Richard A. Long

Richard A. Long (February 9, 1927 – January 3, 2013) was an American cultural historian and author, who has been called "one of the great pillars of African-American arts and culture". As an academic, he taught at University of Pennsylvania, University of Paris, University of Poitiers, Atlanta University, Emory University, Morgan State College and West Virginia State College, and had worked as a visiting lecturer at universities in Africa and India.

Early life and education Richard Alexander Long was the fourth of six children born to Thaddeus B. Long and Leila Washington in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Temple University, where he received his B.A. in 1947 and M.A. in 1948. At Hampton in 1968 he founded the Triennial Symposium on African Art, now an annual conference at Atlanta University's Center for African and African American Studies. From 1971 to 1973 he was visiting lecturer at Harvard University.

In 1973, he began a long and distinguished tenure at Emory University. In 1987, he was named the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts. In 2001, he retired from the Emory faculty and received emeritus status.

Long served as a consultant and as a committee member of many cultural organizations and institutions, including the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities,

Writings Long began his literary career in 1985 with Black Americana, and later published books such as The Black Tradition in American Dance (1989), African Americans: A Portrait (1993), Grown Deep: Essays on the Harlem Renaissance (1998) and One More Time: Harlem Renaissance History and Historicism (2007). He was co-author with Marcia Ann Gillespie and Rosa Johnson Butler of Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration (2008).

His papers are deposited at the Atlanta Fulton Public Library's Auburn Avenue Research Library.

Art collection Long maintained a notable art collection that included works by Amalia Amaki, In October 2014, pieces of his collection were deaccessioned by his estate and auctioned at Swann Galleries.

Selected bibliography

Black Americana, 1985 The Black Tradition in American Dance, Rizzoli, 1989 African Americans: A Portrait, 1993 Grown Deep: Essays on the Harlem Renaissance, 1998 One More Time: Harlem Renaissance History and Historicism, 2007 With Marcia Ann Gillespie and Rosa Johnson Butler, Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration, 2008