Louis R. Harlan

Louis R. Harlan (1922-2010) was an American historian renowned for his two-volume biography of Booker T. Washington, Booker T. Washington: The Making of a Black Leader, 1856-1901 (1972, Bancroft Prize) and Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901-1915 (1983, Pulitzer Prize for Biography, second Bancroft Prize, Beveridge Award), as well as editing the 14-volume Booker T. Washington Papers. A white Southerner who actively supported civil rights, he taught at the University of Maryland, served as president of the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, and Southern Historical Association, and authored earlier works like Separate and Unequal (1958) on Southern school racism.