Richard A. Long, recognized as a major cultural historian, is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emeritus at Emory University.

 

            He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Temple University; did doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania; was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Paris; and received his doctoral degree at the University of Poitiers.

 

            His teaching career began as a graduate assistant at Temple. Subsequently he taught at West Virginia State College. He spent a decade and a half as a teacher at Morgan State College (now University) followed by two years at Hampton Institute (now University) where he was also Director of the College Museum. He became a Professor of English at Atlanta University in 1968 where he was founder of the African American Studies program. He began an association with Emory University 1973 as adjunct professor and became Atticus Haygood Professor in 1987. From 1971 to 1973 he was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He has lectured widely in West, Central and South Africa, the Caribbean, India and Southeast Asia.

 

            His writings include Black Americana (1985), The Black Tradition in American Dance (1989), African Americans: A Portrait (1993), Grown Deep: Essays on the Harlem Renaissance (1998), One More Time: Harlem Renaissance History and Historicism (2007). He has edited Negritude: Essays and Studies (1967)(with Albert Berrian) and Afro-American Writing: Prose and Poetry (1972, 1991)(with Eugenia Collier) and Black Writers and the American Civil War (1989).

 

            He was the founder of the Triennial Symposium on African Art and of the New World Festival of the African Diaspora. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Smithsonian Museum of African Art; he is a life member of the Board of Directors of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; he has served on the Board of the Society of Dance History Scholars and is now an Honorary Fellow of the organization. He continues to serve on the National Planner Committee of the Zora Neale Hurston Festival.

 

            Dr. Long’s Papers are deposited at the Auburn Avenue Research Library.

 

References: 
 

Carolyn Clark. Richard A. Long (1927-) University Professor, Scholar, Author: A Bibliography of Sources in the Auburn Avenue Research Library.  Atlanta: AARL, 1998.
 

                www.thehistorymakers.com
 

               The International Review of African American Art (Volume 22,  
                number 3, 2009).