Mary Frances Berry

Novelist

Birthday February 17, 1938

Birth Sign Aquarius

Birthplace Nashville, TN

Age 86 years old

#88715 Most Popular

About

American writer, academic, and former president of the Organization of American Historians. An expert on social history and law, she also served as Chairwoman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Before Fame

She began her college career at Nashville's Fisk University, but later transferred to Howard University. She went on to receive both her Ph.D. and her J.D. from the University of Michigan.

Trivia

She held a professorship in history at the University of Pennsylvania and also served a term as Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Family Life

She was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Frances and George Berry. She and her brother spent a period of their childhood in an orphanage as a result of their family's poverty. She was married in 1966.

Associated With

She once stated that "If Rosa Parks had taken a poll before she sat down in the bus in Montgomery, she'd still be standing."