In Memoriam: George Taliaferro, 1927-2018
George Taliaferro was the first African-American ever drafted by a National Football League team. After his football career was over, he served in many roles in higher education in Indiana and at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
In Memoriam: Ntozake Shange, 1948-2018
Shange was a professor of women's studies at the University of Florida from 2002 to 2006. She was the author of the 1975 Tony Award-nominated play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf."
In Memoriam: Sharon Tolbert-Glover, 1940-2018
When Sharon Tolbert-Glover was only 15 years old, she became a nun at the convent of the Servites of Mary in Illinois. When she was assigned to a parish in suburban Chicago, the all-White congregants refused to accept her, causing her to resign from the order. She later had a long career in higher education.
In Memoriam: Janette Hoston Harris, 1939-2018
In 1960, Janette Hoston Harris was one of six Southern University students arrested for attempting to desegregate an all-White lunch counter. As a result of this, the governor of Louisiana ordered the expulsion of all six students from the university and prohibited them from attending any college in the state.
In Memoriam: Percy J. Vaughn, Jr., 1932-2018
Percy J. Vaughn, Jr. was the founding dean of Alabama State University's College of Business Administration. He joined the faculty at the university in 1975 and served as a professor of marketing until his retirement 35 years later in 2010.
In Memoriam: Roosevelt Wilson, 1940-2018
Wilson joined the staff at Florida A&M University in 1969 as the director of sports information. He held various roles during his tenure at the university including director of university publications, director of athletics, and professor in what is now the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication.
In Memoriam: Mildred Ollee, 1934-2018
Mildred Ollee served as president of Seattle Central Community College in Washington State from 2003 to 2010. She worked in higher education for over 40 years.
In Memoriam: Constance Bland, 1958-2018
Dr. Bland joined the faculty at Mississippi Valley State University in 1991 and was promoted to chair of the mathematics, computer, and information sciences department in 1999. She was named vice president of academic affairs in 2014.
In Memoriam: Brenda Armstrong, 1949-2018
Brenda Armstrong was a professor and the senior associate dean for student diversity, recruitment, and retention at Duke University School of Medicine. She was the second Black woman in the United Stated to become a board-certified pediatric cardiologist.
In Memoriam: Melvin Curtis Tyler (1956-2018)
Melvin Curtis Tyler served as vice chancellor of student affairs and enrollment management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City until just 10 days before his death.
In Memoriam: Robert Judson (1941-2018)
Dr. Judson began his career at Pasco-Hernando State College in Florida in 1972. He became the school's first instructor, first recruiter, and first financial aid coordinator. In 1976, he was promoted to dean of East Campus and in 1994 he became the school's second president.
In Memoriam: Linda Rae Daniels, 1953-2018
Linda R. Daniels worked for Ohio University for 18 years, most recently as director of multicultural programs. Earlier, she was on the staff at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown for 14 years.
In Memoriam: Paul J. Burgett, 1946-2018
Dr. Burgett held many different positions over his 54 years at the University of Rochester. He became dean of students at the Eastman School of Music in 1981 and dean of students for the entire university seven years later.
In Memoriam: Michelle R. Howard-Vital, 1953-2018
Dr. Howard-Vital became Cheyney University’s eleventh and first woman president in 2007. She served in that role until 2014.
In Memoriam: P. Sterling Stuckey, 1932-2018
Professor Stuckey was an expert on American slavery and African American history. He taught at Northwestern University before joining the faculty at the University of California, Riverside in 1989.
In Memoriam: Kofi Atta Annan, 1938-2018
Kofi Annan was a career diplomat from Ghana who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. He earned a bachelor's degree at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and master's degree in management at MIT.
In Memoriam: John Kenneth Lee, 1923-2018
J. Kenneth Lee, was a prominent civil rights attorney who was one of five African American students who in 1951 enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Earlier he had taught at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.
In Memoriam: Phail Wynn Jr., 1947-2018
Phail Wynn Jr. served for 28 years as president of Durham Technical Community College and then was a long-time administrator at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
In Memoriam: Roosevelt Ratliff Jr.
Roosevelt Ratliff Jr. was a professor of English and assistant vice president of academic affairs at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
In Memoriam: Jacqueline Williams Paddio, 1957-2018
Paddio served as vice president for student affairs at Talladega College in Alabama from 2008 to 2015. During her tenure, enrollment at the college quadrupled.
In Memoriam: Gina Carter-Simmers, 1968-2018
Gina Carter-Simmers, the general manager of the public radio station operated by Jackson State University in Mississippi, died late last month after a two-year battle with breast cancer. After her diagnosis of triple-negative breast cancer, Carter-Simmers became a staunch advocate for breast cancer survivors.
In Memoriam: Gladys Styles Johnston, 1938-2018
Dr. Johnston served as the second chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Kearney from 1993 to 2002. Previously, she was executive vice president and provost at DePaul University in Chicago.
In Memoriam: Roy Enford Malcolm, 1935-2018
During a 44-year career at Oakwood University, Dr Malcolm served as a faculty member, registrar, dean of administration, academic vice president, commencement coordinator, dean of college relations, and manager of the Aeolians, the award-winning university choir.
In Memoriam: Costel D. Denson, 1934-2018
Costel Denson, a former faculty member and administrator at the University of Delaware, was the first African American student to graduate from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
In Memoriam: Edgar Jackson Kenton III, 1940-2018
Dr. Kenton served as a professor of neurology at Temple University in Philadelphia, a clinical professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, and as director of the Stroke Prevention Intervention Research Program at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
In Memoriam: Marcellus Blount
Marcellus Blount was an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University in New York City. He was the former director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies and the former director of the graduate program in African American studies at Columbia.
In Memoriam: James Hal Cone, 1938-2018
Dr. Cone was the Bill & Judith Moyers Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he taught for nearly a half century. He is known as the father of Black Liberation Theology.
In Memoriam: Velvalea N. Rogers Phillips, 1923-2018
Vel Phillips was a civil rights leader who was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School. A building on the University of Wisconsin campus is named in her honor.
In Memoriam: Nathan T. Davis, 1937-2018
Professor Davis joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1969. He taught courses in saxophone, African American music, and jazz arranging, improvisation, and history and founded the doctoral program in jazz studies.
In Memoriam: Olly W. Wilson, 1937-2018
After teaching at Florida A&M University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Dr. Wilson joined the music department faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. He retired from teaching in 2002.
In Memoriam: Jeffrey B. Ferguson, 1964-2018
Jeffrey B. Ferguson was the Karen and Brian Conway '80 Presidential Teaching Professor of Black Studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He was a prominent scholar of the Harlem Renaissance.
In Memoriam: David G. Carter, 1942-2018
David G. Carter was the former chancellor of the Connecticut State University System and former president of Eastern Connecticut State University. He was the first African American to serve as president of a four-year institution of higher education in Connecticut.
In Memorian: Arthur J, McAfee Jr., 1929-2018
Arthur J. McAfee Jr. served as director of athletics at Morehouse College in Atlanta. McAfee was also the head basketball coach at the college from 1965 to 2000. During this period, he won 464 college basketball games.
In Memoriam: Stephen W. Jefferson, 1950-2018
Dr. Jefferson taught at the University of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2013 and directed the undergraduate sport management program from 1999 to 2011.
In Memoriam: Sarah Delores Cousin Banks, 1940-2018
After earning a master's degree, Sarah Banks taught mathematics at Rutgers University-Camden. Completing a doctorate at Rutgers in 1984, she then joined the staff at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she served in a number of roles including associate dean of the Graduate School.
In Memoriam: Virginia Caples, 1946-2018
Dr. Caples began her academic career at her alma mater, Alcorn State University. She then joined the faculty at Alabama A&M University, and served there in many capacities, including provost, for the next 40 years. On two occasions, Dr. Caples served as interim president of Alabama A&M.
