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: Gladys Hope Franklin White, 1916-2018
After a long career in education, Dr. White retired from North Carolina A&T State University and founded Project CARE, an SAT/ACT Prep project in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
In Memoriam: Lamin Sanneh, 1942-2019
Lamin Sanneh, the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School, passed away on January 6 from a stroke.
In Memoriam: Lorraine Elizabeth Green Branham, 1952-2019
A long-time journalist Lorraine Branham became dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in New York in 2008.
In Memoriam: Albert L. Walker, 1945-2019
Dr. Walker was appointed president of Harris-Stowe State University in August 2011 and served in that role until his retirement in 2013. Earlier in his career, he served as president of Bluefield College in West Virginia.
In Memoriam: Mary T. Christian, 1924-2019
Dr. Christian served as chair of the department of elementary education and was dean of the School of Education at Hampton University in Virginia. She also was elected to nine consecutive terms as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
In Memoriam: Paul Elritt Meacham, 1936-2019
Dr. Meacham was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in education at the University of Texas and the first African American to serve as president of a college or university in the state of Nevada.
In Memoriam: Joseph Echols Lowery, 1921-2020
Joseph Lowery, often referred to as the "Dean of the Civil Rights Movement," held a doctorate from the Chicago Ecumenical Institute. In 2002, the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights was founded at Clark Atlanta University.
In Memoriam: Arthur Sanderson Paul, 1950-2020
Beginning in 1981, Dr. Paul served at Howard University as a faculty member in the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Science. He remained on the faculty for 38 years. Professor Paul also served as interim associate provost for research at Howard.
In Memoriam: Elijah Walter Miles, 1934-2020
Dr. Miles joined the faculty at San Diego State University in 1966. At that time he was the only African American on the university's faculty. This earned him the nickname "The Godfather of Black Faculty."
In Memoriam: Cordy Tindell Vivian, 1924-2020
Cordy T. Vivian was former chaplain and dean of the Divinity School at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a key member of Martin Luther King Jr.'s inner circle during the civil rights movement.
In Memoriam: Courtney W. Stevenson 1914-2020
Courtney Stevenson, a long-time faculty member at Delaware State University died on August 5 at Bayhealth Medical Center in Dover, DE.
In Memoriam: Jacqueline Rosemarie Satchell, 1968-2020
A native of Jamaica, Jacqueline Rosemarie Satchell was an assistant professor of medicine and a leading clinician-educator in the Yale Section of General Internal Medicine and Veterans Administration's Connecticut Healthcare System.
In Memoriam: Gary Lynn Harris, 1953-2020
Gary L. Harris was professor of electrical engineering, former dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for research at Howard University. He was one of the first two African Americans to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Cornell University.
In Memoriam: Edward W. Crosby, 1932-2021
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.
In Memoriam: Henry Givens Jr. 1931-2021
Dr. Givens served as president of Harris Stowe for 32 years until his retirement in 2011. Under his leadership, the university tripled its student population, grew from one building with only one degree to eight facilities and 14-degree programs.
In Memoriam: Robert Lewis Albright, 1944-2021
Robert L. Albright served as the eleventh president of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1983-1994.
In Memoriam: Shirley Ann Mathis McBay, 1935-2021
After attending segregated public schools, Dr. McBay enrolled in college at the age of 15. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Georgia. Dr. McBay had a long career in academia at Spelman College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In Memoriam: Paul Carter Harrison, 1936-2021
Professor Harrison taught theater at Howard University, California State University Sacramento, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and finally Columbia College in Chicago where he taught for more than a quarter century until his retirement in 2002.
In Memoriam: Autherine Juanita Lucy Foster, 1929-2022
In 1956, Autherine Lucy enrolled in a graduate program in education at the University of Alabama. She was the university's first Black student. Angry protests by White students ensued. She was suspended three days later “for her own safety” and she was later expelled.
In Memoriam: Doris Adelaide Derby, 1939-2022
Dr. Derby, a noted photographer of the civil rights era, went on to teach African-American studies and anthropology at the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
In Memoriam: Delores Ann Richburg Greene, 1935-2022
A long-time educator in several public school systems in Virginia, Dr. Green concluded her career serving as dean at both Virginia Union University and Virginia State University.
In Memoriam: Charles Lyman James, 1934-2022
Professor James joined the faculty at Swarthmore College in 1973 and remained on the faculty there for 32 tears. His research focused on the writings of Harlem Renaissance author Arna Bontemps.
In Memoriam: Arthuryne J. Welch-Taylor, 1917-2022
Arthuryne Welch-Taylor taught at Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University in Texas, and what is now the University of the District of Columbia.
In Memoriam: Barbara Brown Simmons, 1947-2022
Barbara Brown Simmons was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of New Mexico School of Law and the first Black woman admitted to the New Mexico State Bar.
In Memoriam: Marie Valentine McDemmond, 1946-2022
Marie McDemmond was the first woman to lead Norfolk State University and the first African-American woman to serve as president of a four-year college in Virginia.
In Memoriam: Carey Harvey Latimore IV, 1975-2022
Carey Latimore was a Baptist minister and an associate professor of history at Trinity University in San Antonio. Dr. Latimore joined the Trinity University community in 2004. He served as the chair of the department of history from 2011-2020 and was the co-director for the African American studies minor.
In Memoriam: Reaner Shannon, 1936-2022
Dr. Shannon began her career at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine as the main research lab technologist. In 1990, she left the lab to become director of the minority affairs office at the school, becoming the school’s first associate dean for minority affairs in 1998, a post she held until she retired in 2008.
In Memoriam: James E. Turner, 1940-2022
Professor Turner served as director of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University from 1969 to 1986 and returned for a five-year term from 1996 to 2001.
In Memoriam: Dorothy Louise Christel White Smith, 1939-2202
Dr. Smith taught at Long Beach City College, Grossmont Community College, San Diego City College, and San Diego State University. Dr. Smith also was appointed, then elected, to the Board of Education in 1981, becoming the first Black woman ever to be elected to public office in San Diego.
In Memoriam: Lawrence Arnette Davis, Jr., 1937-2022
At the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Dr. Davis served as an assistant professor, associate professor, full professor, chair of the department of mathematics and physics, dean of Arts and Sciences, and dean of Liberal and Fine Arts. He was named chancellor of the university in 1991 and served in that role for 21 years.
In Memoriam: Calvin Otis Butts III, 1949-2022
Calvin O. Butts was the long-time president of the State University of New York at Old Westbury, civil rights activist, and the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. In 1999, Dr. Butts was named president of SUNY Old Westbury. He served in that role until 2020 and was the longest-serving president in university history.
In Memoriam: Mae Coates King, 1938-2022
Dr. King, professor emerita of political science at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was the first African American senior staff associate of the American Political Science Association. She was a founding member of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and a former president of the International Association of Black Professionals in International Affairs.
In Memoriam: Daniel L. Blash, 1968-2022
Since 2019, Daniel L. Blash was vice dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion and chief diversity officer for the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Earlier, he served as the assistant dean of diversity and inclusion at Washington University's School of Medicine.
In Memoriam: Willa Elaine Johnson, 1957-2022
Dr. Johnson taught at the University of Mississippi for 23 years. Colleagues remember her as a “renaissance woman” who was an expert in many disciplines, fluent in multiple languages, and an artist. She was only the second Black woman in the U.S. to earn a doctorate in Hebrew Bible.
In Memoriam: Bobbie Brown Knable, 1936-2022
Knable joined the staff at Tufts University in 1970 beginning as an instructor in the English department. In 1980 she was appointed dean of students and remained in that role until her retirement in 2000.
