| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| (1957 – 1958) | Melville J. Herskovits |
| (1958 – 1959) | Gwendolen M. Carter |
| (1959 – 1960) | William O. Brown |
| (1960 – 1961) | William O. Jones |
| (1961 – 1962) | Vernon McKay |
| E. Franklin Frazier | |
| (1962 – 1963) | James S. Coleman |
| (1963 – 1964) | Paul Bohannon |
| (1964 – 1965) | Joseph H. Greenberg |
| (1965 – 1966) | Rupert Emerson |
| (1966 – 1967) | William A. Hance |
| (1967 – 1968) | James Duffy |
| (1968 – 1969) | Benjamin E. Thomas |
| (1969 – 1970) | L. Gray Cowan |
| (1970 – 1971) | Philip D. Curtin |
| (1971 – 1972) | Carl G. Rosberg |
| (1972 – 1973) | Immanuel Wallerstein |
| (1973 – 1974) | Absolom Vilakazi |
| (1974 – 1975) | John Marcum |
| (1975 – 1976) | Victor Uchendu |
| (1976 – 1977) | Edris Makward |
| (1977 – 1978) | Gus J. Liebenow |
| (1978 – 1979) | Ali Mazrui |
| (1979 – 1980) | Peter Gutkind |
| (1980 – 1981) | Norman Bennet |
| (1981 – 1982) | Richard Sklar |
| (1982 – 1983) | Crawford M. Young |
| (1983 – 1984) | Laura Bohannon |
| (1984 – 1985) | Robert J. Cummings |
| (1985 – 1986) | Gerald Bender |
| (1986 – 1987) | Aidan Southall |
| (1987 – 1988) | Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja |
| (1988 – 1989) | Simon Ottenberg |
| (1989 – 1990) | Ann Seidman |
| (1990 – 1991) | Martin A. Klein |
| (1991 – 1992) | Edmond J. Keller |
| (1992 – 1993) | David Robinson |
| (1993 – 1994) | Edward A. Alpers |
| (1994 – 1995) | Goran Hyden |
| (1995 – 1996) | Iris Berger |
| (1996 – 1997) | Gwendolyn Mikell |
| (1997 – 1998) | Sandra Greene |
| (1998 – 1999) | David Wiley |
| (1999 – 2000) | Lansine Kaba |
| (2000 – 2001) | Catharine Newbury |
| (2001 – 2002) | Allen Isaacman |
| (2002 – 2003) | Beverly Grier |
| (2003 – 2004) | Sandra Barnes |
| (2004 – 2005) | Bruce Berman |
| (2005 – 2006) | Joseph C. Miller |
| (2006 – 2007) | Pearl T. Robinson |
| (2007 – 2008) | Aliko Songolo |
| (2008 – 2009) | Paul Tiyambe Zeleza |
| (2009 – 2010) | Charles Ambler |
| (2010 – 2011) | Judith Byfield |
| (2011 – 2012) | Aili Tripp |
| (2012 – 2013) | Abdi Samatar |
| (2013 – 2014) | James Pritchett |
| (2014 – 2015) | Toyin Falola |
| (2015 – 2016) | Dorothy Hodgson |
| (2016 – 2017) | Anne Pitcher |
| (2017 – 2018) | Jean Allman |
| (2018 – 2019) | Maria Grosz-Ngaté |
| (2019 – 2020) | Ato Quayson |
| (2020 – 2021) | Carolyn A. Brown |
| (2021 – 2022) | Ousseina Alidou |
| (2022 – 2023) | Adérónké Adésolá Adésànyà |
| (2023 – 2024) | Gretchen Bauer |