Three African Americans Elected Members of the American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, is America’s oldest learned society. Past members have included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Edison.

Today there are 975 elected members of the society. Recently, 38 new members were elected. Of these, three are black:

• Lawrence J. Bobo, W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University;

• Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Professor of Education at Harvard University; and

• Claude Steele, Lucy Stern Professor in the Social Sciences and director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.