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Otis (sometimes Oatis), Jesse Rodgers Delbert  (B.S. , Animal Husbandry, 1925)

Headshot of Jesse R.D. Otis

Jesse Rodgers Delbert Otis was born in Carson, Mississippi, on 9 July 1899 to Delbert Otis and his wife, Anna Sims Otis, farmers. Jesse attended school in Piney Woods, Mississippi, and, then, in Three Oaks, Michigan, where he was the lone Black student in a class of 37. Otis’s farming background served him well in Michigan, where he lived with a local farmer and dairy owner, working as a farmhand, dairyman, and milk delivery boy to earn his keep (Johnson, 2021).

At ISC Jesse Otis studied Animal Husbandry, graduating with a B.S. in 1925. He was active in the Agriculture Club on campus and also as a member of the Alpha-Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in 1923, belonging alongside Iowa State brothers A.C. Aldridge, J. G. Trice, F. D. Patterson, L. A. Potts, J. L. Lockett, J. W. Fraser, and R. B. Atwood (Aldridge, 1923). In 1935, Otis reunited with many of his fraternity brothers at a ISC Alumni Banquet at Tuskegee to celebrate the inauguration of brother Frederick D. Patterson as President of Tuskegee Institute. Otis had been teaching at Tuskgee since around 1928, when he left his teaching job at Piney Woods School after three years. He stayed at Tuskegee for the next seven years (Johnson, 2021). In 1933, Otis earned an M.S. in Agriculture and Life Sciences from Cornell University. He eventually received his Ph.D. in the same field in 1944 from the same institution.

The years between arriving at Tuskegee and taking the position of President of Mississippi’s Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University) in 1946 saw Dr. Otis firmly establish himself in the field of agriculture as an expert and a teacher. According to the Alabama 4-H Center’s “In Remembrance” page, “From 1932 to 1934, he served as Specialist in Extension farm work. The next ten years found him in the nation’s capital working at the Department of Interior. Desiring to be back closer to the people he hoped to help, Dr. Otis held the position of Alabama State Leader for Negro Work from 1944 to 1946. In 1946 Dr. Otis was selected to be president of Alcorn College for Negroes at Alcorn, Mississippi” (n.d.).

Dr. Otis served as president at Alcorn A&M until 1957, when Mississippi Governor Coleman removed him from his post following a multi-week student boycott sparked by an Alcorn history professor who “wrote a series of articles for the Jackson State Times linking the NAACP to communism and criticizing Congressman Adam Clayton Powell” (Johnson, 2021).

J. R. D. Otis returned to Tuskegee Institute to finish his career as the Director of the School of Education. He married Frankie Althalyn Williams on 25 July 1959 and remained married to her until is death 3 January 1970. He is buried at Oaklawn Memorial Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama.

Sources

Photo Credit: Iowa State University. (1925). 1925 Bomb v.32 special edition, p.72. Retrieved from    https://n2t.net/ark:/87292/w9rp82 

Aldridge, A. C. (1923, June). “Alpha Nu Chapter State College of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa.” The Sphinx, 9.3, p. 17.

In remembrance…Jesse R. Otis (1899-1970). (n.d.) Alabama 4-H Center. Retrieved from  https://alabama4hcenter.org/jesse-r-otis/ 

Johnson, David. (2021, February 17). 1940s Three Oaks class project reveals the story of Jesse Otis. Harbor country news. Retrieved from  https://www.harborcountry-news.com/features/1940s-three-oaks-class-project-reveals-the-story-of-jesse-otis/article_24f6c234-eca6-5d66-9d33-486bd86eeeef.html 

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Hardy, John Garrick  (M.S., Vocational Guidance, 1933)

Headshot of John Garrick Hardy

John Garrick Hardy was born 16 November 1909 in Baldwin County, Alabama, to John Hardy and Pinkie Sommerville Hardy. In 1933, shortly after John earned his Master’s degree in Vocational Guidance from Iowa State College after only nine months in the program, he began teaching at Alabama State Teachers College (now Alabama State University) in Montgomery, Alabama, the institution where he taught for forty-six years (“Archive Record,” n.d., para. 4). Prior to attending ISC, he had earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree from that same school. In 1935, Hardy joined other Iowa Staters at the banquet held by the Iowa State Alumni Association for Frederick D. Patterson’s inauguration as President of Tuskegee. Four years later, Hardy married Mildred Elizabeth Motley on 25 December 1939 in Autauga, Alabama.

In 1946, with a completed Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Hardy became “the first Black in the State of Alabama, who graduated from an all Black Public State supported institution of higher learning, to receive a Master’s degree (Iowa State University) and a Ph.D. degree (University of Wisconsin)” (“Archive Record,” n.d., para. 4). In recognition of his long-time impact on Alabama State and its students, Dr. Hardy received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in the spring of 1977 (“Archive Record,” n.d., para. 4).

He ended his career as the head of the Sociology Department at Alabama State. The John Garrick Hardy University Center at Alabama State is named for him. His life was marked by a strong record of community service and commitment to bettering the lives of others. Dr. John Garrick Hardy passed away on 9 November 1986. He is buried in the Remount Park Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: A study of the vocational intentions of negro students in fourteen city high schools in Alabama, 1933 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://iowa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/12tutg/01IASU_ALMA21201769240002756

Sources

Photo credit: Archive record: Dr. John Garrick Hardy Collection. (n.d.) Levi Watkins Learning Center. Alabama State University. Retrieved from  https://alasu.pastperfectonline.com/archive/6AA61ED5-D87C-4710-96C1-385424122018 

Archive record: Dr. John Garrick Hardy Collection. (n.d.) Levi Watkins Learning Center. Alabama State University. Retrieved from  https://alasu.pastperfectonline.com/archive/6AA61ED5-D87C-4710-96C1-385424122018

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Williams, James Estel  (M.S., Animal Production, 1948)

Headshot of James Estel Williams ca. 1971.

James Estel Williams was the fourth child of seven born to Lizzie Smith a cook at a local hotel, in Maysville, Kentucky, on 15 September 1921. He graduated from Wilberforce University in Ohio with an undergraduate degree. Following graduation, he was drafted into the Army, serving as a Technician Fifth Grade overseas during World War II (“James Estel Williams”).

After returning from overseas, Williams attended Iowa State College and acquired his Master’s of Science in Animal Production in 1948. During his time at ISC, Williams lived at 218 Lincoln Way, the home of Archie and Nancy Martin. In 1949, he married Lillian Harrison Croom, whom he had met at Wilberforce University. The couple eventually had five children together. Williams put his degree to use teaching agricultural courses for the Veterans Administration in Owensboro, Kentucky, a job he held through 1950. He also taught science classes at the Lincoln Institute in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, early in his career (“James E. Williams, Sr.”).

Following a lifelong dream, Williams graduated with his juris doctor from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1962, becoming a member of the American Bar Association, Illinois Bar Association and American Trial Layers Association and helped to found the Metro-East Bar Association (“James E. Williams, Sr.”; Williams, 2017). He put his services to work for the good of the community by founding the first Legal Aid Society of St. Clair County and then acting as its Executive Director (Williams, 2017). For years, Williams also had a private law practice and, from 1951 to 1968, he worked as a civil servant at the Granite City Army Depot, eventually becoming the Federal Compliance Officer and also a member of the Commanding Office Staff (Williams, 2017; “James E. Williams, Sr.”).

Williams served East St. Louis, IL, as its first black mayor from 1971 to 1975. He ran on a platform of improving the economy, making East St. Louis safer, providing more recreation opportunities for the community’s kids, and creating more harmony among the races in order to improve the overall climate of the community (“James E. Williams, Sr.”). His efforts to bring more business investment to East St. Louis and turn around a community in crisis, which had lost almost 70% of its businesses between 1960 and 1970 (“East St. Louis”), earned Williams the moniker of “optimist.” While in office, he brought in federal and state grant funding, supported urban renewal and addressed unemployment among Black workers, expanded the police force Following his time in office, from 1976-1978, he took up the role of East St. Louis School Board president (“James E. Williams, Sr.”).

He died 12 February 1983 and is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Lemay, Missouri (“James Estel Williams”).

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Corn from high and low productive lands for growing and fattening pigs, 1948 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://iowa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/12tutg/01IASU_ALMA21180001910002756

Sources

Photo credit: Williams, Lillian. (2017, 2 Jul.). African-American political turning point recalled on 100th anniversary of the ESTL Race Riot. Medium, https://medium.com/@lillianwilliams/african-american-political-turning-point-recalled-on-this-100th-anniversary-of-the-estl-race-riot-36e40dc5328f

East St. Louis: One city’s story. (2002, 31 Dec.). Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/bridges/winter-20022003/east-st-louis-one-citys-story

James E. Williams, Sr.; E. St. Louis ex-mayor. (1983, 14 Feb.). St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. 14.

James Estel Williams. (2019, 22 Oct.). Find-a-Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/204056318/james-estel-williams

Williams, Lillian. (2017, 2 Jul.). African-American political turning point recalled on 100th anniversary of the ESTL Race Riot. Medium, https://medium.com/@lillianwilliams/african-american-political-turning-point-recalled-on-this-100th-anniversary-of-the-estl-race-riot-36e40dc5328f

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