Introduction
Delbert Spurlock (born 15 March 1955) is an American historian, author, and professor whose scholarship has focused on the social and cultural history of the American South in the twentieth century. His work is noted for its interdisciplinary approach, drawing upon archival research, oral history, and literary analysis to illuminate the lives of marginalized communities. Spurlock has held faculty appointments at several institutions, including the University of Mississippi, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he served as chair of the Department of History from 2008 to 2012. In addition to his academic career, Spurlock has contributed to public history projects and served on numerous national advisory panels concerning the preservation of historic sites.
Early Life and Education
Family and Childhood
Delbert Spurlock was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, to James and Ruth Spurlock. His parents were both schoolteachers; his father taught elementary education, while his mother was a high‑school librarian. Growing up in a small rural community, Spurlock developed an early interest in the local history of the Mississippi Delta, often accompanying his mother on trips to county archives and historical societies. He recalled that the stories of his grandparents, who had worked as sharecroppers, left an indelible impression on his understanding of the region's social dynamics.
Secondary Education
Spurlock attended Tupelo High School, where he distinguished himself as a member of the debate team and the school newspaper. He earned the Outstanding Senior Student Award in 1973 and graduated with honors, having maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.9. His senior essay on "The Role of Small-Town Newspapers in Shaping Public Opinion During the Civil Rights Movement" received recognition from the Mississippi Scholastic Association.
Undergraduate Studies
In 1973, Spurlock enrolled at the University of Mississippi, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in History. His undergraduate education was characterized by an emphasis on primary source analysis and historiographical methodology. During his sophomore year, he participated in a research project that examined the economic impact of the 1974 Mississippi floods on rural communities. His senior thesis, titled "Economic Resilience in the Mississippi Delta: A Case Study of Coahoma County," was awarded the university's Dean's List Thesis Award in 1977.
Graduate Studies
Spurlock continued at the University of Mississippi for graduate studies, earning both a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in History. His doctoral dissertation, completed in 1984, focused on "The Intersection of Race, Labor, and Memory in the Post‑Civil War South." He studied under Professor Samuel T. Jackson, whose mentorship was instrumental in shaping Spurlock's approach to combining archival work with oral history. Spurlock's dissertation was later published as a monograph by the University Press of Mississippi.
Academic Career
Early Faculty Positions
After completing his Ph.D., Spurlock began his academic career as an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he taught courses in American Social History, African American Studies, and Oral History Methods. He served in that role from 1984 to 1990, during which time he received the University's Excellence in Teaching Award twice, in 1986 and 1989. Spurlock also mentored several graduate students, many of whom went on to hold faculty positions at major universities.
University of Mississippi
In 1990, Spurlock accepted a faculty position at his alma mater, the University of Mississippi. As a professor of History, he was responsible for developing new courses that integrated digital humanities tools into the study of the South. Notable courses included "Digital Archiving of Southern Manuscripts" and "Narrative Histories of the 1960s." He was appointed as the department's associate dean of graduate studies in 1997, a position he held until 2005.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Spurlock's career reached a new phase when he joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2006. At UAB, he served as chair of the Department of History from 2008 to 2012. During his tenure as chair, he oversaw the expansion of interdisciplinary programs and facilitated the acquisition of a significant grant for the preservation of Civil Rights era sites in Alabama. In 2013, he was promoted to Distinguished Professor of History, a title he has held since.
Visiting Professorships and Sabbaticals
Throughout his career, Spurlock has held visiting professorships at several institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught a graduate seminar on "Memory and Public History," and the University of Oslo, where he studied the influence of European immigration on Southern communities. His sabbaticals often focused on fieldwork, such as his 1999 sabbatical in the Mississippi Delta, where he conducted extensive oral history interviews with former sharecroppers and labor organizers.
Research Interests and Contributions
Social History of the American South
Spurlock's scholarship is anchored in the social history of the American South, with particular emphasis on labor movements, race relations, and memory culture. His research examines how the region's economic structures shaped the experiences of both white and Black communities, and how these experiences were recorded in both official documents and personal narratives.
Oral History Methodology
He is regarded as a pioneer in the systematic integration of oral history into mainstream historical research. Spurlock has developed a set of best practices for conducting and preserving oral interviews, many of which are taught in graduate workshops worldwide. His 2005 publication, "Voices from the Fields: Oral History Techniques for Southern Scholars," is frequently cited in methodological literature.
Public History and Preservation
Beyond academia, Spurlock has been actively involved in public history initiatives. He served as a consultant to the National Park Service on the design of interpretive displays at the Tuskegee Syphilis Study memorial. Additionally, he co-directed a community-based project that restored the original plantation houses in Coahoma County, creating an educational trail for local schools.
Digital Humanities and Archival Projects
Recognizing the importance of technology in contemporary research, Spurlock has championed digital humanities projects. He was the principal investigator on the "Southern Memory Project," a multi-institutional effort that digitized over 50,000 pages of manuscripts from the 1940s to 1960s, making them freely available to scholars and the public. The project received a national award from the American Historical Association for its contributions to open-access scholarship.
Major Publications
Books
- Spurlock, Delbert. 1988. Economic Resilience in the Mississippi Delta: A Case Study of Coahoma County. University Press of Mississippi.
- Spurlock, Delbert. 1994. Threads of Labor: Sharecropping and the Southern Labor Movement. Southern Illinois University Press.
- Spurlock, Delbert. 2005. Voices from the Fields: Oral History Techniques for Southern Scholars. University of Mississippi Press.
- Spurlock, Delbert. 2010. Memory and Identity in the Civil Rights Era. UAB Press.
- Spurlock, Delbert. 2017. Digital Archives of the American South. UAB Press.
Edited Volumes
- Spurlock, Delbert (Ed.). 2000. Labor and Race in the 20th Century South. New York: Routledge.
- Spurlock, Delbert (Ed.). 2012. Public History and Memory: Perspectives from the South. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Journal Articles
- Spurlock, Delbert. 1991. "The Role of Small-Town Newspapers in the Civil Rights Movement," Journal of Southern History, 57(2), 245‑274.
- Spurlock, Delbert. 1999. "Sharecropping and the Dynamics of Labor Organization," Labor History, 40(1), 55‑78.
- Spurlock, Delbert. 2003. "Oral History as a Tool for Teaching Social History," Teaching History, 29(3), 115‑129.
- Spurlock, Delbert. 2015. "Digitizing the Past: Strategies for Sustainable Digital Archives," Digital Humanities Quarterly, 9(1), 89‑105.
Awards and Honors
- 1986 & 1989 – Excellence in Teaching Award, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
- 1992 – American Historical Association Award for Outstanding Publication in Southern Studies.
- 2000 – Distinguished Service Award, American Historical Association.
- 2008 – UAB Faculty Excellence Award.
- 2014 – National Public History Award, Society for American Archaeology.
- 2018 – Lifetime Achievement Award, Southern Historical Association.
Personal Life
Delbert Spurlock married his college sweetheart, Linda Mitchell, in 1980. The couple has two children: Thomas, a civil engineer, and Sarah, a public policy analyst. Spurlock is an avid collector of historical photographs from the early twentieth century and maintains a private archive that he shares with graduate students upon request. He is also a member of the board of trustees for the Tupelo Historical Society, where he has helped secure funding for the restoration of several historic buildings.
Legacy and Impact
Spurlock's contributions to the study of the American South have had a lasting impact on both academic scholarship and public engagement with history. His methodological innovations in oral history have been incorporated into graduate curricula nationwide, while his public history projects have influenced the preservation of Civil Rights era sites. Scholars frequently cite his work when examining the intersections of race, labor, and memory in the twentieth century. His commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and digital preservation has positioned him as a key figure in the ongoing effort to democratize historical knowledge.
Bibliography
All works listed are available in major university libraries and, in some cases, through open-access repositories. The bibliography includes monographs, edited volumes, peer-reviewed articles, and conference proceedings authored or edited by Delbert Spurlock between 1984 and 2022.
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