Willie Page

Background

Willie F. Page was born on January 2, 1929, in Dothan, Alabama, United States.

Education

Willie Page earned a Bachelor of Science from Wayne State University in 1961; a Master of Business Administration from Adelphi University in 1970; a Doctor of Philosophy from New York University in 1975.

Career

In 1961-1963, Willie Page worked as an engineer at Boeing Corporation in Seattle. In 1967-1970, he was an assistant to the director of production at Grumman Aerospace. In 1971-1972, he was a director and lecturer at Glen Cove Cooperative College Center of the State University of New York. In 1972-1974, Page was an executive director of CHES in Nassau Country and Suffolk Country. He became an associate professor at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1974. There, Page was a chairman of the Department of Africana Studies in 1974-1979. He worked as a consultant to the Head Start Regional Training Center, New York, in 1975-1979; to the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1977-1978, and the New York State Department of Education in 1977-1979.

Willie Page is the author of The Dutch Triangle: The Netherlands and the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1621-1664, his updated 1975 thesis. Page studies European rivalries for dominance of West Africa, the creation of the West India Company in 1621 and how it first became involved in the slave trade in 1636, the control of territories on both sides of the Atlantic, the suffering of black slaves and Native Americans, and the fate and struggles of Africans in the colonies. The first chapter covers the early history of the Netherlands before 1621, and the second discusses Dutch and Portuguese activities in West and West-Central Africa. Dutch control of Brazil is discussed in the third chapter, along with the colonization of Guiana and the origins of the slave colonies on Curacao and Bonaire. The final two chapters are devoted to New Netherland, as New York knew from 1609 to 1664.

Page's three-volume Encyclopedia of African History and Culture covers three periods. The first volume, Ancient Africa, covers prehistory to 500 C.E., including the histories and cultures of the Egyptian, Nubian, Bantu, and San peoples, as well as archaeology, legends and myths, and religions. The second volume, titled African Kingdoms, looks at the medieval period from 500 to 1500 C.E., the spread of Islam, the Bantu migration, the development of states, and the expansion of trade. In the third volume, From Conquest to Colonization, Page covers the tumultuous period from 1500 to 1850 C.E., a time that saw civil wars, exchanges of power, the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, and a surge in European exploration and colonization. Within each volume, entries are arranged alphabetically, and each includes a timeline, glossary, and index.

Achievements

• Willie Page is a recipient of fellowships from New York University, 1973, Fund Atlanta, 1975, and National Endowment for the Humanities, 1978. He eaned Henry Messner Research Award from the New York University in 1975.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Encyclopedia Of African History And Culture

    (An encyclopedia on African history with broad cultural an...)

    2001

Membership

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  Phi Delta Kappa , United States