ames H. Sidanius devoted much of his career to the pursuit of one question: Why are societies always hierarchical, with some groups at the top and others at the bottom?

The John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in memory of William James and of African and African American Studies, who died June 29 at age 75, knew from a young age how inequality and oppression functioned in his own society. He got involved in Civil Rights, Black liberation, and anti-war activism as a teenager in New York City, and saw that legislative efforts to win rights for Black people did not erase their marginal status in everyday life.

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