A00243 - Top Ten African American Amherst College Graduates

 Top Ten African American Amherst College Graduates

1. Charles Richard Drew, Class of 1926 (Charles R. Drew - Wikipedia)

2. Edward Jones, Class of 1826 (Edward Jones (missionary) - Wikipedia)

3. Charles Hamilton Houston, Class of 1915 (Charles Hamilton Houston - Wikipedia)

4. William Henry Lewis, Class of 1892 (William H. Lewis - Wikipedia)

5. William Montague Cobb, Class of 1925 (William Montague Cobb - Wikipedia)

6. William Henry Hastie, Jr., Class of 1925 (William H. Hastie - Wikipedia)

7. Hugh Bernard Price, Class of 1963 (Hugh Bernard Price - Wikipedia)

8. Ulric St. Clair Haynes, Class of 1952 (Ulric Haynes (diplomat) - Wikipedia)

9. Benjamin Jefferson Davis, Jr., Class of 1925 (Benjamin J. Davis Jr. - Wikipedia)

10. William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson, Class of 1892 (William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson - Segregation and Desegregation at the Catholic University of America - Guides at The Catholic University of America)

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William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson, Class of 1892, owed his college education to U.S. Senator George Frisbie Hoar of Massachusetts, who paid Jackson’s tuition and expenses. Jackson never forgot that kindness. He devoted his life to helping others obtain the same opportunities.

After leaving Amherst, Jackson moved to Washington, D.C., where he took up teaching at the M Street High School, later renamed Dunbar High School. He married May Howard, who would become one of the most famous African-American sculptors during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. She made busts of several notable leaders of the time, including W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Laurence Dunbar—and Lewis.

At Dunbar, Jackson taught mathematics and coached sports for 38 years. He served as the school’s principal from 1906 to 1909. He shepherded many of his students to Amherst, which graduated more Dunbar students than any other college outside of the nation’s capital.

It was Jackson who convinced Charles Hamilton Houston, Class of 1915, to attend Amherst. Houston became a prominent lawyer and the architect of the legal challenge that resulted in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that in 1954 ended segregation in U.S. schools.

Jackson retired from Dunbar in 1931; his wife died a few months later. In 1942, Amherst honored him for his work as an educator. He died the following year.

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During the years that William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson taught at Dunbar High School, Dunbar became a major conduit of African American students to Amherst College.  The following is the list of Dunbar students who went to Amherst College.  Those with an asterisk (*) went to Amherst but did not graduate.

1906

Robert Nicholas Mattingly

1907

James LeCount Chestnut

1909

James Blaine Hunter

1911

John Randolph Pinkett

1912

*Edward Gray

1915

Charles Hamilton Houston

1916

Frances Morse Dent

1920

Frederick Allen Parker

1921

Robert Percy Barnes

1923

*George Nolen Calloway

*Charles Dudley Lee

Charles William Lewis

1925

William Montague Cobb

*George Winston Harry

1926

Charles Richard Drew

Thurman Luce Dodson

1927

Chauncey Baker Larry

1928

Clarence Reed White

1929

Harold Over Lewis

David Utz

George Williams 

1931

*Charles Curtis Beckwith

1934

*Henry Greene Risher

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