A black feminist historian whose work is being labeled as misleading — and who may have lost her cushy academic job — says it all comes down to an attack on black women.
The New York Times tells the tale of Kerri Greenidge, whose 2022 book “The Grimkes” was hailed for its narrative about a slaveholding family and its work in the abolitionist movement.
Publishers Weekly put the book on its list of that year’s top books, while the American Historical Association handed Greenidge the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize, which honors scholars in women’s history and feminist theory.
But the glow has dimmed as the furor over her flimsy factual foundation is being linked to the end of her gig as a tenured associate professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University — and the loss of a book deal.
Huh. Author accused of fabrication and plagiarism claims she’s the victim of discrimination against black women. https://t.co/fNiqveEj8Y
— Bob Lonsberry (@BobLonsberry) July 10, 2026
Myra Glenn, a retired professor of American history at Elmira College, was among the first to question what she was reading in 2024 when she was reviewing the book for a journal.
“I said, ‘Where is she getting this?’” she said. “Boy, it became a major problem.”
She did not pull punches in the review, writing, “All too often Greenidge lacks the evidence to substantiate many of her major claims. Her work is also riddled with factual errors and repeatedly omits needed endnotes.”
Glenn noted that while Greenidge said key letters she cited were held by the University of Michigan, they were not.
Greenidge even said racist critics are out to get her.
“I am heartbroken that a field I have given my life to can treat me this way,” Greenidge said. “The attack on Black women academics is real.”
“I have never plagiarized anything in my life,” she continued. “I have never fabricated anything.”
But she added, “Are there citations that were misattributed? Probably.”
Patrick Collins, a representative of Tufts University, would not discuss when Greenidge and Tufts parted ways, but said that as early as December 2022, the college was aware of criticism that the book “contained multiple errors of fact and failed to give appropriate credit to the work of another.”
“The university initiated a thorough peer review involving a panel of external scholars of American history which identified multiple errors of fact and citation,” Collins said.
“In keeping with its commitment to ethical conduct in research, the university proactively moved to correct the public record by informing publisher W.W. Norton of the peer review findings.”
The book no longer appears to be sold on Norton’s website.
Greenidge said the college probe of her work was initiated by a white woman against whom Greenidge sought a restraining order.
“The independent review by outside experts in the field was fair, fact-based, thorough, and objective,” Collins meanwhile said. “We stand by the review and strongly deny any allegations of bias.”
Greenidge’s 2019 book “Black Radical,” which is about civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter, won the Mark Lynton History Prize from the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Stephen Fox, who wrote a 1970 biography about Trotter, said he had issues with Greenidge’s book.
“It seems well done, except when you look at the footnotes,” Fox said, noting that he could not find the material cited using the sources Greenidge listed.
“I started to think maybe it wasn’t just sloppy,” he said. “I think it’s something deeper.”
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