All Student Biographies

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Thomasson, Maurice E. (B.S., Sociology, 1926)

Headshot of Maurice E Thomasson

Maurice Ethan Thomasson was born 5 May 1892 in Monticello, Arkansas, the son of James E. Thomasson, a shop owner, and Isabella Brooks Thomasson. After studying at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Maurice earned a Bachelor’s degree from Iowa State College in 1926. At that time, Thomasson was one of only 13 Black regular session students at ISC (“A Record,” 1926). He graduated along with classmates Compton Chapman, Benjamin Crutcher, and Willa Juanita Ewing.

followed by a Master’s degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota and a doctoral degree from Columbia University. Thomasson became a faculty member at Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU in Charlotte, North Carolina, after earning his doctorate. In 1941, He took up his post at the Delaware State College for Colored Students (now Delaware State University).

Thomasson married La Verne Boyer on 4 June 1947, the year that his employing institution became known as Delaware State College. He and his wife taught sociology at the school, Delaware’s only HBCU, from the 1940s through the 1960s. After turmoil at the college surrounding student dissatisfaction regarding campus infrastructure that was unable to support the influx of World War II veterans on the G.I. Bill, Thomasson was appointed to serve as acting president of the college in 1949. He returned to his position as faculty head of sociology studies after the hiring of a new president in 1950 but was appointed a second time as acting president in mid-1951, the college wanting to tap him permanently for the role. Thomasson, however, turned down the offer, stating his desire to teach. (Holmes, 2014)

During this second term as Acting President, in 1952, Thomasson was called upon to testify at a landmark Delaware integration trial that considered consolidated court cases Gebhart v. Belton and Bulah v. Gebhart. Thomasson’s “sociological perspective” on segregated schools was recorded in the trial transcript:

 I don’t think that in a segregated situation it is possible to produce a person who is fully normal, completely satisfactory. There are some conditions inherent in the segregated situation that just simply warp a person’s personality. Now, for one thing a person who goes to school in a segregated school goes to that school by virtue of the fact that the State of which he is a part has said he is inferior. That is, the State has embodied that in the law, and the law has been sustained by the courts. He is told as he goes there the school segregated by law that he is inferior. (Holmes, 2014). 

Donald Evans, a former student of Thomasson’s, remembered his former professor’s demeanor as unsuited to being a president of a university: “He was a very nice man, but I don’t think he had the personality to be a (permanent) president of a University” (quoted in Holmes, 2014). For the rest of his academic career, Thomasson taught sociology before retiring from teaching in 1967.

He died on 8 September 1973 and was buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Smyrna, Delaware. Delaware State University’s Thomasson Hall and Maurice Thomasson Center are named after him.

Sources

Photo credit: A record of the Negro at college 1926. (1926, August). The crisis: A record of the darker races, p. 187.

A record of the Negro at college 1926. (1926, August). The crisis: A record of the darker races, p. 174.

Holmes, Carlos. (2014, Feb. 12). Dr. Maurice Thomasson carried on work during trying times, declined permanent president post. Delaware State University, Dept. of Human Ecology [Blog]. Accessed 12 Dec. 2021. [No longer available.]

Headshot of Maurice E. Thomasson
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Sullivan, Grace Mae (M.S., Home Economics Education, 1932)

Grace Mae Sullivan was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1905. She received her bachelor’s degree from Hampton University in 1930, before going on to receive a master’s degree in Home Economics Education in 1932. After graduating, she became an instructor of Home Economics at Kentucky State University, and later became the department head in 1935. In the 1936-37 catalog, she was listed as having multiple positions and roles, including professor, teacher-trainer, department head, executive council member, administrative council member, and committee member on curriculum reorganization.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Home economics in negro secondary schools of Kentucky, 1932

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990009422680102756 

Sources

Biography available at  HBCU Connections at Iowa State University :  Grace M. Sullivan  ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Grace_M._Sullivan )

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Smith, Zxlema B. V. Patton (later Price) (M.S., Home Economics Education, 1937)

Zxlema B. V. Patton was born in Claiborne, Mississippi, on 18 December 1899 to Edward H. Patton, a “farmer” on the “college farm” (likely Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College), and Lenora Palmer Patton, a postmaster. Zxlema was the twin sister of Lenora Patton Williams, another ISC alumna. Zxlema completed high school in the Alcorn State pre-collegiate program and earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Home Economics from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia in 1921. Following graduation, she taught home economics in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, most likely at the newly built African-American K-12 Eureka school there. She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and in 1937 she completed a Master’s of Science degree in Home Economics Education at Iowa State College. Her thesis, entitled Responsibilities and Training of Negro Home Economics Teachers in the High Schools of Mississippi, detailed the teacher training, major school activities undertaken, and issues surrounding 48 home economics teachers of African descent. Four years after graduation from college, Zxlema gave birth to her son Phillip, who later appears in the 1940 census as Phillip M. Smith. While no record of a marriage to a “Mr. Smith” has yet been found, Zxlema herself used the name “Smith” when she enrolled at Iowa State. In the 1940 Census, however, she was listed as “Zxlema Price” and Bolton C. Price, whom she married on 24 December 1937 in Arkansas, was living with her and Phillip with Zxlema’s brother’s family in Alcorn. She and Bolton were both employed at Alcorn State for a time; he, as a school teacher, she, in home economics.” She later served as president of the Negro Home Economics Association of Mississippi. Working for Alcorn for a number of years, she was later recorded as serving as an “Itinerant Teacher and Trainer in Home Economics.” On 14 September 1992, she died in California, where her son Phillip and, later, his family lived.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Responsibilities and training of Negro home economics teachers in the high schools of Mississippi, 1937

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990009529460102756 

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Smith, Holloway  (B.S., Agricultural Education, 1928)

Holloway Smith in full body shot in a crouched position with one hand in front

Holloway Smith was born in Kentucky in 1896. The second black ISC football player, three years after Jack Trice, Smith came to ISC from Michigan State to play football and earn his B.S. in Agriculture Education. He had a successful football career despite being barred from playing in the Missouri Valley Conference, as they had an agreement with Southern schools to not allow African American students to play. This same unfair treatment would bar him from playing against Oklahoma State as well, a detriment to ISC.

After graduating from ISC, Smith moved to Marianna, Arkansas, where he worked for 20 years, serving as a teacher, then master teacher, and then as principal. Later, he served as the state supervisor for the National Youth Association in Arkansas, a New Deal program that provided education, work, and housing for youth ages 16-24 during the Great Depression. Using that experience, Smith became a National Director for the U.S.O.

Later In life, Smith moved to Monterey, California, where he operated a restaurant, before moving to Reno, Nevada in the early 1960s. He died in Reno in 1970 at the age of 73 and was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery there.

Sources

Photo Credit: The Bomb

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Small, John Baggett, Sr. (B.S., Agricultural Education, 1928)

John Baggett Small Sr.

John Baggett Small was born 24 Jun 1895 in Bertie, North Carolina, the son of Fred Small and Luvenia Williams Small. A WWI vet, Small earned a B.S. Degree in Agriculture from A&T College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and served as a Vocational Teacher at Berry O’Kelly School in Method, North Carolina, before earning a second degree in Agriculture from Iowa State College in 1928. He also attended Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. Small taught horticulture and held many positions throughout his life, including: superintendent of The Greenhouse at A&T; Principal of Gibson High School  in Gibsonville, North Carolina; County Agricultural Agent of Chowan and Perquiman’s Counties, headquarters in Edenton; and County Agent for Chowan County. He was a Freemason, Shriner 32nd Degree and president of Small Enterprises, Inc., in Greensboro. He died on 29 April 1986 in Chowan, North Carolina, and was buried in the Bond Family Cemetery in Windsor, North Carolina.

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