Dr. Jesse J. Hargrove's Page

Personal Bio

From 1989-1997 academic years

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I am the Founding Director of the University of Arizona's African American Cultural Resource Center and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Student Center. I also served the UA as Assistant Dean for the African American students. Currently, I am the Chair of the Division of Education at Philander Smith College, which is one of the 39 colleges supported by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). I am in my 10th at PSC in Little Rock, Arkansas.

More on Who is Dr. Jesse J. Hargrove?


He is an educator, scholar, poet, print photographer and 21st century futurist and writer who uses ethnography as a research medium to capture a snapshot picture of the culture under study. He was born in rural Gough, Georgia where his great grandmother Celia Adams was an ex-slave and a mid-wife who lived from March 12, 1856-March 21, 1942. He was born 100 years after the birth of his great grandfather who was born on February 22, 1853. His great grandfather, Solomon Hargrove, was an educator who taught children to read and write, but was tragically lynched in 1893 for organizing his free school at Eden Baptist Church which his wife Celia helped to found in Louisville, Georgia in 1885.

One by one, Hargrove’s parents moved him and his sister away from the Georgia plantation town in Burke County to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida when he was two years old. His mother instilled within the children a love for education. Hargrove started his initial four years of schooling playing catch-up as he missed many days of school because of his asthmatic condition that nearly killed him as a child. He developed a love for reading in fourth grade and began to make “B” grades in 5th grade and “A” grades in 6th grade. In light of so many absences due to health problems, he is most proud of the fact that he earned perfect attendance from 7th thru 12th grade. He graduated with honors in high school and was ranked 9th in his Class of 1971 from Dillard High School. Hargrove graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dillard University in New Orleans in 1975 and majored in Spanish Education after earning scholarships to study at two schools in Guadalajara, Mexico during the summer and a junior year exchange program at the University of California at Berkeley. Arthur Jensen and William Shockley studied him and his peers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities on the IQ genetic inferiority issue of the era. He studied six languages at Cal Berkeley. In 1977, Hargrove was awarded the M.A. degree in Spanish and Spanish American Literature and the Ph.D. degree in 1983 in Bilingual/Multicultural Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Illinois.

Hargrove has taught Spanish in public schools and higher education. He has worked at two colleges in the University of Wisconsin system, the University of Arizona in Tucson, Broward County Public Schools and Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, he is Chair of the Division of Education. He has just completed a stint as Chair of the Division of Arts and Humanities, and has served in administration as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Associate Dean of Instruction, and Assistant Dean of Instruction at Philander Smith College where he has been employed for the past nine years. He is civic-minded and serves as statewide Chair of the Arkansas Commission on Closing the Academic Achievement Gap. Governor Mike Huckabee appointed him to this position in 2004. He can be reached at jhargrove@philander.edu

Do you have any websites of Interest about you or your business?

http://soundthedrum.ning.com

Another Website

http://philanderspanishlab.ning.com

What is your marital status?

We have a daughter, AnDrea, who is 11 years old and a Black Belt

Are you a member of any local Black Organizations? If so, please list them.

African American Geneology Association

Are you a member of a local Church. If so, you may state the name and Pastor, if you wish.

Greater 2nd Baptist Church

How did you hear about, Tucson-Ebony City?

Ning Creator George Puckett