DR. WILLIAM THOMAS VALERIA FONTAINE

William T.V. Fontaine (1909-1968) considered philosophy more than a "strictly academic" field. For him it served as the "foundation for human society." It was his conviction that "all social problems are moral problems, ultimately."

A World War II enlisted veteran, a black man, the grandson of a slave and the second son of thirteen children of a Pennsylvania steelworker, Fontaine was the first African-American to become a fully affiliated professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. Two years after his death, the University established the Fontaine Fellowships in his honor.

Education
In 1930, Fontaine graduated cum laude with a BA from Lincoln University, where he was class president and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He went to graduate school at Harvard University and the universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania. He received his doctorate of philosophy from Penn in 1936. His thesis was on the "Concept of Fortune in Boethius and Giordana Bruno." He joined the Penn faculty as a lecturer in philosophy in 1947 and was promoted to assistant professor two years later. In 1963 he was made an Associate Professor.

Travels
Fontaine's interests and connections stretched beyond the United States. He traveled internationally. In 1959, he attended Pope John XVIII's address to "Negro" intellectuals where they were blessed for their efforts to promote black culture. In 1960, he went to Lagos, Nigeria, where he helped celebrate his fellow classmate, Nnamdi Azikiwe's inauguration as governor general and commander-in-chief of the Federation of Nigeria. Two years later, he represented the executive committee of the American Society of African Culture, of which he was secretary, at a conference on socialism called by Senegal President Leopold Senghor in Dakar.

Excerpts of a Scholar
On Race Relations:
His intellectual endeavors matched his international involvement. In his 1967 book, Reflections on Segregation, Desegregation, Power and Morals, Fontaine sought to "anatomize" segregation, or as he says in the preface: "... bust it down to the bare guts." This intellectual work of over 25 years ago seemed to have anticipated the advent of current day post structuralism, "deconstruction" of racial categories and the exploration of language as a site of dialogics. Fontaine wrote, "'White' and 'Negro' are arbitrary, grading signs, designed to secure and control the interval of advantage."

Fontaine also examined the "etiquette of race relations" by exploring the "discourse" employed in salutations, such as "nigger," "boy," "uncle," and "aunty." Such words, Fontaine maintained, could not be divorced from a system of oppression. They "are double-barreled, performative expressions, commanding the segregated person (1) to be aware of how the ... group considers him, and (2) to adope [sic] the same attitudes toward himself." They are also "expressions of condescension on the part of the white speaker, while 'nigger,' when used by him as a form of address in face to face contact is intended to excite fear, to produce self-contempt, and a train of morbid recollections. When I reflect upon the language of 'race relations', I agree with Aristotle that conterminous address is a form of violence and unjust."

On Demonstrations:
Writing in the 1960's, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the resurgence of black nationalism, Fontaine said in Reflections, that demonstrations have taught Americans, "It is no longer necessary to wait upon impersonal forces of history - world wars and economic depressions - to precipitate crises forcing recognition of the claims of underprivileged peoples. Demonstrations enable the underprivileged themselves to produce historic crises containing, among others, a pervasive, inescapable moral challenge to the whole of society."

On Black Power and White Backlash:
Fontaine's Reflections, while radical in its discussion on race relations and groundbreaking in its demystifying language as a rhetoric of power relations, does have conservative overtones in some passages. Espousing a humanist-idealist perspective, Fontaine criticizes what he considers separatist movements on both sides of the spectrum. He called "black power" a "contrary program" and maintained that SNCC's action toward black power "raises the suspicion that they never understood segregation and desegregation and are just as confused now." He also criticized white sympathizers who left the Civil Rights Movement during increased black- white polarization only to join hands with "backlash segregationists." They "cannot be aware of the consequences of entrusting their governments to racial extremists."

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