The scholarship is named for Thaddeus Alexander Kitchener, who was the first student of color to graduate from Suffolk Law. Originally from Jamaica, Kitchener graduated in 1913. Before being accepted at Suffolk Law, Kitchener was working as a janitor at what is now Simmons University in Boston. After law school, Kitchener continued to work as a janitor until at least 1918.
Herman Hemingway, a lawyer, educator, civil rights activist, was the first Black graduate of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He taught for more than two decades at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Since 2015, Professor Nelson has served as dean of the American University Washington College of Law. She previously served as dean of the Suffolk University Law School in Boston and earlier was on the faculty at the law school at Saint Louis University.
Theaster Gates was named visiting artist and director of artist initiatives at the Lunder Institute for American Art at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and Tryan L. McMickens was promoted to associate professor of higher education at Suffolk University in Boston.
Ronald E. Wheeler is director of the Fineman and Pappas Law Libraries and associate professor of law and legal research at Boston University. In July, he will become the first African American man to lead the American Association of Law Libraries.
Professor Nelson was dean of the Suffolk University Law School in Boston from 2010 to 2015. Earlier, she taught at the law school of Saint Louis University. A native of Jamaica, Professor Nelson was the first Black woman to clerk for Canada's highest court.
Here is this week’s roundup of Black faculty members from colleges and universities throughout the United States who have been appointed to new positions.
The honorees are President M. Christopher Brown II of Alcorn State University, Tryan L. McMickens of Suffolk University, Charlene Johnson of South Carolina State, Donald Mitchell Jr. of Grand Valley State, and Dikgang Moseneke of South Africa.
The new appointees are Paquita Davis-Friday at Baruch College, William Elum at the University of Massachusetts, E. Edward Rhodes II at Alcorn State, April Rhinehardt at Shaw University, Nicole Price at Suffolk University, Craig Burgess at South Carolina State, and Stacy Sowell at Shaw University.
Since April 2009, he has been the president and CEO of the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce and previously was assistant to the president at Suffolk University in Boston.