Scholar Khalil Gibran Muhammad to Take Reins at Schomburg Center

Scholar Khalil Gibran Muhammad to Take Reins at Schomburg Center: Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad knows the importance of Black history, perhaps better than most. The Chicago native, who earned a doctorate in history from Rutgers University and has become a rising star within academic circles for his groundbreaking research on race and crime, hails from a distinguished family of history makers.

His great-grandfather, Elijah Muhammad, was the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1934 to 1975. His father, Ozier Muhammad, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The New York Times.

Now, at the age of 39, the assistant professor of history at Indiana University is poised to take the helm of the world’s leading repository of the global Black experience when he becomes director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in July.