Donald Nieman

Donald G. Nieman (born 1948) is an American historian and academic administrator whose work focuses on the history of law, race relations, and civil rights in the United States. He serves as a Professor of History and the Provost Emeritus at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Early life and education

Nieman was born in Iowa in 1948, where he remained until adulthood. He attended Drake University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1970. He completed his Ph.D. at Rice University in 1975 with a dissertation titled, To Set the Law in Motion: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Legal Rights of Blacks, 1865–1868 under the supervision of Harold M. Hyman.

Academic career

Nieman began his academic career as an instructor at Kansas State University in 1974 and became an associate professor in 1980. He held visiting positions at Hunter College (1984–85) and at Brooklyn College (1990–91) as the Daniel M. Lyons Distinguished Professor. From 1989 to 1994, he also held positions as an associate professor and a professor at Clemson University while coordinating the graduate program.

By this time, Binghamton had grown from its origins as a small liberal arts college to a university with 15,000 students, professional schools, and over 20 doctoral programs. As Dean, Nieman created a first-year writing program, launched the Harpur Fellows Program for student civic engagement, and established the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

The success of the pharmacy school led to further expansion of health sciences programs. Nieman oversaw the transformation of the Decker School of Nursing into the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, relocating it to Johnson City near the pharmacy school and the largest clinical placement sites. Making use of the Upstate Revitalization Initiative, the university converted an abandoned factory into a new facility. Under Dean Mario Ortiz's leadership, the college expanded its scope to include rehabilitation sciences and public health programs, creating what Nieman described as "a bigger footprint in the health sciences" that would enhance research, serve the community, and eventually generate revenue for the university.

During his provostship, the university achieved re-accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education with no recommendations for follow-up and was designated an R-1 University (Doctoral Universities—Very high research activity) by the Carnegie Foundation. The Freshman Research Immersion Program (FRI) was established with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and other funders. Reforms in calculus instruction were implemented, resulting in a reduction in failure rates. Student retention and graduation rates improved during this period. The Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention and the Ellyn Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for Women and Girls were established through major philanthropic gifts.

Research

His work began with focused studies on the Reconstruction era and its aftermath. In "Andrew Johnson, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Problem of Equal Rights, 1865–1866" (The Journal of Southern History, 1978), he investigated the political conflicts that undermined federal efforts to protect African American civil rights. This early research built upon his doctoral dissertation, which he revised and published as his first book, To Set the Law in Motion: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Legal Rights of Blacks, 1865-1868 (1979). His article "Black Political Power and Criminal Justice: Washington County, Texas, 1868-1884" (The Journal of Southern History, 1989) used local history to illuminate how African Americans exercised political power during Reconstruction and how white supremacists systematically dismantled it.

Nieman's most influential work, Promises to Keep: African Americans and the Constitutional Order, 1776 to the Present (1991), has been described as "the first Afrocentric history of the U.S. Constitution." The book investigates the paradoxical relationship between African Americans and constitutional law, showing how the Constitution has been both a tool of oppression and a vehicle for liberation. A second edition, published in 2020, incorporates developments through the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

His regional studies have provided insights into post-Civil War race relations. "African Americans and the Meaning of Freedom: Washington County, Texas as a Case Study, 1865–1886" (Chicago-Kent Law Review, 1994) demonstrated how formerly enslaved people understood and pursued freedom in practical terms.

In "From Slaves to Citizens: African-Americans, Rights Consciousness, and Reconstruction" (Cardozo Law Review, 1995), he documented how African Americans developed sophisticated understandings of constitutional rights during Reconstruction.

As an editor, he has produced several collections, including The Constitution, Law, and American Life: Critical Aspects of the Nineteenth-Century Experience (1992) and Local Matters: Race, Crime, and Justice in the Nineteenth-Century South (2001), co-edited with Christopher Waldrep. He also edited Freedom, Racism, and Reconstruction: Collected Writings of LaWanda Cox (1997), bringing together the work of one of the most influential historians of the Reconstruction era.

Nieman has also written about higher education. With Louis I. Katzner, he published "Making values education: Everyone's business" (About Campus, 2006), which discussed innovative approaches to values education developed during his time at Bowling Green State University.

In 2024, Anthem Press published his book, The Path to Paralysis: How American Politics Became Nasty, Dysfunctional, and a Threat to the Republic, He continues to advance these theories as a public intellectual beyond his academic publications.

The book grew out of discussions with his students in HIST 104 (Modern American History), a course he co-taught for many years with his wife, Professor Leigh Ann Wheeler, as well as conversations with his son Brady about generational perspectives on political dysfunction. Nieman described the work as "a history of American political and social and cultural life that parallels my own life," beginning when he became politically conscious in 1964 and continuing to the present day. In the work, Nieman studies how compromise between political opponents remained possible through the early 2000s, citing examples such as Reagan and Tip O'Neill's Social Security reforms and Clinton and Gingrich's attempted Medicare and Social Security overhaul. He particularly emphasizes the role of media transformation—from three major networks to today's fractured information ecosystem—in enabling current levels of polarization. and was the program chair for American Society for Legal History, the Southern Historical Association, and the National Policy History Conference. He has also served as a grant screener for the American Council of Learned Societies.

He served 22 years in senior administrative positions, including eight years as dean at Bowling Green State University, four years as dean at Binghamton University, and ten years as Binghamton's provost. Golieb Fellowship, New York University School

Selected publications

Books The Path to Paralysis: How American Politics Became Nasty, Dysfunctional, and a Threat to the Republic (Anthem Press, October 2024) Promises to Keep: African Americans and the Constitutional Order, 1776 to the Present (Oxford University Press, 1991; 2nd ed., 2020) To Set the Law in Motion: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Legal Rights of Blacks, 1865–1868 (Kraus, 1979)

Edited volumes Local Matters: Race, Crime, and Justice in the Nineteenth-Century South (University of Georgia Press, 2001) – co-edited with Christopher Waldrep Freedom, Racism, and Reconstruction: Collected Writings of LaWanda Cox (University of Georgia Press, 1997) African American Life in the Post-Emancipation South, 1861–1900 (Garland, 1994) The Constitution, Law and American Life: Critical Aspects of the Nineteenth-Century Experience (University of Georgia Press, 1992)

Selected articles "After the Movement: African Americans and Civil Rights since 1910." In Upon these Shores, pp. 389–403. Routledge, 2013. "Making values education: Everyone's business." About Campus 11, no. 5 (2006): 16–23. (with Louis I. Katzner) "The Rise of Jim Crow, 1880–1920." A Companion to the American South (2002): 336–347. (with James Beeby) "From Slaves to Citizens: African-Americans, Rights Consciousness, and Reconstruction." Cardozo Law Review 17 (1995): 2115–2225. "African Americans and the Meaning of Freedom: Washington County, Texas as a Case Study, 1865–1886." Chicago-Kent Law Review 70 (1994): 541–582. "Promises to Keep: African-Americans and the Constitutional Order, 1776 to the Present." Legal Studies Forum 16, no. 1 (1992). "Black Political Power and Criminal Justice: Washington County, Texas, 1868–1884." The Journal of Southern History 55, no. 3 (1989): 391–420. "Andrew Johnson, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Problem of Equal Rights, 1865–1866." The Journal of Southern History 44, no. 3 (1978): 399–420.