David Garrow | |
|---|---|
| Born | David Jeffries Garrow (1953-05-11)May 11, 1953 (age 72) |
| Education | Wesleyan University Duke University |
| Occupation(s) | Historian,author |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Biography (1987) |
David Jeffries Garrow (born May 11, 1953) is an American author andhistorian. He wrote the bookBearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1986), which won the 1987Pulitzer Prize for Biography.[1][2] He also wroteLiberty and Sexuality (1994), a history of the legal struggles overabortion andreproductive rights in the U.S. prior to the 1973Roe v. Wade decision,Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama (2017), and other works.[3][4]
Professional historians and scholars in other fields have criticized Garrow's later work onMartin Luther King Jr. In 2019 Garrow authored an article for the magazineStandpoint in which he wrote he had seen aFederal Bureau of Investigation file with a handwritten note on it claiming King had witnessed, failed to prevent, and encouraged a sexual assault by another minister. Garrow said he found it credible. King specialists andCOINTELPRO historians described it as deeply irresponsible and excessively credulous in accepting the claim by the FBI during a period in which it had been given a remit to destroy King and his reputation.[5]
Garrow was born May 11, 1953[6] inNew Bedford, Massachusetts, the son of Barbara (née Fassett) and Walter Garrow.[7] He graduatedmagna cum laude fromWesleyan University in 1975 before receiving hisPh.D. fromDuke University in 1981.[8] In 1987, Garrow was a member of theDemocratic Socialists of America.[9]
Garrow writes frequently on the history of theUnited States Supreme Court and the history of theCivil Rights Movement, and regularly contributes articles on these subjects to non-academic publications includingThe New York Times,The Nation,Financial Times, andThe New Republic.
Garrow served as a senior adviser forEyes on the Prize, the award-winning PBS television history of the Civil Rights Movement covering the years 1954–1965. He has taught at Duke University (Instructor of History; 1978–1979),University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Assistant Professor of History; 1980–1984), theCity College of New York and theCUNY Graduate Center (Associate and full Professor of History; 1984–1991),Cooper Union (Visiting Distinguished Professor of History; 1992–1993), theCollege of William & Mary (James Pinckney Harrison Visiting Professor of History; 1994–1995),American University (Distinguished Historian in Residence; 1995–1996) and theEmory University School of Law (Presidential Distinguished Professor; 1997–2005). From 2005 to 2011, Garrow was a senior research fellow atHomerton College, Cambridge. From 2011 until 2018, he served as Professor of Law and History and John E. Murray Faculty Scholar at theUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Law.[10]
In 2019, Garrow readFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files about Martin Luther King Jr.[11][12] Garrow wrote an article about King, in part based on his interpretation of the FBI files, which he submitted toThe Atlantic,The Washington Post,The New York Times andThe Guardian, all of which rejected it.[13] The article was published in the now-defunct British conservative magazineStandpoint. Garrow wrote that the files suggest King may have encouraged and failed to prevent sexual violence. He said that he was reassessing his view of King.[11]
Many authors called Garrow's claim unreliable. Garrow's reliance on a handwritten note addended to a typed report is considered poor scholarship by several authorities. Peter Ling of theUniversity of Nottingham said that Garrow was excessively credulous, if not naive, in accepting the accuracy of FBI reports during a period when the FBI was undertaking a massive operation to attempt to discredit King as part of itsCOINTELPRO activities.[14] Experts in 20th-century American history, includingJeanne Theoharis,Barbara Ransby of theUniversity of Illinois Chicago,N. D. B. Connolly ofJohns Hopkins University andGlenda Gilmore ofYale University have expressed reservations about Garrow's scholarship in the essay. Theoharis commented "Most scholars I know would penalize graduate students for doing this." Garrow's usage of intelligence sources had previously been criticized.[15] The long-time civil rights activist Edith Lee-Payne suggested Garrow may have published his work in the area to obtain "personal attention" for himself.[14]
Garrow was interviewed for a 2020 documentary inspired by his work,MLK/FBI.[16][17]
David Garrow 1953 bedford.
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography from 1917–2022 | ||
| 1917–1925 |
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| 1926–1950 |
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| 1951–1975 |
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| 1976–2000 |
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| 2001–2025 |
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