Mark Washburn of the Charlotte Observer is reporting historian Brenda Tindal, 34, has been named head historian for the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, NC. Tindal will take over for retiring historian Tom Hanchett. Tindal, a Charlotte native, is the first African-American and woman to hold the position for the celebrated museum. The appointment will make her the second historian in the history of the museum and a leading voice amongst historians in the Southeast.
Washburn writes:
“‘I’m in love with what I do,’ said Tindal. ‘You have to do the things that give you oxygen. History gives me oxygen.’
Tindal, 34, the antithesis of the graybeard historian stereotype, said she applied for the job because joining the Levine in a lead role was a career dream.
‘I saw the job announcement and couldn’t help myself,’ she said. ‘One thing I like to say about museums is there’s never a poverty of imagination, and that’s certainly true of the Levine.’”
The UNC Charlotte graduate and McNair scholar, holds a B.A. in History and Africana Studies, an M.A. in American Studies from Emory University and is a doctoral candidate in History and Cultural at Emory, which she expects to complete this fall. At Emory, she helped organize the papers of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Alice Walker. She also organized the papers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with civil rights legend and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, work she continued during a fellowship at Princeton University. An instructor at UNCC, Tindal’s scholarship focuses on the work of the wives of martyred civil rights leaders.
Read more about her appointment at the Charlotte Observer.
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