Our Origin Story
From Alan:
When I was Dean of the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston, I began the “Dean’s Social Justice Summer Reading Series.” Each summer, I selected a book and invited our incoming MSW students, as well as our faculty and staff, to read together. This first “assignment” was our way of initiating a journey of critical thinking and action related specifically to racial justice.
We began in the summer of 2016 with Evicted by Matthew Desmond. That fall, we also began a tradition of inviting the author of the selected book to join us on campus for a lecture and conversation. Over the years that followed, the Summer Reading Series featured incredibly moving stories, immensely talented authors, and inspiring conversations. As the series continued, and as I grew in my journey as an abolitionist, the books I chose began to focus more specifically on this topic, beginning in 2021 with Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist’s Freedom Song by Marlon Peterson.
2022 was a very important year for me and the Summer Reading Series as I chose Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—And How Abolition Can Build a Better World by Dorothy Roberts. Twenty years earlier, I read Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare by Professor Roberts just after leaving the Texas child welfare system where I had worked as a caseworker and administrator for several years. Reading Torn Apart, and coming to understand my own complicity in the harm the child welfare system causes Black families, significantly changed the course of my life and career. Now, 20 years later, I was incredibly grateful to welcome Professor Roberts to campus and to share her vision for abolition with our students and community.
In December 2022, I was removed from my position as Dean due to the university administration’s concerns over my abolitionist views and the abolitionist direction in which I was leading the college. As a result, I wasn’t able to select a summer read for 2023 and the “Dean’s Social Justice Summer Reading Series” was no more.
This was the spark that created Toward Liberation. Just because I was no longer Dean didn’t mean we couldn’t still read together and continue to grow as a community committed to justice and liberation. I asked connease to join me as she had always been a critical voice in selecting each year’s book and in developing the messaging behind this.
This year’s selection of Assata: An Autobiography was also a very meaningful and intentional selection. At the end of my first year as dean in 2016, we released our new strategic plan. Throughout the document, we featured images of social justice inspirations throughout our history, along with quotes from each of them. One of these inspirations was Assata Shakur with her quote, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
After the plan was published, I received a call from the Provost asking me if I knew there was a picture of someone from the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list on the cover. I said that I did and attempted to provide the full story of this; however, I was told that the image must be immediately removed and I could no longer include any reference to Assata Shakur in any college materials.
At this time in my career, I had not yet begun my abolitionist journey and had little understanding of what I hoped to accomplish as Dean, so I complied with this demand. This may not be the decision I would have made in my later years as Dean, but it was the decision I made then. However, I knew Assata: An Autobiography would never be allowed as the Dean’s Summer Reading Selection—which is why it is the inaugural selection of Toward Liberation.
During my time as Dean, I didn’t always recognize the chains I willingly accepted as part of that role. But now that I am free of those chains, I know will not be held by them again. Toward Liberation represents freedom from the constraints placed on me by a harmful institution and freedom from my misguided need to please that harmful institution.
I hope everyone who previously joined the Dean’s Summer Reading Series will continue to read with me, and continue to recognize and resist the chains those in power wish to constrain us by. This is our journey toward liberation, and I’m grateful to be on this journey with you.
From connease:
Abolition has always been in my soul; I recognized its stirrings as a teenager listening to the music of Bob Marley, Billy Holiday, Public Enemy, and KRS One. Back then, I did not have a name to call my ever-present and unshakeable belief that the world could be more loving, less violent, more fair, inclusive, and kind. I held tight to that sense throughout my life, and found those feelings heightened as I engaged with the written word, be it the works of Alice Walker, the poetry of Nikki Giovanni, or the lyrics of Donny Hathaway.
Seven years ago, I began working with Alan as Director of Communications during his tenure as Dean. Although I didn't know it then, it would become one of the most formative times of my career and life. Almost right away, I discovered I was working with someone who spoke the language of my own radical imagination. I'll never forget the first commencement exercises Alan helmed as Dean. I remember sitting straight up in my chair as he began to quote Assata Shakur:
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
At that moment, I knew I was in the presence of a fearless leader. But I had no way of knowing how much *I* would grow; as a communicator, a leader, and, eventually, as an abolitionist.
During those years, I learned that there was a name for the values that rang true in my heart all along. I learned that there was a community of activists, organizers, thought leaders, and political prisoners who not only held those values dear but experienced hardship, sacrifice, even death to insist upon a better world. To borrow the title of the book by the powerful Derecka Purnell, my growth can rightly be described as Becoming Abolitionist(s).
The Dean’s Summer Reading series was a major part of that growth. From the beginning, it was always my favorite project. An erstwhile English major and forever word nerd, the thoughtful and collaborative process of launching the Summer Read that ended with a community event married my talents with my lifelong passion for the written word. We had the honor of hosting some of the literary world's finest, including the brilliant and masterful writers Jesmyn Ward and Kiese Laymon. And eventually, our initial focus on selecting works that highlighted issues of racial justice naturally and organically led us straight to an exploration of abolition.
Toward Liberation is a continuation of those freedom-seeking conversations elevated and nurtured during the former Dean's Summer Reading series. I am thrilled to work again with Alan on a new endeavor, one that continues and even expands our freedom dreams and commitment to move ever Toward Liberation for us all.