Abram Lincoln Harris, Jr. (1899-1963), was the first African American to achieve prominence in the economics profession in the United States as an academic. Harris's influence touched fields as disparate as economic anthropology, African American studies, institutional economics, and the history of economic doctrines.

Abram Lincoln Harris, Jr., was born into a comparatively middle-class African American family in Richmond, Virginia, on January 17, 1899. His father, a butcher, and his mother, a schoolteacher, together made it possible for their son's upbringing to occur in the midst of relative economic security with a high degree of intellectual stimulation. The elder Harris worked at a meat shop owned by a German-American in Richmond, and the younger Harris, as a consequence of his interaction with the owner's family, developed fluency in German at an early age. This would serve him well in his mature years when he devoted much of his attention to...