Robert Hinton

About Robert

Robert Hinton (1941–2023) was a historian, teacher, journalist, and scholar from Raleigh, North Carolina. Born in the historically Black Chavis Heights neighborhood, he began his career as a journalist before earning a Ph.D. in history from Yale University, where his research centered on race, labor, and African American freedom struggles in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. His doctoral work became the book The Politics of Labor: From Slavery to Freedom in a Cotton Culture, 1862–1902, which examined how African Americans in Edgecombe County organized for political power, fair wages, and dignity after slavery — from Reconstruction through the hardening of Jim Crow. The book contributed to a deeper understanding of Black political agency and community building in the post-Civil War South. Beyond Edgecombe County, Hinton extended his research to the history of enslaved people in Wake County, including members of his own family. He also served as chief historian and associate producer for Godfrey Cheshire's documentary Moving Midway (2007), which explored the history of a North Carolina plantation and its connections to race, memory, and the American South. He taught for much of his academic career at New York University and supported historical organizations, including the Phoenix Historical Society, in their efforts to preserve African American history in North Carolina. Dr. Robert Hinton passed away in December 2023 at the age of 82.