Department of History at Arizona State University boasts strong and expanding curriculum and training in African American History. The Department has assembled established and ascending scholars of African American history and life to explore, promote, and advance all aspects of the history of people of African descent in America. Defining African American history in the broadest possible sense with a dedication to Diasporic scholarship (the study of people of African descent in global perspective), our African American history teaching and research cluster calls upon a fine cadre of scholars who specialize in the histories African Americans in early America, the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 19th and 20th century America, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, the post Civil Rights Era, and contemporary America. Our cluster is an outgrowth of the significant strides that our Department have made in recruiting prominent faculty and emerging scholars to enhance the university's burgeoning strength and commitment to African American history and life, and the study of the African Diaspora in the Americas.

Faculty Profiles

Thomas J. Davis, Ph.D., J.D., is Professor of History at Arizona State University and an attorney admitted to practice law in Arizona and New York. Professor Davis specializes in U.S. constitutional, legal, and economic history. He is a  leading scholar on race in U.S. law and on African American history. His most recent book is Race Relations in America: A Reference Guide with Primary Documents.

Courses – Race and the Law in U.S. History; Origins of Civil Rights: From Slavery to Segregation; Constitutional History

Wendy Plotkin is Assistant Professor of History at Arizona State University. Professor Plotkin specializes in the dynamics of urban neighborhoods, especially on the issue of race and class in America. Her first book, Deeds of Mistrust: Race, Housing and Restrictive Covenants in Chicago, examines “racial restrictive covenants” against African-Americans in Chicago during the first half of the 20th century.

Courses - Racial Barriers in the United States and Canada in the 20th Century

Brooks D. Simpson, Ph.D. is Professor of History at Arizona State University.  Professor Simpson is one of the nation’s most noted authorities on the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era politics, and he has distinguished himself as an authority of various aspects of 19th century African American social and political history.  His latest book is Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822 –65.

Courses – Civil War and Reconstruction; Presidential Decisions, History and Memory

Matthew C. Whitaker, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University, where he specializes in African American history, Social Movements, Civil and Human Rights, Popular Culture, Race Relations, and the history of sports. His research focuses on Black leadership, activism, and the struggle for racial, economic, and gender equality. His first book is Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West.

Courses –Urban Rebellion; Civil Rights Movement; African American History Since 1865; Race, Ethnicity and Nation; Privilege Power and Protest; Playing for Keeps…Sports, Inequality and the “American Dream”

Linda Sargent Wood, Ph.D., has worked on several projects involving African American and American Indian education.  Her study of Manassas, Virginia (1840s-1870s) pays particular attention to the history of black people and race relations in northern Virginia.  Her current work on holistic thought includes Martin Luther King's vision of a beloved community.