Calvin L. Hicks is an African-American journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, activist, editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

, and music educator.

Life

He wrote for the Boston Chronicle, while still in high school.

He graduated from Drake University

Drake University

Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....

. After writing for the Baltimore Afro-American

Baltimore Afro-American

The Baltimore Afro-American, commonly known as The Afro, is a weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is the flagship newspaper of the Afro-American chain and the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States.-History:The newspaper was founded in...

newspaper, he moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.
He founded the On Guard Committee for Freedom, which included Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...

, Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...

, A.B. Spellman and Walter Bowe.
He was executive director of the Monroe Defense Committee in support of Robert F. Williams

Robert F. Williams

Robert Franklin Williams was a civil rights leader, the president of the Monroe, North Carolina NAACP chapter in the 1950s and early 1960s, and author. At a time when racial tension was high and official abuses were rampant, Williams was a key figure in promoting both integration and armed black...

, and was active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee

Fair Play for Cuba Committee

The Fair Play for Cuba Committee was an activist group set up in New York in April 1960. The FPCC's purpose was to provide grassroots support for the Cuban Revolution against attacks by the United States government, once Fidel Castro began openly admitting his commitment to Marxism and began the...

.
He was one of the founders of Umbra Magazine, with poet and writer Tom Dent. He was also a member of the Harlem Writers Guild, and active in the Black Arts Movement

Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka...

.
As a freelance writer, his articles appeared in Freedomways, New Challenge, New York Age.

He also worked as an instructor at Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...

, Richmond College n/k/a College of Staten Island and City College of New York

City College of New York

The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

.
Beginning in 1969, he taught at Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

, and then at Goddard College

Goddard College

Goddard College is a private, liberal arts college located in Plainfield, Vermont, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Goddard College currently operates on an intensive low-residency model...

, Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, and at Roxbury Community College

Roxbury Community College

Roxbury Community College is a community college in the Roxbury Crossing neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. RCC offers associate degrees in arts, and sciences, as well as certificates...

.
He was a co-founder of the Black Educators Roundtable in Boston.
From 1974 to 1975, he was a graduate fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

.
In 1984, he graduated from Cambridge College

Cambridge College

Cambridge College is a private, non-profit college based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in adult education.It offers distance learning and blended learning programs toward undergraduate and graduate degrees in education, counseling, psychology, management, health care management, and...

 with a master's degree in the philosophy of education.
He was a member of the liberal arts faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music

New England Conservatory of Music

The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...

.
He is also a faculty member at the Longy School of Music

Longy School of Music

The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...

.

Awards

• Distinguished Achievement in Education Award (Boston Orchestra and Chorale, 1998)
• the Distinguished Service Award, Dean of Arts and Sciences (Roxbury Community College, 1990)
• Greater Boston Gospel Academy Award (Roxbury Community Presbyterian Church, 1995)
• Millennium Award (Boston Orchestra and Chorale, 2001)
• Gospel in Majesty Award (Tri-ad Veterans League, Inc. and Magnolia Society, 2002)
• African Americans Making History Today: Bearers of the Flame/Passing the Torch Award (The Students of the Boston Renaissance Charter School, 2003)
• Community Fellows and Reflective Practice Alumni Award 2006, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
• Anna Bobbit Gardner/Coretta Scott King Lifetime Achievement Award 2005

External links