Howard Dodson Biography
Howard Dodson, Director Emeritus of the Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture, is currently Director of Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research
Center and Director of Howard University Libraries. A specialist in African American
and African Diasporan history, as well as an author, curator, cultural activist and
innovative administrator, Dodson served as Director of the Schomburg Center from
1984-2011.
Under his leadership, the Schomburg Center developed into the world’s
most comprehensive public research library exclusively documenting and interpreting
African Diasporan and African histories and cultures. During his tenure, the Center’s
collections increased from 5 million to more than 10 million items. Users grew from
40,000 to 125,000 annually. Two major capital campaigns raised $15.2 million (1989)
and 26.2 million (2000) respectively. Two major renovation projects increased the
physical plant to 75,000 square feet, adding a new Langston Hughes Auditorium, and a
new scholars center, exhibition hall and gallery, special collections divisions and lobby
and building façade.
A passionate supporter of scholars and scholarship, Dodson also established The
New York Public Library’s first Scholar-in-Residence Program which funded over 120
residency fellowships for scholars researching the black experience.
Dodson has published ten books including Jubilee: The Emergence of African
American Culture (2002), In Motion: The African American Migration Experience
(2005. Two on-line products are especially noteworthy. Schomburg Studies on the
African Experience (with Colin Palmer) surveyed the state of scholarship on thirty
themes in the field of Black Studies, while In Motion: The African American Migration
Experience (with Sylviane Diouf), a 25,000 page website offers a wealth of primary and
secondary sources,essays and lesson plans documenting this central theme in AfricanAmerican history. Dodson has also curated more than 25 exhibitions including “Lest We
Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery” which as adopted by UNESCO, translated into four
languages and exhibited throughout the Atlantic World.
For more than 17 years, as Chairman of its Federal Steering Committee Dodson
played a leading role in transforming New York’s long lost African Burial Ground into a
National Monument. He was also a member of the President’s Commission on the
National Museum of African American Culture and History.
A graduate of West Chester State College (B.S., 1961) and Villanova University
(M.A., 1964), Dodson completed an ABD in History at the University of California at
Berkeley in 1974. He has been awarded five honorary doctorates. In November 2010, he
was designated a New York City “Living Landmark” by the New York Landmarks
Conservancy.