On Sept. 8, Brooklyn College community and faculty members gathered at the Woody Tanger Auditorium to honor Dr. George Cunningham – A Brooklyn College professor for 48 years and a former chair of the Africana Studies Department.

During the memorial, Cunningham was remembered as a father figure who advocated for his colleagues, offered personal support to students and challenged them intellectually. According to his former students, his lectures extended beyond literature into resistance, responsibility and fighting for freedom.

Cunningham, born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Baltimore, earned a doctorate in American Studies from Yale University. In 1978, he joined Brooklyn College’s Africana Studies Department. Along with his service as Deputy Chair and two terms as Department Chair, Dr. Cunningham co-edited Representing Black Men and co-founded the Black Filmmaker Foundation.

Robert Jones Jr., a former student of Brooklyn College, described Cunningham as one of his first Black male professors during his time in Brooklyn College, that fundamentally changed his life. Professor Cunningham believed reading books was one of the most important things in life. Through his course “Reading Race,” he deepened Jones’s love of literature and taught him to approach reading and writing with a critical eye.

“He gave me a passion for resistance that I’ll forever pass on,” said Jones. According to him, Professor Cunningham also taught his students about civil responsibility, literary gatekeeping and the importance of education. He gave the students a path to run free. “Professor Cunningham was one of the very few people who knew the importance of freedom and to protect it, every hour, every minute, every second.” As he fought back tears at the end of his tribute, Jones described Dr. Cunningham as someone who “had his neck pressed bravely on the blade, daring them to cut.”

Former students described Professor Cunningham as a demanding teacher. Despite all other courses, responsibilities and deadlines, he expected all students to read multiple books during the semester and come to class prepared to discuss it all. “Pick up the damn book,” he would joke.

While he demanded rigor, he also offered support. Dr. Cunningham’s efforts continued outside classroom, as he helped his graduates find their direction in life, encouraged them to pursue higher degrees and offered them various job opportunities. “He’d remember to call you on your birthday,” said a former Brooklyn College student, Zinga Fraser, “He called me when my mother passed and talked to me for hours.”

Professor Cunningham shaped the lives and careers of his colleagues as well. The faculty members remembered him as a presence who knew how to light up the room. Linda Day of Africana Studies Department remembers her first encounter with Dr. Cunningham. “Are you an activist?” he asked Day during her interview in Brooklyn College in 1991, and her answer sealed the deal. “Throughout my career, he was the one who fought for my job and made sure I stayed at Brooklyn college,” Day said.

The speakers remembered him as a campus leader that always stood up for his co-workers, advocated for fairness and often took responsibilities nobody else wanted to take. Dale Byam of Africana Studies department mentions “If I needed help, everybody would tell me to call George, and he would always respond “Why not? Let’s do this!”

Cunningham is survived by his four first cousins along with many other relatives and friends. After nearly 5 decades in Brooklyn College, Professor Cunningham’s legacy continues through the students and faculty that he mentored. “He’d fight for you till hell freezes over,” says Fraser, “And when it does, he’ll fight on ice.”