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acknowledgments For her continuous support and encouragement, I thank Christina Greer, my partner in so many ways. Without her, this book still might have reached its completion, but certainly not as happily. It is fortunate for us both that Christina was not alone in this sense. To my parents, Drs. Valerie H. Fisher and Samuel K. Roberts Sr., I have owed an immeasurable debt long before and continuing through my decision to become a historian. To my brother, Franklin Roberts, I owe a debt nearly as great for his example of humor, perspective , perseverance, and humanity. These are but four of the individuals whom I claim as family; there are many, many, others whom for the sake of brevity I cannot name here but to whom I also owe thanks. You know who you are. My professional training occurred at Princeton University under the generous tutelage of the Edwards Professor of History, Nell Irvin Painter, a master historian for whom any attempt to enumerate her accolades, accomplishments , and capacities as an intellectual leader inevitably would omit something of no small importance. My debt to her only begins with the countless number of ink pens that went dry as she read and commented on early versions of this work. As she has remained an exemplary mentor, friend, and role model, that debt has no end. Nell headed a fantastic committee of experts in African American history and the history of science, including Professors Angela Creager, Gerald Geison, Evelynn Hammonds, and Colin Palmer. I also thank Elizabeth Lunbeck and Daniel Rodgers, who helped me begin the work. Before I could muster the courage to submit draft materials to these scholars, I relied on my fellow Princeton graduate students , comrades with whom I shared many stimulating ideas: Dani Botsman , Tammy Brown, Marwa Elshakry, Omnia ElShakry, Crystal Feimster, Kevin Hicks, Sarah Igo, Paul Kramer, Barbara Krauthamer, Kenneth Mack, Amada Sandoval, and Chad Williams, among others. Beyond my graduate school cohort, I benefited from generous readings and exchanges with many scholars. As a scholar in residence at New York’s Schomburg Center for Black History and Culture in 2001–2, I could and did call on the combined insights of Kim D. Butler, Lisa Gail Collins, Chouki El Hamel, Rhonda D. Frederick, Paul Gilroy, Michele Mitchell, Jeffrey O. G. xii Acknowledgments Ogbar, Jeffrey Thomas Sammons, and Barbara Dianne Savage. With the usual caveat concerning the distribution of blame for the work’s shortcomings and of credit for its strengths, I note that they have been joined by many others who have loaned to the work their expertise and support: Emily Abel, Ellen Baker, Tom Bender, Elizabeth Blackmar, Casey Blake, Lundy Braun, Alan Brinkley, Elsa Barkley Brown, JoAnne Brown, Theodore Brown, Merlin Chowkwanyun, Cathy Cohen, Amy Fairchild, Elizabeth Fee, Barbara Jeanne Fields, Anthony Foy, Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Robert Fullilove , Steven Gregory, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Jean E. Howard, Ira Katznelson , Naa Oyo Kwate, Minkah Makalani, Manning Marable, Harry Marks, Alondra Nelson, Randall Packard, Millery Polyne, Susan Reverby, Charles Rosenberg, David Rosner, Shobana Shankar, Rhonda Y. Williams, and Daniel Wolfe. At Columbia University, I have been fortunate to have been a member of the departments of history and sociomedical sciences (Mailman School of Public Health) and a research fellow in the Institute for Research in African American Studies. I thank them for the material and intellectual support needed to move this book along. Grant and fellowship support for this work included the President’s Fellowship, the Sir Arthur Lewis Research Grant, and the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program Dissertation Writer’s Award (Princeton University, 1995–2000, 1998, and 2001, respectively); the Thurgood Marshall Predoctoral Fellowship and the Cutter-Shabazz Residential Fellowship (both held while in residence at Dartmouth College, 2000– 2001); the Faculty Research Assistance Program, William Dunning research funds, and junior faculty summer research assistance (Columbia University ); and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black History and Culture Residential Fellowship, 2001–2. Part of my time (2005–6) as a scholar in residence at the Dorothy and Lewis Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at New York Public Library and while holding a fellowship from Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation was spent in final revisions of this manuscript. Far too many to name are the librarians and archivists who had their hands in this project. Among the most encouraging were Rob Schoberlein at the Maryland State Archives and Becky Gunby and Tony Roberts of the Baltimore City Archives. I also must credit my editors at the...

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