Stephen Middleton, history professor and director of African-American studies, exemplifies the definition of the black American dream.
 Middleton grew up in a small rural community outside Charleston, S.C. He said he had a very agrarian upbringing.
“We did a lot of farming. I picked cotton,” Middleton said with a smile. “I plowed with a mule, not a tractor. It was really a farming way of living.”
Middleton later went to Morris College, graduated Cum Laude with his Bachelor of Arts in history in 1976 and a year after received his Master of Arts from Ohio State University in black studies with a concentration in African-American history. He attended New York University Law School for a time, before receiving his Ph.D. from Miami University.
“I went to college thinking that I’d graduate and pursue a formal training in practicing law. I went in to become a civil rights attorney,” Middleton said. “I wanted to join the movement for racial justice. In college I met a historian, and I began to focus more on history, and in graduate school I began to focus more on African-American history, and while working on my doctorate degree I discovered I could do history and law, and that’s what I do today.”
Like many professors on Mississippi State University’s campus, Middleton has published numerous articles, as well as books focused on race and law like “The Black Laws: Race and Legal Process in Early Ohio 1787-1860” and “The Black Laws in the Old Northwest: A Documentary History.” He is currently researching Judge Robert Heberton Terrell, the first African-American to be appointed to a judicial office by a United States president.
“African-American studies is important because someone has to take a look at the experiences of African-Americans and the experience of Africans and how their experiences are intertwined with the larger American experience,” Middleton said thoughtfully. “We don’t just get this by osmosis. We know this because we’ve been taught this, and it not only enriches the lives of black people, but it enriches the lives of everyone.”
Middleton said everyone around the world can be touched and inspired by the history of black history and black culture. 
Last week, Mississippi finally ratified the 13th amendment, which abolishes slavery, after 148 years.
Middleton said he did not find it odd that Mississippi was so belated in the ruling.
“A friend of mine emailed me recently and mentioned that Mississippi had just passed the 13th Amendment, and she said it in such a surprising way,” Middleton said with a chuckle. “And I replied that we are late bloomers.”
Middleton said the African-American experience should be seen as inspirational.
“There’s a power in culture of African-American and African people.  We don’t fully claim this, but anyone who looks at the African experience should be inspired,” Middleton said. “Enslaved, subjugated, violated, every abuse you can think of happened to black people for more than 100 years; but yet, that same group of individuals, lawyers, writers, poets, athletics, all black people. How inspiring is that? It’s a mindset. It’s not saying ‘I can’t,’ no, it’s about saying ‘I can.'”