Three African Americans at Leading Universities Receive Prestigious Honors

The honorees are Roland G. Fryer Jr., the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard, assistant professor Stephen M. Avery of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Iris Outlaw, director of multicultural student programs and services at the University of Notre Dame.

African American Adjunct Professor Wins a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

Melissa Givens is an adjunct professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and Texas Southern University in Houston. She is also a doctoral student in music at the University of Houston.

Medical Education Pioneer Donald Wilson Honored by the American College of Physicians

In 1991, Dr. Donald E. Wilson was named dean of medicine at the University of Maryland, the first African American dean of a predominantly White medical school. He was also was the first Black president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Honors and Awards for Six African American Educators

The honorees are Stephanie Luck of the University of Arkansas, the late Levi Watkins at Vanderbilt University, Clara Adams of Morgan State University, Anthony B. Pinn of Rice University, William F. Tate of Washington University in St. Louis, and Em Claire Knowles of Simmons College.

Medgar Evers to Be Honored by Medgar Evers College

This spring Medgar Evers College will grant an honorary degree to its namesake, Medgar Evers. Mylie Evers-Williams, who was married to Medgar Evers and continued his civil rights work after his death, will accept the award at the college's June 2 commencement.

West Point to Name New Cadet Barracks to Honor Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

In 1932 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the son of an Army officer, was admitted to West Point. He was "silenced" or shunned by his classmates for four years. No cadets, faculty or staff members befriended or spoke to him except on an official basis.

Three Black Scholars With Ties to Academic Medicine Win Awards

The honorees are Judith Green-McKenzie of the University of Pennsylvania, Richard Payne of Duke University, and Marie Chisholm-Burns of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

Book on the Racial Integration of College Basketball Wins the Robert F. Kennedy Book...

The biography of Perry Wallace, who played basketball for Vanderbilt University from 1967 to 1970, is the first book dealing with sports to be honored in the 35-year history of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

University of Delaware Scholar to Be Honored by the the American Institute of Chemical...

Thomas H. Epps III is the Thomas and Kipp Gutshall Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. Dr. Epps joined the University of Delaware faculty in 2006.

Black Cultural Center at the University of Tennessee Named to Honor Twin Brothers

The Friesons, both successful businessmen, recently gave $1 million to the university that will be used for academic support programs, diversity workshops, peer mentoring programs, and leadership development activities at the Black Cultural Center.

CUNY’s Preparatory High School Renamed to Honor Derrick Griffith

Dr. Griffith served as the founding principal at the Preparatory Transitional High School of the City University of New York from 2003 to 2010. He was killed in the Amtrak train wreck in Philadelphia this past May. At the time of his death, he was dean of student affairs at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn.

Deborah Johnson Is the First African American to Win the Harper Lee Prize for...

The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction is administered by the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal. Johnson is the first woman and the first African American to win the prize.

East Carolina University Honors Its First African American Bachelor’s Degree Recipient

Laura Marie Leary earned a bachelor's degree at East Carolina University in 1966. A scholarship named in her honor will be awarded to students who are majoring in fields where minorities have traditionally been underrepresented.

Yale Dean Given the Honor of Throwing the First Pitch at a Miami Marlins...

Jonathan Holloway, professor and dean of the College at Yale University, was a star high school football player and was a linebacker at Stanford University. But until recently, he had never thrown a baseball in his life.

Black Physicist Named the Rosen Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Edwin Fohtung, an assistant professor of physics at New Mexico State University, was named the 2015 Rosen Scholar by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The designation comes with $150,000 in grant money to fund Dr. Fohtung's research.

Yolanda Moses to Be Honored by the American Anthropological Association

Yolanda T. Moses, professor of anthropology and associate vice chancellor for diversity at the University of California, Riverside, has been selected to receive the 2015 Franz Boas Ward for Exemplary Service from the American Anthropological Association.

Morrine Omolo Awarded a Faculty for the Future Fellowship

The Faculty for the Future Fellowship program was established by the Schlumberger Foundation in 2004 and provides funding for women from the developing world to pursue a Ph.D. Omolo is eligible for $50,000 in annual funding for up to five years.

Dillard University’s Kiki Baker Barnes Named Athletic Administrator of the Year

Kiki Baker Barnes was chosen as the 2015 Administrator of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Directors. Dr. Barnes also serves as president of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.

Four Black Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards

The honorees are George L. Daniels of the University of Alabama, Lawanda Cummings of Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, Hewitt W. Matthews of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and Dawn J. Wright of Oregon State University.

Stanford’s Jennifer Eberhardt Is Among the “50 Groundbreaking Scientists”

Jennifer L. Eberhardt, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University, was one of 15 women among the "50 Groundbreaking Scientists Who are Changing the Way We See the World" selected by Business Insider.

Five African American Academics Honored With Major Awards

The honorees are Roslin Growe of the University of Louisiana Lafayette, Quintard Taylor of the University of Washington, Tony Brown of Hampton University, and Marie Chisholm-Burns and Noma Anderson, both from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

Two African American Women Honored With Prestigious Awards

The honorees are Katherine C. Hendrix, professor of communication at the University of Memphis and Annette K. Pridgen, an assistant professor of accounting at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Rita Dove to Receive the $20,000 Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement

The Stone Award was established in 2011 to highlight the work of the creative writing program at Oregon State University's School of Writing. Literature, and Film. The award comes with a $20,000 prize. Professor Dove, the Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, will accept the award next spring in Oregon.

A Trio of Black Scholars Receive Notable Honors

The honorees are Anne Taylor Green, provost emerita at Bethune-Cookman University, Marie Chisholm-Burns of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and Mark Anthony Neal of Duke University.

Safiya Sinclair Receives $25,800 Fellowship Award From The Poetry Foundation

Safiya Sinclair is currently a Dornsife Doctoral Fellow in literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California. She is a graduate of Bennington College in southwestern Vermont and holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Virginia.

Three African American Scholars Win Notable Awards

The honorees are Minion K.C. Morrison of Mississippi State University, Dionne Hoskins of Savannah State University in Georgia, and Condoleezza Rice of Stanford University in California.

Bryn Mawr College Honors Its First Black Alumna

Bryn Mawr College in suburban Philadelphia has named its new residence hall to honor Enid Cook. Cook was not permitted to live on campus but graduated in 1931 with degrees in chemistry and biology.

Duke Honors Its First Black Faculty Member

Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, recently held a ceremony to celebrate the naming of its new social policy center to honor Samuel DuBois Cook. In 1966, Dr. Cook became the first African American faculty member at Duke.

University of Louisville Honors Its First Black Educator

The University of Louisville has renamed its Freedom Park to honor Dr. Charles H. Parrish Jr. In 1951, Professor Parrish, who held a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago, became the first Black educator to teach at the university.

Chigozie Obioma Is a Finalist for the 2015 Man Booker Prize

Chigozie Obioma, an assistant professor of English at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, has been named one of six finalists for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, awarded for the best novel written in the English language.

Emory’s Kevin Young Wins the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

The award honors the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous calendar year and is presented by the American Academy of Poets. The prize comes with a $25,000 cash award.

Honors and Awards for African Americans in Higher Education

The honorees are Twyla J. Cummings of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Tiana Clark of Vanderbilt University, Elson S. Floyd, the late president of Washington State University, and Brenda Y. Cartwright of Winston-Salem State University.

Toni Morrison Awarded the UCLA Medal

Toni Morrison, professor emerita at Princeton University, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. In 1993, she was the first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize. On October 5, she received the UCLA Medal for "distinguished academic and professional achievement."

Honors and Awards for Four African American Scholars

The honorees are Harold Franklin, the first Black student at Auburn University, the late Ella Lee Kelley of Southern University, Patrick Hawkins of the College of Nursing at Michigan State University, and Keith Whitfield of Duke University.

Three African American Educators Receive Notable Honors

The honorees are Thomas Calhoun of Jackson State University, Conella Coulter Brown, one of the first Black students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and James Franklin Densler of the Morehouse School of Medicine.

African American Historian Honored for His Biography of Stokely Carmichael

Peniel E. Joseph, professor of history at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, received the National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis.

Breaking News