Alfred E. Prettyman, was born in February 1935, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is one of five children of Edward Prettyman, the conductor of the Colored Park Band of Baltimore, and Helen Prettyman. As a teenager, Prettyman attended Douglass High School. He also made several appearances on WAAM, now known as WJZ-TV, as a singer on the High Times Program, with host Tommy Dukehart. His appearances on WAAM lead to appearances on the radio and television shows of Paul Whiteman. At the age of sixteen, Prettyman left Baltimore to attend college, and to study philosophy and religion. Prettyman met his first wife, Julia Poussaint, through a college friend. Poussaint was the Executive Secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, New York Office. Poussaint made trips to the South with other members of the Committee to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. Instead of returning to the South, Prettyman instead contributed to the Civil Rights Movement through book publishing. Prettyman criticized the industry for being a “sexist and racist club.” He also played a large role in changing the content of junior high, senior high and college textbooks to include African Americans and Native Americans. In 1969, Prettyman also started his own publishing company, Emerson Hall Publishers, Inc., along with partners Bill Mayo and William Peters. Emerson Hall Publishers, Inc. focused on publishing work that dealt with social and behavioral sciences dealing primarily with the Black experience. Alfred Prettyman currently resides in New York City, where he holds meetings for the Society for the Study of Africana Philosophy, out of his apartment. Prettyman is the co-founder of this group along with Albert Blumberg, who is also a native of Baltimore. He is also a member of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. Over the years, Prettyman has written, reviewed and edited several books, including U.S., The Intercultural Nation. He has also made contributions to several scholarly journals. Alfred Prettyman is currently working on projects for the Alaine Locke Society, The New York Pragmatists' Forum and the Journal of Speculative Philosophy and will continue to work on other upcoming projects. Alfred Prettyman is currently a professor at the Ramapo College of New Jersey. He teaches many courses in the school from Social Issues, to the History of Social Thought. His courses usually focus on philosophy or social disparity, which are two of his most outstanding fields of study.
