Abigail Thernstrom
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Abigail Thernstrom (September 14, 1936 – April 10, 2020) was an American political scientist and a leading conservative scholar on race relations, voting rights and education. She was an adjunct scholar at the
American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right think tank based in Washington, D.C., that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare ...
, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and vice chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Government at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 1975. According to the ''New York Times,'' she and her husband Harvard Professor Stephan Thernstrom, "are much in demand on the conservative talk-show circuit, where they forcefully argue that racial preferences are wrong, divisive, and as a tool to help minorities overrated." They serve on the boards of conservative and libertarian public-policy institutes."


Biography

Abigail Mann was born on September 14, 1936, in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Raised on a collective farm in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by radical secular Jewish parents, she was originally active in progressive politics and became politically conservative in middle age, supporting a color-blind philosophy and taking steps to provide equal opportunity through improving education while becoming increasingly critical of affirmative action, gerrymandering, and identity politics. After graduating from the progressive Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School in Greenwich Village, she attended
Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...
in Oregon before transferring to
Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
in New York and graduated with the class of 1958. Thernstrom and her husband, Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom, co-authored the book ''America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible'', a history of race relations which '' The New York Times Book Review'' named as one of the notable books of 1997. She and her husband also co-authored ''No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning'' (Simon and Schuster, October 2003), named by both the Los Angeles Times and the American School Board Journal as one of the best books of 2003 and the winner of the 2007 Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship. In 2007, she and her husband were the recipients of a Bradley Foundation prize for Outstanding Intellectual Achievement.Official Biography
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights website; accessed October 9, 2014.
She served on several boards, including the Center for Equal Opportunity and the Institute for Justice. From 1992-97 she was a member of the Aspen Institute's Domestic Strategy Group. Thernstrom's first book, ''Whose Votes Count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights'', won four awards, including the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...
's Certificate of Merit, and the Anisfield-Wolf prize for the best book on race and ethnicity and the Benchmark Book Award from the Center for Judicial Studies. Along with her husband, she also won the 2004 Peter Shaw Memorial Award given by the National Association of Scholars. She wrote for ''
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'', ''
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'', the ''
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'', ''
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'' and the (London) '' Times Literary Supplement''. She often spoke to the media about voting rights, education, and other issues and appeared on ''
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'', '' Fox News Sunday'', and '' This Week with George Stephanopoulos'', among other places. Because of their differing opinions on civil rights, President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
chose her as one of three authors to participate in his first "town meeting" on race in
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, on December 3, 1997. She was part of a small group that met with the President again in the
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on December 19, 1997. As vice-chair of the Civil Rights Commission, she rebutted other conservatives who disputed the dropping of voter intimidation charges against a duo from the New Black Panther Party. In an interview with CBS News, Thernstrom said that she believes "the evidence is extremely weak" that the Department of Justice has discriminated against white voters. Thernstrom explained her opinion on the case in an article for ''
National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...
'', in which she refers to the New Black Panther Party case as "very small potatoes". About
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
-appointee Eric Holder, she stated, "There are plenty of grounds on which to sharply criticize the attorney general — his handling of terrorism questions, just for starters — but this particular overblown attack threatens to undermine the credibility of his conservative critics." Her daughter is the writer Melanie Thernstrom. Her son is Samuel Thernstrom, founder of the Energy Innovation Reform Project (EIRP), a nonprofit organization that promotes the development of advanced energy technologies. Shortly after testing negative for
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
, she died April 10, 2020, in
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. She was 83 years old.


Awards

* 1988, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, ''Whose Votes Count?: Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights''


References


Further reading

* "Abigail M. Thernstrom." in ''Contemporary Authors'' (Gale, 2004
online
* Holmes, Steven A. "Affirmative action's unlikely foes.

* Loury, G.G. "The Conservative Line on Race: America in Black and White, by Stephan Thernstrom and Abigail Thernstrom." ''The Atlantic Monthly'' 280 (Nov. 1997): 144–154
online
* Shatz, Adam
"The Thernstroms in Black and White" ''The American Prospect'' (Dec. 10, 2001)


External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thernstrom, Abigail 1936 births 2020 deaths American educators American political writers Harvard University alumni Massachusetts Republicans United States Commission on Civil Rights members Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Women political writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Academics from New York City Barnard College alumni Reed College alumni Opposition to affirmative action