Stacey Abrams to Join Howard University in Role Focused on Race, Politics
Stacey Abrams, the former two-time candidate for Georgia governor, voting rights activist and author, is joining the faculty of Howard University, the historically Black college in the nation’s capital announced Wednesday.
Abrams will be the inaugural Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics. She expects to start the multiyear appointment in September and will travel some to D.C. but remain based in Georgia.
“We are entering an inflection point in American politics where the conversation of race and Black politics will be a central facet,” Abrams said, “and having the chance to help guide part of the conversation for young people who are studying at Howard University is an exceptional opportunity.”
Howard President Wayne A.I. Frederick said the appointment speaks to Walters’s legacy around the topics of Black politics and the role politics plays in African American life. “Stacey Abrams epitomizes that in our contemporary experience, in our society.”
“The work she has been doing on voter registration and voting irregularities, especially in Georgia but across the country, speaks to a lot of what Ronald Walters embodied. This appointment is extremely important for our students,” he said, adding that he hopes it will help them create solutions to those problems.