(COLUMBIA, SC) – Benedict College Criminal Justice Professor Dr. Walter McDaniels has published an article in Democracy Under Siege: Radical Resistance Required
“Twenty years, one pattern: A longitudinal analysis of social justice in Kansas City” is an outline the pressures, contradictions, and fault lines within democratic systems. The article is a 20-year longitudinal analysis of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City’s Black Equality Index, with a focused examination of the Social Justice sub-index. The research identifies a harm pipeline—Stops → Arrests → Incarceration—alongside feedback loops linking victimization, mental anguish, and community instability.
McDaniels wants to push readers toward structural reform grounded in evidence enforcing moral urgency and making inequity visible.
“Having this article published represents accountability to community memory and historical truth,” says McDaniels. “As both a conflict resolution scholar and a retired law enforcement practitioner, publishing articles is not about personal validation. It is about making inequity visible in a form that cannot be easily dismissed or forgotten.”
McDaniels hopes this article will function as a policy tool for legislators, illustrating longitudinal evidence, a planning instrument for civic organizations, an accountability benchmark, and a narrative bridge that communicates on behalf of communities in an institutional language.
McDaniels expects his research to inform action by challenging institutions to confront the systems that sustain inequality.
McDaniels is also the advisor for the Conflict Resolution Center, the first mediation center on an HBCU campus.
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Benedict College Founded in 1870 by a woman, Bathsheba A. Benedict, Benedict College is a private co-educational liberal arts institution offering 29 competitive baccalaureate degree programs and two master’s degree programs. The Midlands HBCU welcomes students from several counties in South Carolina, states across America, and countries around the world. The College also has a diverse faculty deeply engaged in teaching, research, and service.
Benedict College has been highly regarded and exceptionally ranked for its programs by several academic and traditional publications. Benedict College is the recipient of the 2024 UNCF Institutional Excellence Award given by UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building Program in celebration of an HBCU that achieved next-level performance. Benedict was also named HBCU of the Year by HBCU Digest and voted the number one Gold Winner in The States’ BEST College or University in 2025.
Benedict College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate and master’s degrees. Five of the College’s degree programs hold national accreditation: Social Work Program, Environmental Health Science Program, Environmental Engineering, Studio Art, and the Tyrone Adam Burroughs School of Business and Entrepreneurship.