David Levering Lewis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Levering Lewis
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| Born | May 25, 1936 Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Fisk University Columbia University London School of Economics |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize (1994, 2001) National Humanities Medal 2009 Bancroft Prize Francis Parkman Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History |
| Institutions | New York University |
David Levering Lewis (born May 25, 1936) is a famous American historian. He was a professor of history at New York University. He is well-known for winning the Pulitzer Prize twice for his books about the life of W. E. B. Du Bois. He was the first author to win two Pulitzer Prizes for books about the same person.
Mr. Lewis has written many books and edited others. He focuses on comparing different historical events. He especially studies the social history of the United States in the 1900s and the Civil Rights Movement. He is also interested in Africa in the 1800s, France in the 1900s, and Islamic Spain.
Contents
Growing Up and Learning
Early Life in Arkansas and Ohio
David Lewis was born in 1936 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He grew up in an African-American family that valued education. His father, John Henry Lewis Sr., went to Morris Brown College and Yale Divinity School. He was the first African-American to graduate from Yale Divinity School.
David's father also earned a master's degree in sociology from the University of Chicago. He became a school principal and later the president of Morris Brown College. David's mother, Alice U. Bell Lewis, was a high school math teacher.
While living in Little Rock, David went to a religious school. Later, his family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio, because his father became a dean at Wilberforce University. David attended Wilberforce Preparatory School and Xenia High School there.
College and Advanced Studies
The family moved to Atlanta when his father became president of Morris Brown College again. David attended Booker T. Washington High School for his junior year. He was very smart and started college early at age fifteen.
He went to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated with high honors in 1956. After college, David briefly studied law at the University of Michigan Law School. However, he decided to study history instead.
He went to Columbia University and earned his master's degree in history in 1959. Then, he traveled to the London School of Economics for his Ph.D. (doctorate). He completed his Ph.D. in 1962, focusing on modern European and French history. From 1961 to 1962, Mr. Lewis served in the United States Army in Germany.
Personal Life
David Lewis has three adult children. Their names are Eric, Allison, and Jason.
Teaching and Research Career
Early Teaching Positions
In 1963, David Lewis began his teaching career. He lectured on medieval African history at the University of Ghana. When he returned to the United States, he taught at several universities. These included Morgan State University, the University of Notre Dame, Howard University, and the University of the District of Columbia. He taught at these schools from 1970 to 1980.
From 1980 to 1984, Mr. Lewis was a history professor at the University of California at San Diego.
Rutgers and New York University
In 1985, David Lewis joined Rutgers University. He became the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of History there. During his 18 years at Rutgers, he wrote his famous two-volume biography of W. E. B. Du Bois. These books later won him Pulitzer Prizes. He also finished writing The Race to Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance in the Scramble for Africa during this time.
In 2001, he was a visiting professor at Harvard University's history department. In 2003, Mr. Lewis was appointed as the Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History at New York University.
He has received special grants and support from many important organizations. These include the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. He also received support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Professional Achievements
Writing and Awards
David Lewis wrote the first academic biography of Martin Luther King Jr.. This book was published in 1970, less than two years after Dr. King's death. Other important books he wrote include Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair (1974) and When Harlem Was in Vogue (1980).
His two-volume biography of W. E. B. Du Bois earned him two Pulitzer Prizes. He won the first Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for the first volume. For this book, he also won the Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize. He won the second Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for the second volume. In 2001, he also received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for this second book.
Other Roles and Recognition
Mr. Lewis has served on the boards of important cultural and historical institutions. He was a trustee of the National Humanities Center. He was also a commissioner of the National Portrait Gallery.
He has appeared as a history expert in documentaries. These include New York: A Documentary Film (1999) for PBS. He also appeared in The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013), another PBS documentary series.
He was the president of the Society of American Historians in 2002. He is also a board member for The Crisis magazine, which is published by the NAACP. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
In 2010, President Barack Obama gave him the 2009 National Humanities Medal at the White House. This award recognizes people who have made great contributions to the humanities.
Honorary Degrees
David Lewis has received many honorary degrees from universities. These degrees recognize his important contributions to history and education.
- Doctorate of Humane Letters from Harvard University in 2023
- Doctor of Humane Letters from University of the District of Columbia in 2016
- Doctorate of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, from Columbia University in 2015
- Honorary Degree from Northwestern University in 2010
- Honorary Degree from New School University in 2005
- Doctor of Humane Letters from Bates College in 2004
- Doctor of Humane Letters from Marymount Manhattan College in 2004
- Doctor of Letters from Emory University in 2003
- Doctor of Letters from Wheaton College in 2003
- Honorary Doctorate from Bard College in 2002
- Honorary Doctorate from Teachers College at Columbia University in 2002
- Honorary Doctorate from Lehman College in 1995
Books by David Levering Lewis
- Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair, William Morrow, 1974.
- District of Columbia: A Bicentennial History, W.W. Norton, 1976.
- The Race for Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance in The Scramble for Africa. New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987 ISBN: 1-55584-058-2
- When Harlem Was in Vogue New York: Knopf, 1981, ISBN: 9780394495729
- The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, Viking, 1994, ISBN: 9780670845101 (as editor)
- A Small Nation of People: W. E. B. Du Bois & African American Portraits of Progress, HarperCollins, 2003 (with Deborah Willis).
- God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2008.
- The Implausible Wendell Willkie: Leadership Ahead of Its Time in Walter Isaacson (ed.) Profiles in Leadership (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011).
See also
In Spanish: David Levering Lewis para niños
