'Great scholar, a great leader': Louisville Pan-African professor Robert Douglas dies

Robert Douglas, a Black artist who played an instrumental role in shaping the University of Louisville's Pan-African Studies Department, died late Wednesday. He was 88.

Friends of Douglas say the Louisville native dedicated his life to educating others about the Black experience. And as Black studies continue to face attack nationwide, they said they're mourning the loss of yet another steady voice in the fight for justice and representation.

"Without Bob Douglas, there would be no Pan-African Studies Department as we know it," said U of L professor Ricky Jones, who chairs the department, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. "He was just such a good, committed and loving man."

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Douglas grew up in the Smoketown neighborhood, one of nine children born to a housewife and a railroad laborer, according to a 1999 oral history interview in the U of L Libraries archives.

He dreamed of becoming a magazine illustrator, and after being turned down for several jobs, he enrolled at U of L in 1958 to pursue a fine arts degree.

Soon after, Douglas became a founding member of Gallery Enterprises, a group focused on creating gallery space for Black artists that eventually had a hand in starting Shakespeare in the Park and the St. James Court Art Show, according to a thesis by Wes Cunningham.

"We had these discussions, is there such a thing as Black art?" Douglas said in the 1999 interview, reflecting on that time. "And I was the only one there saying yes, it has to be. ... You deserve the same political opportunities and the same number of opportunities and the same citizenship, but I’m different than other people. And the group is different."

Douglas graduated from U of L in 1963 and held a slew of jobs — including as an organizer with the West End Community Council and an artist at The Courier Journal — before seeking his masters and doctorate in the '70s and '80s, according to the oral history interview.

While teaching African American studies in Athens, Ohio, Douglas was approached to return to U of L as a professor. At the time, every professor had joint appointments in two departments, and Douglas chose Pan-African Studies for his primary role.

"They said Pan-African Studies is dead, all but dead," Douglas said in the 1999 interview. "I said, well, bring it back to life."

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The program, established in 1973, initially focused on African American studies. But Douglas said he argued the university should broaden its scope to Pan-Africanism because "it has to be a world commitment."

Jones said while expanding the program, Douglas hired Blaine Hudson, who became dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences. And Douglas convinced Jones to move to Louisville from Atlanta.

"He wasn't like a father to me, he was a father to me," Jones said Thursday. "... I came here and stayed because of him."

Brandon McCormack, an associate professor in the department, said he first met Douglas as a student in his African American art class.

Douglas was rarely seen without his uniform suit and bowtie. And when McCormack was later hired to work alongside him, the younger professor recalled his elder explicitly advising him to dress like he belonged.

"He said show up, look like a scholar, because he took that seriously," McCormack said. "He understood that his teachers and his professors had always just written Black people out of history. He would tell me all the time, he would say, 'Son, they would tell me we had no history.' Professors in other departments would say there’s nothing to learn there. He was deeply dedicated to correcting that kind of narrative."

U of L employees are currently planning events to celebrate the department's 50th anniversary, and McCormack said they won't be the same without Douglas.

"I just think we're all diminished for having lost Bob Douglas," added Jones, who plans to step down as department chair at the end of the academic year. "We've lost a great scholar, a great leader, a friend and a confidante who just lit the path for us all, whether it was professionally or personally. And it just makes me very, very sad."

Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore at bloosemore@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4646 or on Twitter @bloosemore.