Dr. Abel Bartley

is a native of Jacksonville, Florida where he graduated from Terry Parker High School in 1983. Later that year he enrolled in Florida State University where he received his BA in History and Political Science in 1987, his MA in History in 1990, and his Ph.D. in History in 1994 specializing is African American and Urban History. He is the author of twenty-five articles dealing with African American politics, history, culture and civil rights and has read professional papers at more than 50 conferences. Before accepting an Assistant Professor of History position at University of Akron in 1994, Dr. Bartley lectured and taught at a number of colleges and universities including, Florida State University, Florida A&M University, and Tallahassee Community College. While at the University of Akron, Dr. Bartley taught courses in US History, African American History, Urban History and Civil Rights. He is the author of 3 books and has written in several others. In 2000 he published Keeping the Faith: Race Politics and Social Development in Jacksonville, Florida, 1940-1970. In 2004 he published Akron’s Black Heritage. In 2009 he published a chapter in Thomas Green Clemson, and two chapters in Old South, New South, or Down South? Florida and the Modern Civil Rights Movement. His third book, the 2015 Stetson Kennedy Prize winner for the best book on Civil rights in the state of Florida, In No Ways Tired: The Struggle to Integrate the Duval County Public School System looks at the difficult and long process of integrating the Duval County Public School system. In 2000, Dr. Bartley was appointed the Director of the Pan African Studies Program. In 2002 he took over as Director of the Pan African Center for Community Studies. In 2004 he accepted the challenge of running the African American Studies program at Clemson University. Dr. Bartley has reshaped Clemson’s African American Studies program turning it into a degree granting program and renaming it the Pan African Studies Program. Currently, Dr. Bartley directs the Pan African Studies Program while maintaining a full-time faculty position in African American and Urban History at Clemson University.