Author biography for benjamin quarles

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White historians openly questioned whether Blacks could write an objective history, and they believed that Black history lacked sufficient primary sources for serious research and writing. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Shaw University in 1931, his M.A. from the University of Wisconsin in 1933, and his Ph.D. His major books include "The Negro in the Civil War", "The Negro in the American Revolution" and "The Negro in the Making of America".

At Morgan State College Quarles reached near legendary status as the long-time head of the History Department from 1953 till 1974, a revered teacher and counselor, an intellectual and professional mentor for two generations of African American scholars, and an internationally acclaimed historian of the black experience in the United States.

A prolific writer, Quarles published ten books, twenty-three major articles, and hundreds of shorter pieces of various sorts.

His essays in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review in 1945 and 1959 were the first from a Black historian to appear in a significant historical journal.

Quarles’ first scholarly article, The Breach Between Douglass and Garrison, appeared in the Journal of Negro History in 1938 and spotlighted his interest in race relations. Quarles’ studies explore how Blacks and whites help shape each other’s identity individually and collectively.

Other African American contributions were documented by him in The Negro in the Civil War 1953, The Negro in the American Revolution 1961, and Black Abolitionist 1969.

Quarles shared with other scholars an optimistic appraisal of racial progress in the history of the United States. in 1940.

The author or editor of more than fourteen major books on African-American history— including the signature Negro in the Making of America, Frederick Douglass,The Black Abolitionist and The Negro in the American Revolution—Quarles was an historian whose work had the extraordinary quality of being pioneering and definitive.

Quarles joined the faculty of Morgan State College in 1953 as Professor and Chair of the History Department.

From Shaw, Quarles went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, where he earned an M.A. in 1933 and a Ph.D. Benjamin Quarles died in Baltimore in 1996 of a heart attack.

Personality

Quarles was refined, dignified, and professional. He was 92.

Achievements

• Quarles' book "Black Mosaic: Essays in Afro-American History and Historiography" received Senior Historian Scholarly Distinction Award from American Historical Association in 1988.
  
  In 1988 Morgan State University dedicated The Benjamin A.

  Quarles African-American Studies Room in the school library as a repository for his books, manuscripts, and memorabilia. During his years at Morgan, he became the first scholar named Distinguished Professor, and he was the first faculty member named Teacher-of-the-Year.

  Education

  Quarles enrolled at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, the oldest historically black college in the South, where he earned a B.A.

  in 1931. He remains Morgan’s greatest exemplar of scholarly achievement and effective teaching in African-American history and culture.