Name Calvin Hicks | ||
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Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology | ||
Calvin hicks memorial
Calvin L. Hicks (August 18, 1933 - August 25, 2013) was an African-American journalist, activist, editor, and music educator. He died in New York.
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Life
Born in Boston, Hicks wrote for the Boston Chronicle while still in high school. He graduated from Drake University. After writing for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, he moved to New York City. He founded the On Guard Committee for Freedom, which included Amiri Baraka, Archie Shepp, A. B. Spellman and Walter Bowe. [No, he was associated with the founder, Sarah E. Wright (my late wife - and I have the original newspaper she edited called On Guard). In typical male chauvinist fashion, Sarah E. Wright was by-passed and her contribution as founder ignored. Hicks was executive director of the Monroe Defense Committee in support of Robert F. Williams, and was active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He was one of the founders of Umbra Magazine, with poet and writer Tom Dent. Hicks was also a member of the Harlem Writers Guild, and active in the Black Arts Movement, where he is considered to have been one of the primary players. As a freelance writer, his articles appeared in Freedomways, New Challenge, New York Age.
He worked as an instructor at Brooklyn College, Richmond College (now known as College of Staten Island) and City College of New York. Beginning in 1969, he taught at Brandeis University, and then at Goddard College, Brown University, and at Roxbury Community College. He was a co-founder of the Black Educators Roundtable in Boston. From 1974 to 1975, he was a graduate fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1984, he graduated from Cambridge College with a master's degree in the philosophy of education. He was a member of the liberal arts faculty and administration at the New England Conservatory of Music from 1992 to 2008. He is also a faculty member at the Longy School of Music.