David Garrow facts for kids

David Jeffries Garrow, born on May 11, 1953, is an American author and historian. He is known for writing important books about American history. One of his most famous books is Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1987. He has also written about other key moments in U.S. history.

About David Garrow

David Garrow is a respected historian who studies important events in American history. He focuses on topics like the United States Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Movement. His work helps us understand how these parts of history shaped the United States.

Early Life and Education

David Garrow was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on May 11, 1953. He went to Wesleyan University and graduated with high honors in 1975. Later, he earned his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1981. His strong education helped him become a leading historian.

A Historian's Work

David Garrow often writes articles for well-known newspapers and magazines. These include The New York Times and The Nation. He shares his knowledge about the Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Movement with many readers. He also worked as a senior adviser for Eyes on the Prize. This was an award-winning TV series about the Civil Rights Movement.

Teaching and Research

Throughout his career, David Garrow has taught at many universities. He has been a professor at places like Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Emory University School of Law. From 2005 to 2011, he was a senior research fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge. He also taught at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law until 2018.

Debates and Discussions

In 2019, David Garrow wrote an article about Martin Luther King Jr. This article was based on his reading of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files. The article caused a lot of discussion among other historians. Many experts said that Garrow's claims were not reliable. They pointed out that the FBI had tried to discredit King in the past. Historians like Peter Ling and Jeanne Theoharis questioned Garrow's approach. They felt he was too quick to believe the FBI's old reports. This shows how historians sometimes disagree on how to interpret historical documents.

Key Books by David Garrow

David Garrow has written several important books. Here are some of them:

• Protest at Selma (Yale University Press, 1978)
• The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Norton, 1981)
• Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Morrow, 1986)
• We Shall Overcome (as editor, three volumes of an 18-volume set, Carlson Pub., 1989)
• Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama (2017)
• The Troubling Legacy of Martin Luther King (2019)