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

On September 27, 2008, Lafayette University dedicated a statue to the memory of David McDonogh. McDonogh was not only the College’s first Black graduate, but also the first enslaved Black person known to have earned a college degree. The 16 foot statue, made from 4 tons of steel, is called “Transcendence.”

David McDonogh was sent to Lafayette by his master, John McDonogh. A Louisiana Rice Planter, John McDonogh was a strong supporter of the movement to send freed slaves to Liberia.

After completing his bachelor’s degree in 1844, David McDonogh was committed to pursuing further education. He and his master severed their relationship when it became clear that McDonogh had no intentions of moving to Liberia. His dream was to complete his education and work as a physician in the U.S. David McDonogh eventually completed his medical studies at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

McDonogh would go onto have a long and successful career as a physician, serving Black and white patients for over 40 years. Later in his life he added a u to his last name, presumably to further distance himself from his early life in bondage. He died in January of 1893. In 1898 McDonogh Memorial Hospital was opened in his honor. Located in Harlem, the hospital was committed to serving all patients, regardless of race.

For  fascinating account of David McDonogh’s life, click THIS LINK.

David McDonogh’s 12 foot high tombstone. He was buried in New York’s historic Woodlawn Cemetery. The prominent location of his grave and marker, behind the main building of the cemetery, is a reflection of his high status within the greater New York area.

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Robert Russa Moton (1867 – 1940)

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People even now wonder and frequently ask how the two races – the Negro and the Indian – get along together at Hampton. The truth of the matter is that at Hampton there has never been any serious manifestation of unpleasant relations between the two races. There are certain racial characteristics that are unmistakable, and the two races are in some particulars as different in temperament as they are in colour.

Types more diverse could hardly have been selected than the two thus brought together at Hampton. The Negro, as we have long known, is cheerful and buoyant, emotional and demonstrative, keen of apprehension, ambitious, persistent, responsive to authority, and deeply religious. In striking contrast stands the Indian – reserved, self-contained, self-controlled, deliberate in speech and action, sensitive, distrustful, proud, and possessed of a deep sense of personal worth and dignity.

…

The very diversities of the two races under instruction at Hampton proved, in many respects, to be helps rather than hindrances to their development. Each served in many instances as a daily lesson to the other in the problems and difficulties of life. The Negro student learned that he did not have a monopoly of the troubles incident to the effort to rise; that his is not the only race that faces a struggle in securing the rights and privileges of an advanced civilization. The Indian student saw the arts and practices of this civilization acquired and adapted by a race whose development corresponded more nearly to his own. He caught the inspiration of the manly endeavour and sturdy self-reliance that have characterized the Indian graduates of Hampton in all their subsequent endeavours among their own people. Through all my contact of thirty-one years as student and worker at Hampton it became increasingly apparent that the ground of racial adjustment lies, not in the emphasis of faults and of differences between races, but rather in the discovery of likenesses and of virtues which make possible their mutual understanding and coöperation.

–from Finding a Way Out: An Autobiography (143 – 146)

***Black On Campus › Edit — WordPress

Biographical Notes: Robert Russa Moton was born in 1867, in Amelia County, Virginia. In 1885 he entered Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). Moton loved learning and he loved Hampton. He graduated in 1890, and was appointed Commandant in Charge of Military Discipline.

In 1915, after 25 years as Hampton’s Commandant, Moton was appointed President of what is now Tuskegee University. Booker T. Washington’s successor, Moton had big shoes to fill. He met the challenge head-on. Tuskegee University’s Legacy of Leadership website describes Moton’s contributions to the growth of the institution:

Both the physical plant and academic programs were expanded during the Moton administration. The William G. Willcox Trade Buildings were added along with: the Dairy and Horse Barn, James Chambliss Building, a new Greenhouse, Chambliss Children’s House, a new wing to John A. Andrew Hospital, Margaret Murray Washington Hall, Logan Hall, Hollis Burke Frissell Library, and Samuel Chapman Armstrong Hall. The famous stained glass windows, known as the “Singing Windows,” were added to the chapel.

Academic programs were first expanded from eleven to twelve years, followed by a Junior College program, and the four-year college program leading to bachelor’s degrees in Agriculture, Home Economics, Mechanical Industries, and Education.

Over the course of his years at Hampton and Tuskegee, Moton’s reputation as a leader and educator grew. Such was the respect for his vision that on May 30, 1922 he served as a speaker at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. He was also the recipient of several honorary degrees, from Oberlin and Williams College, Virginia Union, Wilberforce, Lincoln, Harvard, and Howard Universities.

Robert Russa Moton retired as president of Tuskegee in 1935 and died in 1940. He is buried on the campus of Hampton University.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

(Click to Enlarge)

Source: William Levi Dawson Collection at Emory University

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Last night’s blogpost included a link to an article by Charles P. Henry, III. The link was broken, but now I have fixed it. To read Dr. Henry’s article, you can go back to the original blog entry and click on the link, or you can click from this post: Obama as Reparations by Charles P. Henry, III.

If you enjoyed this article, then you might also be interested in these writings by the same author:

• “‘Black Christianity’ and Barack Obama”
• “Obama Could Improve Race Relations”
• “Erasing Justice or How Liberals Became Black” (page 72)
• “Ralph Bunch: Academic Excellence and Global Responsibility”
• Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations

And, finally, one more quote:

Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States, once said that America did not create human rights — rather, human rights created America. Any government might make the same claim whose founders strove to decentralize power and increase the control people had over their lives. Certainly, it is easy for the citizens of “superpowers” like the Soviet Union and the United States to believe human rights began with then. Therefore, it is even more important for citizens in those nations to know and understand the universal and inalienable nature of human rights. Such a human rights education might help prevent “superpowers” from exercising “super rights” over the less powerful.

–Charles P. Henry in “Educating fro Human Rights,” from the 1990 Moscow Symposium

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Charles P. Henry, III (b. 1947)

None of those charging Obama with a deficit of Blackness were to be found defending him for his association with the “too Black” Rev. Jeremiah Wright The association with Rev. Wright was jarring precisely because it challenged the views of those who saw Obama as someone who if not detached from America’s racial past was certainly not bitter or angry about it The cognitive dissonance created by the public perception of Obama embracing as a family member someone with the views of Rev. Wright forced Obama to confront race head on.

–Charles P. Henry, “Obama as Reparations,” Tikkun v. 23 no. 4 (July/August 2008) p. 22-5

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Biographical Notes: Charles P. Henry, III was born in Newark, Ohio. His father, Charles Patrick Henry, II, was a bricklayer and his mother, Ruth Holbert Henry, was a homemaker.

Charles P. Henry, III is the Chair of African American American students at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his undergraduate degree at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and he holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of California, Henry taught at Denison University and Howard University. He has been at UC-Berkeley since 1981.

Dr. Henry has published numerous articles in both the mainstream and scholarly presses. He is also the author or editor of a total of 9 books. Here are some of his most recent titles:

• Ralph J. Bunche: Selected Speeches and Writings
• Foreign Policy and the Black (Inter)national Interest
• Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations
• Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other?
• Culture and African American Politics (winner of the Book-of-the-Year award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists)
• Jesse Jackson: The Search for Common Ground

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Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine

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Despite efforts to draw more people of color, veterinary medicine remains the least diverse field in the medical profession. An October 1 article in Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) reports that,

according to the 2000 U.S. census, 92.4 percent of veterinary professionals were listed as “white non-Hispanic.”

At that time, 73.6 percent of physicians and surgeons were listed as white non-Hispanic, as were 82.8 percent of dentists, 86.5 percent of optometrists, 78.9 percent of pharmacists, and 80.4 percent of registered nurses.

JAVMA reporter Greg Cima writes that since 2000, “the number of students from minority groups underrepresented in veterinary medicine has increased from less than 10 percent in 2005 to just less than 12 percent.” Lisa Greenhill, associate executive director for diversity at the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, is optimistic about this tecent growth. She explains: “It’s still incredibly small compared with other health professions, but it is a significant increase in a short period of time.”

The redux for African Americans is that Black folks seeking care for their pets will rarely encounter health professionals of their same ethnicity. More significantly, those African Americans who live in Black neighborhoods will usually have to leave their communities in order to find healthcare for their pets.

There is some good news on the veterinary front, though. The Montgomery, Alabama Advertiser recently reported that, “More than 70 percent of black veterinarians in the U.S. are Tuskegee grads,” and that “the school continues to train 50 to 60 percent.” Despite the low numbers of of African Americans in veterinary medicine nationwide, Tuskegee University’s School of Veterinary Medicine continues to recruit and retain (and graduate) disproportionate numbers of Black students in the field.

As I addressed in a previous blogpost, historically Black does not always mean exclusively Black, or even majority Black. In addition to Black students, Tuskegee’s vet school enrolls Asian American students, white students, Latino/a students, and international students from India. Indeed, Tuskegee’s school of veterinary medicine seeks not only to increase the Black presence in this field, but to diversify the field across ethnicities. Advertiser reporter Kathy Seale writes,

Tuskegee, which is semiprivate, remains the lone veterinary school at a historically black college. They plan to continue their mission to help the profession more accurately reflect the population, they said, and to work with other schools to help further that cause.

–Posted by Ajuan Mance

In 1908, a mere 43 years after slavery was abolished in the United States, one year before the NAACP was founded in response to lynching and race riots, and during the rise of feminism and the suffragist movement, 16 young women — juniors and seniors at Howard University — founded the first black sorority.

— Jatrice Martel Gaiter in “100 Years of Sisterhood,” Ms. Magazine, Summer 2008

Mainstream publications often miss the mark in their coverage of African American issues in higher education. Popular magazines often seem at a loss when confronted with stories and topics that don’t reinforce those stereotyped notion of the African Americans as intellectually inferior, academically underprepared, and culturally constrained.

Kudos, then, to Ms. Magazine for it’s appropriately celebratory and historically accurate treatment of the 100th Anniversary of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA). Ms. reporter Jatrice Martel Gaiter “gets it,” from the organization’s emphasis on lifelong sisterhood through active participation both during and after college to the emphasis on supporting a “diverse set of community-service programs.”

What accounts for the accuracy and appropriateness of tone in this magazine’s treatment of this uncharacteristically positive Black higher story? Well, it helps that author Gaiter is a member of AKA. From a journalistic perspective, this might call into question her ability to report on this topic without bias. Gaiter discloses her membership in AKA in the text of the article, however, and she limits her account to the established facts of AKA’s history and the details of its 100th anniversary celebration. The reporter avoids any treatment of the controversies surrounding the culture of Black Greek organizations and their impact on Black campus life. The omission of such content is, however, forgivable and even acceptable in an article whose primary purpose is to celebrate one of the nation’s oldest Black women’s organizations.

Disclaimer: Jatrice Martel Gaiter is a member of AKA, but I am not affiliated with this or any other Greek Letter Organization.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

No people can be sure of impartial history if the narrators of their history are members of a different race, with views and traditions that are diametrically opposite and often inimical to the interests and welfare of those whose history they are to write. Impartial history can be written only by unprejudiced minds, for even the scales of justice tremble in the presence of bias and unnecessary hatred.

–from Beacon Lights of the Race (1911)

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Biographical notes: Green Polonius Hamilton was born in 1867, in Memphis, Tennessee. He graduated from Lemoyne Normal Institute (now Lemoyne-Owen College) in 1882. He completed his education at Rust College in Mississippi and Columbia University in New York. He was married to Alice Richmond, a Memphis schoolteacher. The couple did not have children.

In 1884 Hamilton began teaching in the Memphis public school system. In 1892 he became principal of Kotrecht High School, the first African American high school in the city. By the early 20th century, he had organized the first Black high school band at Kotrecht. Eventually he would become the principal of Booker T. Washington High School, Kotrecht’s successor.

Known as “Professor” Hamilton by his students and colleagues, he was the author of two books, The Bright Side of Memphis (1908) and Beacon Lights of the Race (1911). The Memphis City Schools website describes Hamilton as a nationally noted educator, poet, and musician who, “taught and influenced thousands of students in his long career.”Green Polonius Hamilton died in 1934.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Posted by Ajuan Mance