In Memoriam: Oscar Lewis Prater, 1939-2022
Dr. Prater was appointed the sixth president of Fort Valley State College in 1990. During his tenure, he presided over the college's transition to university status. He stepped down in 2001. Dr. Prater later was named the nineteenth president of Talladega College and served from 2005 to 2007.
In Memoriam: Walter D. Broadnax, 1944-2022
After serving as dean of the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C., in 2002 Dr. Broadnax became president of Clark Atlanta University. He served in that role for six years. At the time of his death, Dr. Broadnax was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Administration and International Affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
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.
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: 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: 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: Terrance Dean, 1968-2022
Dr. Dean joined the faculty at Denison University in 2019. His research interests included gender and sexuality, Black religion and homiletics, rhetoric and communication, the African diaspora, Black cultural studies, James Baldwin and Afrofuturism.
In Memoriam: Frank Sidney Jones, 1928-2022
In 1968, Frank Sidney Jones was named executive director of the Urban Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1971 he was named Ford Professor of Urban Affairs and became the first African American to achieve tenure at MIT.
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: 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: Constance Jordan Wilson, 1951-2022
Dr. Wilson joined the faculty at Alabama A&M University in 1979, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in urban and regional planning. In 1988, Professor Wilson became head of the department of community planning and urban studies.
In Memoriam: Clinnon Oneal Harvey, 1944-2022
Clinnon Harvey, a long-time faculty member and administrator at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, died late last month. He was 77 years old.
In Memoriam: Brian Horton, 1976-2022
Brian Horton was an assistant professor in the department of music at North Carolina Central University and director of the university’s jazz studies program and the NCCU Jazz Ensemble
In Memoriam: Paul T. Kwami, 1952-2022
Dr. Kwami was named musical director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1994. He was the first native African to hold the position. Two years later, he was appointed chair of the department of music at the university. Dr. Kwami served in that role until 2003.
In Memoriam: Terrance Dean, 1968-2022
Before joining the faculty at Denison University in 2019, Dr. Dean was a journalist and an executive for the MTV network. Earlier this year, he was named the inaugural Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Scholar-in- Residence at the Columbus Museum of Art.
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Zollie Stevenson, Jr., 1953-2022
After serving as an administrator for public school systems n Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Dr. Stevenson spent more than a decade at the U.S. Department of Education. He then taught at Howard University and Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In Memoriam: Michael J. Bates, 1944-2022
Dr. Bates joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff in August 1977 as an assistant professor of music. During a more than 40-year career at the university, Professor Bates taught courses in music history, music theory, and music appreciation.
In Memoriam: Donald M. Henderson, 1931-2022
Donald Henderson served as provost at the University of Pittsburgh from 1989 to 1993. He is the only African American to serve in the position
In Memoriam: James E. Newton 1941-2022
Dr. Newton joined the faculty at the University of Delaware in 1972 as an assistant professor of education. The following year he became associate professor and director of the Black American Studies Program.
In Memoriam: Browne C. Lewis, 1962-2022
Browne C. Lewis, dean of the North Carolina Central University School of Law, died on June 2 while attending a conference in Colorado. She was 60 years old.
In Memoriam: Arnold Euriel George, 1952-2022
George joined NCCU in 1991 as an instructor and served the university and music department for 31 years, where he played an instrumental role in building the Jazz Studies Program. His primary instrument was the alto saxophone but he also was an excellent pianist.
In Memoriam: Anthony Owens Parker, 1953-2022
Dr. Parker had been president of Albany Technical College in Georgia since 1995. He was the longest-serving leader in the college's history.
In Memoriam: Samella Sanders Lewis, 1923-2022
Dr. Lewis, a major figure in the world of African American art, joined the faculty at Scripps College in Claremont, California, in 1970, where she was the first Black scholar to be awarded tenure. The Samella Lewis Collection of Contemporary Art was created by Scripps College in her honor in 2007.
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: 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: Lionel Johnson Sr.
Johnson was appointed to the newly formed Southern University System in 1974 by then-Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. Johnson was subsequently elected as chair, a position he held for 10 years.
In Memoriam: Harold Burnell Brockington, 1922-2022
In 1964, Dr. Brockington was hired as an associate professor and head of the department of music at Delaware State University. He went on to become the longest serving chair of the department of music in the history of Delaware State University – 26 years from 1964 to 1990.
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: Paul Jefferson, 1944-2022
Dr. Jefferson joined the faculty at Haverford College in Pennsylvania in 1981. He taught in the department of history at Haverford for nearly 30 years until his retirement in 2010.
In Memoriam: Thomas Winston Cole Jr., 1941-2022
In 1987, Dr. Cole was named president of both Atlanta University and Clark College, to simultaneously manage both institutions and create a consolidation plan. President Cole was appointed the founding president of Clark Atlanta University in 1988. He served in that role until 2002.
