A renowned black historian has claimed it is racist for scholars to question her book on slavery, after she lost her tenured professorship when reviewers said it was riddled with errors.

Kerri Greenidge's book 'The Grimkes' initially received rave reviews when it was published in 2022, as she was praised for delving into the history of a South Carolina slaveholding family.

The book was intended to shift the focus from the Grimke sisters Angelina and Sarah, who were white women who famously left their plantation to fight for emancipation, and toward the enslaved people their family owned.

But after Greenidge scooped up several awards for the tome, several other historians came forward to say they had questions over the claims that were made. 

Myra C. Glenn, a historian and retired professor of American history at Elmira College, told the New York Times that when she read the book, she thought to herself, 'Where is she getting this?' 

Glenn then wrote in a review published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2023 that The Grimkes was a 'deeply flawed book', and said Greenidge 'lacks the evidence to substantiate many of her major claims.'

'Her work is also riddled with factual errors and repeatedly omits needed endnotes,' Glenn wrote. 

In response to the scrutiny, Greenidge told the Times that she believes the backlash was rooted in racism, saying: 'The attack on Black women academics is real.' 

After scrutiny on Greenidge's work captured headlines, she lost her position as a tenured associate professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University.

Greenidge said she felt she has never been accepted by the academic community and feels her life's work has consistently been criticized by white scholars. 

'I am heartbroken that a field I have given my life to can treat me this way,' she said. 

In Glenn's review of the book, she questioned Greenidge's citation of letters between the Grimke sisters that were claimed to have been kept by the University of Michigan - but were actually found to not be in the college's possession at all.

The reviewer also alleged that Greenidge distorted the story of a 1838 attack on Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia. 

Greenidge had claimed that the church was set upon by an anti-abolitionist mob, but the Grimke sisters 'led thousands of antislavery women through prayer' and allowed them to escape the 'flaming building.' 

In reality, Glenn said 'numerous sources have documented no one was in the building when it was torched, since antislavery activists cancelled a scheduled meeting, fearing impending violence.' 

Greenidge told the New York Times that she believes the criticism of her work was due to racism.