Clement Alexander Price


Clement Alexander Price was an American historian. As the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of History at Rutgers University-Newark, Price brought his study of the past to bear on contemporary social issues in his adopted hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and across the nation. He was the founding director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers; the vice chair of President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; the chair of Obama's transition team for the National Endowment for the Humanities; a member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture; and a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Price is the namesake of the jazz club Clement's Place.
He was appointed City of Newark Historian in early 2014. His service to New Jersey included appointments by Governors Brendan Byrne and Thomas Kean to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, on which he served as chair for two terms, and by Governor Christine Todd Whitman to the board of the Save Ellis Island Foundation, which he also chaired.
On November 2, 2014, Price succumbed to a catastrophic cerebral hemorrhage while speaking in New Brunswick at a screening of , a film project in which he had participated. Rabbi Bennett Miller shared the podium and recounted Price's final words in response to a question about the future of civil rights in the U.S.: "I still have hope." Price died on November 5, never having regained consciousness.

Early life and education

Price was born on October 13, 1945, in Washington, D.C., the middle child of James Leo Price Sr., who was employed by the United States Department of the Treasury, and Anna Christine Price, a home maker through much of his childhood, and later a domestic worker and professional seamstress. His older brother, James Leo Price Jr., a distinguished school principal, returned to South Carolina to raise his family. Younger sister Jarmila Louise Price-Gaines, a director of music education programs, resides in California. Price's parents had both been participants in the Great Migration of African Americans from the American South in the early twentieth century. They evaded Jim Crow by moving to northern cities in search of better employment and educational opportunities for their children.
Price felt fortunate to be brought up in Northeast Washington's Brentwood community surrounded by family and friends and the close-knit fellowship of Israel Metropolitan C.M.E. Church. He attended Washington's McKinley Tech High School, where he was an accomplished distance runner on the school's track team and competed in cross country and mile run events. Also, with his brother, he home delivered the major Washington, D.C. newspapers.

He earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Bridgeport, and received a PhD in History at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He cited as inspiration and mentors such founding historians of the African-American experience as W. E. B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin, August A. Meier and Sterling Stuckey.

Personal life

In 1988, Price married Mary Sue Sweeney, now director emerita of the Newark Museum.

Career

Academia

Price was encouraged to enter the field of African American History by his graduate advisor at the University of Bridgeport, Bruce M. Stave. As a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Price began researching Newark's and New Jersey's African-American history, and taught for the 1968–69 academic year at the newly opened Essex County College. In February 1969, a group of black Rutgers University-Newark students occupied the campus's Conklin Hall, demanding increased enrollment of minority students and increased hiring of minority professors. As one result of the university's response to the students' demands, Price was hired and began teaching history at Rutgers University-Newark in the fall semester of 1969. He remained an active member of the history faculty until his death, including serving as director of the graduate program and chair of African and African-American Studies. In 2002, he was named Rutgers University Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor.
Price's teaching and research focused on African-American history and culture; United States urban and social history; New Jersey history; public history; and American race relations. His dissertation, completed in 1975, was a social history of Newark's black community in the thirty years after World War I. Other writings include: ; ; and the three-volume .
In addition to his career at Rutgers University-Newark, Price was a scholar in residence at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation from 2001 to 2002; a visiting professor at Princeton University in 1996; a scholar in residence at Bloomfield College in 1990; a visiting professor at Montclair State College, Seton Hall University, New Jersey City University, Kean College of New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and County College of Morris between 1975 and 1994; and an instructor of history at Essex County College in Newark from 1968 to 1969.

Newark

Price was a leading authority on Newark's history. The class he developed on the topic has been among the most popular at Rutgers University-Newark. He wrote extensively about the city's history, but also shared it in more direct ways with the public, via regular bus tours of the city and media appearances. "The Once and Future Newark with Clement Alexander Price", produced by Rutgers University-Newark and broadcast on New Jersey Network in 2006, has been reissued in 2015 in a special expanded commemorative version.
In early 2014, Price was named the official historian of Newark. He served as chairman of the planning committee for Newark's 350th Anniversary, which took place in 2016.
At the time of his death, Price was chair of the Newark Trust for Education, a trustee of the Newark Public Library and of Saint Benedict's Preparatory School, a board member of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and chair of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival committee. He had previously served as a trustee of the Newark Museum, the New Jersey Historical Society, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and as President of the Fund for New Jersey.

Public art and humanities

Price made public engagement an integral part of his scholarly activity, believing not only that scholarship should be made accessible to a broad American public but that the critical thinking and new ideas it fostered were essential to a more equitable and just development of Newark and the nation. Historical memory – whether produced by traditional academic scholarship, museums, or public monuments and historic sites – was at its best and most useful when it was most democratic and complicated.
Together with Gloria Hopkins Buck, Marjorie Fredericks and others, Price was a founding member in 1975 of the Newark Black Film Festival, the longest continuously running festival of its kind and widely admired. The 40th anniversary presentation in the summer of 2015 was dedicated to his memory.
With artist Larry Kirkland and landscape designer Robert Preston, he designed the Civil Rights Garden in Atlantic City, New Jersey, documenting the history and struggles of African Americans. Opened in 2002, this public art and history project of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has been called the most significant public commemoration of the modern civil rights movement in any northern state. He also served on the National Trust's advisory committee for the restoration of President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C., which opened in 2008.

Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience

Price founded the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience in 1997 at Rutgers University-Newark, an interdisciplinary academic center that, through public partnerships and programming, offers the Newark metropolitan area the finest thinkers and artists engaged with key issues of modern life. Its motivating belief is in the centrality of creativity and critical thinking to the continued revitalization of Greater Newark and the nation. The Institute is considered the culmination of his life's work, and works with community partners, scholars, and artists to bring the important civic issues in race, culture, and Newark into public discourse through public programming. The Institute was renamed for Price on February 20, 2015, as the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience.
The Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series is presented by the Institute, one of the longest running and considered among the most prestigious Black History Month observances in the country. It was founded in 1981 by Price and Giles R. Wright, the inaugural director of the Afro-American History Program at the New Jersey Historical Commission. In 2015, the lecture series celebrated its 35th anniversary with the theme "Curating Black America", honoring the forthcoming opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The 36th Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture series will take place on February 20, 2016 and will explore criminal justice in the African American Experience. Among the distinguished lecturers in this series have been Sterling Stuckey, Max Roach, James Farmer, Esther Rolle, Ali Mazrui, Eric Foner, Basil Davidson and David Blight.

Professional affiliations and appointments

Price was agency lead for the National Endowment for the Humanities on President Barack Obama's 2008 transition team. He was appointed twice by President Obama as vice chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and appointed Newark City Historian in 2014 and as chairman of the 350th anniversary of Newark's founding in 1666. Price was also a member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture; a member of the advisory council for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; a trustee of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; and former chairman of the Save Ellis Island Foundation and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Some highlights of his significant public service contributions include:
  • Member, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA, 2013
  • Panelist, "The Place of Community in Pluralistic Societies", National Endowment for the Humanities/Arts & Humanities Research Council workshop, Washington, D.C., March 30–31, 2011
  • Member, Editorial board of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, University of Alabama, 2008–11.
  • Participant, Project Interchange Seminar in Israel for the leadership of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, December 2007 – January 2008.
  • Chair, James A. Rawley Prize Committee, Organization of American Historians, 2005, Member 2004 and 2006.
  • Director, New Jersey Council for the Humanities Teacher Institute, New Jersey Council for the Humanities, Monmouth University, July, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
  • Guest Scholar, National Council for History Education Summer Seminar for Teachers, "Thinking Historically", Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii, June/July, 2004.
  • Commentator, "New Jerseytimes", radio series produced by Rutgers University, 1995–96.
  • Trustee, St. Benedict's Preparatory School, 2013–
  • Provisional trustee, Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation
  • Chair, Newark Trust for Education, June 2010 –
  • Chair, Newark Education Task Force, March 2011 – June 2011.
  • Chair, the Newark Public Schools Superintendent Search Committee, December 2007 – June 2008
  • Co-chair, The Newark 40th Anniversary Commemorative Committee, aka The Big, Bad Committee, 2007
  • Chairman, Sub-Committee for Arts & Culture, Mayor Cory Booker's Transition Committee, 2006
  • President, Newark Public Schools Foundation, 2005–
  • President, board of trustees, The Fund for New Jersey, 1998–2004; vice president, 1997
  • Member, Newark Public Schools Advisory Board, 1997–99; vice president, 1999–2000
  • Member, board of trustees, Newark Public Library, 1985–present, vice chairman, 1990–93
  • Chairman, Mayor's Cultural Affairs Task Force, City of Newark NJ, 1986–87
  • Trustee, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 1985–90
  • Member, board of governors, New Jersey Historical Society, 1985–90
  • Member, board of trustees, The Newark Museum, 1980–93
  • Vice president, board of directors, Urban League of Essex County NJ, 1980–87
  • Member, Newark Black Film Festival Steering Committee, 1977–
  • Member, Advisory Committee for the Civil Rights History Project, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, 2010–.
  • Vice-chair, New Jersey Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, 2008–09
  • Member, the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, April 2008 – 2011
  • Member, board of trustees, National Council for History Education, 2006
  • Member, board of directors, Urban Libraries Council, Evanston, IL, 2003
  • Chair, Research Advisory Council, Center for Arts and Culture, Washington, DC, and Trustee, 2002–04
  • Member, National Advisory Board, National History Project, 2001–02
  • Chairman, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, New Jersey Department of State, 1982–85