Edward Burrows

Who was Edward Burrows?

Edward Flud Burrows was raised on a cotton farm in Sumter County, South Carolina. He completed undergraduate studies at Washington and Lee University, earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a doctoral degree from Duke University. He later received a Rosenwald Scholarship to complete doctoral studies in history at UW–Madison.

As a conscientious objector to World War II, Burrows was sent to a Quaker Friends camp in the mountains of North Carolina. Later, while in Florida, he served a prison sentence for refusing to carry a draft card. After his release from prison, he spent a year at the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University. In 1948, while completing research for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation in Atlanta, Georgia, Burrows was hired as a history teacher at Guilford College, in Greensboro, North Carolina. At Guilford, he was active in promoting integration, especially as a member of the Faculty Forum, an interracial organization with membership from local colleges. As a professor, he was one of the first winners of the Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the Guilford College Board of Visitors.