Growing Up in Alabama: Poor, Black, and Male, 1926-1947

Dr. Andrew Billingsley is one of the earliest and foremost scholars of the African-American family. Retired from a distinguished academic career, Dr. Billingsley has been at work on his autobiography, periodically here at Pendle Hill. We are honored to have him with us this evening to share memories of his own experience of family — and growing up poor, Black, and male in Alabama from this work in progress.

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A native of Birmingham, Dr. Billingsley earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Grinnell College, master’s degrees in social service from Boston University and sociology from the University of Michigan, and his doctoral degree in social service from Brandeis University. He was a faculty member and administrator at the University of California at Berkeley and vice president of academic affairs at Howard University before serving as president of Morgan State University in Baltimore from 1975 – 84. Dr. Billingsley returned to teaching and research at the University of Maryland and served as a visiting professor at Spelman College before joining the University of South Carolina in 1996., from which he has retired as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and African American Studies and Scholar-in-Residence at USC’s Institute for Families and Society.

A prolific author, he has written numerous books, including the seminal work, Black Families in White America, as well as Climbing Jacob’s Ladder: The Enduring Legacy of African American Families, Children of the Storm, Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform, and his recent book, Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families.

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