James Smoot Coleman

Who was James Smoot Coleman?

James Smoot Coleman was an American scholar, professor and administrator in political science, but more specifically in African studies. He is noted for two of his books, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism and Education and Political Development which have been called "classics of scholarship".

Coleman was born in Provo, Utah, to a Mormon family, son of Jacob Coleman and Allie Smoot Coleman. He graduated from Brigham Young High School in 1936. He enrolled in Brigham Young University, but interrupted his college education to join the U.S. Army in 1941, and achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel before resigning in 1946 after the end of World War II. Coleman received his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in 1947 and his master's. He received a doctorate in from Harvard University. He was a teaching fellow at Harvard from 1949 to 1950, and again in 1953. In 1953, he became an instructor at the University of California at Los Angeles, and soon was appointed as an assistant professor. In 1963 he was president of the African Studies Association.

Coleman was the first director of the UCLA African Studies Center from its founding in 1959 until 1965.