Benjamin F. Payton | |
---|---|
President of Tuskegee University | |
In office 1981–2010 | |
Preceded by | Luther H. Foster Jr. |
Succeeded by | Charlotte P. Morris |
President of Benedict College | |
In office 1967–1972 | |
Personal details | |
Born | December 27,1932 Orangeburg,South Carolina,U.S. |
Died | September 28,2016 Estero,Florida,U.S. |
Alma mater | South Carolina State University Harvard University Columbia University Yale University |
Benjamin F. Payton (December 27,1932 - September 28,2016) was an African-American academic administrator. He served as the president of two historically black universities:Benedict College in Columbia,South Carolina from 1967 to 1972 and Tuskegee University in Tuskegee,Alabama from 1981 to 2010.
Payton was born on December 27,1932,in Orangeburg,South Carolina. [1] [2] He had a brother Dr. Cecil W. Payton who later worked as executive assistant to the president of Morgan State University. [2]
Payton graduated from South Carolina State University,where he earned a bachelor's degree,followed by another bachelor's degree from Harvard University,a master's degree from Columbia University and a PhD from Yale University. [1] [2]
Payton served as the president of Benedict College from 1967 to 1972. [3] He worked for the Ford Foundation for the next nine years. [1]
Payton served as the president of Tuskegee University from 1981 to 2010. [1] During his tenure,he raised $240 million. [2] His other accomplishments included "creating five colleges,launching the school's first doctoral programs,a continuing education program and centers for aerospace science and health education." [2] It was also thanks to his leadership that President Bill Clinton issued an apology to the university for the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in 1997. [4]
Payton served on the boards of directors of AmSouth Bancorporation ITT Inc.,the Liberty Corporation,Praxair,and Ruby Tuesday. [5]
Payton was a charter member of the Epsilon Nu Bouléchapter of Sigma Pi Phi in Naples,Florida. [2]
Orangeburg,also known as The Garden City,is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County,South Carolina,United States. The population of the city was 13,964 according to the 2020 census. The city is located 37 miles southeast of Columbia,on the north fork of the Edisto River.
Tuskegee University is a private,historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee,Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the Alabama Legislature.
South Carolina State University is a public,historically black,land-grant university in Orangeburg,South Carolina. It is the only public,historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina,is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund,and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson was an American physician and the first woman to be licensed as a physician in the U.S. state of Alabama.
Benedict College is a private historically black college in Columbia,South Carolina. Founded in 1870 by northern Baptists,it was originally a teachers' college. It has since expanded to offer majors in many disciplines across the liberal arts. The campus includes buildings in the Benedict College Historic District,a historic area listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mars Hill University is a private Christian university in Mars Hill,North Carolina. The university offers 35 undergraduate majors and includes a school of nursing and graduate schools in education,criminal justice,and management. From 1859 to 2013 the school was called Mars Hill College;in August 2013 it officially changed its name to Mars Hill University.
Fred David Gray is an American civil rights attorney,preacher,activist,and state legislator from Alabama. He handled many prominent civil rights cases,such as Browder v. Gayle,and was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1970,along with Thomas Reed,both from Tuskegee. They were the first black state legislators in Alabama in the 20th century. He served as the president of the National Bar Association in 1985,and in 2001 was elected as the first African-American President of the Alabama State Bar.
Robert Robinson Taylor was an American architect and educator. Taylor was the first African-American student enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),and the first accredited African-American architect when he graduated in 1892. He was an early and influential member of the Tuskegee Institute faculty.
Benjamin Cudworth Yancey Jr. was an American politician,lawyer,officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and diplomat.
Charles Walter Dryden was a U.S. Army Air Force officer and one of the original combat fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron,a component of the Tuskegee Airmen. Among the United States' first eight African American combat fighter pilots,Dryden is notable as a member of the Tuskegee Advance Flying School (TAFS)'s Class Number SE-42-C,the program's 2nd-ever aviation cadet program.
Stewart Cleveland Cureton,also known as S. C. Cureton,was an American clergyman and civil rights activist.
Edward L. Jackson was an American football and basketball coach and administrator for several historically black colleges and universities in the Eastern United States. He served as the head football coach at Delaware State University,Johnson C. Smith University and Howard University,altering his tenures among the three schools over the course of 23 years. Not once during his football coaching career did a team of his finish with a sub-.500 record. Jackson also coached basketball at Johnson C. Smith and Delaware State.
Stephen Keith Benjamin is an American politician and businessman currently serving as the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement for the Biden administration,and also as one of the senior advisors to President Biden since April 1,2023. He previously served as the 70th mayor of Columbia,South Carolina,from July 2010 to January 2022. He was the first African American mayor in the city's history. Before serving as mayor,he worked in the Columbia metropolitan area as an attorney and served on various charitable organizations.
Nathan Benjamin Young was an American educator who helped advance black education in the early 20th century. Born a slave in Alabama,Young later became an educator after Booker T. Washington,who witnessed Young’s skills in debating,invited him to teach at the Tuskegee Institute. Following his career as a teacher,Young later became a president of two major universities,Florida A&M University and Lincoln University. He and Henry Lee De Forest,the president of Talladega College,started a campaign to help improve education for the African American community.
Luther Hilton Foster Jr. was an African-American academic administrator. He served as the fourth president of the Tuskegee Institute,a private,historically black university in Tuskegee,Alabama now known as Tuskegee University,from 1953 to 1981.
Charlotte P. Morris is an American academic administrator. She served as the interim president of Tuskegee University,a private,historically black university in Tuskegee,Alabama,and on July 26,2021,was elected ninth president of the university by its board of trustees,effective August 1,2021.
Harold Douglas "Doc" Martin was an American college football player and coach,and a Negro league baseball player. Martin served as the head football coach at Virginia Union University from 1921 to 1923,Shaw University from 1924 to 1926,and Virginia State University from 1927 to 1932,compiling a career a college football coaching record of 63–22–12.
Enos Luther Brookes (1891–1944) was a chemist,academic,and activist for civil rights in the United States. He was born in Jamaica,then a British colony.
Paul Adams was a World War II pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen. He was one of the first black teachers in the Lincoln Nebraska public school system. Adams also served as the president of the Lincoln Chapter of the NAACP. In 2008 the city of Lincoln Nebraska built a new elementary school and named it after Adams. The mascot of the school in an aviator.
Tuskegee University Legacy Museum,also known as the Legacy Museum is located at Tuskegee University in Kenney Hall at 1 Benjamin Payton Drive adjacent to the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care. Like the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Museum,the museum's origins stem from Bill Clinton's 1997 apology to the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study,formally known as the Official Proclamation by President William Jefferson Clinton against the misdeeds of the United States Public Health Service in its Untreated Syphilis Study in the Negro Male in Macon County,Alabama,1932-1972. Clinton's apology first led to the creation of the University's Bioethics Center in 2006,and the museum followed in 2009.