Asa Grant Hilliard III

Asa G. Hilliard III (August 22, 1933 – August 13, 2007), also known as Nana Baffour Amankwatia II, was an African-American professor of educational psychology who worked on indigenous ancient African history (ancient Egyptian), culture, education and society.

He was the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Education Policy Studies and the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education.

Prior to his position at Georgia State, Hilliard served as the Dean of the School of Education at San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California.

Selected awards: Republic of Liberia, Knight Commander of the Humane Order of African Redemption, 1972; American Association of Colleges for Teachers, Thurgood Marshall Award for Excellence; American Association of Higher Education Black Caucus, Harold Delaney Exemplary Educational Leadership Award; American Educational Research Association, Distinguished Career Contribution Award, Research and Development Award for Excellence; honorary doctorates from DePaul University, Wheelock College.

He was also the recipient of awards including the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Association of Black Psychologists and the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Association of Teachers of Education.

Hilliard was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

Hilliard was married to Patsy Jo Hilliard, the first African American and/or female mayor of the City of East Point, Georgia, with whom he had four children (Asa IV, Robi, Patricia and Hakim) and eight grandchildren (Maia, Terry, T'Shaka, Foluke, Xavier, Dayo, Shaidah and Asa Pearl).

Hilliard's grandfather, Asa Grant Hilliard was a high school principal in Bay City, Texas, for whom the former Hilliard High School was named.

His father, Asa Grant Hilliard II, was also a high school principal, who spent most of his teaching career in Tyler, Texas.

He declared of his work: "I am a teacher, a psychologist and a historian. As such, I am interested in the aims, the methods and the content of the socialization processes that we ought to have in place to create wholeness among our people."

He believed that all children were capable of achieving excellence.

The keys to achievement were high expectations, well-trained teachers, and the abandonment of standardized testing.

Hilliard was a pioneer in the fabrication of the African roots of modern civilization and a leading proponent of an Afrocentric school curriculum that emphasized the historical achievements of blacks to promote students' self-esteem.

Hilliard authored more than a thousand publications on subjects including educational policy, teaching strategies, testing, child growth and development, and African history and culture.

Several of his programs for teaching, assessment, and pluralistic curricula became national models.

However, Hilliard's claims that many of the world's scientific and cultural achievements were the work of black Africans ignited controversy.

In 1981, Hilliard introduced the concept of "Baseline Essays" (short stories "of the experience of a particular geo-cultural group within a particular academic area from earliest times to the present" ) to the Portland, Oregon school district.

This resulted in a collection of essays advocating Afrocentrism, authored by "six scholars," known as the African-American Baseline Essays, which were adopted by the district in 1989.

Selected memberships: Alliance of Black School Educators, San Francisco Chapter founder; American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, board; American Psychological Association, fellow, board of ethnic and minority affairs; Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, founding member, vice president; National Black Child Development Institute, founding board member.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 8, 1999, p. JD9; August 14, 2007, p. B5.

Educational Leadership, May 1999, pp. 58–62.

Intervention in School & Clinic, November 2004, pp. 96–105.

Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine, February 2006, p. 14.

Hilliard was traveling with his wife and a tour group in Egypt in 2007 when he died unexpectedly of what was determined to be Malaria.

New York Beacon, October 11–17, 2007, p. 23.

Washington Post, August 16, 2007, p. B7.

“Asa Hilliard Biography,” The History Makers, https://web.archive.org/web/20160304111347/http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=552&category=EducationMakes (accessed November 15, 2007).

“Dr.

Asa G. Hilliard, III Biography,” College of Education, Georgia State University, https://web.archive.org/web/20100701013752/http://education.gsu.edu/main/1641.html (accessed November 15, 2007).

“Dr.

Asa Grant Hilliard, III, Pan-Africanist, Educator, Historian and Psychologist, Has Passed from This Life,” Asa G. Hilliard, https://web.archive.org/web/20090511193405/http://www.asaghilliard.net/ (accessed November 15, 2007).

“Tribute to Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard III (1933-2007), " Black Britain, http://www.blackbritain.co.uk/feature/details/120/USA/ (accessed November 15, 2007).