Harold Cruse, 1916-2005: social critic, founding director of University of Michigan's Center for Afroamerican and African Studies

Harold Cruse, renowned social critic, essayist and founding director of the University of Michigan's Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, died March 25 in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was 89.

Considered to be one of the leading Black public intellectuals of the 20th century, Cruse was best known for his book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. He was first named program director of Michigan's Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (CAAS) in 1969, then acting director in 1971 and director from 1972-1973. Reportedly, he was one of the first African-Americans without a college degree to get tenure at a major university.

A New Yorker reviewer wrote at the time that The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, which was published in 1967, "will infuriate almost everyone." Exploring issues of social justice and equality through his writing, Cruse went on to write several other books, including Plural but Equal, which criticized the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.

"As it was implemented in the South," Cruse wrote, "the Brown decision eliminated Black teachers, Black principals, Black administrators, a whole generation of experienced administrative public school personnel made superfluous by integration."

Cruse retired from Michigan in the mid-1980s as professor emeritus of history and African-American studies. He returned to campus in February 2003 for a discussion following the 2002 publication of The Essential Harold Cruse, a reissuing of his essays, edited by Spelman College professor William Jelani Cobb.

Cruse's other books include, Rebellion or Revolution?; Plural but Equal: A Critical Study of Blacks and Minorities and America's Plural Society; Marxism and the Negro Struggle; and The Black Intellectual in Crisis: A Retrospective.

Says Dr. Kevin Gaines, director of CAAS on the center's Web site, "Cruse's work was a major influence in increasing interest in Black nationalism among scholars and the public at large."

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