Reginald K. Ellis is associate professor of history at Florida A&M University.

Resurrects from the annals of history James Edward Shepard, one of the most understudied yet important black college administrators and race leaders of the twentieth century. Ellis recounts how Shepard successfully navigated the halls of power within both black and white circles to fund his institution and in doing so, Ellis challenges the notion that strategies of racial uplift can be neatly delineated as accommodationist or radical."―Crystal R. Sanders, author of A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle"Provides a deep exploration of black higher education and its uneasy relationship with white politicians in the Jim Crow South. Always the pragmatist, Shepard, sometimes wisely and at other times unwisely, implemented strategies to establish and sustain important educational institutions in a major southern state."―Dennis C. Dickerson, author of African American Preachers and Politics: The Careys of Chicago