Sepia toned map of Southeast Ohio
Claiming an Education: Early Black American Humanists

Black Journalists Lead at Prestigious Institutions

Alvin Adams

1937-2004

Alvin Adams, working at typewriter
Alvin C. Adams Hall is a residence hall on OHIO's Athens campus.
Alvin C. Adams Hall is a residence hall on OHIO's Athens campus.

Several prominent Black journalists began their careers at Ohio University. One of the first Black graduates of the university’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism was Alvin C. Adams, Jr., who grew up only a few miles from the Athens campus and earned his journalism degree there in 1959. He then went on to work at two of the nation’s most prestigious Black institutions, the Chicago Defender and the Johnson Publishing Co. Adams Residence Hall on the Athens campus is named in his honor.

Alvin Adams Symposium graphic
The Alvin Adams Symposium was held in 2019.  See more videos from the Alvin Adams Symposium at OHIO

Clarence Page

1947- 

Clarence Page photo from the Post

A decade after Adams’s graduation from Ohio University, Clarence Page from Dayton, Ohio, earned his degree from the School of Journalism and shortly thereafter began an illustrious career at The Chicago Tribune . As a syndicated columnist at the Tribune , Page became a popular panelist on television news programs such as the McLaughlin Group and The PBS News Hour , and in 1989 he earned the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Follow Clarence Page on Twitter .

Eddith Dashiell

1959- 

Eddith Dashiell, portrait

The tradition of Black journalism at Ohio University also includes publication of a student newspaper, Afro-American Affairs (1970-1982), which covered issues of interest to Black students, faculty, and staff. The current director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Dr. Eddith Dashiell, is both the first woman and the first Black American to hold that position. 

Read more about Dr. Eddith Dashiell .

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