Donald Spivey


Donald Spivey is an American historian and Distinguished Professor at University of Miami.

Early life and career

Spivey was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Richard T. Crane High School. He was the president of his class, which was the last winter graduating class at the school in 1967. He graduated as class salutatorian and later enrolled at the University of Illinois of the Big Ten Conference and journeyed to Urbana-Champaign. 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. Spivey holds a B.A. "with distinction in history" and a M.A. in history both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In 1976, he finished his PhD in history from the University of California, Davis where he studied under the tutelage of labor historian David Brody. Donald Spivey has taught at the University of California, Davis, Wright State University, the University of Michigan, and 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 department for five years. He is a frequent lecturer and commentator on TV, radio and in the print medium. See, for example, his lecture on "Satchel Paige and Negro Leagues Baseball in the Civil Rights Movement" 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.

Honors and awards