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.
He joined in 1970, was first promoted to associate professor in 1977 and then to full professor in 1992. He was known for mentoring students and young faculty members.
“He nurtured four generations of African American historians who went on to become professors because of his mentorship,” said Crystal Sanders, an award-winning historian.
Gavins focused his scholarship on African American history. He played an important role in Duke’s oral history program, the Center for the Study of Civil Rights and Race Relations, and the Center for Documentary Studies’ Behind the Veil Project, an audio trove of 1,350 oral-history interviews with African Americans from across the South who remembered the days of Jim Crow.
He also wrote two books and published 77 scholarly articles, book chapters, essays and reviews.
Gavins was no stranger to the struggles endured by African Americans during the civil rights movement. Born in Atlanta, he broke color barriers by attending the graduate program at the University of Virginia.
“Not everyone talked to me; there were a few people who did. What I recalled a lot was certainly being alone a lot, in the dining halls and the libraries. No one bothered me,” he said in an article for the University of Virginia.
Gavins died following a sudden illness in May 2016 at the age of 77.
