In Memoriam: Fannie Gaston-Johansson, 1938-2023
Dr. Gaston-Johansson was a member of the University of Nebraska Medical Center faculty from 1985 to 1993. She joined the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 1993. In 1998, Professor Gaston-Johansson became the first Black woman to become a tenured professor at Johns Hopkins University.
In Memoriam: John H. Bracey Jr., 1941-2022
Professor Bracey was a leading figure in the fields of African American studies and U.S. history. He joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts in 1972 and helped create one of the nation’s first doctoral programs in African American studies.
In Memoriam: Patricia Liggins Hill, 1942-2023
Dr. Hill joined the faculty at the University of San Francisco in 1970 as an instructor in English and ethnic studies. Dr. Hill retired as a full professor in 2015 after teaching at the University of San Francisco for 45 years.
In Memoriam: Arthur E. Thomas, 1940-2023
In 1985, Dr. Thomas was appointed president of Central State University. He was the first alumnus of the school to serve as university president. Dr. Thomas served as president of the university until 1995.
In Memoriam: Roslyn Elizabeth Pope, 1938-2023
While a senior at Spelman College in Atlanta, Pope along with a young Julian Bond wrote "An Appeal for Human Rights," which laid the groundwork for the formation of civil rights protests by college students in Atlanta.
In Memoriam: Wayne Shorter, 1933-2023
Wayne Shorter was a pioneering jazz musician, composer, and a former member of the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles. He won 12 Grammy Awards (the last one in 2022), the 2017 Polar Music Prize, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2018.
In Memoriam: Randall Robinson, 1941-2023
Randall Robinson was a lawyer, civil rights activist, and educator. He was one of America's leading voices in opposition to South African apartheid. He taught at Pennsylvania State University from 2008 to 2016.
In Memoriam: Donald Brown
Donald Brown served as director of the Office of African, Hispanic Asian, and Native American (AHANA) Student Programs at Boston College for 27 years from 1978 to 2005.
In Memoriam: Lilly Adams-Dudley, 1950-2023
In 1975, Lilly Adams-Dudley joined the staff at Canisius College as a language arts specialist. She retired in 2018 as the director of Canisius Opportunity Programs for Education (COPE) which provided scholarships, mentoring, and tutoring for students from underrepresented groups.
In Memoriam: Robert Charles Smith, 1947-2023
Robert Charles Smith was a long-time member of the political science department at San Francisco State University. One of his later contributions to the literature was a discussion of how U.S. conservativism was inherently related to anti-Blackness.
In Memoriam: James Edward Kennedy, 1933-2023
Kennedy began his career as a teacher and later assistant principal in the Mobile County Public School System. In 1968, he was one of the first African Americans to join the faculty at the University of Southern Alabama.
In Memoriam: Lee Etta Powell, 1930-2023
Powell was the first woman and the first African Americans to serve as superintendent of the Cincinnati public school system, the third largest in the state of Ohio. She later taught at George Washington University.
In Memoriam: Christopher Smith, 1968-2023
Dr. Smith joined the faculty of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California in 2002. Earlier, he served as the director of primary research for Ruder Finn Public Relations in New York City.
In Memoriam: William Edwards Spriggs, 1955-2023
Williams Spriggs began his academic career teaching at North Carolina A&T State University and then at Norfolk State University in Virginia. In 2005, Dr. Spriggs joined the faculty at Howard University, where he chaired the economics department until 2009. He then served as assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama administration. He returned to Howard and was named chief economist at the AFL-CIO in 2012.
In Memoriam: Charles Leroy Blockson, 1933-2023
Charles Blockson traveled the world and amassed a huge collection of more than 700,000 books, papers, photographs, newspaper articles, journals, sheet music, posters, artifacts, and memorabilia. His collection, now housed at Temple University in Philadelphia, spans from 1581 to the present day.
In Memoriam: Christopher Smith, 1968-2023
Dr. Smith joined the faculty of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California in 2002. Earlier, he served as the director of primary research for Ruder Finn Public Relations in New York City.
In Memoriam: Julius B. Thomas, 1961-2023
In 2021, Thomas was awarded the prestigious Higher Educator of the Year Award from the National Education Association for championing faculty and student rights. He also received the James Davenport Memorial Award from the National Council for Higher Education. He was the first African American to win both of these prestigious awards.
In Memoriam: Evelyn Boyd Granville, 1924-2023
After serving on the faculty at Fisk University in Nashville, in 1956 Dr. Granville was hired by IBM Corporation and was assigned to work on a contract for NASA. Dr. Granville wrote programs to track orbital trajectories and calculations to ensure the safe re-entry of space vehicles into the atmosphere. She later taught at California State University and the University of Texas at Tyler.
In Memoriam: Andre Watts, 1946-2023
Andre Watts was a professor of piano who held the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He joined the faculty there in 2004. Professor Watts began playing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 9.
In Memoriam: Milfred C. Fierce, 1937-2023
In July 1969, Fierce became the first director of the Urban Center for Black Studies at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The center with offices in downtown Poughkeepsie, two miles from the pristine campus of the liberal arts college, had a community focus.
In Memoriam: Micere Githae Mugo, 1942-2023
A native of Kenya, Dr. Mugo fled her native land to political turmoil and taught at St. Lawrence University. After returning to Africa to teach in Zambia and Zimbabwe, in 1992 she was named a visiting professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. A year later, she joined the department of African American studies at Syracuse University where she served for 22 years.
In Memoriam: André D. Green
André D. Green was the assistant dean of students, director of activities and new student orientation, and director of the Efferson Student Union, at Florida A&M University. He had served on the staff at the university since 2006.
In Memoriam: Norman Hodges
Professor Hodges taught courses in African American, African, and Caribbean history at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, from the inception of the Africana studies program (which he directed twice) in 1969 until his retirement in 1998.
In Memoriam: Pamela Corela Smith, 1970-2023
A dedicated administrator, faculty member, and colleague, Dr. Smith’s 22-year career at the university included stints serving as interim dean of the College of Business from 2021 to 2022; associate dean of administration and faculty from 2019 to 2023; and associate dean for graduate studies from 2016 to 2019.
In Memoriam: André D. Green, 1982-2023
André D. Green was the assistant dean of students, director of activities and new student orientation, and director of the Efferson Student Union, at Florida A&M University. He had served on the staff at the university since 2006.
In Memoriam: Kimberley Jessica Johnson Evans, 1973-2023
Dr. Evans joined the Duke University family in 1998 as an internal medicine resident and was named a fellow in nephrology in 2001. She joined the faculty in 2003 and became assistant professor of medicine in 2008.
In Memoriam: Leroy Sterling, 1939-2023
A native of Booneville, Texas, Sterling applied to Texas A&M University in the early 1960s but was denied admission. But in 1963 he and two other Black students were allowed to enroll in summer sessions. There, he earned credits that went toward his bachelor's degree at historically Black Texas Southern University.
In Memoriam: Alfonza Louis Carter, 1949-2023
Alfonza Carter served on the staff at Shaw University for 40 years, including more than two decades as its athletic director. Before he became a legendary athletic director, Carter was an accomplished head coach in women’s basketball, men’s basketball, and tennis.
In Memoriam: BeEtta L. Stoney, 1959-2023
Dr. Stoney joined the Kansas State community in 1999 as a race equity coordinator and technical consultant with the College of Education's Midwest Equity Assistance Center. She was subsequently hired as an assistant professor of secondary education with the college in 2000 and was promoted to associate professor in 2005.
Dr. Stoney served as Kansas State's faculty athletics representative for 13 years from 2010 to 2023.
In Memoriam: Wesley G. Robinson-McNeese, 1948-2023
Dr. McNeese joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University in 2001 and founded the Office of Diversity Multicultural and Minority Affairs.
In Memoriam: Francine Oputa, 1953-2023
During her 30-year career at Fresno State, Dr. Oputa served as director of the Center for Women and Culture and director of the Central Valley Cultural Heritage Institute. She retired as director of the Cross Cultural and Gender Center in 2021.
In Memoriam: Dianne Jemison Pollard
In addition to her service as dean of the Honors College at Texas Southern University, Dr. Jemison Pollard was chair of the department of fine arts at the university for 10 years. She also was an award-winning university stage director who directed over 50 productions.
In Memoriam: Sandra Williams Rackley, 1937-2023
Dr. Rackley began her career by joining the faculty of Florida A&M University. She later moved to Florida State University to join the faculty in the College Communication. There she served as associate dean and later dean of undergraduate studies.
In Memoriam: Julius Chapman, 1937-2023
Julius Chapman served in dean positions at Towson University in Maryland and Coppin State University in Baltimore. He was also provoset and vice president for academic affairs at Voorhees University in Denmark, South Carolina.
In Memoriam: Willard R. Johnson, 1935-2023
Dr. Johnson joined the political science faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964 as an assistant professor. He was the first Black faculty member at MIT to rise through the ranks and achieve tenure from within.
In Memoriam: Julius Wesley Becton Jr., 1926-2023
After a 40-year career in the U.S. Army, in 1985, General Becton was appointed by President Reagan to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Then in 1989, he was appointed the fifth president of Prairie View A&M University. He served in that role until August 31, 1994.
