Jacob Lorenzo Reddix (1897–1973) was an American educator, academic administrator, and memoirist. He was President of Mississippi Negro Training School (now Jackson State University) in Jackson, Mississippi, from 1940 until 1967. He was nicknamed "the Builder" for his support for new campus buildings at Jackson State College.

Early life and education

Jacob Lorenzo Reddix was born on March 2, 1897, in Vancleave, Mississippi. He was the youngest of nine children, born to parents Nathan and Frances. His family was a mix of

African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

, Cajun, and Creole heritage. His grandmother Millie Brown had been enslaved. He attended

Lewis Institute Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

(now Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago, and he graduated in 1927. After college he worked as a schoolteacher and for the United States Postal Service, before starting graduate school at University of Chicago though a

Rosenwald fellowship The Rosenwald Fund (also known as the Rosenwald Foundation, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and the Julius Rosenwald Foundation) was established in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald and his family for "the well-being of mankind." Rosenwald became part-owner of S ...

Career

Reddix worked at the

Farm Security Administration The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937). The FSA is famous for its small but ...

, a

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

agency, where he focused his work on agricultural cooperatives. In 1932, Reddix founded the Gary Consumer Cooperative in Gary, Indiana. He became the first president of Mississippi Negro Training School (now Jackson State University) after the school became a state-supported public institution, ending the school's many years of leadership by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York. The school was renamed Jackson College for Negro Teachers in 1944, and Jackson State College in 1956. Reddix did not support 1960s civil rights movement activism on campus, which drew criticism by students. In 1961, during the

Tougaloo Nine The Tougaloo Nine were a group of African-American students at Tougaloo College, who participated in civil disobedience by staging sit-ins of Racial segregation in the United States, segregated public institutions in Mississippi in 1961. History ...

protest on campus, Reddix was alleged to have assaulted two demonstrators and threatened to expel all of the students involved in protesting. He was succeeded by John A. Peoples Jr. in 1967. In 1972, the school named its new student union building in his honor. Reddix died on May 9, 1973, in Jackson, Mississippi.

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reddix, Jacob L. 1897 births 1973 deaths 20th-century African-American educators 20th-century American educators African-American academic administrators Heads of universities and colleges in the United States 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics People from Jackson County, Mississippi Illinois Institute of Technology alumni University of Chicago alumni American memoirists Louisiana Creole people People from Jackson, Mississippi United States Postal Service people Presidents of Jackson State University