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Shawn Bivens

Shawn A. Bivens, a Mobile native, and member of St. Joseph Catholic Church of Maysville, graduated from St. Joseph Catholic School in 1962 under the guidance of the Oblate Sisters of Providence (OSP), and the Society of St. Joseph (SSJ), the Josephites. At St. Joseph Church, she received five (5) of the seven Blessed Sacraments -- Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, and Matrimony.

Bivens attended St. Peter High School in Cleveland, Ohio her freshman and sophomore years, under the guidance of the Sisters of Notre Dame (SND), and the Society of Jesus (SJ), the Jesuits. She graduated from Lillie Beacham Williamson High School in Mobile under Principal, Mr. Lemuel Kilpatrick Keeby.

Bivens received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree from Spring Hill College, and a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree from Alabama State University. Bivens also completed coursework for the Ph.D. degree in United States History at Howard University, and is working towards extensive dissertation research on the social movement of Mobile's people of color; and continues to conduct historical research towards completion of her doctoral degree.

During her matriculation at Howard University, Bivens was elected President of the Howard University, Zeta Gamma Chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society. She was also elected President of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Student Council. Under her leadership, the Council established the Howard Chapter, National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, a national membership of more than 14,000 graduate students.

Bivens also represented Howard graduate students on university President H. Patrick Swygert's special committee to establish the National Center for African American Heritage and Culture, chaired by Dr. Cain Hope Felder.

Bivens served on the team of other Howard University's graduate research assistants for the "African American Sailors in the Civil War Project," under History Department faculty member, Joseph P. Reidy, Ph.D., Principal Investigator. Part of the "Civil Rights Soldiers and Sailors Project" of the National Park Service, the Project was funded by the Department of Defense Legacy.

The doctoral student also served as research assistant on the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall Research Project for History Department faculty member, Olive A. Taylor, Ph.D., Principal Investigator.

Bivens was also honored to have among her scholarly listening audience, Dr. John Hope Franklin and Attorney Fred Gray, when she traveled to London, England to present a research paper on the NAACP at the University of Hull.

Among other awards, Bivens was recipient of the prestigious 1997 Rayford Wittingham Logan Research Paper Prize presented to her by the Howard University Department of History faculty; special Graduate Student Recognition from Dr. Lorraine Anderson Williams, for work with the "Annual Lorraine Anderson Williams Lecture"; and, the Outstanding Leadership Award from graduate students in 1997.

The history educator is a member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History; National Education Association; American Historical Association; Organization of American Historians; Southern Historical Association; John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; National Genealogical Society; Alabama Tombstone Transcription Project; Black Heritage Council of the Alabama Historic Commission; and, the Alabama Historical Association.

Bivens is author of Mobile, Alabama's People of Color: A Tricentennial History, 1702-2002 (2004).

Bivens continues to conduct her oral histories interviews with persons who participated in the 1960s and 1970s Mobile civil rights movement.

She is divorced, and is the mother of two handsome and loving sons, Herbert G. Rogers, Jr., and Eric A. Rogers.

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