Slavery scholar Willie Lee Rose dead at 91

NEW YORK – A groundbreaking scholar on slavery and Reconstruction has died. Willie Lee Rose was 91.

Rose died in her sleep June 20 at a Baltimore retirement community, Johns Hopkins University told The Associated Press on Thursday. Rose was known for the 1964 publication, “Rehearsal for Reconstruction,” a prize-winning study of a black community off the Atlantic coast and its struggles to build a post-slavery society.

The book won the Francis Parkman Prize for history among other honours and was cited as among the works that helped lead to a more balanced and positive view of Reconstruction and freed slaves.

In 1970, a committee led by Rose released an influential study condemning gender inequality in the historical profession. She taught at Johns Hopkins from 1973-1992.