“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.” -W. E. B. Du Bois
- Panelist for National Research Council Evaluation of Ford Fellowships
- Council of International Exchange of Scholars Review Committee for Fulbright Scholar Awards in American Literature
- Reviewer for National Endowment for the Humanities Media Program Proposals
- Reviewer for National Endowment for the Humanities Research Grant Proposals
- Panelist for National Endowment for the Humanities Research Grant Proposals
- National Endowment for the Humanities Black Biography Planning Conference
- Systems Development Corporation
- Springfield Public Schools, Massachusetts
- Board of Advisory Editors, African American Review (formerly Black American Literature Forum),
- Board of Editorial Review, MELUS
- Board of Advisors, Norton Anthology of Afro-American Literature
- Harvard University, Afro-American Studies Department
- Howard University Press
- University of North Carolina Press
- Oxford University Press
- University of Massachusetts
- Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
- G. K. Hall
- McGraw-Hill, Inc.