TITLE: Dr. Lionel Hodge Newsom

COVERAGE: 1968 to 1972

DESCRIPTION: Dr. Lionel Hodge Newsom’s materials are included in the collection of the Office of the President, which is housed in the Inez Moore Parker Archives and Research Center at Johnson C. Smith University. The Office of the President Collection contains speeches, manuscripts, photographs, and other documents of individuals who have served as President of Johnson C. Smith University.

TYPE: Photograph

PHOTOGRAPH DATE: 1969

CREATOR: Inez Moore Parker Archives and Research Center

ACQUISITION DATE: July 2000

PROCESSED BY: David Cook

HISTORICAL NOTE: Dr. Lionel Hodge Newsom was born in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1917 and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He received a B.A. degree from Lincoln University, a M.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, and a Ph. D. in Social Pathology from Washington University.

After serving in the military during World War II, Dr. Newsom worked as an instructor of History and Sociology at Lincoln University from 1946 to 1947.  He served as an Associate Professor of Social Science at Southern University in Baton Rouge, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stowe’s Teachers College in St. Louis.  From 1960 to 1964, he taught at Morehouse College as Professor of Sociology and Director of the Woodrow Wilson General Honors program. He left Morehouse College in 1964 to become the President of Barber – Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina.  From 1966 to 1968, he worked as the Associate Director of the Institute for Higher Educational Opportunity in the South. 

In 1968, Dr. Newsom left the Institute for Higher Educational Opportunity to become the ninth president of Johnson C. Smith University. His main goal for the university was to make connections between Johnson C. Smith and the city of Charlotte. During his administration the decision to merge Smith’s theological seminary with the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta was approved in 1969. In addition the Board of Trustees created the offices of Vice President of Academic Affairs and Vice President of Financial Affairs. Dr. Newsome served as president of Johnson C. Smith until 1972.

COPYRIGHT: Any display, publication, or public use, must credit the Inez Moore Parker Archives and Research Center at Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Materials on this web site have been made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. For these purposes, you may reproduce (print, make photocopies, or download) materials from this web site without prior permission, with the condition that you provide proper attribution of the source in all copies.

You must contact the Archives and Research Center at archives@jcsu.edu for permission to use materials from this web site for commercial products, publications, broadcasts, mirroring, or any other purpose that is not considered “fair use”.

SITE CREATION DATE: April 11, 2003