Clayborne Carson

Clayborne Carson has devoted his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African-American freedom struggle. Since receiving his doctorate from UCLA in 1975, Dr. Carson has taught at Stanford University, where he is now Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial professor of history and Ronnie Lott founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.

During his undergraduate years, Dr. Carson participated in civil rights and antiwar protests, and many of his writings reflect his experiences by stressing the importance of grassroots political activity within the African-American freedom struggle. Carson's publications include In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (1981); Malcolm X: The FBI File (1991); African American Lives: The Struggle for Freedom (2005, co-author); and a memoir, Martin's Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013).

In 1985, the late Coretta Scott King invited Dr. Carson to direct a long-term project to edit and publish the papers of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Under Carson’s direction, the King Papers Project has produced seven volumes of an ongoing comprehensive edition of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2005, Carson founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute to endow and expand the work of the King Papers Project.

*Since the NEH was founded, the agency has awarded more than $171 million to nearly three thousand projects on African American history and culture. Carson has been a recipient of NEH funding.

AFFILIATION: Stanford University