Tag: College of William and Mary

Three Black Scholars Who Have Been Named to Endowed Professorships

Michael Steele has been appointed to the Gwendolyn S. and Colbert I. King Chair Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University. Jamel K. Donnor was appointed the Fred Huby Memorial Professor of Education at the College of William and Mary and Sheila Otieno has been honored with the Distinguished Emerging Scholar in Religious Studies professorship at Elon University in North Carolina.

Five African Americans Taking on New Administrative Duties in Higher Education

Taking on new administrative roles are Evan Williams at Pennsylvania State University, Jacari Henderson at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carlane Pittman-Hampton at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Jeanine A. Irons at Syracuse University in New York, and Alexis J. McLean at LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York.

College of William and Mary to Digitize Records of Early African American Churches

The Special Collections Research Center of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has partnered with several Black churches in Williamsburg to add their church records to the library’s special collections. One is the First Baptist Church, one of the country’s earliest African-American congregations that was founded by free and enslaved African Americans in 1776.

In Memoriam: Oscar Lewis Prater, 1939-2022

Dr. Prater was appointed the sixth president of Fort Valley State College in 1990. During his tenure, he presided over the college's transition to university status. He stepped down in 2001. Dr. Prater later was named the nineteenth president of Talladega College and served from 2005 to 2007.

College of William and Mary Dedicates a Memorial to the Enslaved Who Worked on Campus

The memorial resembles a fireplace hearth and is meant to symbolize both a place of community and the center of domestic enslavement. A vessel to hold fire that will burn on special occasions will be installed at the center of the Hearth at a later date.

One of the Earliest Schools for Black Americans to Become Part of Colonial Williamsburg

Last fall, the College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg announced that they had verified that a building on the college's campus, which was built in 1760, was the home of the Bray School where both enslaved and free Black children were educated in the eighteenth century. The college sold the building to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Three African American Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Named Professorships

The three African Americans appointed to named chairs are Kamia Chavis at the law school of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Williams Clemons at the California Institute of Technology, and Monica Peek at the University of Chicago Medical School.

Study Identifies the Whitest Corner of the STEM World

There has been no progress in geoscience Ph.D. degrees in racial and ethnic diversity in 40 years. There has been an increase of racial and ethnic diversity at the bachelor's degree level but most of this is the result of a larger number of Hispanic graduates. Blacks make up just 3 percent of bachelor's degree awards.

College of William and Mary Renames Buildings That Honored Confederates or Segregationists

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has renamed three buildings and a department that currently honor supporters of the Confederacy or Jim Crow segregation. Two other buildings were renamed a year ago.

Consortium of Prestigious Academic Institutions to Collaborate on SlaveVoyages.org

Emory University in Atlanta will now bring in a group of partners to help it maintain and enhance its SlaveVoyages.org project. The website documents nearly 50,000 transatlantic passages of slave ships between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The First Black Editor-in-Chief of the Minnesota Law Review

Brandie Burris is a second-year student at the University of Minnesota Law School. She is the first Black student to lead the Minnesota Law Review in the publication’s 104-year history. Burris is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Universities Announce the Appointments of Nine African Americans to Administrative Posts

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

In Memoriam: Theodore Carter DeLaney Jr., 1943-2020

In 1963, Theodore Carter DeLaney Jr. was hired as a janitor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He became a full-time student in 1983. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1985 at the age of 42. After earning a Ph.D., in 1995, he joined the faculty at the university.

College of William and Mary Students Participate in Archaeological Dig for Historic Black Church

Ground-penetrating radar indicates that remains of an early structure used by members of First Baptist Church — originally founded in secret by free and enslaved Blacks at the start of America’s Revolution — may lie buried in Colonial Williamsburg.

Ten African Americans Who Have Been Assigned to Administrative Posts in Higher Education

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Black Man to Become Dean of the Nation’s Oldest Law School

A. Benjamin Spencer will be the next dean of the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia. When he takes office on July 1, Professor Spencer will be William & Mary’s first African-American dean. Since 2014 he has been on the law school faculty at the University of Virginia.

New Analysis Looks at Admission Rates by Race at Virginia’s Public Universities

According to the report, when comparing applicants to the University of Virginia who had similar test scores on college entrance examinations and high school grade point averages, 74 percent of Black applicants were admitted compared to only 30 percent of White applicants.

New Administrative Positions for 10 African Americans at Colleges and Universities

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

Colleges and Universities Announce the Appointments of 13 Black Administrators

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

College of William & Mary Selects a Concept for a Memorial to Enslaved African-Americans

The winning concept resembles a brick fireplace where the community can gather to honor the work of the enslaved, many of whom worked at a similar hearth.

Predatory Lending Targeting Blacks Had Its Roots in the Antebellum South

Amanda Gibson, a Ph.D student at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has recently complied evidence that traces today's predatory financial practices to economic victimization of free and enslaved African-Americans in the pre-emancipation South.

College of William & Mary Honors 18th Century School for Enslaved and Free Black Children

The marker's establishment was part of the Lemon Project, a long-term research initiative at the college that seeks to explore the university's involvement in slavery and segregation and its continued relationship with the African-American community.

Six African Americans Named to Administrative Posts at Colleges and Universities

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Honors and Awards Bestowed on a Trio of African American Administrators in Higher Education

The honorees are Franchon Glover, chief diversity officer at the College of Willliam and Mary, A. Eugene Washington, chancellor for health affairs and CEO of Duke University Health System, and Tony Allen, provost ane executive vice president at Delaware State University.

The College of William & Mary Soliciting Ideas for a Memorial to the Slaves That Worked on Campus

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has launched a competition to solicit conceptual ideas for a Memorial to African-Americans Enslaved early in the educational institution's history.

College of William and Mary to Erect Marker at Site of Early School for African Americans

In 1760, the Associates of Dr. Bray, a London-based charity opened a school for enslaved and free Black children on the campus of the College of William and Mary in Wiliamsburg, Virginia. The college will place a historical marker at the site where the school is believed to have been located.

The College of William and Mary to Honor Its First African American Residential Students

In the fall of 1967, Lynn Briley, Karen Ely, and Janet Brown, became the first African American students to live in residential housing on the campus of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. All three graduated four years later in 1971.

College of William and Mary Honors Its First Black Graduate

Edward Augustus Travis enrolled at the William and Mary Law School in 1951 and graduated three years later with bachelor of civil law degree. No other Black student graduated from the law school for the next 18 years.

Honors or Awards for a Trio of African American Scholars

The honorees are David Crockett of the School of Business at the University of South Carolina, Anjelica Gonzalez of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the late Carroll F.S. Hardy, a long-time administrator at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Trudier Harris Wins Nonfiction Writing Award From the University of Alabama

Trudier Harris, University Distinguished Research Professor of English at the University of Alabama, received the Clarence C. Cason Award in Nonfiction Writing from the journalism department at the university for her body of work on women and Black southern writers.

Jerryl Briggs Appointed the Eighth President of Mississippi Valley State University

This past June, Jerryl Briggs was appointed acting president of Mississippi Valley State University when the then president William B. Bynum, left to become president of Jackson State University. Now Dr. Briggs has been selected to serve in the role on a permanent basis.

Distinguished Honors for Three African American Faculty Members

Professor Charles Ogletree is having an endowed chair named in his honor at Harvard Law School. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Florida State University was honored for lifetime achievement in dance and Trudier Harris of the University of Alabama has honored for being the first tenured Black faculty member at the College of William and Mary.

Seven African Americans Appointed to New Administrative Posts at U.S. Universities

The appointees are Kimberly Weatherly at the College of William and Mary, Walter P. Parrish III at the University of Chicago, Emil L. Cunningham at Penn State, Althea Counts at the University of South Carolina, Damien M. Williams at Fayetteville State, Patrice Dickerson at Virginia Tech, and Diedrick Graham at the University of Kansas.

Charity Hudley Named to an Endowed Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Hudley was the William and Mary Professor of Community Studies and an associate professor of English at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She joined the faculty there in 2005.

College of William and Mary Honoring the First Black Students Who Lived on Campus

The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the first Black residential students on campus by creating a mural that will be permanently displayed at the university's Swen Library.

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