In Memoriam

Mildred Fay Jefferson (1926-2010)

Mildred Jefferson, the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, died last month at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was 84 years old.

Dr. Jefferson was a native of Pittsburg, Texas. She was a graduate of Texas College in Tyler and earned a master’s degree at Tufts University. She graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1951.

Dr. Jefferson went on to become a surgeon at Boston University Medical Center and was a professor of surgery at the university. She was an anti-abortion advocate, serving three terms as president of the National Right to Life Committee.

Hermanze E. Fauntleroy Jr. (1932-2010)

Hermanze E. Fauntleroy Jr., an educator and civil rights activist, died late last month after a battle with cancer. He was 78 years old.

In 1966, Fauntleroy was elected to the city council in Petersburg, Virginia. Shortly thereafter, two of his daughters were among the first seven black students to attend a formerly all-white school in the city. During this period, Fauntleroy served as a development officer at historically black Virginia State University. Fauntleroy was elected mayor of Petersburg in 1973, the first black mayor in Virginia since Reconstruction.

Copyright © 2010. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.