Born in Convent, Louisiana in 1885, Henderson Hamilton Donald received his BA from Howard University in 1915, followed by three years of study at the Yale Divinity School. He received his master's degree from Yale in 1920 and his PhD from the graduate school in 1926.
From 1960 until his retirement in 1973, Donald taught at Lane College, a Black college in Jackson, Tennessee, where he was professor of sociology. From 1961 to 1969, he was chair of the division of social science. In earlier years, he had taught at Livingstone College in North Carolina and Howard University, where he was chair of the sociology department, and done scholarly research in New York. Professional memberships included the American Sociological Association and the American Association of University Professors.
In 1952, Donald published The Negro Freedman: Life Conditions of the American Negro in the Early Years, a work that was controversial for its treatment of Reconstruction and African American life. Other publications included an article, “The Effects of the Negro Migration on the North.” Donald died in 1980.