His scholarly works and political activism engendered a new political consciousness. His PhD thesis, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, illustrated his duality as an intellectual and activist as he challenged prevailing assumptions about African history and put forth his own ideas and models for analyzing the history of oppressed peoples. His seminal work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, provided a new construct for development theory and established a framework for analyzing current global socio-economic and political issues. The Walter Rodney Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that was formed by the Rodney Family in 2006 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The Foundation is committed to sharing the life and works of Walter Rodney with students, scholars and community activists around the world. Since 2004, an Annual Walter Rodney Symposium has been held in Atlanta, Georgia. The goal is to bring together scholars, researchers, activists, students and the community to discuss contemporary issues from a Rodney perspective. The first annual symposium was held in conjunction with the donation of the Walter Rodney Papers to the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.
