By Mary Margaret Miller
March 7, 2007
The Mississippi Historical Society recently honored University of Mississippi history professor, Robert L. Fleegler with the Willie Halsell Prize for best article in The Journal of Mississippi History for his paper, “Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, 1938-1947.”
Historians from across the state gathered in Jackson for the annual Mississippi Historical Society Conference. Fleegler was presented the award by Delta State University history chair and notable Mississippi historian Dr. Chester Morgan III.
“The award was a very pleasant surprise, and I was very pleased,” said Fleegler, who became interested in Bilbo while a Ph.D. student at Brown University.
“After World War II, there was a more liberal racial environment than before the war. What was really rejected [about Bilbo] was his extreme public rhetoric of racism.”
Fleegler’s paper appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of The Journal of Mississippi History and can be found in full text on the Mississippi Department of Archives and History website at http://www.mdah.state.ms.us.
An instructional assistant professor on both the UM-Tupelo and UM-Desoto campuses, Fleegler joined the UM history department in 2006. Fleegler brings a comprehensive knowledge of 20 th century U.S. history with a focus on immigration history to the department, where he teaches courses in U.S. History and African American History.
A 2005 PhD graduate of Brown University, Fleegler’s dissertation is entitled “A Nation of Immigrants: The Rise of “Contributionism” in the United States, 1924-1965.” Fleegler holds a BA with distinction in history from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and most recently worked as a visiting instructor at The University of Rhode Island.
Before entering the graduate program at Brown University, Fleegler worked for three years as a research associate at the Commission for Economic Development in Washington, D.C. Earlier this year Fleegler traveled to Cambridge, England, where he delivered the paper “World War II: The Quest for Tolerance and Unity” to the Panel on Pluralism and Race in the Twentieth Century, a conference honoring historian James T. Patterson.