The Right Man is a powerful, authoritative biography of Dr. James Edward Shepard, founder of North Carolina Central University and one of the most influential African American educational leaders of the early twentieth century. Henry Lewis Suggs has brought together one of the most extensive collections of materials on Shepard's life, resulting in a compelling narrative that places Shepard squarely at the center of major conversations about leadership, education, race, and institution building in the Jim Crow South. This book reflects decades of archival digging, intellectual commitment, and personal investment, and it will be valuable to scholars of African American, Southern, and higher education history. -- Charles Denton Johnson, North Carolina Central University
