Evan Howard Ashford

Evan Howard Ashford was raised in Kosciusko, Mississippi. He is the son of Mr. Charles H. Ashford and the late Mrs. Linda J. Ashford. He was class Valedictorian, and he holds 5 degrees that include a B.S. in Accounting (Mississippi State University), M.A. in Public Policy and Administration (Mississippi State University), History (Jackson State University), and Afro-American Studies, and a Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies (University of Massachusetts Amherst). He is an Assistant Professor in the History Department and the Interim Director of the Center for Racial Justice and Inclusive Excellence at SUNY Oneonta. Dr. Ashford's monograph, Mississippi Zion: The Struggle for Liberation in Attala County, 1865-1965 examines the role late 19th century rural Black liberation politics played in shaping 20th?century southern Jim Crow society. Mississippi Zion is the recipient of the Mississippi Historical Society Book of the Year Award and the Anna Julia Cooper & CLR James Award for Outstanding Scholarly Publication in Africana Studies. The book was a finalist for the ASALH Book Prize and nominated for best nonfiction work by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His other publications include Freedom Courts: An Analysis of Black Women's Divorce in Attala County During Mississippi's Anti-Divorce Campaign, 1890-1940 and Medical Messiahs: African American Women in Mississippi Medicine, 1900-1940. He received a "Special Thanks" credit for his contribution to Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Other honors include the Richard Siegfried Junior Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence and the Thurgood Marshall Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.