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Bobby William Austin

Bobby William Austin (born December 29, 1944) is an American sociologist, lecturer, and writer. He is a leading scholar on African-American men and boys. ^[1] Currently, he serves as Vice President for University Relations at the University of the District of Columbia. ^[2] Over the past 30 years, in the fields of education, social policy, youth development, cultural theory, philanthropy and religion, he has created a series of structured venues as pathways for how we might live life in communities as individuals and as members of groups where peace, meaning,and innovation are nurtured.^[3] ^[4]

Education

Austin was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1944. He received his B.A. from Western Kentucky University in sociology and economics. He went on to earn an M.A. in sociology at Fisk University and then his Ph.D from McMaster University in Canada. He began his career as the first African-American full time professor at Georgetown University. He received a diploma from the Harvard School of Education, and a Honorary Doctorate for Public Service from Central Michigan University. He is Mahatma Gandhi Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.

Work

Austin served as a campaign speech writer and issues director in the mayoral campaign of Patricia Roberts Harris, as well as for Washington DC mayor, Sharon Pratt. He went on to serve in various capacities at the University of the District of Columbia including Special Assistant to the Board of Trustees, Ronald H. Brown; and Special Assistant for Educational Licensure for the District of Columbia. Austin was also the founding editor of the Urban League Review, the National research and policy journal of the National Urban League. From 1990-1997 he was a Senior Program Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. His roles included Director of the African-American Men and Boys Initiative and Assistant Director of the Kellogg National Fellowship Program. As executive director of the National Task Force on African-American Men and Boys he edited the groundbreaking report Repairing the Breach: Key Ways to Support Family Life, Reclaim Our Streets, and Rebuild Civil Society in America's Communities. In the study distinguished African-American leaders provide solutions to the problems faced by young black men in the U.S., based on findings by a task force assembled in 1994 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Chaired by Andrew Young, the Task Force founded its carefully researched recommendations largely on grass roots programs around the country which have been successful in rebuilding lives and communities.^[5] William Raspberry,Washington Post columnist called the strategies outlined in the book, "the plan to save America."

In 1997, Austin founded the Village Foundation, an organization dedicated to "repairing the breach" between African American males and the rest of society. Its mission was to engage African American young men and boys in American society, by reconnecting them first to their local communities and then to the larger society.^[6] One of the leading initiatives of the Village Foundation today was the "Give a Boy a Book Day campaign." ^[7] The program was designed to encourage reading and literacy among young African American men.

Austin currently serves as the Chairman of the Planning Committee on the Status of African American Men, convened by Congressman Danny Davis. He is also a founding fellow of the National Endowment for the Public Trust and Director of its Justice Task Force. Austin is a founder of the People's program,convener of the civic league and its signature program "Citizens Diplomats." ^[8] Dr. Austin serves as a board member for the National Housing Trust, the Council for the Advancement of Adult Literacy, and the World Policy Board of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He is Operational Chair, Centennial Family Symposium Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc; Chairman, The Year of the African American Male; Co-Convener of the Secretariat for African American Civil Society Leaders; and Co-Convener of the United States Assembly.^[9]

Publications

Fiction

Circus Clowns, Carnival Animals (forthcoming, 2008)

Nonfiction

I'll Make Me a World: Bringing Wholeness to Fractured Lives after 9/11 (forthcoming, 2008)

Wake up and Start to Live: an Analysis of a Gallop Poll and a Statistical Profile of African-American Men, 1990-2000 (with Brian Gilmore and Joseph McCormick, 2003)

Twenty-first Century Leadership in the African-American Community (with Andrew Young, 1998)

Repairing the Breach: Key Ways to Support Family Life, Reclaim our Streets and Rebuild Civil Society in American Communities (1996)

Towards a Theory of Cultural Leadership: Domestic Policy Implications as they Relate to Black Ethnic Groups in America (in Concepts, Challenges, and Realities of Leadership: An International Perspective, edited by James MacGregor Burns, 2001)