Black Philosopher, White Academy: The Career of William Fontaine

by Bruce Kuklick

At a time when almost all African American college students attended black colleges, philosopher William Fontaine was the only black member of the University of Pennsylvania faculty—and quite possibly the only black member of any faculty in the Ivy League. Little is known about Fontaine, but his predicament was common to African American professionals and intellectuals at a critical time in the history of civil rights and race relations in the United States.

Black Philosopher, White Academy is at once a biographical sketch of a man caught up in the issues and the dilemmas of race in the middle of the last century; a portrait of a salient aspect of academic life then; and an intellectual history of a period in African American life and letters, the discipline of philosophy, and the American academy. It is also a meditation on the sources available to a practicing historian and, frustratingly, the sources that are not. Bruce Kuklick stays close to the slim packet of evidence left on Fontaine's life and career but also strains against its limitations to extract the largest possible insights into the life of the elusive Fontaine.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2008

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👏🎉💕🤗December 2, 1909 William Thomas Valerio Fontaine, philosopher and educator, was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. Fontaine earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, first in his class, in 1930 from Lincoln University and his Master of Arts degree in 1932 and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1936 from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught philosophy and history at Southern University from 1936 to 1942 and served in the United States Army during World War II from 1943 to 1945. Fontaine joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1947 and served there until forced to take a medical leave in 1967. He published “Reflections on Segregation, Desegregation, Power, and Morals” in 1967. Fontaine died December 29, 1968. The Fontaine Fellowships were established at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 to provide funds to students from underrepresented minority groups to pursue full-time doctoral study. “Black Philosopher, White Academy: The Career of William Fontaine” was published in 2008.