She Kept Her Eyes on the Prize: Professor Kijana Crawford on Fifty Years at RIT. | March 2024
“I decided to live up to the meaning of the name Kijana, which is ‘warrior’ and I fought back.”
Few people can say they’ve worked in the same place for 50 years. Kijana Crawford, professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (CLA) can. She says she stayed here for five decades because the university’s growth moved in the direction she needed to see, and she wanted to be a part of that change. Back then, it was a very different atmosphere.
“The campus was predominantly white males as administrators, professors, and students. When I was at a faculty meeting, I only saw two African Americans, Evelyn Brandon and Tino Dumangane. The “old white boys’ network” was in full swing. The establishment hired me but did not have a formal mentoring program to help me advance in my career. Several obstacles suppressed and tried to silence me. The climate was “chilly” for people of color and women. We could not find white male role models who dared to mentor us. There were no Scott Franklins, James Halls, or Christopher Collisons who understood microaggressions and unconscious bias. At that time, I did not have allies like them that I could seek out for advice. In fact, I was part of an “underground network of women who dared not to acknowledge each other’s presence at social gatherings by the dean, who required ALL faculty to attend his gatherings. His administrative assistant would check your name off the guest list as you arrived. The secret network of women was facilitated by Dr. Kathern Chen. We never spoke to each other at these gatherings nor acknowledged each other’s presence. Instead, after the gatherings or faculty meetings, we would call each other and meet at her home to exchange information we were able to hear. She sought to help us understand how to navigate through the “old white boys’ network.” She was my mentor, although, she was not in my discipline.”
Crawford says the sense of “isolation” was not new to her. Her experiences as a youth in Alabama prepared her for it. She was part of the civil rights movement, one of the first Black students to integrate Charles Henderson High School in the 1960’s.
“Every day, I was told or shown by students, teachers, and administrators that I was neither welcomed nor wanted. We were the first students of King’s dream - one America. Integration was the struggle to make room for everyone in the institutions of a society that offered Blacks no place. Most of the nation focused on the tales of the Little Rock Nine or Ruby Bridges, but many Black youths outside the headlines faced the dangers of white backlash. In the cafeteria, it was not usual for some white guy to ask a boy in front of me, if he could “cut the line.” That meant he got served in front of me. I ate alone day after day. Once a large ball of bubble gum hit my table. Of course, I always stayed calm and silent. School officials wanted us Blacks to raise a voice, start a row, or push back. The one with the most intelligence knows how to walk away from a fight. If I gave in to the impulse, I would be sent home or expelled. School officials were alert to see African Americans as trouble. They made it clear; we were a disturbance of the “peace” that existed in their one-time, white-only world.”
She adds, “That line-jump slight in the cafeteria was a not-so-subtle signal that I did not exist. No one turned to ask whether I might mind. The assumption was that I could not mind, because I did not matter. Every day, most teachers made it clear that I was invisible. No one called on me or asked whether I understood what was taught.”
Crawford says she was “doubly oppressed, discriminated against because of race and gender.” There was no Women’s Rights Movement underway and none of the white female students reached out to her in support.
She says, “Sadly, my worst humiliations with women were in gym class.” She adds, “The physical education teacher was the most racist. She resented me and took the opportunity to tell me that I had no business being at Henderson High.”
After high school, Crawford chose to attend the private historically Black Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi. It is a college steeped in strong social commitment to freedom, equality, and justice. Students were at the forefront of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s and 70’s. Crawford was too.
She says, “I had the opportunity to grow in ways I could never imagine. I was introduced to Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown. I worked on voter registration.”
And then came an incident about 15 miles from Tougaloo. The Jackson State Killings. On May 15, 1970, police officers killed two students outside a campus dormitory, several other students were wounded. When Crawford heard that news, she, and others left their school—without permission—and headed there to show “solidarity.” She participated in the Jackson State Riots that followed and calls it a “turning point.”
She says, “I slept with other activists on the streets that night until the Mississippi National Guard arrived to disperse us. We made it back to the bus and drove about fifteen miles from Hinds County back to the campus. The Klan trailed us, which is no idle threat in Mississippi. The saga dramatized in the film Mississippi Burning still haunts many people. At that time, the Freedom Summer murders of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, was more than a caution. We were also college students. We also worked for civil rights. Once we passed Tougaloo’s iron entry gate, we felt the Klan would not dare come on campus.”
Crawford says that was the beginning of her work spanning across campus activism and institutionalized racism. She graduated from Tougaloo in 1970 with a degree in sociology. She earned a master’s in social work from Atlanta University, and later her Doctor of Education from the University of Rochester.
She arrived on the RIT campus in 1973.
She says,” Those months and my college years prepared me for the racism, discrimination and microaggressions I later experienced as a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. Early in my career, a 17-year-old white male student, challenged the grade that I gave him on a paper. I sat down with him and went through the paper paragraph by paragraph, explaining to him the lack of clarity in his writing, content, organization, grammar, etc. He was not convinced that I knew more than he did. He consistently challenged me and eventually took his argument to the Institute Committee of Academic Conduct. The name might not be the same. I looked at his paper again and could not figure out why this 17-year-old believed a “D” paper was a “B” paper.
At the hearing, he stated his position, and I stated my position that the paper was a “D” paper. At the hearing, all committee members voted unanimously in my favor and the hearing was over. Later that week, the chair of the committee sent me in writing the committee’s decision and all the documentation submitted by each of us. I notice that the first time the student reached out to my chair, my chair immediately recommended that he take his complaint to the Deans’ office. Throughout the threads, the student was given advice by my chair, and even helped him write his complaint. I was not surprised; my chair coached the student throughout the process and the chair of the committee wanted me to know this.
Secondly, several years later, I decided to submit my portfolio for promotion to Professor. Two of my white male colleagues who were on the Promotions Committee came to me and said they would not support my candidacy for promotion. I asked why, when one of them did not have his doctorate and both were in the same rank as me, and they informed me that they did not think that I was ready. They also informed me, if I withdrew my candidacy, I would not have a record that I went up for promotion and was denied.
I looked at the two of them, and I thought about how I was helpless when the sons of the Ku Klux Kan got in front of me at the white high school to cut line, and this time, I decided to live up to the meaning of the name Kijana, which is “warrior” and I fought back. I said I will not withdraw my candidacy.” At that point, I recalled my experience at Charles Henderson High, I recalled the lack of support that I did not receive and the “fight” in me emerged. I took power that day. I investigated my colleagues’ faces and felt empowered. I asked why I would be denied promotion. They only answered, “they” did not think I was ready. I refused to withdraw my candidacy for promotion. My portfolio went to the RIT president and the Institute Committee on Promotions. I was denied.
I was turned down for promotion despite my qualification. I never gave up and smiled when I got the final decision. Those who made the decisions back then were allowed to subjectively declare, “You are not ready.” There was no specific reason. Nonetheless, the Institute finally established guidelines that were published, and those guidelines did not include colleagues who held the same rank as me, deciding if I am ready for promotion.”
Crawford continued to publish and conduct research on mentoring Black people, women and other marginal populations and she presented that research at national and international conferences. Her work drew a circle of support from other women at RIT, support she did not get in high school.
Crawford says, “Those activities drew the attention of a group of white female colleagues who were interested in applying for a National Science Foundation Advance Grant. Margaret Bailey reached out to me and asked me to be on the Advance Team. Under her leadership, we were funded more than $3 million dollars, at that time, this was the highest award ever granted RIT from NSF. Susan Foster, Carol Marchetti, Sharon Mason, Maureen Valentine, Betsy Dell, dt. ogilvie, Uli Linke, Christine Kray and Dr. Rebecca Johnson, all have given me advice and have mentored me over the years. The Advance Grant allowed women on RIT’s campus to have the audacity to mentor women faculty openly.”
Crawford adds, “The next time, I was more than ready to submit a promotion portfolio. I had more publications and a major funding grant. I exceeded the qualifications. The point I want to make here, I was overqualified for the rank of Professor. I got promoted. I kept my eyes on the prize.”
During her 50 years at RIT, Crawford has numerous awards and accomplishments to point to. She is a leader and a mentor. She has been instrumental in seeking ways to increase and retain AALANA faculty at RIT with the formation of the AALANA Faculty Advisory Council (AFAC) and allofus@ RIT Connectivity Series. She also created the courses African American Culture, Women, Work and Culture and Minority Group Relations. She remained focused as well on students.
She says, “In my Minority Relations class and African American Culture class, I always included a unit on food as a cultural expression that reflected their cultural heritage. Students would either prepare dishes or I would write a grant to get the food catered for the African American Culture class. It was a way of bringing us together and highlighting food as a cultural expression.”
What does life look like for Crawford after RIT?
She says, “After RIT, I will return to Alabama and continue to become politically active. Organizations like Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, The Greater Huntsville, Alabama Chapter of the Links, Inc and Jack and Jill of America Associates of Huntsville will help pave the way for me. I will become a registered voter in Alabama, my vote there is needed more than in New York.”
She’ll continue to keep her eyes on the prize.
Fun Facts
Best spot on the RIT campus?
The best spot-on campus houses the cleanest bathroom on campus. I will not tell you where it is located, for fear of it now being out of order. There is a restroom on campus that is ALWAYS clean and ALWAYS smells fresh.
How would your high school or college friends have described you at that time?
My African American high school friends would describe me as “giving and kindhearted.” Both of my parents were educators, and we had means. I would give food out of my parent’s freezer to help my classmates eat.
You once shared that you raise chickens. Do you continue to do so? Why do you do it?
I no longer raise chickens. I raised them to eat eggs that were organic and cage free.
Best advice you’ve received or advice that you rely on?
The best advice I ever received as a parent was from Rita Augustine, she sponsored me into Jack and Jill, Inc. “You work with what you get.”