Martha S. Jones will be the invited Commencement speaker in the College's 189th year.
Martha S. Jones teaches in the Department of History and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor.
“[Martha's] insights will be enlightening to our graduates and their families, especially given her strong family connections to Greensboro. I am also pleased that we will present her with an honorary degree for her significant scholarly work."
Guilford College will celebrate the accomplishments of more than 200 graduates earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Commencement in its 189th year on the central campus quadrangle on Saturday, May 9, at 9 am.
The ceremony will include the awarding of an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters to invited Commencement speaker Martha S. Jones, a nationally recognized historian and author with deep family roots in Greensboro.
In addition to the conferring of degrees, graduates and guests at Commencement in Guilford’s 189th year will hear remarks from President Jean Parvin Bordewich, a representative of the class and an alumni speaker to be announced.
At Johns Hopkins University, Martha teaches in the Department of History and the SNF Agora Institute and is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor.
“I am delighted that Martha will be our guest speaker for Commencement,” says Jean. “Her insights will be enlightening to our graduates and their families, especially given her strong family connections to Greensboro. I am also pleased that we will present her with an honorary degree for her significant scholarly work."
Martha’s latest book – The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir (2025) – recounts her family’s encounters with race and color through the story of five generations, from rural Kentucky and small-town North Carolina to New York City and its suburbs.
Her father was born in Greensboro and her paternal grandfather, David Dallas Jones, was the president of Bennett College from 1926-55. Her grandmother, Susie Williams Jones, was recognized as one of the most prominent Black women in North Carolina in the book Hope and Dignity by Emily Herring Wilson.
In 2025, Martha was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship as a member of the 100th class of Fellows and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has consulted on exhibitions and media projects for institutions like the Smithsonian and PBS.
She holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and a J.D. from The City University of New York School of Law. A former public interest lawyer, she continues to serve on numerous boards related to history, law and public scholarship.
Martha is the author of prize-winning books including Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, which won the L.A. Times Book Prize for History in 2021.