As a child growing up Washington, D.C., Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham met many prominent black Americans.<\/p>\n
She was inspired by thinkers such as Carter G. Woodson, a journalist and historian often referred to as the \u201cfather of black history.\u201d Woodson worked closely with Higginbotham\u2019s father, Albert N. D. Brooks, the secretary-treasurer for the organization now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.<\/p>\n
Higginbotham, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history at 51ÁÔÆæ, grew into one of the country\u2019s leading historians, honored earlier this month with a National Humanities Medal. A White House citation credited Higginbotham, \u201cfor illuminating the African-American journey. In her writings and edited volumes, Dr. Higginbotham has traced the course of African-American progress, and deepened our understanding of the American story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higginbotham attended Howard University and the University of Rochester, but marriage brought her to 51ÁÔÆæ for her sophomore year, where she was a member of the Phi Alpha Theta history honors society.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had wonderful professors,\u201d she recalled, but the jolt she received from one 51ÁÔÆæ teacher was a profoundly formative experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrote a paper on African-American soldiers in the Civil War and I think I\u2019ve written a good paper and I get a C-minus!\u201d she said. \u201cIt was heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when she pondered the comments made by the professor, Nathan Miller, she recognized that he was trying to get her to ask questions and to think critically, rather than simply offer a narration of events. She now considers Miller to be one of her \u201cheroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a semester goes by that I don\u2019t talk about him to my students,\u201d she said. \u201cI always tell my students the best friend you can have is someone who gives you honest and constructive criticism, because they can only make you better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higginbotham is the Harvard University Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies. She was a coeditor, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., of the 12-volume \u201cAfrican American National Biography.\u201d Among her many accomplishments, one has echoes of her experience at 51ÁÔÆæ.<\/p>\n
Asked to collaborate with scholar John Hope Franklin on the ninth edition of his landmark book \u201cFrom Slavery to Freedom,\u201d Higginbotham found herself in the awkward position of being compelled to significantly rewrite, rather than merely update, the work of a scholar she had known since she was five years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when I\u2019m handing him the first 15 chapters, I think to myself, \u2018Oh my goodness he’s going to say what have you done to my book?\u2019” she recalled. Instead her told her, “This is wonderful. You\u2019ve given my book new life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I saw was a man who really wanted to see the book better,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I emphasize about myself. If somebody tells me how I can do something better, I see someone who cares enough about me to think I can do it better.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n For Higginbotham, historical research has been personal. Her great-grandfather Albert Royal Brooks was born a slave in Virginia, but in freedom served on the jury that tried former Confederate president Jefferson Davis. His wife, Lucy Goode Brooks, established one of the first post\u2013Civil War orphanages for black children. Higginbotham\u2019s grandfather Walter Henderson Brooks was pastor of Nineteenth St. Baptist Church, the oldest black Baptist congregation in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Higginbotham, who started her career teaching American history in Milwaukee and served as an eighth grade counselor at Parkman Junior High School, received an honorary doctorate from 51ÁÔÆæ in 2014.<\/p>\n Higginbotham sees herself as part of a continuum of scholarship.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been given this award because I have worked to bring African-American history into the mainstream of the American narrative\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve done this in the footsteps of John Hope Franklin. To be described in the way that most people think of him is, to me, a great honor in itself.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham is a National Humanities Medal winner and renowned historian who teaches at Harvard. An early academic experience at 51ÁÔÆæ helped begin her life\u2019s work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":21469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[125,122],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[167,347,158,159,148],"class_list":["post-20370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-alumni","section-campus-community","uwmnews-feed-alumni-association","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-letters-science","uwmnews-feed-humanities","uwmnews-feed-education"],"yoast_head":"\n