James Small - Transformational Speaker & Consultant
Professor James Small was born in 1945, on Arcadia plantation, located on the
banks of the Waccamaw River. This Lowland rice plantation is located where the
Waccamaw, Peedee, and Black Rivers converge to meet the Atlantic Ocean, on the
shores of historic Georgetown, South Carolina. Prof. Small was born to a family
that traces their descent from enslaved Africans, to the Yoruba, Akan, and Ewe people of West Africa. Prof. Small's heritage also stems
from the Native American ancestors that inhabited these South Carolinian shores.
Both his maternal great-grandmother and his paternal great-grandmother were
members of the Chicora Nation, and made their home along the mighty Waccamaw
River.
Prof. Small graduated from the all Black Howard High School in Georgetown, South
Carolina in 1964. He then served in the U.S. Navy for two years during the
Vietnam era. Upon his release from military service, Prof. Small moved to New
York City where he joined the organization of Afro-American Unity founded by the
legendary Malcolm X. In 1967, Prof. Small became Imam (minister) of the Muslim Mosque Incorporated, also founded by Malcolm X. In 1975
Prof. Small traveled to the Holy City of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to make his holy
pilgrimage, the Hajjah.
For eleven years Prof. Small served as principal bodyguard to the late Ella L.
Collins, the sister of Malcolm X, the then President of the Organization of
Afro-American Unity (O.A.A.U.) Between the years of 1966 and 1980, Prof. Small
held membership in the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (S.N.C.C.),
the N.A.A.C.P, Uhuru fighters and O.A.A.U. During this period Prof. Small had
the opportunity to interact with such historical giants as Congressman Adam
Clayton Powell Jr., Kwame Ture, H. Rap Brown of S.N.C.C, Eldridge Cleaver, Zaid
Shakur, and Lumumba Shakur of the Black Panther Party (B.P.P.) in which he
served as a liaison between the B.P.P. and the O.A.A.U.
Prof. Small has been a member of the Association for the Study of Classical
African Civilization (A.S.C.A.C.) for 14 years. He served as President of
A.S.C.A.C. Eastern Region for two years, where he worked and studied with Dr.
John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Yosef A. A. ben
Jochannan, Dr. Leonard
Jeffries, Dr.
Ivan Van Sertima, Dr. Asa
Hilliard, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Amos Wilson and
Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, just to name a few.
Prof. Small taught for fifteen years at the City University of New York,
including 13 years at the City College of New York's Black Studies Department
and two years at New York City Technical College. Prof. Small has taught courses
on Malcolm X, Traditional African Religion (Prof. Small is a priest in the
Yoruba religion), Pan Africanism, Crime in the Urban Community, Urban Crisis and
Issues, and African Folklore. Prof. Small has also appeared on a number of
network talk shows and newsmagazines. These include the Phil Donahue Show, The
Rolanda Watts Show, The Geraldo Rivera Show, Matt Lauer Nine Broadcast Plaza
Show, The Charlie Rose Show, Tony
Brown's Journal, Like it Is with Gil Noble as well as numerous cable programs
and local, national and international television and radio shows.
Prof. Small has lectured at some of the most prestigious colleges and
universities in the world. Among the many colleges and universities where Prof.
Small has lectured at are the University of Manchester, Manchester England.
University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, V.I. University of the West Indies Porte-Spain, Trinidad; University of West Indies; Kingston
Jamaica, Princeton University Princeton, N.J., Harvard University Boston, Mass.,
Yale University, New Haven, Conn., Columbia University and New York University
of New York, N.Y. to mention a few.
Prof. Small is currently conducting educational and cultural tours throughout
Africa and the United States and he is also working on two books, one a
collection of his lectures on Malcolm X and the other on the topic of "Post
Slavery Trauma Syndrome."