Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers

Jedi Shemsu Jehewty

Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers was a professor of history and education at the Center for Inner City Studies (CICS) of Northeastern Illinois University for thirty-two years.

“Jake from Chicago”, as he was affectionately known,  excelled academically. Following graduation from Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston, Texas, he attended Samuel Houston College in Austin where he earned a bachelor’s degree. After the Sweatt vs. Painter United States Supreme Court decision in 1950, he along with Hemon Marion Sweatt and three other blacks integrated the University of Texas Law School. Jurisprudence, however, was not his calling, and he did not return the following year. In 1951, facing the draft and the Korean War, he volunteered for the United States Air Force. After serving in the Air Force, he enrolled in Texas Southern University where he earned a master’s degree in government.

His passion for learning and a sense of service led him back to the classroom. From ’61 to ’64, Dr. Carruthers taught at Prairie View College in Texas. After earning a doctorate in political science from the University of Colorado at Boulder—the first African American to do so—he taught at Kansas State College in Pittsburg, Kansas for two years. Thereafter, his career led him to Chicago, and in 1968, he joined the faculty of the Department of Inner City Studies Education at CICS.  Serving as a consultant on African-centered education to the Chicago Public Schools and other school systems throughout the United States, Dr. Carruthers was influential in the African-centered education movement. He was a co-founder of the teacher training program, Teaching About Africa. He was also sought after nationally and internationally as a lecturer on African history. In 1981, Dr. Carruthers became the High Priest of the Temple of the African Community of Chicago that was established to meet the spiritual needs of those who sought to practice ancient Nile Valley spirituality. He was a founding member of the Kemetic Institute and The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC) and served as its founding president from 1985-90. In 1995, Dr. Carruthers was initiated into elderhood in a community ritual at which time he took the name Jedi Shemsu Jehewty (the one who speaks is a follower of Jehewty).

Dr. Carruthers established himself through his work with leading African and African American scholars in the world through his leadership in the development of a plan to rewrite African history under the aegis of the African World History Project of ASCAC.

Dr. Carruthers authored several important books that paved the way and provided the framework for the African-centered approach to the research and study of Classical African history and African civilization. His works include: Intellectual Warfare (1999), Mdw Ntr (1995), Essays in Ancient Egyptian Studies (1984), and The Irritated Genie (1985). Other significant works include Science and Oppression (1972) and African or American (1994). He co-edited Reconstructing Kemetic Culture (1990), The African Worldview (1986), and The Preliminary Challenge (1997). Many of his works challenged the prevailing ideas in the field of Egyptology as well as the role of African people in the development of civilization in the ancient Nile Valley.

WORKS BY DR. JACOB HUDSON CARRUTHERS


Carruthers, Jacob H. Science and Oppression. Chicago: Kemetic Institute, 1972.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Futurity and the Black Race in the Western Hemisphere." Black Books Bulletin 4, No. 2 (Summer 1976): 40-43.

Carruthers, Jacob H. Review of Cultural Unity of Black Africa, by Cheikh Anta Diop. In Black Books Bulletin 5, No. 4 (1977): 46-48.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Writing for Eternity." Black Books Bulletin 5, No. 2 (1977): 32-34.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Cheikh Anta Diop: The Man Who Refuses to be Forgotten, Part I." The Black American, 14-20 Jun 1979: 30-31.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Cheikh Anta Diop: The Man Who Refuses to be Forgotten, Part II." The Black American, 21-27 Jun 1979: 30-34.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "African Political Thought: A Question of the Foundation, Part I." The Black American 18, No. 25 (1979): 30-31.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "African Political Thought: A Question of the Foundation, Part II." The Black American 18, No. 26 (1979).

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Reflections on the History of the Afrocentric Worldview." Black Books Bulletin 7, No. 1 (1980): 4-7.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Maat: The African Universe." Journal of Black Studies 1, No. 1 (Summer-Fall 1982): 27-33.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Orientation and Problems in the Redemption of Ancient Egypt." Journal of Black Studies 1, No. 2 (1983).

Carruthers, Jacob H. Essays in Ancient Egyptian Studies. Foreword by Maulana Karenga. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press, 1984.

Carruthers, Jacob H. The Irritated Genie: An Essay on the Haitian Revolution. Chicago: Kemetic Institute, 1985.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "The United Two Lands." Journal of Black Studies (Fall 1985): 40-50.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "A Legend in His Own Time, Diop Put Africa in Proper Perspective." The Final Call, 30 Aug 1986: 26.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "The Wisdom of Governance in KemetRestoration. Edited by Maulana Karenga and Jacob H. Carruthers. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press, 1986: 3-29.

Carruthers, Jacob H. Who Were the Ancient Egyptians? Chicago: Carruthers, 1991.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Outside Academia: Bernal's Critique of Black Champions of Ancient Egypt." Journal of Black Studies 22, No. 4 (1992): 459-76.

Carruthers, Jacob H. African or American: A Question of Intellectual Allegiance. Chicago: Kemetic Institute, 1994.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "Reflections on the Founding of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations." Kemetic Institute 2, No. 4 (1994): 1.

Carruthers, Jacob H. Mdr Ntr: Divine Speech (A Historiographical Reflection on African Deep Thought from the Time of the Pharaohs to the Present). Foreword by John Henrik Clarke. London: Karnak House, 1995.

Carruthers, Jacob H. "The Elder's Staff Tell Our Children: Renew the Instructions of Their Mothers and Fathers." Louisiana Weekly, 14-20 Oct 1996: Page 10, Section A.

Carruthers, Jacob H., Rekhety Wimby, and Roosevelt H. Roberts. Kemetic Name Book. Chicago: Kemetic Institute, 1987.

Carruthers, Jacob H., and Maulana Karenga, eds. Kemet and the African Worldview: Research, Rescue and Restoration. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press, 1986.