The Right Man
James Edward Shepard's Leadership in Education and Race
Henry Lewis Suggs
“The Right Man is a powerful, authoritative biography of Dr. James Edward Shepard, founder of North Carolina Central University and one of the most influential African American educational leaders of the early twentieth century. Henry Lewis Suggs has brought together one of the most extensive collections of materials on Shepard’s life, resulting in a compelling narrative that places Shepard squarely at the center of major conversations about leadership, education, race, and institution building in the Jim Crow South. This book reflects decades of archival digging, intellectual commitment, and personal investment, and it will be valuable to scholars of African American, Southern, and higher education history. The Right Man offers a clear, engaging account of the negotiations, personalities, financial challenges, and overlapping networks that shaped NCCU’s development. Readers gain a vivid picture of how Shepard built relationships with major philanthropists like B. N. Duke, Julian Carr, and George Watts, and how he navigated the racial politics of the early twentieth-century South. Suggs’s discussion of Durham’s Black civic networks—featuring figures like C. C. Spaulding, Aaron Moore, and W. G. Pearson—helps explain the environment that made NCCU’s creation and growth possible. Suggs captures Shepard’s skill as a fundraiser, organizer, lobbyist, and advocate, presenting him as a visionary leader who saw education as a powerful tool for Black advancement.”
— Charles Denton Johnson, North Carolina Central University
About the Author
Dr. Henry Lewis Suggs is professor emeritus of American history at Clemson University. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from North Carolina Central University, and his Ph.D in American History from the University of Virginia. Dr. Suggs joined the history department at Clemson University in 1983 as an assistant professor and in 1992 became the second African American faculty member to be promoted to the rank of full professor. In 2003, NCCU Chancellor James H. Ammons appointed Dr. Suggs scholar in residence and tasked him with writing the history of NCCU. Dr. Suggs is the author of numerous articles on the American South, African American history and African American journalism. His previous books include The Black Press in the Middle West, 1865-1985; P.B. Young, Newspaperman: Race, Politics, and Journalism in the New South, 1910-1962; and The Black Press in the South, 1865-1979.
