Nell Painter to Become President of the Organization of American Historians

Later this month, Nell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of American History emerita at Princeton University, will become president of the 100-year-old Organization of American Historians. She will be the third African-American woman to hold the position.

Nell Painter was director of Princeton’s Program in African-American Studies from 1997 to 2000. She is the author of eight books including the highly regarded Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. Her most recent books are Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present, and Southern History Across the Color Line.

Painter is a 1964 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. She holds a master's degree in African history from UCLA and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.

Professor Painter retired from teaching in 2005 and is now studying for a degree in photography at Rutgers University.

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