William Cross

Cross's original Nigrescence model outlined five stages of Black racial identity development: pre-encounter, encounter, immersion-emersion, internalization, and internalization-commitment. The revised version, published in his 1991 book "Shades of Black," allowed for more fluid movement between stages rather than a strictly linear progression.

In his 1991 revision in "Shades of Black: Diversity in African-American Identity," Cross softened the model's original rigidity by removing assumptions about self-hatred in the pre-encounter stage and acknowledging that individuals could revisit earlier stages. The revision also recognized multiple healthy endpoints of identity development rather than a single endpoint.

Cross's foundational 1971 article "The Negro-to-Black Conversion Experience," published in the journal Black World, introduced the original Nigrescence framework and remains widely cited. His 1991 book "Shades of Black" is also extensively referenced in psychology and counseling literature.

William E. Cross Jr. held faculty positions at several institutions, including Cornell University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has been influential in counseling psychology and multicultural identity theory throughout a long academic career.