Mary Frances Berry

Mary Frances Berry
Berry in 2014
Chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
In office 1993–2004
President	Bill Clinton George W. Bush
Preceded by	Arthur Fletcher
Succeeded by	Gerald A. Reynolds
Personal details
Born	Mary Frances Berry (1938-02-17) February 17, 1938 (age 86) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Citizenship	American
Parent(s)	George Ford Frances Berry
Residence(s)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater	Howard University University of Michigan
Website	maryfrancesberry.com

Mary Frances Berry (born February 17, 1938) is an American historian, writer, lawyer, activist and professor who focuses on U.S. constitutional and legal, African-American history.^[1] Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought where she teaches American legal history at the Department of History, School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the former chairwoman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Previously, Berry was provost of the College of Behavioral and Social Science at University of Maryland, College Park, and was the first African American chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.