Two Blacks Among Three Winners of the Waterman Award From the National Science Foundation

Natalie King, an associate professor of science education at Georgia State University, and Asegun Henry is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will each receive a grant of $1,000,000 over a five-year period for scientific research or advanced study in science and engineering disciplines.

Carl Phillips Wins the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

Carl Phillips, a professor of English and African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Professor Phillips was honored for his poetry collection Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020

Cato T. Laurencin Honored for Diversity Efforts by the Society for Biomaterials

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award recognizes Dr. Laurencin of the University of Connecticut for promoting anti-racism and creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for historically excluded groups in the STEM disciplines, especially in the field of biomaterials. He is the inaugural winner of the award.

Yęmisi Jimoh Receives the MELUS Award for Lifetime Achievement

Yęmisi Jimoh, a professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was recently honored with the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Honors and Awards

Kathy Burlew and Elizabeth Tshele were recently honored.

Camara Phyllis Jones Honored for Her Contributions to Health Education

Camara Phyllis Jones received the 2023 Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award from the CDC Foundation and the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation. Dr. Jones was honored for her exceptional ability to educate about pathways linking racism to poor health outcomes.

The First African American to Deliver the Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford

Willie James Jennings an associate professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School, has been selected to deliver the Bampton Lectures for 2023 at the University of Oxford in England. He is the first African American selected to give these lectures in the 243-year history of the program.

Yale University Awards Degrees to Two of its First Students

James W. C. Pennington (1808-1870) and Alexander Crummell (1819-1898) studied at Yale from 1834 to 1837 and 1840 to 1841, respectively. Because they were Black, however, the university did not allow them to register formally for classes or matriculate for a degree. They could not participate in classroom discussions or access library resources.

The First Black Woman to Be Named a Fellow of the Academy of Leisure...

Corliss Outley, professor in the department of parks, recreation, and tourism management and director of the Race, Ethnicity, Youth and Social Equity Collaboratory at Clemson University in South Carolina, is the first African American woman to be named a Fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences in its 43-year history.

Asegun Henry of MIT Wins the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science...

Asegun Henry, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the recipient of the Alan T. Waterman Award from...

Honors and Awards

• Billy C. Hawkins, president of Talladega College in Alabama, received the Omega Century Award for Excellence at the centennial celebration of the Omega Psi...

Morgan State Legend Honored by the American Football Coaches Association

Edward P. Hurt was head coach for football, basketball, and track and field. He also served as athletics director.

A Black Scholar Awarded the National Humanities Medal

Kwame Anthony Appiah was awarded the medal by President Obama at a White House ceremony.

An Honor for the Africana Studies Department at the University of Cincinnati

The department received the Sankore Institutional Award from the National Council for Black Studies at the council's annual convention in Atlanta.

Arizona State University Honors Its First Black Football Player

In 1937 Emerson Harvey was the first Black player at ASU. His presence on the football team at the university served to play a major role in the racial integration of college sports in the southwest.

MIT’s Wesley Harris Is Honored for Leadership in Advocating for Minorities in STEM Fields

He has been selected to receive the 2012 President's Award from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers.

University of Kansas Historian Wins Prestigious Book Prize

Randal Jelks, associate professor of American studies and African American studies at the University of Kansas, has been awarded the 2013 Lillian Smith Book Award for his biography of long-time Morehouse College president Benjamin Elijah Mays.

Regina Benjamin to Receive the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism

Dr. Benjamin is the former Surgeon General of the United States and now holds the NOLA.com/Times Picayune Endowed Chair in Public Health Sciences at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Duke University Scholar Wins Anthropology Award

Lee D. Baker, professor of cultural anthropology at Duke, has been selected to receive the Prize for Distinguished Achievement in the Critical Study of North America by the Society for the Anthropology on North America.

Honors for Two African American Educators

Urmeka Jefferson of the University of Missouri received an award from the National Association of Neonatal Nurses and Terence Hicks of Prairie View A&M University was honored by teacher's education group.

Duke Art Historian Honored by the Smithsonian Institution

Richard J. Powell received the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History from Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

Five Black Scholars Win Prestigious Awards

The honorees are President M. Christopher Brown II of Alcorn State University, Tryan L. McMickens of Suffolk University, Charlene Johnson of South Carolina State, Donald Mitchell Jr. of Grand Valley State, and Dikgang Moseneke of South Africa.

Harvard Business School Honors Its Black Alumnae

The new website honoring Black women graduates was established in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration of coeducation in the full-time MBA program at Harvard Business School.

Spelman College President Receives Academic Leadership Award From the Carnegie Corporation

Beverly Daniel Tatum is the first college or university president in the state of Georgia and the first president of a historically Black college or university to win the award. The award comes with a $500,000 grant.

New Award-Winning Film Documents Stories of English Women Who Married Black GIs

Valerie Hill-Jackson, clinical associate professor in the department of teaching, learning, and culture at Texas A&M University, has won the 2013 Upton Sinclair Award for her new film documentary.

Harvard Pioneer Chosen for Induction Into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame

William Clarence Matthews, a member of the Class of 1905 at Harvard University, led the university's baseball team in batting for three straight seasons. In 1905 he batted .400 and stole 22 bases.

NYU Scholar Lyle Ashton Harris Selected to Win the David C. Driskell Prize

Lyle Ashton Harris was chosen as the winner of the 2014 David C. Driskell Prize, given to an early career scholar or artist who has made an original and important contribution to the field of African American art or art history.

Honors for Two African American Faculty Members

Michael Nduati of the University of California Riverside received a New Faculty Scholar Award and Howard Fuller of Marquette University was named an "Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Movement."

Ohio University Pays Tribute to Its African American President

The board of trustees of Ohio University in Athens produced a video tribute to President Roderick J. McDavis to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of his appointment as president of the university.

Isaac Crumbley to Be Honored by the Geological Society of America

Isaac J. Crumbley, associate vice president at Fort Valley State University in Georgia, will be honored for his efforts to open the geological sciences to minority students.

Five Finalists Announced for the Inaugural Harriet Tubman Prize

The award, presented by the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library, recognizes the best book of the year on slavery, the slave trade, or anti-slavery topics.

University of Virginia School of Medicine Honors an Early Black Graduate

Dr. Vivian Pinn was the only woman and the only African American in the 1967 graduating class. She later served for 20 years as director of the Office for Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health. Now, the medical research building at the University of Virginia has been renamed in her honor.

Recent Honors and Awards for African Americans in Higher Education

Here is a listing of a group of African Americans in higher education who have been honored by colleges and universities or who have received notable awards from other organizations.

West Virginia State University Honors Alumnus Earl Lloyd, the First Black Man to Play...

Historically Black West Virginia State University will recognize Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member and alumnus Earl Lloyd with the naming of a street on campus in his honor. The basketball legend passed away on February 26, 2015.

St. Cloud State University Names Academic Building After its First Black Graduate

Ruby Cora Webster, the daughter of former slaves, was born in Ohio and moved with her family to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where she attended high school. Webster graduated from what is now St. Cloud State University in 1909 with a degree in elementary education.

A Trio of African Americans Who Have Been Selected to Receive Prestigious Honors

The honorees are Mercy Mumba of the College of Nursing at the University of Alabama, Paulette Brown Bracey, professor of library science at North Carolina Central University, and LaDelle Olion, professor of special education at Fayetteville State Univeraity in North Carolina.

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