Geneva Smitherman

Geneva Smitherman is a University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English and co-founder of the African American and African Studies doctoral program at Michigan State University. Smitherman co-founded the first public African-centered elementary school in the country Malcolm X Academy within the Detroit Public Schools. and earned a B.A. and M.A. in English and Latin from Wayne State University and a PhD in English, with a specialization in sociolinguistics and education, from the University of Michigan.

Professional accomplishments In 1971, she was among the original faculty members of Harvard University's “Afro-American Studies”. A key claim in the Ann Arbor Decision recognized Black English as a language and established that the Ann Arbor School District violated federal statutory law because it failed to take into account this home language in the provision of education. The judge ordered the school district to find a way to identify Black English speakers in the schools and to "use that knowledge in teaching such students how to read standard English".

Smitherman’s book, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America, published in 1977 by Wayne State University Press in Detroit, Michigan, contributed to shifting public and academic perspectives towards the value of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). This work has been widely referenced by teachers, legal scholars, sociologists, and policy analysts.

In 1991, Smitherman, Clifford Watson, and many Detroit parents established the Malcolm X Academy, an African-centered, predominantly male, Pre-K-8 school within the Detroit Public Schools. It was the first public African-centered elementary school in the country. \

Publications Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1977, 1986) Discourse and Discrimination, (co-editor with Teun A. van Dijk) (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1988) Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner (Houghton Mifflin, 1994, 2000) "The Chain Remain the Same": Communicative Practices in the Hip Hop Nation," Journal of Black Studies, 28.1 (Sep., 1997), pp. 3-25. "CCCC’s Role in the Struggle for Language Rights," College Composition and Communication (February 1999) Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America (Routledge, 2000) "Language and Democracy in the United States of America and South Africa," in Language and Institutions in Africa (eds., Sinfree Makoni and Nkonko Kamwangamalu, 2001) Black Linguistics: Language, Society, and Politics in Africa and the Americas (co-editor with Arnetha Ball, Sinfree Makoni, and Arthur K Spears, 2003) Language Diversity in the Classroom: From Intention to Practice (co-editor with Victor Villanueva, 2003) Word from the Mother: Language and African Americans (Routledge, 2006) Articulate While Black: Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S. (co-author with H. Samy Alim, Oxford University Press, 2012) My Soul Look Back in Wonder: Memories from a Life of Study, Struggle, and Doin Battle in the Language Wars (Routledge, 2022)