MARY FRANCES BERRY

Mary Frances Berry is an historian, writer, lawyer, activist and professor who focuses on U.S. constitutional and legal, African-American history. She is from Nashville, TN and received her BA and MA from Howard University, her PhD in History and JD from the University of Michigan. Berry’s distinguished career in public service includes serving as Assistant Secretary for Education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1980 to 2004, including nine years as Chairwoman. She has also served as Provost of the University of Maryland and Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Berry teaches the History of American Law, and the History of Law and Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. She has written 10 books and received 35 honorary doctoral degrees and many awards, including the NAACP's Roy Wilkins Award, the Rosa Parks Award of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Ebony Magazine Black Achievement Award. She is one of 75 women featured in I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America.