In Memoriam: Curtis Johnson
As chief of staff and vice president of administration at Tennessee State University, Dr. Johnson oversaw the university's auxiliary services and many departments dedicated to student operations.
In Memoriam: Sybil Haydel Morial, 1932-2024
When pursuing her graduate education in the 1950s, Haydel Morial was denied enrollment at Tulane University and Loyola University because of her race. She went on to become an active member of the civil rights movement and advocate for voting rights in New Orleans and held administrative posts at Xavier University of Louisiana.
In Memoriam: Marilyn Lillith Minus, 1977-2024
Dr. Minus taught mechanical and industrial engineering at Northeastern University for more than a decade. Earlier this year, she stepped away from Northeastern to become senior vice president and CTO for Hexcel.
In Memoriam: Lucious Edwards, Jr., 1943-2024
For nearly four decades, Edwards served as an adjunct professor of history and the university archivist at historically Black Virginia State University.
In Memoriam: Monica Vance, 1975-2024
Vance served as director of student disability services at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania for the past six years. In this role, she focused her efforts on DEI initiatives, student accessibility, and disability rights.
In Memoriam: Doris Wilkinson, 1936-2024
Dr. Wilkinson was a member of the University of Kentucky's first African American undergraduate class, graduating with a degree in sociology in 1958. Nine years later, she returned to her alma mater as the university's first Black woman to hold a full-time faculty position.
In Memoriam: Nathan Hare, 1933-2024
Dr. Hare was a prominent figure in the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s and was a strong advocate for equal educational opportunities for Black Americans. In 1968, he founded the country's first Black studies program at San Francisco State University.
In Memoriam: James Morris Lawson Jr., 1928-2024
Lawson enrolled at the Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1958. While he was a student, he helped organize sit-ins at lunch counters in downtown Nashville. In 1960, he was expelled from the university for his participation in civil rights protests.
In Memoriam: Mary Magdaline White, 1967-2024
White, a two-time HBCU graduate, was a member of the South Carolina State University staff for over two decades, most recently serving as dean of students.
In Memoriam: Irving Peddrew III, 1935-2024
Peddrew was the first African American to enroll in Virginia Tech. While he attended the university, the school's administration required Peddrew to live off campus. Fifty years later, the university dedicated a residential hall in his honor.
In Memoriam: Kenneth Campbell
Campbell served as an assistant professor in the department of mass communication at North Carolina Central University. He taught media studies and served as an advisor for the student film organization, Nineteen10 Film Alliance.
In Memoriam: Christopher Fairfield Edley Jr., 1953-2024
Christopher Edley had an extensive career in both academia and public service. He served as a professor with Harvard Law School for 23 years and held senior advising roles for five presidential campaigns, including for his former student, Barack Obama.
In Memoriam: Clayton Bates Jr., 1932-2024
Dr. Bates taught physics and electrical engineering at Stanford University for over two decades. He was the first Black faculty member to earn tenure in Stanford's School of Engineering.
In Memoriam: Roy Hudson, 1930-2024
From 1970 to 1976, Dr. Hudson served as the tenth president of what is now Hampton University in Virginia. He also held an interim appointment as president of his undergraduate alma mater, Livingstone College in North Carolina.
In Memoriam: William Strickland, 1937-2024
Strickland spent his lifetime dedicated to advancing civil rights and Black political representation. For four decades, he served as a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he taught courses on Black history and the civil rights movement.
In Memoriam: William Hamilton Harris, 1944-2024
Dr. Harris had a long career in higher education leadership, serving as interim or permanent president of five historically Black institutions: Paine College, Texas Southern University, Alabama State University, Fort Valley State University, and Texas College.
In Memoriam: June Jackson Christmas, 1924-2023
A longtime clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, Dr. Christmas also taught behavioral science at the City University of New York School of Medicine and was a professor of mental health policy at the Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
In Memoriam: Faith Ringgold, 1930-2024
Ringgold was a mixed media artist, best known for her narrative quilts which centered around African American and women's representation. She was a professor emerita of art with the University of California, San Diego where she taught for 15 years.
In Memoriam: Roscoe Hightower Jr., 1966-2024
Dr. Hightower was a professor of marketing at his alma mater, historically Black Florida A&M University, where he taught for over two decades. He also served the university as the Centennial Eminent Scholar Chair and Professor of Marketing and Facility Management.
In Memoriam: O. Jerome Green, 1954-2024
President of historically Black Shorter College O. Jerome Green passed way unexpectedly on April 8. Since he became president in 2012, the college has experienced record-breaking enrollment and graduation rates, created new academic programs, and established the STEM Center for Academic Excellence.
In Memoriam: Ruth R. Martin, 1930-2024
Dr. Martin was a professor emerita of social work at the University of Connecticut. In addition to teaching, she served the university as associate dean prior to retiring in 1999.
In Memoriam: Bertha Maxwell-Roddey, 1930-2024
In 1970, Dr. Maxwell-Roddey became the second African-American to be hired as a full-time faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. One year later, she became the founding director of the university's Africana studies department.
In Memoriam: Ramona Edelin, 1945-2024
Dr. Edelin founded the first African American studies program at Northeastern University in 1972. She is credited for introducing the term "African American" into American vernacular.
In Memoriam: Lena Prewitt, 1931-2024
In 1970, Dr. Prewitt joined the faculty at the University of Alabama as its first-ever Black woman professor. She served the university as an associate professor of business for over two decades prior to taking on academic and administrative leadership positions with Stillman College.
In Memoriam: Gloria Jackson, 1931-2024
Dr. Gloria Jackson had a career in higher education that spanned five decades. From 1982 to 1984, she served as president of St. Philip's College in Texas, a historically Black community college within the Alamo Colleges District.
In Memoriam: Shani Mott, 1976-2024
Dr. Mott was a lecturer in the department of history and Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University where she worked for the past sixteen years. Her academic studies focused on racial language in American popular culture.
In Memoriam: Norman B. Anderson, 1955-2024
Dr. Anderson was the assistant vice president for research and academic affairs at Florida State University at the time of his death. He had an extensive career in clinical psychology, which led him to become the first African American chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association.
In Memoriam: Paul F. Bitting, 1945-2024
In 1989, Dr. Bitting joined the faculty of the College of Education at North Carolina State University where he taught until his retirement in 2016 as an associate professor. From 2006 to 2007, he served as the college's assistant dean for diversity.
In Memoriam: Robert L. Palmer, 1943-2024
Dr. Palmer served as vice president of student affairs at California State University, Fullerton for over a decade, where he oversaw the establishment of numerous student support programs including the African American Resource Center. He also spent over twenty years with the division of student affairs at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
In Memoriam: Elizabeth Miller Rawlins, 1927-2024
From 1967 to 1992, Dr. Rawlins taught education at Simmons College in Boston, where she also served as associate dean of the human service program for more than decade.
In Memoriam: Edgar Lawrence Chase III, 1949-2024
Chase dedicated over twenty years of his career to historically Black Dillard University in New Orleans, where he served as dean of business and vice president of facilities, planning, and management.
In Memoriam: Jesse Hurst II, 1941-2024
Jesse Henry Hurst II, longtime educator and football coach in the state of Texas, passed away at age 82. For over three decades, Dr. Hurst taught at two historically Black universities as a professor of kinesiology and physical education.
In Memoriam: Cleon T. Thompson, 1931-2024
Dr. Cleon F. Thompson, former chancellor of Winston-Salem State University, passed away on January 27 at the age of 92.
In Memoriam: Orlando L. Taylor, 1936-2024
Dr. Orlando Taylor of Fielding University passed away on January 16. He held numerous administrative leadership roles in higher education throughout his life. He dedicated his research to speech and language disorders, as well as advancing leadership at HBCUs, earning him seven doctoral degrees over the course of his career.
In Memoriam: Joyce Inez Johnson Bolden, 1933-2023
Dr. Bolden, who taught for 42 years at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, earned a Ph.D. in music at Michigan State University. She was the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in music from Michigan State University.
In Memoriam: Julie Saville, 1947-2023
Dr. Saville was hired to the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1994, joining the founding generation of scholars of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. She was a scholar of slavery, emancipation, and plantation societies in the U.S. and the Caribbean.
