On October 26, Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy became the first black professor at Centenary College in Louisiana to receive tenure in the school’s 196 years.
Despite the news being an excellent achievement for Augustin-Billy, an associate professor of French and Francophone studies, she feels it highlights the racist beginnings of Louisiana’s first college.
“Why has it taken so long? Why is it that Black academics, especially Black women, are underrepresented in American classrooms?” Augustin-Billy asked, according to KSLA. “Why is it that Centenary has taken 196 years, almost two centuries to tenure its first Black faculty member?”
“I was like, ‘oh my gosh, this is like a tangible document; this is something that is going to remain. This is a historical fact,’” she said.
The American Association of University Professors reported that less than 3 percent of full-time tenured or tenure-track employees are Black women.
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“I think we’re missing out a lot by not having a wide range of teaching voices. It makes education so much richer, so much fuller, so much rounder,” Augustin-Billy said.
According to the Associated Press, the award-winning professor who goes by “Dr. A-B” is a teacher of African and Caribbean literature, as well as postcolonial, women, gender, and sexuality studies.
Augustin-Billy began teaching at the school in 2015. She was raised in Haiti with missionary parents and led mission class trips there and to Paris.
As of now, only 18 percent of Centenary College’s student population is Black. A spokeswoman for the school, Kate Pedrotty, told the outlet that of the 54 full-time faculty members on campus, only two faculty members are Black.
The professor is set to be honored at a ceremony by the school on Thursday and was already commemorated on October 26 by the Shreveport City Council in Louisiana for making history.
