In Memoriam

Dr. Reavis was the pastor of several churches and taught for more than two decades at Virginia Union University. In 2000, he was named president of his alma mater, now called Virginia University of Lynchburg. He served in that role until 2015.

Dr. Crosby joined the faculty at Kent State University in 1969. There he founded the Institute for African American Affairs, which later became the department of Pan-African studies. He led the Black studies programs at the university for a quarter century.

Dr. Conyers, who began his career teaching at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, joined the faculty at the University of Houston in 2002. He has been credited with shaping and transforming the University of Houston’s African American studies program.

Judge Mickle taught at the Univerity of Florida College of Law for 38 years. He was the first African American to earn a bachelor's degree and the second African Americans to earn a law degree from the University of Florida.

Quincy Robinson served on the staff at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia for 32 years, retiring in 1999 as chief financial officer.

Robinson began her career at Jackson State University in Mississippi in 1952 as the assistant band director and instructor of music. After a 60-year career at the university, she was named dean emerita in 2012.

Dr. Hicks served as a vocational instructor for 22 years before joining the faculty at his alma mater Fort Valley State University in 1971.

Dr. Wilson taught and was director of the Upward Bound program at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, founded and directed the Black studies program at the University of Detroit Mercy, and was president of Wayne County Community College for 10 years.

Nearly, a decade after she was not allowed to enroll at what is now the University of Memphis because of the color of her skin, Dr. Decosta-Wilis was hired as the university's first Black faculty member. She also taught at Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Howard University in Washington, D.C., George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

During a long career as a faculty member and administrator in higher education, Dr. Renick served as chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University and the University of Michigan-Dearborn and was provost at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Herman Hemingway, a lawyer, educator, civil rights activist, was the first Black graduate of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He taught for more than two decades at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Jacqueline Certion was the assistant director of the Foundations for Academic Success Track, or FASTrack, in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Mississippi. In her position, Certion served as an adviser and mentor for thousands of students over the past 19 years.

In 1963, Theodore Carter DeLaney Jr. was hired as a janitor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He became a full-time student in 1983. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1985 at the age of 42. After earning a Ph.D., in 1995, he joined the faculty at the university.

In 2003, Dr. Harris came to Loyola as provost and vice president for academic affairs and served in that capacity through 2008.  He was provost at Loyola when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and helped students relocate to universities across the country.

After being the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry at Purdue University, Dr. Moore joined the chemistry faculty at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the late 1960s. He achieved the rank of full professor within five years.

After teaching for six years at Columbia University, Dr. Mullings joined the faculty at the City University of New York in 1983. There she eventually became a distinguished professor of anthropology at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.

Edward J. Perkins was the first African Amerian to serve as ambassador to the Republic of South Africa and later taught at the University of Oklahoma.

After many years as an administrator in Oklahoma public schools, in 1975, Dr. Todd went to work in the Chancellor's Office of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, eventually becoming vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Dr. Grant joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in 2017 as a visiting professor of art education. He also was affiliated with the African and African American studies, political science, and gender studies programs at the university.

Dr. Steptoe led the flagship campus of the Southern University System from 1975 to 1982. Later, he served as vice president for academic affairs at Alabama State University in Montgomery.