Alumni Hall of Fame
Lucius Barker
Lucius Barker was one of the first African Americans to receive a Ph.D. in Political Science from UIUC (1954); he received his M.A. in 1949. After leaving Illinois Dr. Barker accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He returned to UIUC in 1967 for a two-year stint in which he taught and served as assistant chancellor. He was then offered the Edna Fischel Gellhorn Professorship at Washington University, St. Louis. He taught at Washington University for 21 years but in 1990 he left for Stanford University where he became the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science.
Professor Barker is a highly regarded scholar in the fields of judicial process, constitutional law and African-American politics. His book Civil Liberties and the Constitution: Cases and Commentary is a classic text in the field. His co-author is his brother, Twiley Barker, who also holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from UIUC. Barker’s Black Americans and the Political System was one of the earliest attempts to address comprehensively the political aspects of the African American experience in the United States.
Professor Barker has served as President for both the American Political Science Association and National Political Science Association. He was the founding editor of the National Political Science Review, the annual scholarly publication of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. In 1993 the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIUC presented Dr. Barker with its Alumni Achievement Award. He is widely known as an outstanding teacher and has been the recipient of a variety of teaching awards throughout his career.