Arvarh Strickland, the first African American professor at the University of Missouri, died in Columbia, Missouri, on April 30. He was 82 years old.
A graduate of Tougaloo College in Mississippi, Dr. Strickland earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. After teaching at Chicago State College, in 1969 he became a tenured professor of history at the University of Missouri. Throughout his tenure at the university, he was a strong advocate for increasing the diversity of the student body and the faculty. He was the author of History of the Chicago Urban League, originally published in 1966 with a new edition released by the University of Missouri Press in 2001.
Dr. Strickland retired in 1996. A room in the Memorial Student Union is named in his honor. In 1999 the university created the Arvarh E. Strickland Distinguished Professorship in African American History and Culture. In 2007 a classroom building on campus was renamed Strickland Hall.
