Contact: Robbie Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Historian, author and scholar Stephen Middleton's life represents an example of African-Americans' access to the American Dream and obstacles they had to overcome to achieve it.
For Mississippi State, the new history professor and director of the land-grant university's new African-American Studies program represents a long-term commitment to research, statewide community engagement and teaching of a people's story within the larger context of American history.
A South Carolina native from a family of eight children, Middleton spent time in his youth participating in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Reared in a rural environment where he worked as a plowman and cotton picker, he realized that life had other opportunities for him.
"As a teenager, I decided to do something else," Middleton said.
Middleton went on to complete a bachelor's degree in history from Morris College in 1976 and, the following year, a master's in black studies, with a concentration in African-American history, from Ohio State University. Later, he earned a history doctorate from Miami University (1987) and attended New York University Law School for a time.
Middleton comes to MSU from North Carolina State University, where he had been a professor since 1989. He earlier taught at the University of Cincinnati and Wilberforce (Ohio) University.
Middleton has written four books in his research specialties, race and law. Among them is "The Black Laws: Race and the Legal Process in Ohio, 1787-1860" (2005, Ohio University Press). His current book project focuses on Robert Heberton Terrell, a former Virginia slave who became the first black appointed to a U.S. municipal judgeship.
"Law is the technique government uses to organize society," Middleton observed. "Through the technique of law, government decided who would be in one category and who would be in another, who would be slaves and who would not."
His other research interests also include black entrepreneurship and economic development.
Middleton said his short-term goals for the African-American Studies program include the development of an undergraduate minor and certification program, along with a graduate minor and certification for master's and doctoral students. Long term, he is hopeful that MSU students will have the opportunity to major in the field.
Overall, the new program will seek to spotlight a key part of American history, which he describes as an epic story of triumph and ongoing struggle.
"We're talking about people who were held in chains," Middleton said. "This gives us an opportunity to see how individuals move from one point to another point in society."
History department head Allen Marcus said MSU has taught courses emphasizing African-American history for more than 30 years, including those on Mississippi history and the American civil rights movement. This new program demonstrates a continuing commitment to a critical part of state history that connects to the present and future as part of the story of America, he emphasized.
"We have a rich interest in the past in Mississippi," Marcus said. "Here in the South, who your people were and what they did are of major interest."
Shortly after becoming MSU's 18th president last year, Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong made a commitment to create an African-American Studies program. Earlier this week, he said the program "will enhance the university's mission in scholarship, service and research.
"It will also provide outreach beneficial to our entire state," Foglesong added.
Middleton said MSU's African-American Studies program has special meaning for Mississippi, considered one of the major focal points during the civil rights movement.
"We're committed to scholarship and dissemination of knowledge," Middleton said. "We're serious scholars committed to the American dream, not just for African-Americans, but for all people."