David Covin

AALBC Mourns the Passing of David Covin, June 3, 2023

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David Covin is a Top 100 AALBC.com Bestselling Author Making Our List 9 Times

David Covin (October 3, 1940 – June 3, 2023) was Professor Emeritus of Government and Ethnic Studies at CSU Sacramento. He was the Past President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, and the Founding Co-Principal Investigator of the Race & Democracy in the Americas Project. He was also Co-Editor of the National Political Science Review.

Professor Covin received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois, his M.A. in Political Science from Colorado University, and his PhD in Political Science from Washington State University.

He is listed in Who’s Who in the West, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in Black America. He is the recipient of the Women of Color Diversity Award; Sacramento Observer Medallion for Achievement in the Field of Education; the Walter R. Bremond Memorial Community Service Award from the Black United Fund of Sacramento Valley, Inc.; the Cooper-Woodson College Medal of Honor; the CSU Sacramento, John Livingston Annual Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award; the National Conference of Black Political Scientists Presidential Award; the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies Community Service Award, CSUS; Community Service Recognition from the All African People’s Revolutionary Party; and the Community Service Award from Omega Psi Phi. The Sacramento Area Black Caucus, Dr. David Covin Community Library, was dedicated in May, 2003.

Dr. Covin was a published novelist and short story writer. His most recent book is a novel, Wimbey’s Corner (Blue Nile Press, 2011). He is also the author of Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, Sacramento, 1970 - 2000 (McFarland, 2009) and The Unified Black Movement in Brazil, 1978-2002 (McFarland, 2006). His first novel was, Brown Sky (Path Press, 1987). He has published over thirty articles in scholarly journals, the popular press, and as book chapters, including articles in Drum Voices Review, the National Political Science Review, the Black Scholar, the Journal of Black Studies, the Western Journal of Black Studies, the Journal of Third World Studies, Souls, and Explorations in Ethnic Studies. His research has been supported by grants from CSU Sacramento’s Faculty Research and Creative Activity Committee, CSU Sacramento’s Office of Global Education, the CSU Chancellor’s Office, the California Council for the Humanities in Public Policy, the Russell Sage Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the National Science Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. His major research interests are Black politics in the U.S.; Afro-Brazilian Politics; the Politics of the African Diaspora; and Black Social Movements.

Dr. Covin was active in the Civil Rights Movement. He was co-chair of the Boulder, Colorado chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality; he did voter registration work in Jackson, Mississippi and Birmingham, Alabama. He participated in the March on Montgomery. In the Black Student Movement he was a founder of the Black Student Union at Washington State University, and of the Black Studies Program at Washington State University. He was a founding member of the National Black Independent Political Party. He is currently Chair of the Political Committee of the Sacramento Area Black Caucus, a member of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Civic Improvement Club, Co-Convenor of the Sacramento Congress of African Peoples, and Facilitator of the Black Group. He is a Charter Member of the National Black Political Convention, headed by Bennet Johnson and Haki Mahdabuti, and of the Ad Hoc Committee for Racial and Human Justice.

He reads and Speaks, French and Portuguese; reads Spanish, Latin, and elementary Mandarin.

Dr. Covin is the founder of the Sacramento Black Book Fair and Blue Nile Press.

Listen to an Interview of David Covin Interviewed by Capital Public Radio, August 2, 2018

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7 Books by David Covin