Michael K. Honey is an American historian, Guggenheim Fellow and Haley Professor of Humanities at the University of Washington Tacoma in the United States, where he teaches African-American, civil rights and labor history. He previously served as the Harry Bridges Chair of Labor Studies for the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, and as President of the Labor and Working-Class History Association

Labor and Working-Class History Association

Labor and Working-Class History Association is a non-profit association of academics, educators, students, and labor movement and other activists that promotes research into and publication of materials on the history of the labor movement in North and South America...

.

Honey is best known for his scholarly research on the history of the American civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 activist Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

, and on the labor history of the United States

Labor history of the United States

The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, as well as the more general history of working people, in the United States. Pressures dictating the nature and power of organized labor have included the evolution and power of the corporation, efforts by employers...

. In 2011 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

, "on the basis of his prior achievement and exceptional promise", from a field of almost 3,000 applicants from the United States and Canada. He has also received research grants and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies

American Council of Learned Societies

The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...

, the National Endowment for the Humanities

National Endowment for the Humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...

, the National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center

The National Humanities Center is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. It is the only major independent institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities in the United States. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any...

, the Rockefeller Foundation

Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...

's Bellagio Research and Conference Center, the Huntington Library, and the Stanford Humanities Center.

Honey is a graduate of Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...

 (Ph.D.), Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

 (M.A.) and Oakland University

Oakland University

Oakland University is a public university co-founded by Matilda Dodge Wilson and John A. Hannah whose campus is located in central Oakland County, Michigan, United States in the cities of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills. It is the only major research university in Oakland County, from which OU...

 (B.A.).

In 2008 his book Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign won the Liberty Legacy Foundation Award

Liberty Legacy Foundation Award

The Liberty Legacy Foundation Award is an annual book award given by the Organization of American Historians . The award goes to the best book written by a professional historian on the fights for civil rights in the United States anytime from 1776 to the present. Dr...

, awarded annually for the best book written by a professional historian on the fights for civil rights in the United States anytime from 1776 to the present.

His current work is on the oral history

Oral history

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

 of John Handcox, a Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

-era tenant farmer

Tenant farmer

A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...

 from Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 and advocate for the Southern Tenant Farmers Union

Southern Tenant Farmers Union

The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union was founded in 1934 as a civil farmer's union to further organize the tenant farmers in the Southern United States....

, known for his political songs and poetry.

Selected works

• Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (1993) ISBN 978-0252063053
• "Black Workers Remember: An Oral History of Segregation, Unionism, and the Freedom Struggle (1999) ISBN 0-520-21774-8
• Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign (2008) ISBN 978-0393330533
• All Labor Has Dignity (ed., 2011) ISBN 978-0807086001, Martin Luther King's speeches on labor rights and economic justice, in the King Legacy Series of Beacon Press