CONGRATULATORY Listings

* Purple font connotes Episcopal Family; Red font , General Officers; and Blue font , Connectional Officers.

Amid Larger Push Toward Diversity, College Of Charleston Quietly Makes Key Hire - John Thomas III, Ph.D., Editor, The Christian Recorder

As does the city in which it resides, the College of Charleston has a long, complex, and troubled history.

Given the city of Charleston’s prominent role in the international slave trade and the magnitude of which enslaved labor shaped and influenced nearly every facet and institution in the Holy City, it is no surprise that slavery also helped form the city’s 250-year-old institution, an uncomfortable truth the college has increasingly recognized.

The school’s ongoing struggle over racial tensions bubbled up over the years, noticeably in 2014 amid the hiring of former Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell as the school’s president. Many opposed the hiring, mainly because of McConnell’s support for the Confederate flag. Yet, it appears now that the school is pushing toward reckoning with its past, some ways in which are more obvious and direct. In 2020, President Andrew Hsu announced a 10-year strategic plan that included requiring, among other things, mandatory diversity education for staff and a commitment to recruit more minority students.

This month, the college is celebrating Black History Month with a wide range of programs and events focusing on the accomplishments and struggles of African Americans. The programs include a film screening of “If These Walls Could Talk,” which brings attention to the labor and ingenuity of enslaved Africans who were tasked with building the first municipal college in the United States.

And then there’s continued success of the school’s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, which just landed a $2 million grant to increase staff, enhance collection archives, create a fellowship program, and more.

But even amid the school’s more noticeable strides toward a more inclusive future, the hiring of the Department of Political Science’s first African American male, tenure-track professor is the latest, lesser-known display of the school’s strides toward diversity.

Without much fanfare or a major announcement, the school last semester hired John Thomas, whose research interests include comparative race politics, social movements, democratic consolidation, minority rights, and public policy with a regional focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Thomas, whose dissertation at the University of Chicago examined the evolution of the social movements of black activists in Peru and Ecuador from 1980 to 2016, also has religious affiliation. He serves as the editor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Christian Recorder, an inhouse publication serving a denomination that has been among the most influential institutions in the lives of blacks in Charleston.

Several AME clergy and college staff celebrated the new hire by conducting on Jan. 31 a ceremonial blessing of Thomas’ new office, decorated by books about Latin American social movements and black political thought, alongside numerous artifacts and mementos that honor black and brown cultures.

The Rev. Norvell Goff, presiding elder of the AME Church’s Edisto District, during the ceremony appeared pleasantly surprised by the college’s push toward inclusion. Goff said he was unaware of the school’s seriousness about hiring minority professors and urged the school to keep at it.

“I can be a real witness to the fact that the College of Charleston is moving in the right direction,” Goff said.

Thomas, 41, said he wouldn’t have come to the school if he didn’t feel it was making a genuine effort to change. The Nashville, Tenn., native said he wanted to invite faith leaders to the school Jan. 31 so they could see the progress being made at the college.

“What I can say about the school is I have felt supported, encouraged, and I felt like I belong here,” Thomas said.

Thomas’ arrival is significant because it’s important to professors for students to learn about political systems and events happening in different parts of the world, said Gibbs Knotts, dean of the School Of Humanities And Social Sciences.

Hiring a more diverse staff was discussed as a top concern when the college, along with many other institutions across the nation, had a “racial reckoning” following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, said Hollis France, chair of the Political Science Department.

The college has also discussed the need to diversify course offerings, Hollis said. Thomas’ studies in Afro-Latino social movements help address that need, she said.

Best Lawyer In America List 2022-23 - Attorney Derek E. Bruce Is On The List

Before the cusp of the New Year 2023, Attorney Derek E. Bruce, managerial shareholder, GunsterLaw Firm, Orlando office was cited and named on the Best Lawyers in America List for the last six (6) years: 2018 - 2023.

This award was given for stellar leadership in giving back to the community in mentoring young lawyers, entrepreneurial business, and professional service. Derek is an inspiring and faithful member of the Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church, Orlando, Florida.

In the fall of 1980, his parents, the late Dr. Y. Benjamin and Gloria S. Bruce, became the clergy family of Mt. Olive. His father, Dr. Yale Benjamin Bruce, Sr. became a general officer in African Methodism from that pulpit; executive director of Church Growth and Development, 1985-1992. Mt. Olive continues to be the family’s place of worship. Most professions have publications or guides to help select top-tier employees