A Roster of African Americans Who Hold Endowed University Chairs

Our count shows that African-American chaired have risen in recent years from 102 professorships in 1993 to 122 in 1997 to 129 in 2001. The total would be higher except for the retirement in recent years of a number of black scholars who held endowed chairs. Since our last compilation of endowed chairs in 1997, 19 African-American professors with endowed chairs have either retired or moved on to other institutions where they do not hold an endowed chair. Among the African-American chaired professors we find Princeton University's Toni Morrison, one of only eight Americans to win both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes for literature; the University of Texas at Austin's John S. Butler who holds two endowed chairs; and Howard University's LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., who symbolizes an extraordinary dichotomy -- holding an endowed chair and having another one named for him. Since 1997, when there were 14 chairs endowed and named for African Americans, four new chairs have been added for a total of 18 -- the Anheuser Busch-John E. Jacob Chair at Howard University; the Benjamin E. Mays Chair at the University of South Carolina; the Ray Charles Chair in Music and the Arts at Wilberforce University; and the Jefferson Pilot-Ronald E. McNair Chair at North Carolina A&T University. (McNair was the African-American astronaut killed in the Challenger explosion.) In addition, the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education Chair at Harvard University, currently held by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, will be renamed in honor of Professor Lightfoot when she retires from the chair.