AUTHOR / EDUCATOR / HISTORIAN
Dr. Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social
Thought at the University of Pennsylvania where she teaches history and law.
In 1980, she was appointed by President Carter and confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. After President
Reagan fired her for criticizing his civil rights policies, she sued him and won reinstatement in federal district court. In 1993, President Clin ton designated her Chairperson of the Civil Rights Commission. She was reappointed in
January 1999.
Dr. Berry is also one of the founders of the Free South Africa Movement, which instigated protests at the South African Embassy in the struggle for democra cy in South Africa. She was arrested and jailed several times in the cause.
She was Assistant Secretary for Education in the U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare during the Carter Administration. As Assistant
Secretary, she coordinated and gave general supervision to nearly thirteen billion dollars of federal education programs.
Dr. Berry has appeared as a guest on numerous television news shows including "Nightline," "Crossfire," "Lead Story," "The News Hour," "Face the
Nation," "The Today Show," "Oprah Winfrey" and "Good Morning America."
Prior to her service at HEW, Dr. Berry was a Provost at the University of
Maryland at College Park and Chancellor at the University of Colorado at
Boulder.
Dr. Berry was educated at Howard University, the University of Michigan (Ph.D. in history) and the University of Michigan Law School. She is a member of the
District of Columbia Bar.

Dr. Berry has received thirty honorary doctoral degrees and numerous awards for her public service and scholarly activities, including the NAACP's Image
Award, the Rosa Parks Award of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and the Hubert Humphrey Award of the Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights. She is a past President of the Organization of American
Historians.
Dr. Berry's seven books include "The Pig Farmer's Daughter and Other Tales of Law and Justice"; "Race and Sex in the Courts 1865 to the Present"; "Long
Memory: The Black Experience in America" (with co-author John W.
Blassingame); "The Politics of Parenthood: Child Care, Women’s Rights and the Myth of the Good Mother” and “Black Resistance/White Law: A History of
Constitutional Racism in America.”
The 2005 President’s Awards for Diversity, Award Ceremony will be held Friday, April
1 st at 2:30 p.m. in the Student Center Theater. For more information, please contact the
President’s Commission on Diversity at 859-257-3493 or email Pam Bischoff, Staff
Assistant at psbisc0@email.uky.edu
. More information on nominations and the
President’s Awards for Diversity may be found on our website, www.uky.edu/PCD.