SOUTHERN IS CURRENTLY the only woman in the Afro-American Studies Department. "The statistic is really a very sad one," says department Chairman Werner Sollors. Sollors notes, though, that another woman has been recently appointed.

"What strikes me as a young Black academic are particularly her roots," says Roderick J. Harrison, assistant professor of Afro-American Studies. "Old Black scholars are deeply rooted in a tradition of excellence. She is a living representative of a generation of Black scholars whose personal mission was that they could do work as well as the whites. They had to prove themselves."

"No matter how rough the going is at Harvard, whether because of racism or sexism or some other kind of `ism,'" says Southern, "whenever I stepped inside the classroom and closed the door and began talking to students, all problems melted away."

"I think sometimes Blacks are a little ashamed of being Black, and they want to prove how much they've accomplished in terms of white achievement. But that's not important. The important thing is that you are moving toward your own goal."

Concludes Southern: "My only regret is that I could not have come to Harvard earlier. I feel that I am just now getting settled, after 10 years. And if I could stay another 10 years, I think I could be responsible for some change."

Fourth in a Series of Features on Women at Harvard Appearing Periodically in The Crimson