Dr. Walker composed nearly 100 pieces over his lifetime. One of his most famous is Lyric for Strings which was inspired by the death of his grandmother, a former slave. In 1996, he became the first African American recipient of the Pulitzer Price for Music.
Mary Church Terrell, was born in in 1863, the daughter of former slaves. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1884 and went on to become an educator, author, civil rights leader, and feminist activist.
Donica Thomas Varner was named general counsel at Oberlin College in Ohio. Genyne Royal was appointed assistant dean for student success at Michigan State University and Jermaine Truax will be the next director of athletics and recreation at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Shane McCrae is an assistant professor of writing in the School of the Arts at Columbia University in New York City. McCrae joined the faculty at Columbia University in 2017 after teaching for three years at Oberlin College in Ohio.
After teaching at Florida A&M University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Dr. Wilson joined the music department faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. He retired from teaching in 2002.
Beginning in spring 2018, Oberlin jazz studies majors may audition for the Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble. Students selected must dedicate at least two semesters to performing in the ensemble. They must also complete a winter-term project that embodies Rollins’ spirit of giving.
Taking on new roles are Pamela Wimbush at Hampton University in Virginia, Eddie Gisemba at Oberlin College in Ohio, Ivory W. Lyles at the University of Nevada, Reno, Eunice Tarver at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma, and Zillah M. Fluker of Miles College in Alabama.
Yeworkwha Belachew served as assistant dean, ombudsperson, and founder of the Dialogue Center at Oberlin College. She retired in 2015 after more than 35 years of service to the college.
Since 2008, Dr. Ambar has been serving as president of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She is widely regarded as having done a remarkable job leading the woman’s college. Earlier in her career, she was the youngest dean in the history of Rutgers University.
Johnnetta B. Cole, the former president of Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, was recognized by having a dormitory named in her honor on the college’s campus. The Johnnetta Betch Cole Honors Hall will be reserved for students with at least a 3.0 grade point average.
Oberlin College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in Ohio, recently dedicated a new African art installation at its Allen Memorial Art Museum. The museum has 107 African art objects in its collection.
D. R. Butler, the associate director of athletics for academics and intercollegiate athletics at George Mason University, and Glenda Hammond, the director of the Upward Bound program at Michigan State University are retiring. Joy Karega was dismissed from the faculty at Oberlin College in Ohio.
La Tanya Hall is teaching jazz voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. Michele Foster was named to an endowed chair at the University of Louisville and Jason Geary is the new director of the School of Music at the University of Maryland.
Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Here is this week’s roundup of Black faculty members from colleges and universities throughout the United States who have been appointed to new positions.
Mary Church Terrell was the daughter of former slaves. She was a 1884 graduate of Oberlin College and went on to become an educator, civil rights activist, and a proponent of women’s suffrage.
Marcus Belgrave, an accomplished trumpet player, taught at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio from 2001 to 2010. Earlier, he launched the jazz program at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.
In 1964, more than 20 Oberlin College students and three faculty members traveled to Mississippi during Christmas break to help the congregation rebuild a church that had been burned to the ground by arsonists.
Hinton, a native of Mississippi, had a jazz career that spanned more than 70 years and his music can be heard on more than 1,000 recordings. In addition to his music, Hinton was an avid photographer.
After police said the series of racial incidents last spring were hoaxes, the college issued a statement that read in part, “These actions were real. The fear and disruption they caused in our community were real. We will not tolerate acts of hatred and threats of violence regardless of motivation.”
Throughout an illustrious career as a jazz recording artist and performer, he taught at North Carolina Central University, Delaware State University, Rutgers University, Hampton University, New York University, Cornell University, Oberlin College and Howard University.
The first African American sculptor to receive international fame, was a student at Oberlin College in Ohio where she was accused of trying to poison two White students and stealing artist supplies. She was acquitted but was not permitted to graduate and spent most of her career in Rome.
The international literary society founded in 1993 and dedicated to scholarly research on the works of the Nobel laureate, will now be housed at Oberlin College in Ohio.
Ishmael Beah was a child soldier in Sierra Leone but went on to graduate from Oberlin College.
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