Centennial Spotlights look back at the people who had an impact on Duke in its first hundred years, how they contributed to its meteoric rise and the trajectory they helped to set for the university that has endured through its first centennial and will continue to guide us into Duke’s second century.
Raymond Gavins
Raymond Gavins was a man of firsts. He was the first African American to be awarded a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. And he was the first African American to join the faculty of Duke University’s history department, where he stayed for 45 years.
