It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Martin L. Boston on August 17, 2025. Professor Boston served as Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, Director of Pan-African Studies and of its Black Serving Institution initiative at Sacramento State University.
A proud member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Boston earned a Bachelor’s degree from Washington State University, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. After serving as a Post-doctoral Fellow at DePaul University, he taught a diverse array of courses at Sacramento State and the University of California, San Diego. In addition, as Editor-in-Chief of African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, Dr. Boston assembled a diverse group of editorial board members and made significant efforts toward the continued dissemination of African and Black Diaspora Studies research.
During his career, he wrote extensively about popular culture, race and ethnicity, social movements, and South African and American comparative and transnational histories. In 2023, Dr. Boston co-edited a special issue with Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Former President of NCOBPS and Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of California Irvine. Entitled “The Movement Resonated Deep In My Soul: New Perspectives on the Global Anti-Apartheid Liberation Movement” and published in Third World Thematics, this issue examined issues concerning African liberation movements that were authored by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, professors, and activists. On Juneteenth Day 2025, his most recent article entitled, “Reading Between the Lines: Miriam Makeba’s Shifting Liberation Politics in Drum Magazine, 1957-1964” was published in the Journal of Southern African Studies. At the time of his death, Dr. Boston was completing a manuscript entitled, Be(Long)ing: Exilic Double Consciousness, South African Cultural Producers, and the Era of Exile and was also co-editing a manuscript on reparations in California with Dr. Tiffany Caesar and Dr. Mychal Odom.
We in the National Conference of Black Political Scientists stand in solidarity with scholars in the academic communities to which he dedicated his life as we mourn his death and celebrate his many contributions. We offer our condolences to his wife, daughters, other family members, colleagues, students, and friends as we honor the legacy of this outstanding young man.