and they got to know her well. She is asked to serve on so many committees because she is serious and purposeful. Charley puts things in the proper perspective and then she gets things done."
Which brings us full circle to community, the value that's been so important to Charley. William Paterson has now joined the other affiliations that give meaning to her life. She has embraced the University with the same zeal she brings to everything.
Examples are rampant: Charley is coordinator of the Freshman Seminar, as well as former coordinator of MOST (Minority Opportunities Through School Transformation); she has devoted much time to the New Jersey Project, headquartered at William Paterson, whose mission is to integrate issues of race, class, and gender into the curriculum of schools and colleges; she also has served as a women's studies faculty member and as director of the Race and Gender Project; she is co-editor of the recently published book, Transforming the Curriculum: Teaching Resources from the New Jersey Project; and she is the founder of ALANA, a program of and for women of color in higher education in New Jersey.
Students remain Charley's primary focal point, however. That she was honored by the 1993 Senior Class, who presented her with one of the earliest "Students First" awards, speaks for itself. But, another anecdote illustrates how Charley has successfully integrated her roles of educator, scholar, and civil rights activist in the classroom.
"Towards the end of the racism and sexism course I was teaching, a white student says in class, 'I'm angry. I'm very angry.' I say to myself, 'Oh, no. Here it comes.' The student continues, saying, 'I am getting ready to graduate and I never had a black person as a teacher. I learned a lot in this class and I'm angry it took so long to understand certain things.' Here was someone who was angry that he never had a black teacher before. Anybody who has been at William Paterson for a while can see that things have changed for the better."
Charley's dedication to teaching and social activism, and her commitment to the William Paterson community, ensures her ability to effect positive societal change. That's all this shy scholar who was educated in the segregated Deep South has ever wanted to do. That she does it with style and verve can't be helped-it's how she was raised. WP
