I teach political science in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and I am also the Director of the Du Bois Papers Collection. The Du Bois Papers are housed at the University of Massachusetts library, which is named in honor of this prominent African American intellectual and Massachusetts native. A founding member of the independent black think tank, the Institute of the Black World, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, I was a consultant to both series of the prize-winning documentary on the civil rights movement, "Eyes on the Prize," and the senior consultant on the PBS documentary, "Malcolm X: Make It Plain." I also wrote the companion book. Most recently, I was a consultant on the Louis Massiah film on Du Bois, "W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices."