Luminaries

Walter Nathaniel Ridley

When he was a child, Walter Nathaniel Ridley and his family encountered W. E. B Dubois. The man's message of self-respect, activism, and vision of a better future for Blacks inspired the seven-year-old to excel. As a young man, Ridley earned a bachelor's and master's degree from Howard University (1931 and 1933 respectively), graduating with honors.

From 1944 to 1947 Ridley served as president of the American Teachers Association, a tenure that would see membership nearly triple from 3,900 to 11,500 educators.

Ridley applied to the University of Virginia in 1950, which at the time was a segregated school. His argument was simple and direct. "I don't know of any reason why I should not attend the University of Virginia. My father paid taxes which fund the University," said Ridley. In September of 1951, he was accepted, and in 1953, roughly a year ahead of the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, Ridley became the first Black to graduate with a doctorate from a Southern state university.

Ridley dedicated the rest of his life to to education and civil rights reform.