Lucius Barker

Lucius Jefferson Barker (born 1928) is an American political scientist.

Barker was named after his uncle, a physician, and intended to study medicine while attending Southern University at Baton Rouge. An elective course with Rodney Higgins sparked Barker's interest in political science. After graduating from Southern in 1949, Barker earned a master's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 1950, followed by a doctorate from the same institution four years later. Barker completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Law School, and joined the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee faculty in 1956. Barker left Milwaukee in 1967 for an associate professorship at his alma mater, where he taught for two years. Barker was appointed the Edna F. Gellhorn Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis in 1969. In 1990, Barker joined the Stanford University faculty, where he was appointed William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science. Between 1992 and 1993, he served as president of the American Political Science Association.