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.
In Memoriam: William Pope.L, 1955-2023
William Pope.L was an acclaimed interdisciplinary artist and professor in the department of visual arts at the University of Chicago. Before coming to the University of Chicago in 2010, Pope.L was a lecturer in theater and rhetoric at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
In Memoriam: Antoinette Candia-Bailey, 1974-2024
Antoinette Candia-Bailey was vice president for student affairs at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. Before joining Lincoln University in May 2023, she was vice president of student affairs, chief diversity officer, and Title IX coordinator at Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
In Memoriam: John Louis Flateau, 1950-2023
Dr. Flateau served as a professor and chair of the department of public administration at Medgar Evers College. He was also the director of the Dubois Bunche Center for Public Policy. He was also the former dean of the college’s School of Business.
Kentucky State University Partners With the Kentucky Community and Technical College Systems
The partnership includes clear pathways to facilitate a smooth transition for community college students aspiring to complete their bachelor's degrees in 11 academic programs at Kentucky State. Students will benefit from updated curricula that align with industry needs, preparing them for successful careers upon graduation.
In Memoriam: Colleen J. McElroy, 1935-2023
In 1983, Dr. McElroy became the first Black woman to serve as a full-time faculty member at the University of Washington. From 1995 to 2007, Professor McElroy served as editor of The Seattle Review, a literary magazine based at the university.
In Memoriam: Willie Ruff, 1931-2023
Professor Ruff held bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Yale University. He joined the faculty at Yale in 1971 and taught there until his retirement in 2017.
In Memoriam: John Brooks Slaughter, 1934-2023
John B. Slaughter was the former chancellor of the University of Maryland and former president of Occidental College in Los Angeles. He also served as the director of the National Science Foundation.
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.
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 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.
