In Memoriam: Chinua Achebe, 1930-2013
Since 2009, the noted Nigerian author and educator, has served as the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University.
In Memoriam: Wilbert Frazier Jordan Jr., 1950-2013
An environmental attorney, he was the first African American to receive an athletic scholarship at the University of Southern Mississippi.
In Memoriam: Jane Cooke Wright, 1919-2013
When she was named professor of surgery and chair of the cancer chemotherapy department at New York Medical College in 1967, she was the highest-ranked African American woman at any predominantly white U.S. medical school.
In Memoriam: David Lloyd Mathews, 1949-2013
He was president of the Auburn Hills campus of Oakland Community College in Michigan and had served in that post for less than two months before his death.
In Memoriam: Randolph Wilson Bromery, 1926-2013
Dr. Bromery was a former professor of geology and chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He also served as president of Westfield State College, Roxbury Community College, and Springfield College.
In Memoriam: Verla Marie Williams Vaughn, 1948-2013
Dr. Vaughan joined the nursing faculty at Tennessee State University in 1977. In addition to her role on the faculty for 36 years, Dr. Vaughan served as chair of the Christine Sharpe Lectureship, which provided nursing students access to some of the nation's top leaders in nursing.
In Memoriam: Donald Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II, 1932-2003
Throughout an illustrious career as a jazz recording artist and performer, he taught at North Carolina Central University, Delaware State University, Rutgers University, Hampton University, New York University, Cornell University, Oberlin College and Howard University.
In Memoriam: Gloria Richardson Smith, 1934-2013
She was the former dean of the nursing schools at the University of Oklahoma and Wayne State University and was the first nurse to be named director of the Michigan Department of Public Health.
In Memoriam: James Alexander Hood, 1942-2013
Hood was one of two Black students who successfully integrated the University of Alabama in 1963. He spent only two months on a hostile campus before transferring to Wayne State University. Many years later, he returned to the University of Alabama to earn a doctoral degree.
In Memoriam: Brooklyn T. McMillon, 1915-2013
Over a career of 65 years of service to North Carolina Central University, he was registrar, professor, chair of the health education department, and volunteer university archivist.
In Memorian: Jan Rynveld Carew, 1920-2012
Born in what was then British Guyana, he was a prolific writer and was professor emeritus of African American studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
In Memoriam: Arthur J. Bond, 1939-2012
Educated at Purdue University, he was the former dean of engineering and technology at Alabama A&M University. As a graduate student he was an adviser to students who formed what is now the National Society of Black Engineers.
In Memoriam: J. Blaine Hudson, 1949-2013
Dr. Hudson had been on medical leave since August and in December had resigned as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville. He had planned to return to the faculty in 2014.
In Memoriam: Henry Blackwell, 1936-2012
He taught at Boston College for 32 and was the first African American to ever serve as a faculty member in the college's English Department.
In Memoriam: Gloria Davy, 1931-2012
She was the first African American to perform as Aida at the Metropolitan Opera and served on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1984 to 1997.
In Memoriam: Vernice Doris Ferguson, 1928-2012
After a long and distinguished career in government service, she was named a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and held the Fagin Family Chair in Diversity.
In Memoriam: Mozella Smith Peterson Galloway, 1951-2012
She was the co-founder and president of the National Black Herstory Task Force, a nonprofit cultural and educational organization dedicated to celebrate and chronicle the lives of women of African descent.
In Memoriam: Cedric Sydney Rodney, 1924-2012
Until his recent retirement, he was the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religion and Ethics at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.
In Memoriam: Christopher C. Mercer, 1924-2012
He was one of the six Black students who racially integrated the School of Law at the University of Arkansas. He was an adviser to the Little Rock Nine, the students who racially integrated Central High School in 1957.
In Memoriam: Lawrence Guyout, 1939-2012
He was a civil rights activist who inspired generations of students to become involved in politics. He was a graduate of Tougaloo College and the law school at Rutgers University.
In Memoriam: Harrison DeWayne Whittington, 1931-2012
A founding member of the board of visitors at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, he also served as a visiting lecturer, Director of Field Experience, and an adviser to the university's Upward Bound program.
In Memoriam: James Russell Dumpson, 1909-2012
He was the former dean of the Graduate School of Social Science at Fordham University and was the oldest living alumnus of Cheyney University in Pennsylvania.
In Memoriam: Andrew Felton Brimmer Jr. 1926-2012
The son of a sharecropper, he was the first African American to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He also taught at Harvard Business School and chaired the board of trustees at Tuskegee University for 28 years.
In Memoriam: Mervyn Malcolm Dymally, 1926-2012
The former congressman and lieutenant governor of California served as the director of the Urban Health Institute at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles.
In Memoriam: Rollin Charles Williams, 1922-2012
In 1957, he was hired as an assistant professor of social work, the first African American faculty member at the University of Connecticut.
In Memoriam: Philip Byron Nixon, 1953-2012
He was assistant vice president of student services at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama.
In Memoriam: Lindsey Wetherspoon, 1924-2012
He taught for nearly 60 years in the College of Agriculture and Human Sciences at Prairie View A&M University in Texas.
In Memoriam: James L. Hill, 1928-2012
A special assistant to the president of the University of Texas, he was the first African American to serve as a vice president of the university.
In Memoriam: Emerson A. Cooper, 1924-2012
He joined the Oakwood University faculty in 1948 as an instructor of chemistry and taught there until 1992.
In Memoriam: Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr., 1934-2012
He taught in the department of theater at Howard University since 1991 and chaired the department for six years.
In Memoriam: Aaronette M. White, 1961-2012
She was an associate professor of psychology and associate dean of equity and social responsibility in the Division of Social Sciences of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
In Memoriam: Roy Simon Bryce-Laporte, 1933-2012
A longtime member of the faculty at Colgate University, he was the first director of the African American studies program at Yale University.
In Memoriam: Thelma McWilliams Glass, 1916-2012
A longtime professor of geography at Alabama State University, she was the last surviving member of the the Women's Political Council, which organized the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56.
In Memoriam: Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 1949-2012
He was a a professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago. He published his first book on the Haitian revolution while he was an undergraduate student at CUNY.
In Memoriam: William James Raspberry, 1935-2012
From 1995 to 2008, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist served as the Knight Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism at Duke. He commuted from Washington to Durham each week when classes were in session.
In Memoriam: Leontine T.C. Kelly, 1920-2012
An educator and social activist, she was the first Black woman bishop in a mainstream Christian denomination.
