When I decided to move to the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, I believed that life in this part of the world would be interesting and challenging, and I have not been disappointed.
In fact, life here and throughout our world continues to be interesting, challenging, and, sometimes– in the face of widespread poverty, violence, and injustice –disheartening.
Statue of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in New York’s Harlem community. (Photo: Regennia N. Williams)
I am determined, however, to heed the advice of the late Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and “press forward at all times.” There are more than a few people of goodwill in Greater DC and throughout the global community, and I am fortunate to be in a position to work with some of them.
We have our work cut out for us, but I remain cautiously optimistic about the possibility that, together, we will be able to bring about some much-needed change in 2017. — RNW
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About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
When I decided to move to the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, I believed that life in this part of the world would be interesting and challenging, and I have not been disappointed.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 