Seton Hall History Professor Receives Top Honors From New Jersey Historical Commission

Larry Greene, Ph.D., a distinguished professor in the Department of History, is being honored by the New Jersey Historical Commission with its most esteemed award. He will receive the Richard J. Hughes Award for his outstanding lifetime contributions to the study of New Jersey history on March 5.

Affiliated with Seton Hall since 1969, first as a graduate student and then as a faculty member, Professor Greene will be celebrated at the Commission’s Award Ceremony at the Kelsey Building of Thomas Edison State University in Trenton. Colleagues from the university are invited to attend this important event. Registration is requested.  

The annual award is given to an individual in recognition of their significant contributions in the areas of scholarship, public history, conservation and preservation and teaching. The award was named in tribute to Richard J. Hughes, who served as the 45th governor of New Jersey from 1962-1970. Following his gubernatorial tenure, Hughes became Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1973 -1979. Notably, as a Democrat, he was the only person to serve in both positions and was New Jersey’s first Catholic governor. 

As a recipient of this year’s Hughes Award, Professor Greene is being honored for his service to the New Jersey Historical Commission. He was a member of the Commission from 1991 until retiring this year; and chaired the commission from 2005-2008. He served on the Drew University Holocaust and Genocide Board of Associates as well as the Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series at Rutgers University, Newark.

The award also recognizes Professor Greene’s extensive research, teaching and publishing related to the experiences and contributions of African Americans in New Jersey history and elsewhere.

"We are delighted that the Commission has chosen to recognize Larry with its highest recognition," notes Jonathan Farina, Ph.D., interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "From his exploration of Black involvement in the Civil War to his current focus on Harlem and the African American expatriate community in Germany,  Dr. Greene's publications have made a significant contribution to the history of Black Americans, the history of New Jersey, and the history of the United States since the Civil War. For over 50 years, Seton Hall students have gained a fuller understanding of our nation’s history, all thanks to Dr. Greene."

Maxine N. Lurie, Ph.D., Seton Hall University emerita professor of history and current chair of the New Jersey Historical Commission, added that she is “glad that this honor goes to someone who has served the state historical community, as well as the University.” 

Professor Greene earned his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. He also holds a master’s degree in history from Seton Hall and a bachelor’s degree from Montclair State University.

"What I love most about being a historian," Greene says, "is discovering new links on how the past has shaped the present both the successes and failures of human beings. Transmitting this knowledge to young and old as well as in the academy and the community."

 Greene recently co-authored an article in Reporting World War II, Fordham University Press, 2023, on African American war correspondents, focusing particularly on New Jerseyan, Ollie Stewart. Among his earlier published works, he co-edited, with Anke Ortlepp, Germans and African Americans: Two Centuries of Exchange, University Press of Mississippi, 2010; and wrote Harlem: Overview and History, in Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, New York: Routledge, October 2004. He co-authored, with Lenworth Gunther, The New Jersey African American History Curriculum Guide, Trenton, New Jersey, New Jersey Historical Commission, 1996. Greene has written with Seton Hall colleagues, including Alan Delozier, Maxine Lurie and Richard Veit.

Greene received a Fulbright Teaching and Research Fellowship in 2005-2006, which brought him to the University of Muenster. There he taught African American History, the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, and the Harlem Renaissance and the History of Harlem. Professor Greene also served as a scholar in residence at the Schomburg Center in New York City and participated in the National Endowment for the Humanities summer institutes focusing on American Urban History and Afro-American Religion.

At Seton Hall, Professor Greene directed the University’s Multiculture Program from 1993 – 2006 and chaired the History Department from 1979-1993. He currently teaches classes in American History, the Civil War and Reconstruction and African American History. He leads seminars  exploring the oeuvre of renowned American author James Baldwin and the cultural movement of the Harlem Renaissance.

"I love teaching about American History," Professor Greene reflects, "for it allows me to talk about the achievements of the nation and the problems which need to be addressed in order for democracy to continue and evolve."

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