Jeffrey L. Littlejohn
Specialties
African American History
School Desegregation
Massive Resistance
Cold War Civil Rights
East Texas History
Professor Littlejohn
Jeffrey L. Littlejohn serves as Professor of History at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). A native of Dallas, Texas, he completed his undergraduate degree at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and his MA and PhD at the University of Arkansas.
He is the co-author or co-editor of five books: Elusive Equality: Desegregation and Resegregation in Norfolk's Public Schools (University of Virginia Press, 2012); The Enemy Within Never Did Without: German and Japanese Prisoners of War at Camp Huntsville, Texas, 1942-1945 (Texas Review Press, 2015); The Seedtime, the Work and the Harvest: New Perspectives on the Black Freedom Struggle in America (University of Florida Press, 2018); Black Citizens and American Democracy: Fighting for the Soul of a Nation (University of Florida Press, 2025); and, Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion (University of Virginia Press, 2025).
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Littlejohn has published more than 20 articles with his co-author Charles H. Ford, including: “Race and Recreation in East Texas: A History of Huntsville’s Municipal Swimming Pool and Emancipation Park,” (Southwestern Historical Quarterly); “The Cabiness Family Lynching: Race, War, and Memory in Walker County, Texas” (Southwestern Historical Quarterly); “Booker T. Washington High School: History, Identity, and Educational Equality in Norfolk, Virginia” (Virginia Magazine of History and Biography); and, “Arthur D. Morse, School Desegregation, and the Making of CBS News, 1951-1964” (American Journalism).
Littlejohn is also an active digital/public historian. His co-curricular web projects include: Lynching in Texas; East Texas History; and HistoricalMX. These websites and free mobile apps place the past at your fingertips. Designed to feature the work of students at SHSU, these sites highlight the distinctive people, places, and events that have shaped the past. Visitors to the sites may learn about various cultural and political events through an interactive, map-based interface that includes historical stories, photographs, and interviews.