[1] Higginbotham often accompanied her father to his work, which allowed her to encounter and become familiar with many significant early African-American historians, including Rayford Logan, Charles H. Wesley and Benjamin Quarles.

Higginbotham later related how this unique experience shaped her later career choice, "I knew from childhood that I wanted to teach, research, and write about the history of African Americans.

Her great-grandfather, Albert Royal Brooks, was born into slavery in Virginia in 1817, and after the American Civil War then began to serve on the jury to try former Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

[2] "In many ways," Higginbotham says, "the family stories inspired me to pursue the discipline of history and gave me an appreciation of the importance of individual lives, broadly speaking, as a lens or mirror to much larger social and political contexts.

[4] Higginbotham taught American history and counseled students completing the eighth grade at Francis Parkman Jr. High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1969 to 1971.

[1] She was also appointed as the Inaugural John Hope Franklin Professor of American Legal History at Duke University Law School in 2010.

[5] Higginbotham has also revised and updated John Hope Franklin's African-American history survey From Slavery to Freedom, which was originally published in 1947.

She has worked with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as co-editor of the African American National Biography, a 12-volume resource of information that presents African-American history in more than 5,000 biographical entries.

[7] After students filed a lawsuit with detailed allegations of Comaroff's actions and the university's failure to respond, Higginbotham was one of several signatories to say that she wished to retract her signature.

During the academic year 2013–14, she was the John Hope Franklin Fellow at the National Humanities Venter in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The most notable award Higginbotham has received was the 2014 National Humanities Medal, which was presented to her by President Barack Obama at the White House for "illuminating the African American journey.