Dr. Robert E. Weems, Jr., comes to Wichita State University as the new Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History. From 1999-2011, Weems was Professor of History at the University of Missouri, Columbia. A native of Chicago, Professor Weems received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His areas of specialization include African American History, African American Business History, and U.S. History. The recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Weems is the author of three books, co-editor of another, and has published almost three dozen journal articles and encyclopedia entries. His most recent book is Business in Black and White: American Presidents and Black Entrepreneurs in the Twentieth Century (New York University Press, 2009). Weems’ current research project is a biographical study of Anthony Overton, an important African American businessman in early twentieth-century Chicago.
