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A historian and storyteller whose research interests include black higher education and college student activism, DR. CRYSTAL A. deGREGORY is an associate professor of history and the founding director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Center for the Study of Women and Girls at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Known for her collaborative advocacy and entrepreneurial leadership, she is also the founder and director of two digital storytelling projects HBCUstory and Dorian and Beyond, a digital storytelling project of Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas. This gifted orator and sought-after commentator offers a wide range of expertise on multiple topics, including race, women and girls, history, culture, education, and, of course, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Hailed “young sister leader” by Spelman College and Bennett College President Emerita Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, Dr. deGregory’s words have appeared in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today, TIME, Orlando-Sentinel, The Tennessean, Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, Los Angeles Times, The State Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader, The Key Reporter, Nashville Scene, The Atlanta Voice, Tri-City Defender, The Houston Chronicle, EducationDIVE, INSIGHT Into Diversity, The Nation, The Feminist Wire and Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Most recently, she was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College and, in December 2022, she authored her first book, Magic and Mortal (Juju Collective, 2022), an introduction to her poetic voice. deGregory’s forthcoming book Greatest Good: Nashville’s Black Colleges, Their Students, and the Fight for Freedom, Justice, and Equality is under contract with Vanderbilt University Press.

“She has written chapters featured in numerous books, including “Their Highest Calling: The Progressive Ethos of Black College Women in Nashville,” in the forthcoming book The Work of Tennessee Progressive Era Women as well as in Reclaiming the Great World House: The Global Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2019), Black Colleges in the Diaspora: Global Perspectives on Identity and Culture (2018), Gumbo for the Soul: Liberating Memoirs and Stories to Inspire Females of Color (2016) and In an Inescapable Network of Mutuality: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Globalization of an Ethical Ideal (2013). Dr. deGregory also served as the editor of Emancipation and the Fight for Freedom (2013), the sixth volume of the 12-part series “Tennessee in the Civil War: The Best of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly.”

Dr. deGregory has presented to audiences at TEDx, SXSWedu, Capital One, the Southern Festival of Books, the Nashville Public Library, Nashville Public Television, The New School, Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Historic Preservation, Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, Ford, Nissan North America, National Institutes of Health, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She has also given talks and served on panels for Alcorn State, Bethune-Cookman, Edward Waters, Fisk, Florida Memorial, Harvard, Howard, Michigan-Ann Arbor, Tennessee State, Vanderbilt, and Wilberforce universities.

A proud native of The Bahamas and a Phi Beta Kappa alumna of the historic Fisk University, she also earned Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in history from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Education from Tennessee State University. Among her myriad professional and civic affiliations is trusteeship of the Tennessee Historical Society, service on the Tennessee State Parks Black Heritage Advisory Committee and Mellon Fisk Portal to Rosenwald Collections Advisory Board as well as membership with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Recent Publications

The Curious Case of Black Women in HBCU Presidential Leadership.” With Dr. Elizabeth C. Stewart. HBCU Times. Winter 2024.

“The Program Went On As Planned.” DIVERSE. September 26, 2023.

“Mary McLeod Bethune As Mother To Wildcats Everywhere.” Daytona Times. May 11, 2023.

“VP Harris Fisk Visit Continues Tradition of HBCU Chapel Activism.” DIVERSE. April 14, 2023.

“For Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune’s legacy, ‘the fight is not yet over.’” Orlando Sentinel. March 25, 2023.

“Diane Nash Merits the Presidential Medal of Freedom, But She Deserves Much More.” The Tennessean. June 13, 2022.

“Foreword,” Heritage & Honor: 150 Year Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Dr. Paul Kwami and Delisa Minor Harris, Consultants. Nashville: Tunisia Scott Consulting LLC. June 2022.

“The Fisk Jubilee Singers’ Legacy Continues to Inspire and Thrive.” The Tennessean. November 4, 2021.

Crystal A. deGregory and Lewis V. Baldwin. “Sexism in the World House: Women and the Global Vision of Martin Luther King Jr.” in Reclaiming the Great World House: The Global Vision of Martin Luther King Jr. Vicki L. Crawford and Lewis V. Baldwin, Editors. University of Georgia Press. September 2019.

“Here in the Bahamas, Every Generation Has Its Storm Stories. The Tale of Hurricane Dorian Is Still Being Written.” TIME. September 4, 2019.

“When Blackness is on Full Display.” DIVERSE Issues in Higher Education. May 12, 2019.

“How the Black Colleges Beyoncé Honors in Homecoming Have Played a Vital Role in American History.” TIME. April 19, 2019.

Crystal A. deGregory. “Black History Month Op-Ed: From Blackface to Nooses in Fashion, Why Enough Is Enough.” Footwear News. February 25, 2019.

Crystal A. deGregory. “Forever Forward.” The State Journal. February 15, 2019.

Crystal A. deGregory. Film Review. “Stanley Nelson, director. Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities.” American Historical Review. February 2019.

Crystal A. deGregory and Kayla C. Elliott. “Plenty of Good Room.” HBCU Times. November 2018.

Kayla C. Elliott, Brittany-Rae Gregory and Crystal A. deGregory. “Yet With A Steady Beat: Advocating Historically Black Colleges and Universities as Black Women in the Age of Trump’s America.” Women, Gender, and Families of Color. Spring 2018.

Crystal A. deGregory. “Authentic and unapologetic, Stacey Abrams is well positioned to make history yet again.” The Atlanta Voice. June 8, 2018.

T. Elon Dancy II, Brian K. Hotchkins, Crystal A. deGregory and Stevie Johnson. “An HBCU in the Anglophone Caribbean: Sociohistorical Perspectives on the University of the Virgin Islands.” Black Colleges in the Diaspora: Global Perspectives on Identity and Culture. M. Christopher Brown II and T. Elon Dancy II, editors. December 2017.

Media Coverage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYVjKKWRcl4

Social Media

hbcustorian

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

Caribbean, United States

Expertise by Chronology

19th century, 20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Emancipation, Gender, Higher Ed, Public History, Race, Slavery, Women