Watch Now: Conversation with Our Scholars at Howard University
- kelsey.sara.johnston
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
By: Kelsey Johnston
Baltimore, Maryland
September 15, 2025
As it approached its 90 anniversary, the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia created two research fellowships for graduate students at the Howard University History Department in 2024. We are proud to honor not only our own mission of promoting the study of the life, leadership and legacy of Abraham Lincoln but also to honor the career of our longtime member and Lincoln scholar, Edna Greene Medford, emerita chair of history at the university.
On Sept. 3, 2025, the first Lincoln Group of D.C. and Edna Greene Medford fellows, Ebonee Davis-Hayes and Fahtim'a Yaro, joined members of the Lincoln Group to talk about their doctoral research. Both are researching aspects of American slavery. Davis-Hayes' research focuses on the memorialization of black burial grounds in nineteenth-century Alexandria, Virginia. Yaro's work focuses on the particularly distasteful slave trade in “fancy” women. She explains that these "enslaved women and girls were sold and bought as ‘fancies’ with the purpose and promise of sexual exploitation or in some cases a ‘spousal’ relationship.”
During their presentations, both students shared their findings and how they plan to craft their dissertations. Lincoln Group members asked questions and participated in a discussion with the doctoral candidates. We look forward to hearing more about their research as they continue their studies.
The fellowship program consists of two $1,000 grants in each of two years. The Howard University History Department advertised the new program among its graduate students, screened applicants, and sent the top candidates to the Lincoln Group board committee overseeing the fellowship. The board panel made the final choices.
The Lincoln Group approached Howard about establishing the fellowship because no university in the greater Washington D.C. area is as closely connected with Lincoln. The university was founded in 1867 by Union general and Medal of Honor recipient Oliver Otis Howard, who was also head of the Freedmen’s Bureau. President Lincoln created the bureau to help ex-slaves by, among other things, providing access to higher education. Gen. Howard served as university president from 1867 to 1873.
The Howard fellowships are in addition to another ongoing Lincoln Group education project. Through our John T. Elliff Scholarships, named for our late president, the group annually supports teachers from across the country to come to Ford’s Theatre for a week in the summer to learn how to incorporate the legacy of Lincoln into their curricula.
And take the opportunity to visit Lincolnian.org and click on the "join now" button at the upper right, and join us.