Herman H. Long
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Dr. Herman H. Long (1912—August 8, 1976) was an American college administrator and author of several pioneering studies dealing with race relations who served as president of his alma mater, Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, from 1965 to 1976, while concurrently serving as president of the United Negro College Fund from 1970 to 1975.
An Alabama native, Herman Hodge Long was born in the state's largest city, Birmingham, and moved with his family to the South Side of Chicago, where he grew up in poverty. He worked at numerous jobs, studied at night and, as even worse times loomed in the aftermath of the October 1929 stock market crash, was ever more determined to achieve the highest level of education. In September 1931 he returned to Alabama to attend Talladega College, the state's oldest, private, historically black liberal arts college, founded in 1867. In his four years of study, he was considered a top debater and, at 6' 3", was a star and, eventually, captain of the basketball team. He was also on the track team and played baseball and football. Until his graduation, cum laude, in 1935, he continued to work at any available jobs, including acting as a barber for his fellow students. A psychology major, he went on to earn his M.A. at the Hartford Seminary's School of Religious Education and his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.
In the preparation for his doctoral dissertation in 1940–41, Long became associated with one of the leading African-American social scientists of the period, Charles S. Johnson, the head of sociology at Nashville's renowned historically black institution, Fisk University (and, in 1947, its first African-American president). Along with two other research supervisors, Long provided the parish background reports for Johnson's influential Louisiana study (published in spring 1942) of race relations, on the eve of World War II, in twenty of the state's sixty-four parishes.
After receiving his Ph.D., Long returned to Fisk at Johnson's invitation, becoming the head of the University's Human Relations Institute of the American Missionary Association. In this capacity, he travelled around the country, researching race relations and serving as a consultant regarding programs centered at improving relations and ameliorating strained and problematic conditions. His 1949 study of racially-discriminatory housing covenants received favorable notice and was quoted in a number of sociological texts.
In 1964, Talladega College's Board of Trustees completed a lengthy search for a successor to the institution's first African-American president, Arthur Gray, who served from 1952 to 1962, by offering the position to its distinguished alumnus, Herman Long. His 1965 inauguration at the College's DeForest Chapel took place thirty years after his own graduation ceremony there. As a highly-regarded figure in the African-American community, he continued to provide leadership during the turbulent 1960s and, in 1970, while continuing to serve in his Talladega post, was chosen as the new president of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the 26-year-old organization (founded in 1944), which has as its goal the raising of funds for the 39 private historically black colleges and universities. Shortly after assuming his new position, he was interviewed in the New York studio of NBC's Today Show, and described his and the organization's goals and projects. It was during his tenure, in 1972, that the slogan "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" became the UNCF's motto.
Herman H. Long was 64 when he died of cancer at Talladega's Citizens Hospital. He was survived by his wife, Henrietta Shively and daughter, Ellen.
Buell Gallagher, president emeritus of New York's City College, and Talladega College president during 1933–43, which included the junior and senior years future president Long spent as a student, said, in memoriam, "Herman Long's studies were very powerful forces working for the integration of the races when the possibility of such integration was very slight. He was an important and imaginative figure before the actual transition phase of race relations in this country."
[edit] References
- [1] "SCHOOL BIAS STUDY SLATED FOR SOUTH: Leaders in Religion, Education and Social Work to Attend Interracial Conference". The New York Times (December 24, 1952) A study by Herman H. Long delivered at the conference
- [2] Long, Herman H. (Summer 1954) "Racial Desegregation in Railroad and Bus Transportation", article published in The Journal of Negro Education (vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 214-221)
- [3] Long, Herman H. (3rd quarter 1958) "Review: Essential Book on Education and Race Relations", review of Louis R. Harlan's book Separate and Unequal published in The Phylon Quarterly (vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 335-336)
- [4] Hunter, Charlayne. "Negro College Fund, a Success At 30, 'Running Harder Now'". The New York Times (October 18, 1974), a report on the achievements of the United Negro College Fund after four years under the leadership of Herman H. Long
- [5] Johnson, Thomas A. "DR. H. H. LONG DIES; HEAD OF COLLEGE — Alabamian Was Pioneer in Race Relations Studies". The New York Times obituary (August 10, 1976)
