African American Studies Staff

My central scholarly interests are 20th century African American history. In 2015, the University Press of Kentucky published the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. I served as one of the three general editors of this unique book. Also, during my tenure at WKU, I served as an elected member of the Governing Board of the Kentucky Historical Society and appointed member and vice-chair of the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission. 

My publications include the following books: Onward and Upward: A Centennial History of Kentucky State University 1886-1986 (Frankfort: 1987), Fifty Years of Segregation: Black Higher Education in Kentucky 1904-1954 (Lexington: 1997) and The Pursuit of Excellence: Kentucky State University 1886-2020 (Charlotte, NC: 2021).  I have chapters in the following: Community Memories: A Glimpse of African American Life in Frankfort (Lexington: 2003) and A Commemoration of WKU's Integration/1956-2006 (Bowling Green: 2006). Three articles have been published: "Green Pinckney Russell of Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute for Colored Persons," Journal of Black Studies 25 (May 1995) 5: 610-621;  "Green Pinckney Russell, Francis Marion Wood, and the Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute 1912-1929: A Study in Politics and Race," Filson Club History Quarterly, Volume 69, No. 2, 171-188 and “ ‘Kentucky is More Or Less Civilized’: Alfred Carroll, Charles Eubanks, Lyman Johnson, and the Desegregation of Kentucky Higher Education, 1939-1949,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (Summer/Autumn 2011), 327-350.