Charles H. Wesley

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Chares H. Wesley

Charles Harris Wesley (December 2, 1891 - August 16, 1987) was a noted African American historian, educator, writer and author.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Fisk University in 1911 and received a Master's degree from Yale University in 1913. In 1925, Wesley became the third African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Wesley was Dean of Liberal Arts and the Graduate School at Howard University until 1942, President of Wilberforce University from 1942 to 1947, and President of Central State College from 1947-1965.

In 1965 he became the Director of Research and Publications for the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Wesley was Executive Director of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History from 1965-1972; later becoming its Executive Director Emeritus. In 1976, Director of the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum in Philadelphia.

Wesley was the 14^th and a five-term General President and National Historian for seven decades of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans. He authored The History of Alpha Phi Alpha in 1929, and many new editions. Dr. Wesley is also a member of Sigma Pi Phi, the first of all Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLO). He also authored "The History of Sigma Pi Phi".

Wesley died August 16, 1987 in Washington, D.C., and was buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, Suitland, Maryland.

[edit] Awards

He was the recipient of numerous awards including

Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930/31

Phi Beta Kappa Key in 1953

Scottish Rite Gold Medal Award in 1957

Armistad Award in 1972.

[edit] Books by Wesley

The cover of The History of Alpha Phi Alpha (1981).

Negro Labor in the United States, 1850-1925 (1927)
The History of Alpha Phi Alpha: A Development in Negro College Life (1929)
Richard Allen, Apostle of Freedom (1935)
Collapse of the Confederacy (1937)
The Negro in the Americas (1940)
The History of Sigma Pi Phi (1954)
History of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World, 1898-1954 (1955)
Negro Makers of History (5th edition) with Carter G. Woodson (1958)
The Story of the Negro Retold with Carter G. Woodson (1959)
The History of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Ohio (1961)
The Negro in Our History with Carter G. Woodson(1962)
The International Library of Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Ohio (1961)
Ohio Negroes in the Civil War (1962)
Neglected History: Essays in Negro History (1965)
Negro Americans in the Civil War: From Slavery to Citizenship (1967)
International Library of Negro Life and History, a ten volume set (1967).
In Freedom's Footsteps: From the African Background to the Civil War (1968)
The Quest for Equality: From Civil War to Civil Rights (1968)
Negro Citizenship in the United States: Rhe Fourteenth Amendment and the Negro-American, Its Concepts and Developments, 1868-1968 (1968)
The Fifteenth Amendment and Black America, 1870-1970 (1970)
Women Builders with Sadie Iola Daniel and Thelma D. Perry (1970)
Henry Arthur Callis, Life and Legacy (1977)
Prince Hall: A Life and Legacy (1977)
The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs: A Legacy of Service (1984).