Arvarh Strickland: Missouri U. honors its first black professor, a historian
Arvarh Strickland came to the University of Missouri nearly four decades ago to teach history.
On Friday, the school's first black professor made some history of his own when a prominent campus building was renamed in his honor.
More than 100 former students, colleagues, friends and well-wishers turned out for the unveiling of Arvarh E. Strickland Hall, formerly known as the General Classroom Building. The building is in the heart of campus next to the Brady Commons student center.
One speaker after the next described a tough but caring teacher who held his students to the same exacting standards that helped Strickland leap from his rural Mississippi roots to a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Strickland, a Hattiesburg, Miss. native, earned his bachelor's degree from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss. After receiving a doctorate in 1962 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined the faculty at Chicago State College.
He joined the University of Missouri-Columbia faculty in 1969 and quickly became a mentor, community fixture, civic leader and adviser to several chancellors.
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On Friday, the school's first black professor made some history of his own when a prominent campus building was renamed in his honor.
More than 100 former students, colleagues, friends and well-wishers turned out for the unveiling of Arvarh E. Strickland Hall, formerly known as the General Classroom Building. The building is in the heart of campus next to the Brady Commons student center.
One speaker after the next described a tough but caring teacher who held his students to the same exacting standards that helped Strickland leap from his rural Mississippi roots to a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Strickland, a Hattiesburg, Miss. native, earned his bachelor's degree from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss. After receiving a doctorate in 1962 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined the faculty at Chicago State College.
He joined the University of Missouri-Columbia faculty in 1969 and quickly became a mentor, community fixture, civic leader and adviser to several chancellors.