Bobby Lee Lovett, author and long-time educator at Tennessee State University, died late last month in Nashville. He was 79 years old.
A native of Memphis, Dr. Lovett held a bachelor’s degree in history and political science at what is now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He later earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Dr. Lovett taught in the Memphis public school system and at Eureka College in Illinois before joining the faculty at Tennessee State University, a historically Black educational institution in Nashville. In addition to teaching history for more than 30 years, Dr. Lovett served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the university.
Professor Lovett was the author of eight books including A Touch of Greatness: A History of Tennessee State University (Mercer University Press, 2013). His 2005 book, The Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee: A Narrative History (University of Tennesee Press, 2005), won the Tennessee History Book Award from the Tennessee Library Association and Tennessee Historical Commission.
