New Entries at twilightandreason.com

Edward Breathitte Sellers, Wheaton Class of 1866

(Source: ReCollections, the official blog of the Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections)

Here are some of the latest entries to the Black Milestones in Higher Education timeline that I maintain over at Twilight and Reason (twilightandreason.com). If you know of any milestones or firsts that I have not included, please let me know. I am always open to suggestions for new entries to the timeline:

• 1866 — Edward Breathitte Sellers becomes the first African American to graduate from Wheaton College in Illinois.
• 1933 — Claude Walton becomes the first African American to earn a varsity letter at the University of Colorado (track and field:discus). In 1936 he would become the first University of Colorado athlete to win All-American honors in any sport (discus).

Claude Walton at the University of Colorado (Source: Daily Camera Online)

• 1955 — Frank Clarke becomes the first African American to earn a varsity letter in football at the University of Colorado.
• 1957 — Aubrey Lewis, Sr. becomes the first African American to serve as captain of a Notre Dame athletic team (track and field).
• 1966 — Miriam DeCosta-Willis becomes the first African American faculty member at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis).
• 1967 — Daphne Maxwell Reid becomes Northwestern University’s first African American Homecoming Queen. Miriam DeCosta-Willis becomes the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University (Romance Languages).
• 1975 — Thom Gossom, Jr. becomes the first African American athlete to graduate from Auburn University.
• 1976 — Mary Frances Berry becomes the first and only African American and the first and only woman ever appointed Chancellor of the University of Colorado.

Mary Frances Berry (Source: Indiana University Northwest)

• 1979 — Willie Jeffries becomes the first African American head football coach at a Division I school (Wichita State).
• 2004 — Sylvester Croom becomes the first African American head football coach in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
• 2007 — The Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA) inducts its first group of honorees into the NUBAA Hall of Fame.

Posted by Ajuan Mance