Appointment of Board of Governors Professor Deborah Gray White as Chair of the Committee on Enslaved and Disenfranchised Populations in Rutgers History

November 23, 2015

To Members of the Rutgers-New Brunswick Community,

Recently, I informed our community of the formation of a new committee to study the role of enslaved and disenfranchised populations in Rutgers University-New Brunswick’s history. The committee will be charged with examining the role that the people of these disadvantaged groups played in the founding and development of Rutgers-New Brunswick, and with making recommendations to me on how the University can best acknowledge and commemorate their influence on our history. The committee will be composed of faculty, staff, and student members. I am enormously pleased to announce that Dr. Deborah Gray White, Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History, has agreed to chair the committee.

Professor White, an American historian who has been at Rutgers-New Brunswick since 1984, specializes in African American and American Women’s history, particularly with regard to issues of identity and the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Dr. White’s many books include the path-breaking Ar’n’t I A Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, originally published in 1985 and now in its second edition; Let My People Go: African-Americans 1804-1860 and Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994. She co-authored Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, which is in its second edition. Dr. White is also a Woodrow Wilson International Scholar and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow.

During her 31 years at Rutgers-New Brunswick, Dr. White has not only been a scholar and teacher, but she also co-directed of The Black Atlantic: Race, Nation and Gender project at the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis and chaired the School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of History.

I can think of no one more qualified to lead this meaningful examination of our history than Professor White. Her leadership and wisdom has for more than three decades been an immense resource to the University and those qualities have never been more essential for us than they are now. With that in mind, please join me in congratulating and supporting Dr. White.

Richard L. Edwards, Ph.D.
Chancellor, Rutgers–New Brunswick