Institute for Families in Society

(PhD, Social Policy and Research, Brandeis University; MA, Sociology, University of Michigan; MS, Social Service [MSW], Boston University),
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Professor and former Professor of Sociology and African American Studies and Senior-Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute. He is emeritus professor and former chair of family studies at the University of Maryland, and he has also served as president of Morgan State University and vice-president for academic affairs at Howard University. Dr. Billingsley is the recipient of the DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Association of Black Sociologists. A highly regarded author, Dr. Billingsley has published a range of works, including the seminal volume Black Families in White America. Other publications include Climbing Jacob's Ladder: The Enduring Legacy of African American Families; Children of the Storm; Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform; and, his most recent work, Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and his Families.

Published by the University of South Carolina Press in 2007, Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and his Families offers the first biography of Smalls to assess the influence of his families - black and white, past and present - on his life and enduring legend. In so doing, Billingsley creates a compelling mosaic of evolving black-white social relations in the American South as exemplified by this famous figure and his descendants. For more information on this highly regarded work, see http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/