Johns Hopkins Recognizes Connolly’s Historic Achievement
In 2016, N. D. B. Connolly reached a milestone that reshaped Johns Hopkins University. He became the first Black historian of the United States to earn tenure at the institution. This achievement placed him at the center of an academic space long defined by exclusion. Today, he serves as the Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History.
Connolly’s success represents more than a personal victory. It signals a shift within American higher education, where universities continue to face questions about equity, diversity, and representation. His role shows the importance of recognizing Black scholars who push the boundaries of historical research.
Research Rooted in Race, Power, and Everyday Life
Connolly’s work explores how race, law, and land shape everyday experience. His first book, A World More Concrete: Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow South Florida (2014), won multiple awards. The book reframed segregation in Miami as part of a global system of profit and extraction. It also highlighted the negotiations among Native Americans, Caribbean migrants, working-class whites, landlords, politicians, and Black communities.
By exposing how real estate and urban planning were tied to racial inequality, Connolly helped reframe debates about the profitability of racism. His research made clear that segregation was not only a moral failure but also a financial system.
Teaching Racial Literacy at Johns Hopkins
At Johns Hopkins, Connolly created a graduate course called Racial Literacy in the Archives. He built on ideas from legal scholar Lani Guinier, who emphasized the importance of racial literacy in understanding inequality. Connolly argued that historians need to read beyond the written word to see how race operates in documents, spaces, and institutions.
He explained that racial literacy means recognizing how race intersects with gender, class, faith, and other social categories. For Connolly, this approach is essential for building a deeper understanding of how history shapes present struggles.
Education, Mentors, and the Path to History
Connolly’s passion for history started early. His middle and high school teachers made history engaging through stories and art. Later, at St. Thomas University in Miami, mentors like Frank Sicius and Father James MacDougall influenced his academic path. Their teaching styles demonstrated the power of knowledge, memory, and performance in bringing history to life.
Originally, Connolly planned to become a high school history teacher. But with guidance and inspiration, he turned toward advanced scholarship. Graduate school opened the door to a career that merged storytelling with deep analysis.
The Urgency of Racial Literacy Today
Connolly stresses that racial literacy is more urgent than ever. Universities face pressure from political forces that threaten funding for programs advancing antiracist work. He reminds us that earlier federal interventions, such as those in the 1960s and 1970s, forced universities to hire Black faculty. Today, however, the opposite trend sometimes unfolds.
“The call for racial literacy is more important now than it’s ever been,” Connolly has explained. The struggle is not just about history. It is about whether institutions of higher learning will commit to truth, inclusion, and democracy.
Looking Ahead: History in a Changing World
Connolly also reflects on the challenges historians face in a digital age. Artificial intelligence, debates over academic integrity, and questions about whose history is told shape the field. Still, he remains hopeful.
He believes that grassroots storytelling, family memory, and everyday history-making will keep the discipline alive. “History doesn’t just reside in the ivory tower; it resides in homes and around the dinner table,” he has said. That vision keeps his work grounded in community and committed to truth.
