Maurice Foley '82

Chief Judge of the U.S. Tax Court

“After returning to Swarthmore, I met two people who changed my life. In the fall of 1979, I took African American history with Professor Kathryn Morgan. I remember her entrance on the first day of class-the African garb, short Afro, and large dangling earrings. Professor Morgan was a bona fide soul sista-earthy, militant, fiery, uncompromising, and direct. Radical yet reasoned. Oscillating between a cool, calm, aloof philosopher and an in-your-face "Burn, baby, burn" crusader, she made it clear to the students that it was not appropriate to open your mouth unless you had something substantive to say-leave your rhetoric in a receptacle outside the door. I knew I was going to learn a lot from her, and I did.

“After I had taken four of her classes, we developed a new seminar: Special Topics in Black Studies. It comprised one student from each of seven areas of study political science, economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, and history. Each student taught a session explaining how to foster African American social and economic advancement by modifying and employing traditional theories in his or her academic discipline. Professor Morgan's passion for reforming "the system" infused in me a passion for political, economic, and tax matters relevant to African Americans. As a result, during the course of my career in the legislative realm, I particularly enjoyed developing expertise and designing legislation relating to the earned-income tax credit, low-income housing credit, empowerment zones, and other provisions that would significantly affect African Americans.” More