Dr. Vicki Crawford

Dr. Vicki Crawford is a civil rights historian, scholar, and educator whose career focuses on documenting and interpreting the African American freedom struggle. Crawford is a graduate of Spelman College and holds a master's degree from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in American Studies from Emory University. She has completed post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Crawford has held faculty positions at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the State University of West Georgia, and Clark Atlanta University. Her teaching has been recognized with the Lilly Teaching Fellowship Award and the Vulcan Award for Teaching Excellence. As a Fulbright Fellow, Crawford conducted research and engaged with global civil rights themes in Ghana and Cameroon.

Crawford is recognized for centering women's contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. Her edited volume, "Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers," was among the first publications to examine the under-researched role of women in the African American freedom struggle. Her scholarship includes essays and book chapters, contributions to "Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia," and a chapter in "Sisters in the Struggle: Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements." She also co-edited "Reclaiming the Great World House: The Global Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.," published by University of Georgia Press as part of the Morehouse College King Collection Series on Civil and Human Rights, for which she serves as general series editor.

At Morehouse College, Crawford is associate professor of African American Studies and director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, an archive of more than 13,000 of Dr. King's books, sermons, speeches, and personal items. In this role, she develops campus programming and community outreach initiatives that advance Dr. King's teachings and nonviolent philosophy. Crawford also serves on the curatorial committee at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, overseeing rotating thematic exhibits of the King papers. As an oral historian, she has traveled throughout the South, interviewing grassroots activists and organizing community oral history workshops and exhibitions. Crawford is a frequent public speaker and has conducted public interviews with figures such as John Hope Franklin and Dorothy Height.

In recognition of her contributions to civil rights scholarship and her work to advance the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Crawford received France's national distinction, the Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur, presented at the French Residence in Atlanta. This international honor highlights the global significance of her work and her expertise on the Civil Rights Movement and the legacy of Dr. King.