Becky Lynn Tatum (1959-2005) was the first person to be awarded the W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship in 2000 to study social support across racial/ethnic and gender groups and the relationship of social support to juvenile misconduct. At that time, Dr. Tatum was an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University and had already established and published work on minority and women's issues in criminal justice, and colonial perspectives in race and crime.
Dr. Tatum earned her doctorate in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York at Albany. She began teaching criminal justice at Grambling State University after graduation and returned there to head the Department of Criminal Justice just two years before her untimely and sudden death. She published numerous articles, book chapters and other scholarly works during her short career including the book, Crime, Violence and Minority Youth. She was active in criminal justice professional organizations serving as Executive Counselor to the Minorities and Women Section, and Chair of the Affirmative Action Committee of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the Critical Criminology Section of the American Society of Criminology, as well as Secretary to the ASC Division of People of Color and Crime.
In her honor, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences has established the annual Becky Tatum Excellence Award for conceptual or empirical contributions in the study of minorities as victims, professionals in criminal justice, or persons committing offenses.