Martin Kilson

Martin Luther Kilson Jr. (born February 14, 1931) is an African American political scientist. He was the first black academic to be appointed a full professor at Harvard University, where he was the Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government until retirement in 1999.

Life and career

Martin Luther Kilson was born in East Rutherford, New Jersey to Martin Kilson and Louisa Kilson on February 14, 1931. The family moved to Ambler, Pennsylvania and the younger Kilson attended Ambler High School before graduating at the top of his class at Lincoln University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science. Kilson was granted a John Hay Whitney Fellowship, and completed his doctorate at Harvard University. He used a Ford Foundation Fellowship to undertake field research in Africa, and returned to finish research at Harvard before accepting a lectureship in 1962. Seven years later, Kilson was named the Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government, becoming Harvard's first fully tenured African-American academic. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975, and retired in 1999. In 2002, Kilson criticized Randall L. Kennedy for the title of his book, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.

Kilson and his wife Marion Dusser de Barenne raised three children. They live in Lexington, Massachusetts.