Biography
Early Life
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham was born in Washington, D.C., into a family that lived and breathed history. Her father, Albert Brooks, served as secretary-treasurer for the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. Her mother, Alma Elaine Campbell, taught high school history and later oversaw history education across the Washington, D.C. public school system. Evelyn had the chance to meet some of the most respected African American historians of the time when she was growing up. Their lives and work lit a fire in her. She knew early on that she wanted to teach, research, and write about African American history.
She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, her master’s degree from Howard University, and her PhD in American History from the University of Rochester. Each degree moved her closer to the work she was born to do.
Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920
Her grandfather was the pastor of the oldest Black Baptist congregation in Washington, DC. This church was the founding site for the National Association of Colored Women in 1896. This connection to historical and religious worlds led to write her 1993 groundbreaking text Righteous Discontent. In this book, she examined the role Black women played in shaping religious and social life in America. She focused on the National Baptist Convention during the late 1800s and early 1900s, showing how women transformed the church from the inside. She named their “politics of respectability” as a way of racial uplift. She told how Black women built schools. They served those living in poverty and pushed for social welfare programs at a time when few others were willing to do so. Under their leadership, the church became a center for community support and a force for real change. That change reached into civil and voting rights, jobs, and education. Her book made clear that Black women were not on the sidelines of history. They were driving it. The book stands as one of the most important works in American religious history.
Academic Career and Achievements
Higginbotham began her career as a public school teacher. Later she was a manuscript research associate at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. She held teaching positions at Dartmouth College and the Universities of Maryland and Pennsylvania. She married a federal judge Leon Higginbotham, Jr. in 1988. She joined Harvard University in 1993 as a professor of Afro-American Studies and African American Religious History. She was appointed the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies in 1998. This appointment is one of Harvard’s most respected faculty honors.
From 2006 to 2013, she chaired Harvard’s Department of African and African American Studies. She created the Social Engagement Initiative, a program that connected academic work with hands-on community experience. She also revised and updated From Slavery to Freedom, one of the most widely used surveys of African American history.
She has been recognized at the highest levels. President Barack Obama awarded her the National Humanities Medal in 2015. Diverse Magazine named her one of the Top 25 Women in Higher Education that same year. She has also gotten honorary degrees.
She served as president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History from 2016 to 2021. Her work has reached beyond the United States as well. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham helped shape the way America understands race, gender, and religion through her teaching, writing, and leadership. Her work continues to matter.
