Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Mark Hanna Watkins

Dr. Mark Hanna Watkins (Source: Association of Black Anthropologists)

 

Mark Hanna Watkins is credited with being the first of many accomplishments, but it is the fact that he was the first African American linguist to earn his Ph.D. in anthropological linguistics that secured his place on the blog.  This is a noteworthy feat, but it pales in comparison to the greater achievements he went on to undertake in his lifetime.  This blog post will detail his lifetime achievements, demonstrating why he is considered one of the greatest and most influential linguistic and anthropological scholars to this day.

 

Watkins was born on November 23, 1903, in Huntsville, Texas.  He was the last of 14 children born to a Baptist minister father and homemaker mother.  It was his father’s position in the Baptist church that afforded his family various opportunities that they would otherwise not have access to.  It appears that Watkins capitalized on these opportunities in various ways, leading him to complete his bachelor’s in education at Prairie View State College in 1926. 

 

A few short years later in 1929, however, Watkins relocated from Texas to Chicago, Illinois, where he enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Master’s program in anthropology.  It is unclear what led him to pursue this field of study, although there is evidence that he was involved in some anthropological work in his undergraduate, which may have piqued his interest.  While he attended an all-Black school for his undergraduate degree, which was standard at that time due to educational segregation laws, Watkins’ entrance into the University of Chicago was an exception due to his race and the status of the school, which enrolled White students.  This choice, however, was significant for Watkins’ education and subsequent career. 

 

While at the University of Chicago he had the opportunity to study and work with several influential linguistic anthropologists, including Manuel J. Andrade, Leonard Bloomfield, and Edward Sapir.  He completed both his Masters and Ph.D. in linguistic anthropology at the University of Chicago, the latter of which was funded through various prestigious and difficult to acquire fellowships and grants.  It was also his doctoral work that led to a paradigm shift in American linguistic anthropology.  At that time it was standard practice that linguists study American Indian languages, but various circumstances led Watkins to take a different route.  Instead, he studied the African language, Chichewa, and published the first and only reference grammar text on the language.  This text remains a standard for linguists studying African languages, as well as cemented Watkins the title of being one of the founders of modern American linguistics.

 

Upon completing his dissertation Watkins took a job at the Municipal College for Negros in Louisville, Kentucky (today known as the Louisville Municipal College).  He was quickly recruited to work at Fisk University, where he went on to establish the first African Studies program in the United States.  He also advocated for the establishment of anthropology departments and programs at Black Colleges and Universities across the United States, which he was successful in accomplishing at several schools.  In 1947 he left Fisk to take a position at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he established an exchange program between American and African students in 1954.  He eventually retired from Howard University.

 

Outside of his academic pursuits Watkins was also employed by the United States government on several linguistic projects.  This led him to expand his research agenda from African and American Indian languages (the latter of which he studied for his master’s research) to Afro-Caribbean and African American languages and dialects.  He authored several government reports, as well as maintained a rigorous academic publishing record at the same time.  He remained committed to research until his dying day, reportedly dictating to his wife the revisions he wanted to see in his final publication, Setswana Phonemics: Sefokeng Dialect. 

 

Mark Hanna Watkins’ lifetime of achievements are incredible and numerous.  He achieved so much in a day and age where opportunities for Blacks were limited, if available at all.  It was his drive and personal commitment that drove his success, making him an inspiration to all those who hope to achieve even a little of what he accomplished over his lifetime.

 

Works Cited

Blatz, C. (2021, February 16). Mark Hanna Watkins. Retrieved from Medium: https://medium.com/representations/mark-hanna-watkins-1161d70a06de

Spears, A. K. (2022). This Month in Linguistic History: Tribute to Mark Hanna Watkins. Retrieved from Linguistic Society of America: https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/month-linguistics-history-tribute-mark-hanna-watkins

Wade-Lewis, M. (2005). 7. Mark Hanna Watkins: African American Linguistic Anthropologist. Histories of Anthropology Annual, 181-218.