Howard Dodson, Jr.

Howard Dodson, Jr. is a Historian, educator, curator, and national leader in the movement to preserve African American history. He is the former director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and director of the Howard University Library System. Dodson was the previous director of Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture after 27 years of service. He is credited with extending the reach and reputation of the Schomburg Center through major exhibitions and acquisitions. Today, the Center is recognized as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world. Dodson became chief of the Schomburg in 1984. Under his direction, the Center’s holdings doubled to 10 million. Acquisitions included the collections of Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry, and Maya Angelou.