In Memoriam: Arvarh E. Strickland, 1930-2013
Filed in In Memoriam on May 3, 2013
Arvarh Strickland, the first African American professor at the University of Missouri, died in Columbia, Missouri, on April 30. He was 82 years old.
A graduate of Tougaloo College in Mississippi, Dr. Strickland earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. After teaching at Chicago State College, in 1969 he became a tenured professor of history at the University of Missouri. Throughout his tenure at the university, he was a strong advocate for increasing the diversity of the student body and the faculty. He was the author of History of the Chicago Urban League, originally published in 1966 with a new edition released by the University of Missouri Press in 2001.
Dr. Strickland retired in 1996. A room in the Memorial Student Union is named in his honor. In 1999 the university created the Arvarh E. Strickland Distinguished Professorship in African American History and Culture. In 2007 a classroom building on campus was renamed Strickland Hall.
