Tom W. Shick, 1947-1987, earned his Undergraduate degree in Psychology at the City College
of New York in 1969 before coming to University of Wisconsin-Madison as a graduate student.
The thesis, "A Quantitative Analysis of Liberian Colonization from 1820 to 1843, with
special reference to mortality" earned Shick his Masters degree in History in 1970. He began
his teaching career as Assistant Professor in Black Studies at San Jose State College before
returning to UW-Madison in 1972 as instructor in Afro-American Studies. Shick was awarded a
Social Science Research Council Fellowship to conduct research in Liberia for his Ph.D.
dissertation, "The Social and Economic History of Afro-American Settlers in Liberia,
1820-1900". It was completed in 1976, and with a Ph.D. in African History, Shick was
promoted to Assistant Professor. His first book and major work, "Behold the Promised Land: A
History of Afro-American Settlers in Nineteenth-Century Liberia," was published in 1980, and
by 1981 Shick had been granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor. At the University
of Wisconsin-Madison Afro-American Studies Department, Shick developed four new courses and
taught many more on a variety of subjects, from African and Afro-American culture to Civil
Rights and racial protest in the United States. Shick published over a dozen articles and
reviews in his areas of research, and was active in campus, community, and national
organizations. He served on the Athletic Board and was president of Black History, Inc.
(1985-86); the Dane County Criminal Justice Committee on Minority Issues (1985-86); and the
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He also served as Specialist in Afro-American History and
Culture to the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and acted as an academic
consultant for the U.S. Department of State, Carnegie Corporation (Kinte Library Project),
The Institute of the Black World, and The National Endowment for the Humanities (Highlander
Folk School Project). At the time of his death at age 39, Shick was working on a book about
Martin Luther King, Jr, and had several other manuscripts in progress. Shick was reported
missing in November 1986. In March of 1987, the cause of his death was ruled to be
accidental drowning.
