| The ASALH Website is a project of the ASALH Publication Committee Daryl Michael Scott, Chair © 2008, ASALH Direct comments to info@asalh.net The Association for the Study of African American Life and History C.B. Powell Building, Suite C-142 | 525 Bryant Street, NW | Washington, DC 20059 Phone: 202-865-0053 | Fax: 202-265-7920 Page revised 12/15/2009 |
Founders of Black History Month
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| The ASALH Speakers Bureau 2009-2010 Carter G. Woodson Distinguished Lecturers |
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Russell Adams, Howard University
Dr. Russell L. Adams is a political sociologist with a long time interest in interdisciplinary
instruction, curriculum development, community diversity and intergroup relations. The
holder of the B.A. degree from Morehouse College and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the
University of Chicago, he has published numerous articles on the emergence of Afro-American
Studies as an academic field utilizing a variety of disciplines, the role of philosophy and the
function of epistemology in constructing and defining social reality. He is the author of the
widely used publication Great Negroes: Past and Present. Dr. Adams is currently engaged in
editing a series of essays focusing on the antebellum black community and black participation
in the American Civil War. Dr. Adams has served as Chair, Department of Afro American
Studies Howard University, Washington, D.C., as well as a curriculum consultant to colleges
and public school systems in different parts of the country. He is a manuscript reviewer for
academic journals and textbook publishers. Frequently quoted by the mass media, he has
lectured throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, Israel and South Africa.
Derrick Alridge, University of Georgia
Dr. Derrick P. Alridge is Associate Professor of Social Foundations of Education at the
University of Georgia, Athens. His areas of scholarship include the history of U.S. African
American education, Civil Rights Studies, and Hip Hop Studies. He is currently co-director of
the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies at UGA--a research project that produces
historical documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia. Professor Alridge's work has
been published in a variety of journals, including The Journal of African American History, The
Journal of Negro Education, and The Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.
Felix Armfield, Buffalo State University/SUNY
Dr. Felix Armfield is Associate Professor of History at Buffalo State College in the Department
of History and Social Studies Education. He also was a member of the faculty of Western
Illinois University from 1995 to 2000. Most recently, he published the book Black Life in West
Central Illinois (2001), and is presently working on a biography of Eugene Kinckle Jones, a
black social work pioneer in the early twentieth century and the first Executive Secretary of
the National Urban League, 1916-1940.
Deidre Hill Butler, Union College
Dr. Deidre Hill Butler came to Union College from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts
where she earned her Ph.D. Dr. Butler's research interest includes the social geography of
race, class and gender in African American social institutions in New England, the role of
African American women in contemporary step-families. She has received recognition for her
scholarship from the New York African-American Institute and the Massachusetts Historical
League. Dr. Butler has severed on the Program Committee for the Association of Black
Sociologists and the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and is a
member of the American Sociological Association. She is an active member of the Black
Women Health Project, a national black women’s grassroots health initiative. Dr. Butler
contributed an essay to the 2003 ASALH Black History Kit, Souls of Black Folk: Centennial
Reflections.
William Jelani Cobb, Spelman College
William Jelani Cobb, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at Spelman College. He
specializes in post-Civil War African American history, 20th century American politics and the
history of the Cold War. He served as a delegate and historian for the 5th Congressional
District at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He is a recipient of fellowships from the
Fulbright and Ford Foundations. Dr. Cobb is also the author of To The Break of Dawn: A
Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (NYU Press 2007) which was a finalist for the National
Award for Arts Writing. He was educated at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and
Rutgers University where he received his doctorate in American History under the supervision
of Dr. David Levering Lewis in May 2003.
Dr. Cobb has two forthcoming books: In Our Lifetimes: Barack Obama and the New Black
America and a scholarly monograph titled Antidote to Revolution: African American
Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931-1957. His articles and essays have
appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe, Emerge, The Progressive, The Washington
City Paper, ONE Magazine, Ebony and TheRoot.com. He has contributed to a number of
anthologies including In Defense of Mumia, Testimony, Mending the World and Beats,
Rhymes and Life. He has also been a featured commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, Al-
Jazeera, CBS News and a number of other national broadcast outlets.
Solomon W.F. Comissiong, SCMB Educational Consulting
Solomon W.F. Comissiong is the President and co-founder of SCMB Educational Consulting.
SCMB Educational Consulting espouses to the use of mediums, such as Hip Hop Culture, to
educate poorly motivated students. Comissiong’s company facilitates workshops on topics
regarding academic retention, reluctant-student-motivation, and enabling enthusiasm for
learning. He is a skilled and passionate orator who engages his audiences as he demonstrates,
within the content of his presentations. His style and commitment has won him popularity
among fellow educators and a wide range of student populations.
Mr. Comissiong uses Hip Hop to engage audiences in everything from Black History to Social
Issues to the Importance of Civic Engagement. Mr. Comissiong is an educator at the
University of Maryland College Park (UMD) where he teaches two 400-level courses based
around Hip Hop Culture and social issues. He also holds the position of Assistant Director at
the Nyumburu Cultural Center at UMD.
Mr. C.R. Gibbs, Washington, DC
Mr. C.R. Gibbs is an author, freelance writer, lecturer, and exhibitor of historical information
and artifacts. His many accomplishments include video or television scripts on Black History
for the Washington, DC Public Schools Education Media Center, WETA-TV, and WHUR FM
Radio. He served as assistant technical advisor to the Frances Thompson Company on a film
entitled American Years, and as a consultant to the DC Public School System, Georgetown
University, the Smithsonian Institution, and Maryland Public Television. He researched, wrote
and narrated, Sketches in Color, a 13-part companion series to the PBS series The Civil War
for the Howard University TV station. He also co-authored Black Georgetown Remembered
with co-authors Kathleen Lesko and Valerie Babb. A DC Humanities Council Scholar, Mr. Gibbs
is also an honorary paramount chief of the Vai people of Liberia, West Africa. The
Smithsonian Institution Anacostia Museum website Mr. Gibbs among its scholars as the
Museum’s On-line Academy at www.si.edu/Anacostia/Academy/academy.html.
Debra Newman Ham, Morgan State University
Dr. Debra Newman Ham is a Professor of History at Morgan State University. She received
her B.A. and Ph.D. from Howard University, and her Masters from Boston University. Dr.
Ham served as the Specialist in Afro-American History and Culture in the Manuscript Division
at the Library of Congress, and from 1972 to 1986 as an archivist and Black History Specialist
at the National Archives. Dr. Ham worked as the guest curator of a major Library of Congress
exhibit entitled "African American Odyssey: Quest for Full Citizenship," and as the editor of the
exhibit catalog of the same name (1998).
She is the senior author and editor of The African-American Mosaic: A Guide to Black History
Resources in the Library of Congress (1993) and the author of Black History: A Guide to
Civilian Records in the National Archives (1984). She also has written a number of book
chapters and articles including: "Resource Guide," Columbia University Guide to African
American History since 1939 (2006), and “Government Documents," in the Harvard Guide to
African-American History (2001) to name a few. She has been a member of ASALH for over
thirty-five years.
Ida E. Jones, Howard University
Dr. Ida E. Jones is a native of Cambridge Massachusetts, and currently the senior manuscript
librarian in the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. She is a graduate of Howard University
with a BA in Journalism 1992, and a Ph.D. 2001. Her field of study centers around African
American religion and historic records preservation, and her research examines the role of the
church within African American culture and the American political economy. She has worked
with a number of churches to preserve their records and promote understanding of their
historical importance in American urban history. Dr. Jones is an adjunct faculty member in
the Department of History at Howard University, and currently serves as co-editor of the
Black History Bulletin (formally the Negro History Bulletin).
Benjamin R. Justesen, Author and Editor
Mr. Benjamin Justesen is a freelance writer and editor in Alexandria, Virginia. The author of
three books and a number of journal articles dealing with post-Reconstruction political history,
he has been a print journalist, businessman, teacher, nonprofit director, and U.S. diplomat. He
is currently a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. history at Union Institute & University, Cincinnati. His
latest book is Broken Brotherhood: the Rise and Fall of the National Afro-American Council
(Southern Illinois University Press, 2008). He is also the author of George Henry White: An
Even Chance in the Race of Life (LSU Press, 2001), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in
biography, and more than a dozen biographical sketches in the National African American
Biography project (2008). Current projects include a biographical directory of North
Carolina's African American officeholders, 1868-1901.
Eileen Kugler
Eileen Kugler passionately champions the unique benefits that diversity brings schools and
communities. She challenges audiences to break through society’s “myth-perceptions” about
race and culture, empowering them to go beyond celebrating to advocating for diversity.
Eileen’s award-winning book, "Debunking the Middle-Class Myth: Why diverse schools are
good for all kids," is inspiring honest dialogue in boardrooms, classrooms, and living rooms.
Her commentaries appear in publications from USA Today and The Washington Post to
Educational Leadership and The National School Boards Journal. Eileen’s commitment was
motivated by the inspired education of her own white middle-class children at one of the most
diverse schools in the nation, with students from wide-ranging cultures and economic
backgrounds, hailing from nearly 90 nations. Blending her professional expertise as a
communications expert with her volunteer commitment, Eileen worked collaboratively with
administrators, faculty, parents, students and community members to rebuild the school’s
crumbling community support and turn it into a vibrant focal point of its multicultural
community. Eileen was named Education Advocate of the Year by the American Association
of University Women-Virginia. Today Eileen speaks to audiences from Anchorage to Atlanta,
Chicago to Seattle, and consults with school districts and communities
throughout the country.
James Loewen, Ph.D
A sociologist who spent two years at the Smithsonian surveying twelve leading high school
textbooks of American history only to find an embarrassing blend of bland optimism, blind
nationalism, and plain misinformation, weighing in at an average of 888 pages and almost five
pounds. A best-selling author who wrote Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High
School History Textbook Got Wrong and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get
Wrong. A researcher who discovered that many, and in many states most communities were
"Sundown Towns" that kept out blacks (and sometimes other groups) for decades. (Some
still do.) An educator who attended Carleton College, holds the Ph.D. in sociology from
Harvard University, and taught race relations for twenty years at the University of Vermont.
"He has led workshops for in-service teachers and pre-service ed. students from New England
to California."
Kim Pearson, The College of New Jersey
Ms. Kim Pearson is Assistant Professor of journalism at The College of New Jersey and in
2000; Pearson was named the New Jersey Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of
Education. She is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in Emerge, Crisis
Magazine, and for The Quarterly Black Review of Books. Ms. Pearson was a contributor to
The Souls of Black Folk: Centennial Reflections, the first interactive ASALH Black History Month
Kit and the creator of the Niagara Movement: Black Protest Reborn 1905-2005, Black History
Theme interactive CD-Rom.
Tammy Sanders, University of Maryland - College Park
Ms. Tammy Sanders is a lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University
of Maryland at College Park and doctoral candidate in the American Studies Department. She
was a summer Fellow and took part in Holding Up Both Ends of the Sky: Engendering
Africana Studies, A Summer Institute on Critical Theory, Black Womyn Scholarship and
Africana Studies (2002) in the Africana Studies Department at Cornell University, where she
engaged in intense study of constructions of African American motherhood. Currently, Ms.
Sanders is the Academic Program Coordinator for the Association for the Study of African
American Life and History. Her scholarly work centers on 19th and 20th century “Black
Feminist Thought” in the areas of womanhood and motherhood. More specifically, she offers
to a critical lens to her examination of the intersections of social, political, and economic in
relation to issues of human reproduction and female identity.
Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University
Dr. Daryl Michael Scott is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Howard
University. He received his Ph.D. in History from Stanford University. Dr. Scott is a historian
who specializes in America since the Civil War. In particular, he studies African Americans,
Southerners (whites in the American South), race relations, and intellectual history. He
received the James A. Rawley Prize of the Organization of American Historians for the best
work on race relations history in the United States (1998).
Selected publications include: Editor, The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson:
The ASALH Press, 2005, Contempt and Pity: Social Policy and the Image of the Black Psyche,
1880-1996. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997, “Postwar Pluralism, Brown v
Board of Education and the Origins of Multiculturalism." Journal of American History June
2004, "The Politics of Pathology." Journal of Policy History 8 (Winter 1996). Dr. Scott is
currently working on editing, Carter G. Woodson's Appeal, Washington, D.C.: The ASALH
Press, forthcoming 2008.
Barbara Spencer Dunn, Kiamsha Youth Empowerment Organization
First Director of Membership Services, ASALH
Barbara Spencer Dunn is the Executive Director of Kiamsha Youth Empowerment
Organization and the first person in the history of the Association for the Study of African
American Life and History to be employed as Director of Membership Services (July 1, 2004 –
January 18, 2008). Mrs. Dunn is a graduate of Bowie State University and recipient of several
community service awards for her extensive work in communities around the country. Mrs.
Dunn’s presentations educate people of all cultures, blends generational divides, enlightens
youth, reengages the church community, and cause intellectuals to re-focus their thinking in
a way that reflects Dr. Woodson’s goals in his seminal work, “The Mis-Education of the
Negro.” Mrs. Dunn recruited and engaged a group of professionals to create a work study
guide to provide a document that will not only engage educators and intellectuals, but will also
engage high school youth and families around the world in the reading of “The Mis-Education
of the Negro in 2008 marking the 75th Anniversary of this very important work by Dr.
Woodson.
James B. Stewart
James B. Stewart is President-elect of ASALH. He is a Professor Emeritus at Penn State
University and was previously a Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, African
and African American Studies, and Management
and Organization. Prior to that time he held the positions of Vice Provost for Educational
Equity and Director of the Black Studies Program Dr. Stewart has a Ph.D. in Economics from
the University of Notre Dame (1976); an M.A. in Economics (1971); and a B.S. in
Mathematics (1969). He has authored, co-authored, or edited 11 books and over seventy
journal articles and over seventy book chapters. Dr. Stewart has also served as editor of The
Review of Black Political Economy. His books include African Americans and Post-Industrial
Labor Markets (1997); African Americans in the U.S. Economy (2005); Introduction to African
American Studies, Transdisciplinary Approaches and Implications (2007); and a collection of
essays about Africana Studies entitled, Flight In Search of Vision (2004). His past leadership
experiences include Presidencies of the National Economic Association and the National
Council for Black Studies (NCBS) (1997-2001). Dr. Stewart has received awards from many
organizations including NCBS, the African American Studies and Research Center (Purdue
University), and the ANKH Scientific Institute.
Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Morgan State University
Dr. Terborg-Penn is a Professor of History, Morgan State University, and Coordinator of
Graduate Programs in History. She received her Ph. D. in Afro-American History from Howard
University, and is the co-founder of the Association of Black Women Historians. She is the
editor of several books on African American women's history and is the author of African
American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 (1998).
Ben Vinson, Johns Hopkins University
Ben Vinson III is Professor of Latin American History and Director of the Center for Africana
Studiesat Johns Hopkins University. He is a specialist on issues of race in Latin America,
particularly Mexico. Although trained as a colonial Latin Americanist, his research interests and
publications includecontemporary African-American/Afro-Latino relations, 20th century
African-American/Mexican relations, the history of transnationalism, and the African Diaspora.
His major publications include: Bearing Arms for His Majesty: The Free-Colored Militia in
Colonial Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2001), and Flight: The Story of Virgil Richardson, A
Tuskegee Airman in Mexico (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004), to name a few. He has also published
in newspapers such as the Raleigh News & Observer, the New York Post, El Aguila del Hudson
Valley, the Patriot-News (Harrisburg P.A.) and the San Diego Union Tribune. Professor Vinson
received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1998 and his A.B. from Dartmouth College in
1992. Click here to download complete bio.
Sheila S. Walker, Spelman College
Dr. Sheila S. Walker is the William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Social Sciences
at Spelman College. She has done extensive field research and participated in cultural activities
throughout Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas. She edited African
Roots/American
Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield 2001) and
the accompanying video documentary Scattered Africa: Faces and Voices of the African
Diaspora (University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning,
Berkeley, CA 2002). In 1996 she organized an international conference on The African
Diaspora and The Modern World with the co-sponsorship of UNESCO, and she is currently
developing visual documentation of the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Lillian S. Williams, University of Buffalo
Dr. Lillian S. Williams is Chair and Associate Professor of African American Studies at the
University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. Until recently, Dr. Williams was
Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the University at Albany where she also was
director of the Institute for Research on Women. She is author of Strangers in the Land of
Paradise: The Creation of an African American Community, Buffalo, New York, 1900-1940.
Her current research has been on African American women and the club movement and she
is completing a book on Blacks in Green: African Americans in the Girl Scout Movement.
Yohuru Williams, Delaware State University
Dr. Yohuru Williams is Associate Professor of History and Director of Black Studies at Delaware
State University. He received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998. Dr. Williams is the
author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New
Haven (2000) and A Constant Struggle: African-American History from 1865 to the Present
Documents and Essays (2002). He also served as general editor for the ASALH’s 2002 and
2003 Black History Month Kits, The Color Line Revisited and The Souls of Black Folks:
Centennial Reflections. Dr. Williams's scholarly articles have appeared in the Black Scholar, The
Journal of Black Studies, and the Black History Bulletin. Dr. Williams presently working on a
book on African-American political activism in Delaware.
Zachery Williams, Ithaca College
Dr. Zachery Williams is an Assistant Professor of African New World Studies at Ithaca College,
and is a minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Ithaca, New York. Dr.
Williams received his Ph. D. in history from Bowling Green University. He has worked in the
areas of “Black Masculinist Thought” and “Africana Policy Studies,” and is currently completing
a book In Search of the Talented Tenth: Howard University Intellectuals and the Dilemmas of
Race in Academia, 1926-1970.
Dr. Russell L. Adams is a political sociologist with a long time interest in interdisciplinary
instruction, curriculum development, community diversity and intergroup relations. The
holder of the B.A. degree from Morehouse College and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the
University of Chicago, he has published numerous articles on the emergence of Afro-American
Studies as an academic field utilizing a variety of disciplines, the role of philosophy and the
function of epistemology in constructing and defining social reality. He is the author of the
widely used publication Great Negroes: Past and Present. Dr. Adams is currently engaged in
editing a series of essays focusing on the antebellum black community and black participation
in the American Civil War. Dr. Adams has served as Chair, Department of Afro American
Studies Howard University, Washington, D.C., as well as a curriculum consultant to colleges
and public school systems in different parts of the country. He is a manuscript reviewer for
academic journals and textbook publishers. Frequently quoted by the mass media, he has
lectured throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, Israel and South Africa.
Derrick Alridge, University of Georgia
Dr. Derrick P. Alridge is Associate Professor of Social Foundations of Education at the
University of Georgia, Athens. His areas of scholarship include the history of U.S. African
American education, Civil Rights Studies, and Hip Hop Studies. He is currently co-director of
the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies at UGA--a research project that produces
historical documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia. Professor Alridge's work has
been published in a variety of journals, including The Journal of African American History, The
Journal of Negro Education, and The Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.
Felix Armfield, Buffalo State University/SUNY
Dr. Felix Armfield is Associate Professor of History at Buffalo State College in the Department
of History and Social Studies Education. He also was a member of the faculty of Western
Illinois University from 1995 to 2000. Most recently, he published the book Black Life in West
Central Illinois (2001), and is presently working on a biography of Eugene Kinckle Jones, a
black social work pioneer in the early twentieth century and the first Executive Secretary of
the National Urban League, 1916-1940.
Deidre Hill Butler, Union College
Dr. Deidre Hill Butler came to Union College from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts
where she earned her Ph.D. Dr. Butler's research interest includes the social geography of
race, class and gender in African American social institutions in New England, the role of
African American women in contemporary step-families. She has received recognition for her
scholarship from the New York African-American Institute and the Massachusetts Historical
League. Dr. Butler has severed on the Program Committee for the Association of Black
Sociologists and the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and is a
member of the American Sociological Association. She is an active member of the Black
Women Health Project, a national black women’s grassroots health initiative. Dr. Butler
contributed an essay to the 2003 ASALH Black History Kit, Souls of Black Folk: Centennial
Reflections.
William Jelani Cobb, Spelman College
William Jelani Cobb, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at Spelman College. He
specializes in post-Civil War African American history, 20th century American politics and the
history of the Cold War. He served as a delegate and historian for the 5th Congressional
District at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He is a recipient of fellowships from the
Fulbright and Ford Foundations. Dr. Cobb is also the author of To The Break of Dawn: A
Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (NYU Press 2007) which was a finalist for the National
Award for Arts Writing. He was educated at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and
Rutgers University where he received his doctorate in American History under the supervision
of Dr. David Levering Lewis in May 2003.
Dr. Cobb has two forthcoming books: In Our Lifetimes: Barack Obama and the New Black
America and a scholarly monograph titled Antidote to Revolution: African American
Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931-1957. His articles and essays have
appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe, Emerge, The Progressive, The Washington
City Paper, ONE Magazine, Ebony and TheRoot.com. He has contributed to a number of
anthologies including In Defense of Mumia, Testimony, Mending the World and Beats,
Rhymes and Life. He has also been a featured commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, Al-
Jazeera, CBS News and a number of other national broadcast outlets.
Solomon W.F. Comissiong, SCMB Educational Consulting
Solomon W.F. Comissiong is the President and co-founder of SCMB Educational Consulting.
SCMB Educational Consulting espouses to the use of mediums, such as Hip Hop Culture, to
educate poorly motivated students. Comissiong’s company facilitates workshops on topics
regarding academic retention, reluctant-student-motivation, and enabling enthusiasm for
learning. He is a skilled and passionate orator who engages his audiences as he demonstrates,
within the content of his presentations. His style and commitment has won him popularity
among fellow educators and a wide range of student populations.
Mr. Comissiong uses Hip Hop to engage audiences in everything from Black History to Social
Issues to the Importance of Civic Engagement. Mr. Comissiong is an educator at the
University of Maryland College Park (UMD) where he teaches two 400-level courses based
around Hip Hop Culture and social issues. He also holds the position of Assistant Director at
the Nyumburu Cultural Center at UMD.
Mr. C.R. Gibbs, Washington, DC
Mr. C.R. Gibbs is an author, freelance writer, lecturer, and exhibitor of historical information
and artifacts. His many accomplishments include video or television scripts on Black History
for the Washington, DC Public Schools Education Media Center, WETA-TV, and WHUR FM
Radio. He served as assistant technical advisor to the Frances Thompson Company on a film
entitled American Years, and as a consultant to the DC Public School System, Georgetown
University, the Smithsonian Institution, and Maryland Public Television. He researched, wrote
and narrated, Sketches in Color, a 13-part companion series to the PBS series The Civil War
for the Howard University TV station. He also co-authored Black Georgetown Remembered
with co-authors Kathleen Lesko and Valerie Babb. A DC Humanities Council Scholar, Mr. Gibbs
is also an honorary paramount chief of the Vai people of Liberia, West Africa. The
Smithsonian Institution Anacostia Museum website Mr. Gibbs among its scholars as the
Museum’s On-line Academy at www.si.edu/Anacostia/Academy/academy.html.
Debra Newman Ham, Morgan State University
Dr. Debra Newman Ham is a Professor of History at Morgan State University. She received
her B.A. and Ph.D. from Howard University, and her Masters from Boston University. Dr.
Ham served as the Specialist in Afro-American History and Culture in the Manuscript Division
at the Library of Congress, and from 1972 to 1986 as an archivist and Black History Specialist
at the National Archives. Dr. Ham worked as the guest curator of a major Library of Congress
exhibit entitled "African American Odyssey: Quest for Full Citizenship," and as the editor of the
exhibit catalog of the same name (1998).
She is the senior author and editor of The African-American Mosaic: A Guide to Black History
Resources in the Library of Congress (1993) and the author of Black History: A Guide to
Civilian Records in the National Archives (1984). She also has written a number of book
chapters and articles including: "Resource Guide," Columbia University Guide to African
American History since 1939 (2006), and “Government Documents," in the Harvard Guide to
African-American History (2001) to name a few. She has been a member of ASALH for over
thirty-five years.
Ida E. Jones, Howard University
Dr. Ida E. Jones is a native of Cambridge Massachusetts, and currently the senior manuscript
librarian in the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. She is a graduate of Howard University
with a BA in Journalism 1992, and a Ph.D. 2001. Her field of study centers around African
American religion and historic records preservation, and her research examines the role of the
church within African American culture and the American political economy. She has worked
with a number of churches to preserve their records and promote understanding of their
historical importance in American urban history. Dr. Jones is an adjunct faculty member in
the Department of History at Howard University, and currently serves as co-editor of the
Black History Bulletin (formally the Negro History Bulletin).
Benjamin R. Justesen, Author and Editor
Mr. Benjamin Justesen is a freelance writer and editor in Alexandria, Virginia. The author of
three books and a number of journal articles dealing with post-Reconstruction political history,
he has been a print journalist, businessman, teacher, nonprofit director, and U.S. diplomat. He
is currently a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. history at Union Institute & University, Cincinnati. His
latest book is Broken Brotherhood: the Rise and Fall of the National Afro-American Council
(Southern Illinois University Press, 2008). He is also the author of George Henry White: An
Even Chance in the Race of Life (LSU Press, 2001), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in
biography, and more than a dozen biographical sketches in the National African American
Biography project (2008). Current projects include a biographical directory of North
Carolina's African American officeholders, 1868-1901.
Eileen Kugler
Eileen Kugler passionately champions the unique benefits that diversity brings schools and
communities. She challenges audiences to break through society’s “myth-perceptions” about
race and culture, empowering them to go beyond celebrating to advocating for diversity.
Eileen’s award-winning book, "Debunking the Middle-Class Myth: Why diverse schools are
good for all kids," is inspiring honest dialogue in boardrooms, classrooms, and living rooms.
Her commentaries appear in publications from USA Today and The Washington Post to
Educational Leadership and The National School Boards Journal. Eileen’s commitment was
motivated by the inspired education of her own white middle-class children at one of the most
diverse schools in the nation, with students from wide-ranging cultures and economic
backgrounds, hailing from nearly 90 nations. Blending her professional expertise as a
communications expert with her volunteer commitment, Eileen worked collaboratively with
administrators, faculty, parents, students and community members to rebuild the school’s
crumbling community support and turn it into a vibrant focal point of its multicultural
community. Eileen was named Education Advocate of the Year by the American Association
of University Women-Virginia. Today Eileen speaks to audiences from Anchorage to Atlanta,
Chicago to Seattle, and consults with school districts and communities
throughout the country.
James Loewen, Ph.D
A sociologist who spent two years at the Smithsonian surveying twelve leading high school
textbooks of American history only to find an embarrassing blend of bland optimism, blind
nationalism, and plain misinformation, weighing in at an average of 888 pages and almost five
pounds. A best-selling author who wrote Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High
School History Textbook Got Wrong and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get
Wrong. A researcher who discovered that many, and in many states most communities were
"Sundown Towns" that kept out blacks (and sometimes other groups) for decades. (Some
still do.) An educator who attended Carleton College, holds the Ph.D. in sociology from
Harvard University, and taught race relations for twenty years at the University of Vermont.
"He has led workshops for in-service teachers and pre-service ed. students from New England
to California."
Kim Pearson, The College of New Jersey
Ms. Kim Pearson is Assistant Professor of journalism at The College of New Jersey and in
2000; Pearson was named the New Jersey Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of
Education. She is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in Emerge, Crisis
Magazine, and for The Quarterly Black Review of Books. Ms. Pearson was a contributor to
The Souls of Black Folk: Centennial Reflections, the first interactive ASALH Black History Month
Kit and the creator of the Niagara Movement: Black Protest Reborn 1905-2005, Black History
Theme interactive CD-Rom.
Tammy Sanders, University of Maryland - College Park
Ms. Tammy Sanders is a lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University
of Maryland at College Park and doctoral candidate in the American Studies Department. She
was a summer Fellow and took part in Holding Up Both Ends of the Sky: Engendering
Africana Studies, A Summer Institute on Critical Theory, Black Womyn Scholarship and
Africana Studies (2002) in the Africana Studies Department at Cornell University, where she
engaged in intense study of constructions of African American motherhood. Currently, Ms.
Sanders is the Academic Program Coordinator for the Association for the Study of African
American Life and History. Her scholarly work centers on 19th and 20th century “Black
Feminist Thought” in the areas of womanhood and motherhood. More specifically, she offers
to a critical lens to her examination of the intersections of social, political, and economic in
relation to issues of human reproduction and female identity.
Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University
Dr. Daryl Michael Scott is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Howard
University. He received his Ph.D. in History from Stanford University. Dr. Scott is a historian
who specializes in America since the Civil War. In particular, he studies African Americans,
Southerners (whites in the American South), race relations, and intellectual history. He
received the James A. Rawley Prize of the Organization of American Historians for the best
work on race relations history in the United States (1998).
Selected publications include: Editor, The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson:
The ASALH Press, 2005, Contempt and Pity: Social Policy and the Image of the Black Psyche,
1880-1996. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997, “Postwar Pluralism, Brown v
Board of Education and the Origins of Multiculturalism." Journal of American History June
2004, "The Politics of Pathology." Journal of Policy History 8 (Winter 1996). Dr. Scott is
currently working on editing, Carter G. Woodson's Appeal, Washington, D.C.: The ASALH
Press, forthcoming 2008.
Barbara Spencer Dunn, Kiamsha Youth Empowerment Organization
First Director of Membership Services, ASALH
Barbara Spencer Dunn is the Executive Director of Kiamsha Youth Empowerment
Organization and the first person in the history of the Association for the Study of African
American Life and History to be employed as Director of Membership Services (July 1, 2004 –
January 18, 2008). Mrs. Dunn is a graduate of Bowie State University and recipient of several
community service awards for her extensive work in communities around the country. Mrs.
Dunn’s presentations educate people of all cultures, blends generational divides, enlightens
youth, reengages the church community, and cause intellectuals to re-focus their thinking in
a way that reflects Dr. Woodson’s goals in his seminal work, “The Mis-Education of the
Negro.” Mrs. Dunn recruited and engaged a group of professionals to create a work study
guide to provide a document that will not only engage educators and intellectuals, but will also
engage high school youth and families around the world in the reading of “The Mis-Education
of the Negro in 2008 marking the 75th Anniversary of this very important work by Dr.
Woodson.
James B. Stewart
James B. Stewart is President-elect of ASALH. He is a Professor Emeritus at Penn State
University and was previously a Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, African
and African American Studies, and Management
and Organization. Prior to that time he held the positions of Vice Provost for Educational
Equity and Director of the Black Studies Program Dr. Stewart has a Ph.D. in Economics from
the University of Notre Dame (1976); an M.A. in Economics (1971); and a B.S. in
Mathematics (1969). He has authored, co-authored, or edited 11 books and over seventy
journal articles and over seventy book chapters. Dr. Stewart has also served as editor of The
Review of Black Political Economy. His books include African Americans and Post-Industrial
Labor Markets (1997); African Americans in the U.S. Economy (2005); Introduction to African
American Studies, Transdisciplinary Approaches and Implications (2007); and a collection of
essays about Africana Studies entitled, Flight In Search of Vision (2004). His past leadership
experiences include Presidencies of the National Economic Association and the National
Council for Black Studies (NCBS) (1997-2001). Dr. Stewart has received awards from many
organizations including NCBS, the African American Studies and Research Center (Purdue
University), and the ANKH Scientific Institute.
Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Morgan State University
Dr. Terborg-Penn is a Professor of History, Morgan State University, and Coordinator of
Graduate Programs in History. She received her Ph. D. in Afro-American History from Howard
University, and is the co-founder of the Association of Black Women Historians. She is the
editor of several books on African American women's history and is the author of African
American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 (1998).
Ben Vinson, Johns Hopkins University
Ben Vinson III is Professor of Latin American History and Director of the Center for Africana
Studiesat Johns Hopkins University. He is a specialist on issues of race in Latin America,
particularly Mexico. Although trained as a colonial Latin Americanist, his research interests and
publications includecontemporary African-American/Afro-Latino relations, 20th century
African-American/Mexican relations, the history of transnationalism, and the African Diaspora.
His major publications include: Bearing Arms for His Majesty: The Free-Colored Militia in
Colonial Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2001), and Flight: The Story of Virgil Richardson, A
Tuskegee Airman in Mexico (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004), to name a few. He has also published
in newspapers such as the Raleigh News & Observer, the New York Post, El Aguila del Hudson
Valley, the Patriot-News (Harrisburg P.A.) and the San Diego Union Tribune. Professor Vinson
received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1998 and his A.B. from Dartmouth College in
1992. Click here to download complete bio.
Sheila S. Walker, Spelman College
Dr. Sheila S. Walker is the William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Social Sciences
at Spelman College. She has done extensive field research and participated in cultural activities
throughout Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas. She edited African
Roots/American
Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield 2001) and
the accompanying video documentary Scattered Africa: Faces and Voices of the African
Diaspora (University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning,
Berkeley, CA 2002). In 1996 she organized an international conference on The African
Diaspora and The Modern World with the co-sponsorship of UNESCO, and she is currently
developing visual documentation of the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Lillian S. Williams, University of Buffalo
Dr. Lillian S. Williams is Chair and Associate Professor of African American Studies at the
University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. Until recently, Dr. Williams was
Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the University at Albany where she also was
director of the Institute for Research on Women. She is author of Strangers in the Land of
Paradise: The Creation of an African American Community, Buffalo, New York, 1900-1940.
Her current research has been on African American women and the club movement and she
is completing a book on Blacks in Green: African Americans in the Girl Scout Movement.
Yohuru Williams, Delaware State University
Dr. Yohuru Williams is Associate Professor of History and Director of Black Studies at Delaware
State University. He received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998. Dr. Williams is the
author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New
Haven (2000) and A Constant Struggle: African-American History from 1865 to the Present
Documents and Essays (2002). He also served as general editor for the ASALH’s 2002 and
2003 Black History Month Kits, The Color Line Revisited and The Souls of Black Folks:
Centennial Reflections. Dr. Williams's scholarly articles have appeared in the Black Scholar, The
Journal of Black Studies, and the Black History Bulletin. Dr. Williams presently working on a
book on African-American political activism in Delaware.
Zachery Williams, Ithaca College
Dr. Zachery Williams is an Assistant Professor of African New World Studies at Ithaca College,
and is a minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Ithaca, New York. Dr.
Williams received his Ph. D. in history from Bowling Green University. He has worked in the
areas of “Black Masculinist Thought” and “Africana Policy Studies,” and is currently completing
a book In Search of the Talented Tenth: Howard University Intellectuals and the Dilemmas of
Race in Academia, 1926-1970.
| Black History Event Speakers for 2009 – 2010 |