Hobart S. Jarrett

Ed Diaz — history3(at)comcast.net

Hobart S. Jarrett, died earlier this month in Tulsa Oklahoma.

His name is not as well-known as it should be, and you’ll have to perform some serious research to find his name in history books. Yet, he’s someone we should all know about, and its a shame that we don’t.

Hobart Jarrett, the first African-American full professor of English at Brooklyn College, as a young boy, survived the Tulsa race riot of 1921, and went on to become a civil rights leader and college professor. He graduated from Wiley College in 1936, received a master’s degree from Syracuse University in 1937 and a doctorate in 1954.

His career included teaching at Langston University (Oklahoma),chairing the Humanities Department at Bennett College (Greensboro, North Carolina), and advising the college students who initiated the Greensboro Woolworth lunch counter sit-ins. He finished his academic career at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Hobart S. Jarrett died at the age of 89.

Source: Journal of Blacks in Higher Education Weekly Bulletin (May 26, 2005)

Note: A good source of information about the Tulsa race riot of 1921 is Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 written by Scott Ellsworth (with a forward by John Hope Franklin).

Ed Diaz

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