Orville Vernon Burton is a professor of history at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

, the director of its Clemson CyberInstitute, and an author. He formerly served as director of the Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (CHASS) and professor of history and sociology at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. He is also a senior research scientist at the

National Center for Supercomputing Applications The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a unit of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and provides high-performance computing resources to researchers in the United States. NCSA is currently led by Professor Bill ...

, where he is associate director for humanities and social sciences.

Career

Burton was born in

Royston, Georgia Royston is a city in Franklin, Hart, and Madison counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 2,649 at the 2020 census. History A post office called Royston has been in operation since 1878. The community was named after W.A. Roy ...

and grew up in

Ninety Six, South Carolina Ninety Six is a town in Greenwood County, South Carolina, United States, located approximately 9 miles northeast of the county seat, Greenwood, South Carolina, Greenwood. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 2,076, making it the ...

. He received a B.A. in 1969 for his undergraduate studies at

Furman University Furman University is a private university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1826 and named after Baptist pastor Richard Furman, the Liberal arts college, liberal arts university is the oldest private institution of higher l ...

. After service in the Army Reserve he entered graduate school at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

.. His dissertation involved tens of thousands of IBM cards on individuals and farms for a county in South Carolina in the mid 19th century. His undergraduate research assistant was

Sonia Sotomayor Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...

, who later became a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. He received his Ph.D. in 1976 working under professor Sheldon Hackney. He joined the History faculty at the University of Illinois, rising to full professor. Burton has authored more than a hundred articles and wrote or edited fourteen books. His dissertation was published in 1985 by the University of North Carolina Press as ''In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina''. It became the subject of sessions at the Southern Historical Association and the Social Science History Association's annual meetings. He wrote ''The Age of Lincoln'', winner of the 2007

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

Heartland Prize for non-fiction. With civil rights lawyer Armand Derfner in 2021, Burton published ''Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court'', a lengthy survey of race-related cases on the US

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Honors and awards

At Illinois Burton won teaching awards at the department, school, college, and campus levels and received the 2006 Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement. In 2002 Burton served as president of the Agricultural History Society. He served as president of the

Southern Historical Association The Southern Historical Association is a professional academic organization of historians focusing on the history of the Southern United States. It was organized on November 2, 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in Sou ...

in 2012. He was selected nationwide as the 1999 U.S. Research and Doctoral University Professor of the Year (presented by the

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is a U.S.-based education policy and research center. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress. Among its most not ...

and by the

Council for Advancement and Support of Education The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is a nonprofit association of educational institutions. It serves professionals in the field of educational advancement. This field encompasses alumni relations, communications, marketin ...

). He received the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

’s Eugene Asher Distinguished Teacher Award for 2003.Eugene Asher Distinguished Teacher Award
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References

Bibliography: Books by Burton

* ''Toward A New South? Studies in Post-Civil War Southern Communities'' (Greenwood, 1982) coeditor with Robert C. McMath, Jr. *''Class, Conflict, and Consensus: Antebellum Southern Community Studies'' (Greenwood, 1982), coeditor with Robert C. McMath, Jr. * ''In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina'' (1987
online
* ''A Gentleman and an Officer: A Military and Social History of James B. Griffin's Civil War'' (1996) *''Computing in the Social Sciences and Humanities'' (2002), editor
online
* ''The Free Flag of Cuba: The Lost Novel of Lucy Holcombe Pickens'' (2002) coeditor with Georganne B. Burton
online
*''The Age of Lincoln'' (Hill and Wang, 2008
online
* ''Toward the meeting of the waters: Currents in the civil rights movement of South Carolina during the twentieth century.'' (Univ of South Carolina Press, 2008), coeditor with Winfred B. Moore
online

''Dixie Redux: Essays in Honor of Sheldon Hackney''
Montgomery: New South Books. (2013) (co-editor with Raymond Arsenault) *
Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court
'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (2021) (with Armand Derfner)

Scholarly articles by Burton

* "Race and Reconstruction: Edgefield County, South Carolina." ''Journal of Social History'' 12.1 (1978): 31-56. * "Using the Computer and Manuscript Census Returns to Teach American Social History." ''History Teacher'' 13#1 (Nov., 1979), pp. 71-8
online
* "Anatomy of an Antebellum Rural Free Black Community: Social Structure and Social Interaction in Edgefield District, South Carolina, 1850–1860." ''Southern Studies'' 21.3 (1982): 294-325. * "Edgefield Reconstruction: Political Black Leaders." ''Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association'' (1988), pp. 27-38. * “Developing Computer Assisted Instructional (CAI) Materials in the American History Surveys.” ''The History Teacher'' 24#1 (1990), pp. 67–78. coauthor with Terence Finnegan
online
* "The Modern 'New' South in a Postmodern Academy: A Review Essay." ''Journal of Southern History'' 62#4 (1996), pp. 767–86
online
* "African American Status and Identity in a Postbellum Community: An Analysis of the Manuscript Census Returns" ''Agricultural History'' 72#2 (1998), pp. 213-24
online
* "Reaping What We Sow: Community and Rural History." ''Agricultural History'' 76.4 (2002): 631-658
online
presidential address to Agricultural History Society. * "Lucy Holcombe Pickens, Southern Writer." ''The South Carolina Historical Magazine'' 103.4 (2002): 296-324, with Georganne B. Burton
online
* "American digital history." ''Social Science Computer Review'' 23.2 (2005): 206-220. * "Author's Response to the Southern Intellectual History Circle Forum on The Age of Lincoln." ''Journal of the Historical Society'' (2009) 9#3 pp. 355-372
online
* "The South as 'Other,' the Southerner as Stranger." ''Journal of Southern History,'' 79 (Feb. 2013), 7–50. his 2012 presidential address to

br>online
* "Voting Rights in Georgia: A Short History." ''Southern Cultures'' 30.1 (2024): 80-97, with Peter Eisenstadt
abstract

Primary sources

* "Digital History Memories." ''Southern Quarterly'' 58.1 (2020): 120-146. with Simon Appleford
excerpt
* Rosenzweig, Roy and Kelly Schrum, eds. ''Interviews with Exemplary Teachers: Orville Vernon Burton and Beverly San Augustín'' ''The History Teacher'' 35#2 (2002), pp. 237-26
online

External links

* * chair editorial board ''Slavery in America'' (2007); online primary source
online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Vernon Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Royston, Georgia People from Ninety Six, South Carolina University of Illinois faculty Clemson University faculty Historians from South Carolina People from Clemson, South Carolina