Note: This is the second appearance of the BC In Struggle Spotlight column. BC readers are invited to write a profile of someone who should be recognized for their work in the struggle for economic and social justice and peace. Subjects can be current or passed individual(s) or organizations and do not have to be nationally known. Please let us hear from you. Thanks. Click here to contact BC.

“Nothing succeeds like success,” once wrote the world-famous Afro-French author of the twin novels The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas.  Arguably, he was right.

But just what is success?  Is it the quantity or length of one’s life or is it the quality or virtue of it?  Some would say both.  They would easily conclude that both the quantity and the quality of one’s life inseparably determine the success of it.

But history, “the final judge of all mankind” as the late, great Black Baptist minister and U. S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. so wisely called it, does not fully agree.  It clearly tells us that if by the words “the quantity of life” we mean “time”, then time, as the slain Civil Rights Movement leader Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., intelligently described, “is neutral”.  In short, it can be used for either good or bad, to help or to harm, to build or to destroy.

Said differently, historically, the best judge of a person’s success is not length of time that they lived but how well they used the time they had while they lived.  If overall, minus any and all human imperfections that he or she possessed, that person did more good than bad, helped more than harmed, and built more positive things than they destroyed, in a vastly unselfish, frequently self-sacrificing way, then, typically, history has topped their brow with the golden crown of success, based on the godly principles that they have daily personified - doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with their god.

In my very humble opinion, truly the life of our greatly-beloved and dearly-departed son and husband, father and grandfather, world-renown psychologist and historian, researcher and lecturer, expert educator and essayist, noted author and Pan-Africanist, highly-esteemed elder and mentor, trusted friend, and, more importantly, loving brother, Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III exemplifies the best of all those time-related choices.  Following the greatly-heralded footsteps of the best of his and African people’s ancient African Ancestors, he committed himself to a life of undying study, research, and service.  That alone raises his star a little higher than all too many of the people with whom he shared this planet.  And those three things alone point to activities in which all of the (1) billion-plus members of the African World Family can, should, and must fully engage if we are to improve our often dismal plight in this world.

By fully engaging in a life of study, Dr. Hilliard, by his own admission, rose slowly from the humble ranks of a public school custodian, bus driver, and schoolteacher to that of a world-renown university professor.  As such, he taught first at his alma mater the University of Denver (where he earned his B.A. in psychology, M.A. in counseling, and Ed.D. or Ph.D. in educational psychology), then San Francisco State University, and finally at Georgia State University.  Along the way, he served as a consultant to the Peace Corps, lived six years in Liberia, West Africa, and there served as the Superintendent of Schools in Monrovia (Liberia’s capitol) and a school psychologist.

His life-long commitment to study focused primarily on the boundless history of his Ancestors and their descendants - the world’s first and oldest people and the people from whom all other people and civilization came - African (Black) people.  By so doing, he wisely and dutifully fulfilled many of the precepts that were spelled out nearly twenty or more centuries before, by one of his ancestors, the ancient Egyptian Ptahhotep, whose book he co-edited with Nia Damali and Larry Williams in 1987. Entitled The Teachings of Ptahhotep: The Oldest Book in the World, this book contains thirty-seven precepts that its wiseman-author Ptah-hotep is attempting to pass on to his son.

The very first time I ever heard of the book was when I first met Dr. Hilliard in 1989 at the Georgia State University-sponsored Conference for Black Students at Predominantly White Colleges and Universities. He underscored its major importance while I, among hundreds of other audience members, witnessed him effortlessly deliver one of his famous, extremely powerful, interesting, and eye-opening African World History slide presentations and lectures.  It was the very first one that I had ever experienced and instantly, greatly unknown to him since that time until a few years ago, he became my much-heralded mentor.  When I reacquainted myself with him personally, upon his visit to my hometown, about two years ago, he graciously enrolled me as a member of his email group and humbly and wisely advised me personally, via our email, on how to stay abreast of African-related (meaning “all”) current events and how best to use my God-given skills to improve the lot of African people worldwide.  We even corresponded about Ghana just as he was leaving the United States to visit there for the Nth time and I was preparing to do so for the very first.

All in all, I lovingly mention those things because it has been my personal experience that my and countless others' mentor, Dr. Asa Hilliard, truly personified the first and, arguably, the best of Ptahhotep’s precepts.  Combining various versions, I slightly paraphrase it as follows:

Every time I talked with Dr. Hilliard - either via the internet or when I last spoke with him face to face when he visited Birmingham, Alabama to speak to public school teachers there - he was always humble, friendly, and open.  No matter what questions I posed to him about the study of our people, improving our lot in the world, and even furthering my education, he never once demeaned or dismissed me. Instead, as a true African Elder and mentor, he wisely answered and advised me.  He did to me what he memorably and with unbroken attentiveness did to the legendary, world-renown, African American historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke, as captured on the videotape of the latter’s enstollment. He, like Dr. Clarke before him, both listened to and advised me.  Since that time, both always have and always will rank highly as my “grandmaster teachers” in the worldwide struggle for the African World Family’s struggle for full physical, mental, and spiritual liberation. And to them both, I am eternally grateful.  They set the example that all like-minded people and I should follow.

Now what is so shocking about that for me is the mere fact that both men, most recently Dr. Hilliard, of course, were, as they will continue to be, internationally-known, no doubt, for their die-hard dedication to the breaking of the multi-inch thick shackles of what Hilliard called “Mental bondage”, and which he described as “invisible slavery.” Here, Hilliard was a man who not only was a leader in the field of higher education but an expert in urban and overall public education, who lectured and traveled far and wide, teaching and writing about and taking his people on tours to Africa, to reclaim their “stolen legacy” of historical achievement, purpose, and possibilities that white and other forms of anti-African/Black supremacy - in the form of slavery and colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism and overall socio-political and religio-economic exploitation and cultural theft, among other things - had wrongfully denied and stolen from them. And, sadly, that continues strongly today.

My point is this.  Dr. Hilliard not only studied, both widely and deeply, the history of the world and the major role that African people played in it; he also traveled the world, spreading that gospel-like message of what they had done, were doing, and can and must still do, to paraphrase Dr. Clarke, one of his mentors.  He did so by doing what others before him had done and what we must do.  In short, he studied and learned from, preserved and promoted the past as a means of learning from and not repeating past mistakes, while also learning from and repeating past successes - even if they must be accomplished with a few minor or even major adjustments.

With absolute certainty, Dr. Asa G. Hilliard’s undying dedication to his people brought him fame, friends, and foes.  Undoubtedly, there were times when some of the very people he tried to help turned their backs on him, either because they lacked the vision that he had or simply because they willingly chose to ride the unbridled, jade steed of envy.  Doubtlessly, there may have been those close to him who tried to distract him from his life’s work, causing him to “sometimes feel like a motherless child” or sometimes “feel discouraged and think [his] works in vain”.  Certainly, there may have been those who may have often encouraged him to “lay down [his] sword and shield” of love for and dedication to his people “down by the riverside” of anti-African white, yellow, red, and brown supremacy and endless fame and fortune, to sell out and to “study war no more” against them. 

Wisely, he did not listen.  Nor did he obey.  Instead, he personified the kind of person that Ptahhotep described:  “A person of character…[who] is a person of wealth”.  As such, Dr. Hilliard heard, obeyed, and marched to the beat of a different drummer.  That drummer combined the best traits of all of his freedom-loving and freedom–fighting African Ancestors, male and female, young and old, known and unknown, who unselfishly dedicated their entire lives and fought both tooth and nail to tear down the slimy, Tower-of-Babel-tall walls of anti-African oppression and to build, in its place, a more humane, loving, caring, and sharing world where all people, most especially the world’s first and oldest people (African people) - first and foremost, to quote Dr. Clarke again - receive their just due.  That, of course, includes equal justice, freedom, and equality and the full and unbridled ownership and control of that which is rightfully theirs - their culture, their history, their continent - Africa, the birthplace of both humanity and human civilization and the world’s richest continent.

In short, Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III was a freedom fighter.  His battlefield was the classroom, and that was the entire world.  The sacred prize, for which he so undyingly fought, was the hearts, souls, and minds of his people.  He was a true scholar-warrior.  And we need more like him.  Who will answer the call?  Will it be you or me?  Whosoever will let him or her come, speaking up and standing up, walking tall and talking tall, their body strong, their mind sharp, their soul rested, and their love for and dedication to their people untiring, unwavering, and eternal.

Dr. Hilliard was someone, in both word and deed, who constantly showed and consistently encouraged and said to us all, all the world’s African people (in the words of one of his most famous videos), “Free Your Mind: Return to the Source”.  I find it interesting, if not ironic, that the man who uttered and personified those very words would join the ancestors in the land that serves as the true source of all that the world truly calls civilization - Africa, specifically Egypt - on Sunday, August 12, 2007.

Sleep well, Baba Baffour/Dr. Asa G. Hilliard.  You have used your time well and done well.   Because you walked and talked and gave tirelessly of your time, knowledge, and kindness to countless others on this earth, the world is a much better place.  

Your body may no longer be with us.  But your spirit and the wisdom you left behind always will be.  Without a doubt, the greatest homage we can to pay you, sir (as I always called and greeted you), is to follow your noteworthy footsteps of service and life-long dedication to African people, especially the youth and those in public education, and wisely and dutifully use both our time and talents, our very lives, to make our world a much better place by the time we exit it, than it was when we first entered it.   

God bless, sir.  And may the Almighty Creator and the African Ancestors keep, strengthen, and bless your family and friends both during this very trying hour for them and beyond.  And to them all I express my sincere condolences.

Sincerely,

Your long-time student and mentee

BlackCommentator.com Columnist HAWK (J. D. Jackson) is a priest, poet, journalist, historian, African-centered lecturer, middle school teacher and part-time university history instructor. Click here to contact HAWK.