Prof. William Mackey Jr.

Black New Yorkers: Connecting the dots with Professor MackeyAmsterdam News - Article - new york news
...
Connecting the dots with Professor Mackey
...
In one long extended breath, Professor William Mackey Jr. expounded on the early coastal migration route of Black people from the southeast, the significance of W.E.B. Du Bois and Kenneth Stampp to the Reconstruction period, and a scathing critique of a cable television network that presumed to discuss the Great American Songbook without mentioning the contributions of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller or any of the major Black composers.
...
Mackey, who turned 83 last Monday, has devoted a lifetime to connecting the dots in his research of African-American history and culture."Even when I'm conducting our study groups each Thursday here at my home, where we're discussing the Reconstruction era, the important thing is to tie the past with contemporary issues.Otherwise it's a meaningless exercise," he explained.Since his arrival in New York City in 1946, shortly after a tour in the Army, Mackey has been vitally involved in the region's academic, political and cultural life.That involvement, however, has not been done at the expense of losing his Southern roots."You don't ever lose your roots, no matter where you go," he said."The first 20 years of my life were spent in Jacksonville, Florida [where he was born], and southeast Georgia, and I guess I'll always be a salt water Geechee.Even today, with all the sophisticated learning, nothing can replace the basic knowledge about life I received in those early years down South before I came ‘Upsouth."' Much of that valuable experience has been dispensed in classrooms by way of stops at City College in the early 1970s, the University of Massachusetts, Medgar Evers, and Empire State College, where he teaches "Labor History and the Global Workplace" three days a week.The heavy teaching load, of late, has made it difficult for him to write as much as he would like."By the time I'm through teaching, I'm pretty exhausted," Mackey said.
...
Listening to Mackey roaming through the past is to witness a modern day griot at work, someone who has been personally in touch with the towering intellectuals of the century.
...
Last week, as part of the fourth annual Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations conference, Mackey joined Nana Ekow Butweiku, Dr. Clinton Crawford, Dr. Ben and Dr. Leonard Jeffries in a tribute to the late Dr. John Henrik Clarke.
...
"While it's great to be remembered, it's better to be supported while you're alive," Mackey asserted."It's a shame that some of our great scholars never got the attention and the respect they were due during their lifetimes."To a large degree, the same can be said of Professor Mackey, though many, especially through his classroom lectures and study group, are becoming more aware of his profound way of tying basic down-home logic with the intricacies of higher education."It's all a matter of finding the links that tie things together," he stressed.

Black New Yorkers: Connecting the dots with Professor MackeyAmsterdam News - Article - new york news
...
Connecting the dots with Professor Mackey
...
In one long extended breath, Professor William Mackey Jr. expounded on the early coastal migration route of Black people from the southeast, the significance of W.E.B. Du Bois and Kenneth Stampp to the Reconstruction period, and a scathing critique of a cable television network that presumed to discuss the Great American Songbook without mentioning the contributions of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller or any of the major Black composers.
...
Mackey, who turned 83 last Monday, has devoted a lifetime to connecting the dots in his research of African-American history and culture."Even when I'm conducting our study groups each Thursday here at my home, where we're discussing the Reconstruction era, the important thing is to tie the past with contemporary issues.Otherwise it's a meaningless exercise," he explained.Since his arrival in New York City in 1946, shortly after a tour in the Army, Mackey has been vitally involved in the region's academic, political and cultural life.That involvement, however, has not been done at the expense of losing his Southern roots."You don't ever lose your roots, no matter where you go," he said."The first 20 years of my life were spent in Jacksonville, Florida [where he was born], and southeast Georgia, and I guess I'll always be a salt water Geechee.Even today, with all the sophisticated learning, nothing can replace the basic knowledge about life I received in those early years down South before I came ‘Upsouth."' Much of that valuable experience has been dispensed in classrooms by way of stops at City College in the early 1970s, the University of Massachusetts, Medgar Evers, and Empire State College, where he teaches "Labor History and the Global Workplace" three days a week.The heavy teaching load, of late, has made it difficult for him to write as much as he would like."By the time I'm through teaching, I'm pretty exhausted," Mackey said.
...
Last week, as part of the fourth annual Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations conference, Mackey joined Nana Ekow Butweiku, Dr. Clinton Crawford, Dr. Ben and Dr. Leonard Jeffries in a tribute to the late Dr. John Henrik Clarke.
...
"While it's great to be remembered, it's better to be supported while you're alive," Mackey asserted."It's a shame that some of our great scholars never got the attention and the respect they were due during their lifetimes."To a large degree, the same can be said of Professor Mackey, though many, especially through his classroom lectures and study group, are becoming more aware of his profound way of tying basic down-home logic with the intricacies of higher education."It's all a matter of finding the links that tie things together," he stressed. A few of those links can be found in his essays, articles and the recent introduction he authored in a new book on Frederick Douglass.

Black New Yorkers: Connecting the dots with Professor MackeyAmsterdam News - Article - new york news
...
Connecting the dots with Professor Mackey
...
In one long extended breath, Professor William Mackey Jr. expounded on the early coastal migration route of Black people from the southeast, the significance of W.E.B. Du Bois and Kenneth Stampp to the Reconstruction period, and a scathing critique of a cable television network that presumed to discuss the Great American Songbook without mentioning the contributions of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller or any of the major Black composers.
...
Mackey, who turned 83 last Monday, has devoted a lifetime to connecting the dots in his research of African-American history and culture."Even when I'm conducting our study groups each Thursday here at my home, where we're discussing the Reconstruction era, the important thing is to tie the past with contemporary issues.Otherwise it's a meaningless exercise," he explained.Since his arrival in New York City in 1946, shortly after a tour in the Army, Mackey has been vitally involved in the region's academic, political and cultural life.That involvement, however, has not been done at the expense of losing his Southern roots."You don't ever lose your roots, no matter where you go," he said."The first 20 years of my life were spent in Jacksonville, Florida [where he was born], and southeast Georgia, and I guess I'll always be a salt water Geechee.Even today, with all the sophisticated learning, nothing can replace the basic knowledge about life I received in those early years down South before I came ‘Upsouth."' Much of that valuable experience has been dispensed in classrooms by way of stops at City College in the early 1970s, the University of Massachusetts, Medgar Evers, and Empire State College, where he teaches "Labor History and the Global Workplace" three days a week.The heavy teaching load, of late, has made it difficult for him to write as much as he would like."By the time I'm through teaching, I'm pretty exhausted," Mackey said.
...
Listening to Mackey roaming through the past is to witness a modern day griot at work, someone who has been personally in touch with the towering intellectuals of the century."Other than Dr. Ben [Yosef Ben-Jochannan], I may be the only octogenarian currently able to make the rounds and smell the roses, so to speak," he lamented.Last week, as part of the fourth annual Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations conference, Mackey joined Nana Ekow Butweiku, Dr. Clinton Crawford, Dr. Ben and Dr. Leonard Jeffries in a tribute to the late Dr. John Henrik Clarke.
...
"While it's great to be remembered, it's better to be supported while you're alive," Mackey asserted."It's a shame that some of our great scholars never got the attention and the respect they were due during their lifetimes."To a large degree, the same can be said of Professor Mackey, though many, especially through his classroom lectures and study group, are becoming more aware of his profound way of tying basic down-home logic with the intricacies of higher education."It's all a matter of finding the links that tie things together," he stressed. A few of those links can be found in his essays, articles and the recent introduction he authored in a new book on Frederick Douglass.

WILLIAM MACKEY Jr., the late photojournalist and professor of black history, took the other photos shown here.
...
William Mackey Jr. lived through most of the 20th century.He grew up in rural Georgia as a wave of lynchings swept the country.Often he spoke of the nine young black men charged with raping two white women on an Alabama freight train in the 1930s.
...
Drafted into the Army in World War II, Mackey served as an interpreter of French and Italian, then an almost unheard of position for an African American man. After the war, he moved to New York City, earned a degree in structural engineering and helped design school and office buildings statewide.
...
Professor Mackey spoke of the awe he felt when he first viewed the couple's collection of books, a library of black history, some published in the 19th century.Beneath the title of each book was the signature of W.E.B. Dubois.

Mackey's keen and observant eyes led him to photography.In the 1960s, he worked as a freelance photojournalist for magazines including "Time," "Life," and "The Liberator."

By 1961, Mackey had an East Village coffeehouse, Les Deux Megots, where poetry readings and political discussions featured artists and intellects such as LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Allen Ginsberg, Carol Berge, Paul Krassner and William F. Buckley.
...
Mackey also had deep respect for the folks who made the most of the little they could garner from the racist society of southeast Georgia.
...
From 1978 until his illness in July 2003, Mackey taught history and labor studies at Empire State Labor College.On Thursday nights, he rushed from Empire to the community room of his apartment building on St. Marks Place in Brooklyn, where he led a study group on history, art, literature and jazz.

Challenging studentsHe filled lectures with laughter, information and his analytical nature.He demanded that his students learn to be critical thinkers.Irene Jenkins, a member of his class at DC 37, recalls how Professor Mackey challenged students to "never take anything we read at face value, but to research, think out and examine the facts and language used beyond what was presented."
...
Many of us who worked for the Education Fund looked forward to seeing Mackey with his shopping bags.We cherished our conversations with him.Education Fund Librarian Ken Nash remembers Mackey as "a real scholar, always teaching and learning and never too busy to share his wisdom.