Accomplished
scholar, educator, Africanist, and anthropologist, Niara Sudarkasa, was
born Gloria Albertha Marshall on August 14, 1938, in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida. Sudarkasa was a gifted student who excelled at Dillard
Elementary and Dillard High School; skipping several grades, she was a
junior at the age of fourteen, and accepted early admission to Fisk
University on a Ford Foundation Scholarship when she was just fifteen
years old. In 1955, Sudarkasa transferred to Oberlin to complete her
studies. Sudarkasa earned her A.B. degree in anthropology and English
from Oberlin in 1957. In 1959, Sudarkasa received her M.A. degree in
anthropology from Columbia University. In 1961, Sudarkasa traveled to
London and Nigeria to complete doctoral research on Yoruba language and
culture. While completing her PhD, Sudarkasa taught at Columbia,
becoming the first African America woman to teach at the university; she
earned her PhD from Columbia in 1964.
Sudarkasa achieved another first when she became the first African
American woman to be appointed assistant professor of anthropology at
New York University in 1964. Sudarkasa was also the first African
American to be appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the
University of Michigan in 1969. While at Michigan, Sudarkasa became
involved in civil rights and student issues; she quickly climbed the
academic ladder at Michigan, ending her seventeen year tenure as
associate vice president for academic affairs. Sudarkasa left Michigan
in 1986 when she became the first female to serve as president of
Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Sudarkasa’s accomplishments at Lincoln are highlighted in the report, Lincoln University – The Drive Toward Distinction.
Under Sudarkasa’s presidency the university increased enrollment,
strengthened its undergraduate and international programs, and put into
place an ambitious minority recruitment effort; she left her post at
Lincoln in 1998.
Sudarkasa serves as Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the African
American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Sudarkasa has authored numerous publications, including The Strength of Our Mothers: African And African American Women in Families; Where Women Work: Yoruba Traders in the Marketplace and in the Home; and Exploring the African American Experience.
Sudarkasa has been awarded thirteen honorary degrees over the course of
her career, including one from Ft. Hare in South Africa, and is the
recipient of nearly 100 civic and professional awards. In 2001
Sudarkasa became the first African American to be installed as a chief
in the historic Ife Kingdom of the Yoruba of Nigeria.