Centennial Spotlight: Anne Firor Scott
In ongoing celebration of Duke's centennial, this week we recognize Centennial Spotlight Anne Firor Scott. Scott was a pioneering historian who significantly increased the visibility of women in American history. Teaching at Duke University for three decades, she produced influential scholarship that earned her the National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama for "groundbreaking research spanning ideology, race, and class." Her landmark book, The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, published in 1970, challenged the stereotype of the powerless "Southern lady" and highlighted Southern women's roles in the public sphere, particularly during the women's suffrage movement. A graduate of the University of Georgia and holder of a Ph.D. from Radcliffe, Scott became the W. K. Boyd Professor of History at Duke, where she authored several works that depicted women as active community members across various races and classes. Scott received numerous accolades, including having an award named in her honor by the Organization of American Historians for outstanding doctoral dissertations in U.S. women's history. In 1991, she was awarded Duke’s University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Services, the institution's highest honor.