Throughout the fifty-year history of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), fourteen women have served as president. In honor of the golden anniversary of NCOBPS and to highlight the experience of Black women as presidents of professional academic organizations, six of the twelve living former Black women presidents reflect on the triumphs and challenges of their tenures as former leaders through the lens of race and gender. Using a Black feminist/womanist life history study approach, this article features the written narratives of these leaders, spanning the period from 1980 to 2019. The semi-structured email interviews were conducted between May 2018 and July 2019. This article enhances our understanding of how race and gender identity can influence the decision-making of Black women presidents and how that impacts the direction of an institution like NCOBPS.
University of California Press