Historian Donald Spivey lectures at the University of Connecticut

Donald Spivey was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 18 July 1948 and attended the Richard T. Crane High School. He was the president of his class and graduated as class salutatorian. He enrolled at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, graduating with a B.A. "with distinction in history" (1971) and a M.A. in history (1972). In 1960s, he devoted himself to academics and a growing activism and was a member of the Black Students Association, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, and the fight to integrate the faculty and staff at the university, the anti-war movement, and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. In 1976, Donald completed his Ph.D. in history from the University of California where he studied under the tutelage of the renowned labor historian David Brody. Donald Spivey subsequently taught at the University of California at Davis, Wright State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Connecticut, where he was founding director of the Institute for African-American Studies. In 1993, he joined University of Miami serving as chair of the History department for five years. He is a frequent lecturer and commentator on television, radio and in print. His lecture on “Satchel Paige and Negro Leagues Baseball in the Civil Rights Movement” was broadcast on C-SPAN and his presentation on “The Historical Richness of Black Baseball in the New Negro Movement, 1919-1941,” at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington University Humanities Center Summer Institute. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Spivey / https://messages.miami.edu/messages/2020/07/07-02-20-presidents-letter.html / https://people.miami.edu/profile/dspivey@miami.edu /https://www.c-span.org/person/?74407/DonaldSpivey]