Professor Fredrick C. Harris
“I was socialized in a political environment that really got me interested in politics because of the changes that were happening all across the country, particularly in my home town,” Harris said. “In the household, family members always talked politics.”
Harris’s life still revolves around race and politics, as he is head of the newly created Center on African American Politics and Society, part of the University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy.
The center, which opened in January, just released its first study (pdf) exploring racial attitudes toward the presidential nomination process. Among its major findings, reported in a story last month: 76 percent of black voters find a candidate’s electability is one of the most important factors in choosing which candidate to back, compared with 65 percent of whites.
Q. What is your primary goal for the center?
A. What I really want to do in this first semester is to look at the political side. And that will [encompass] information about the presidential election process and bringing together scholars who may be interested in participating in cooperative research within the center … and providing an intellectual forum to talk about these different political issues in the presidential process through a visiting speakers series. I really want to develop a major think tank where Columbia, through this center, will play a leading role informing the public as well as policy makers about these social-economic conditions.
Q. Why is this new center essential to the University?
A. I want to develop an umbrella of scholars in psychology, political science, sociology, law, economics and urban studies. So to bring together this talent and to develop both theoretically sophisticated work as well as work that will have policy ramifications that inform conditions that affect black communities … is good for Columbia. We have a broad base of talented people who are distributed throughout not only the college but the entire University.
Professor Fredrick Harris was involved in race and politics long before he became an expert in the field. After Atlanta elected Maynard Jackson its first black mayor in 1973, many blacks were hired in large numbers, including Harris’s mother, who worked in the mayor’s office as a secretary and in human resources.
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