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Born February 17, 1938, in Nashville, TN
Historian, lawyer, scholar, and activist Mary Frances Berry was appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights by President Carter in 1980. Removed from her position by President Reagan in 1983, she successfully sued for reinstatement in Federal District Court. She has held faculty and administrative positions at several universities and is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought Emerita at the University of Pennsylvania. Berry has received numerous honorary doctoral degrees and awards, including the NAACP’s Roy Wilkins Award and the Rosa Parks Award of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.