Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
Born	1945 (age 71) Washington, District of Columbia United States
Occupation	African American History Professor

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (born in 1945) is a professor of Afro-American Studies, African American Religion and the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies at Harvard University.^[1] Higginbotham wrote Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Bapist Church: 1880-1920 which won several awards. Higginbotham has also received several awards for her work, most notably the 2014 National Humanities Medal.

Early life and education

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham was born in 1945 to her father, Albert Neal Sow Brooks and her mother, Alma Elaine Campbell.^[1] Higginbotham's father was the secretary treasure for the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History and also the editor of the organization's Negro History Bulletin. Her mother, Alma Elaine Campbell, was a high school history teacher who later became the supervisor for history in the Washington, D.C. public school system.^[1]

Higginbotham spent a substantial amount with her father at his work place which allowed her to encounter and become familiar with many founding figures in the African American history profession at a young age such as Rayford Logan, Charles Wesley and Benjamin Quarles. Higginbotham believes this unique experience allowed her to know what she wanted to do with her life at a very early age, “in that I knew from childhood that I wanted to teach, research, and write about the history of African Americans."^[2] Higginbotham was also inspired by the stories her father told her of her family members. Her great-grandather by the name Ablert Royal Brooks was born a slave in Virginia 1817. Later, he would become free and would then serve on the jury to try former Confederate president Jefferson Davis.^[3] Higginbotham's great-grandmother, Lucy Goode Brooks, created one of the first post-Civil War orphanages tailored to serve black children. Her grandfather Walter Henderson Brooks was a pastor at Nineteenth St. Baptist Church which is one of the oldest black Baptist congregations in Washington D.C. Higginbotham's aunt, Julia Evangeline Books, was one of the incorporators of Alpha Kappa Alpha which was the first African-American sorority. ^[2]

“In many ways,” Higginbotham says, “the family stories inspired me to pursue the discipline of history and gave me an appreciation of the importance of individual lives, broadly speaking, as a lens or mirror to much larger social and political contexts.”^[2]

In 1969, Higginbothan received her B.A. history degree from the University of Wisconsin, then in 1974 went on to receive her M.A. history degree from Howard University.^[1] In 1975 she earned a certification in Archival Administration and Record Management from the U.S. National Archives.^[1] In 1977 she earned a certification in quantitative methodology in Social Science from the Newberry Library in Chicago.^[1] In 1984 she received her Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Rochester. ^[1]

Career

Higginbothan was an American history teacher and an eighth grade counselor at Francis Parkman Jr. High school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1969 to 1971.^[1] Afterwards, she moved to Washington D.C. where she served as an American history and social studies teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School.^[1] From 1974 to 1975 she worked as a manuscript research associate at Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Harvard University. ^[1] Higginbotham was also a history professor at several universities including Darthmouth College, the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania.^[1]

In 1993, Higginbothan became a professor of Afro-American Studies and African American Religious History at Harvard University where she still currently works today. ^[1] In 1990 she was given the honor as being named the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies. ^[1] Higginbotham became the chair of Harvard University's African American Studies department in 2006 and served as acting-director of the W.E.B Du Bois Institute for African American Research in 2008. ^[1] Higginbotham was also appointed as the Inaugural John Hope Franklin Professor of American Legal History at Duke University Law School. ^[1]

Publications and work

Higginbotham's writing spans a variety of diverse topics which include African American religious history, women's history, civil rights, constructions of racial and gender identity, electoral politics and the combination and intersection of theory and history.

Higginbotham's most notable piece of work is her book Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church: 1880-1920. This book won numerous awards including awards from the American Historical Association, the American Academy of Religion, the Association of Black Women Historians and the Association for Research on Non-Profit and Voluntary Organizations. Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church: 1880-1920 was also on the New York Times Book Review's Notable Books of the Year in both 1993 and 1992.^[4]

Higginbotham has also revised and re-written African American history survey From Slavery to Freedom, which was originally published in 1947 by John Hope Franklin. She has worked with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as a co-editor of the African American National Biography which is a twelve-volume resource of information that presents African American history in over 5,000 biographical entries. ^[5] Her article "African American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race," won the the best article prize of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians in 1993 and continues to be one of her most cited and reprinted articles. ^[4]

Awards and accolades

Higginbotham has won numerous awards throughout the years for her books, publications and research. In 1994 she received the Scholar's Medal of the University of Rochester. In 2000 she was awarded the YWCA of Boston's Women of Achievement Award.^[4] In 2003 Harvard University chose Higginbotham to be a Walter Channing Fellow in recognition of her achievements in history. ^[1] In March 2005, Higginbotham was included in AOL Black Voice's "Top 10 Black Women in Higher Education." Higginbotham revieced several awards in 2008. In April of 2008 she was honored by Unity First for preserving African American History.^[4] In August of 2008 she was awarded the Legend Award by Urban League and in October of 2008 she was awarded the Carter G. Woodson Scholars Medallion by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. She was also inducted into the American Philosophical Society for promoting useful knowledge in 2010.^[5] Higginbotham was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Howard University in 2011. In 2012 she was honored with the Living Legacy award by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASAALH) was also awarded the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women’s History from the American Historical Association and the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Award from the Association of Black Women Historians.^[1]

In May 2012 Higginbotham received the Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising for her guidance and mentor ship of a Harvard undergraduate. Heidelberg University awarded her the James. W.C. Pennington Award in July 2013 for her contributions to African American Religious History. Higginbotham received the Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwukee in 2014. During the academic year in 2013-2014 she was the John Hope Franklin Fellow at the National Humanities Venter in Research Triangle Park, North Caroline. Most recently in March 2015, Higginbotham was named one of the "Top 25 Women in Higher Education" by Diverse Magazine. The most notable award Higginbotham has received was the 2014 National Humanities Meal which was awarded to her by President Barack Obama at the White how for "illuminating the African American journey.^[5][6]

References

1. Higginbotham, Evelyn. "Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham". The History Makers. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
2. Williams, Chad. "AWARDS & HONORS: 2014 NATIONAL HUMANITIES MEDALIST Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham". National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
3. Snowden-McCray, Lisa. "Evelyn B. Higginbotham, African American Historian Honored with White House Medal". AFRO. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
4. Higginbotham, Evelyn. "DR. EVELYN BROOKS HIGGINBOTHAM". The Legacy for Dr. John Hope Franklin. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
5. "Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham". Harvard University. Faculty of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
6. Schuessler, Jennifer (4 September 2016). "National Humanities Medal Winners Include Larry McMurtry and Alice Waters". ArtsBeat. Retrieved 2016-05-05.