Jamaicans at Howard

This site was most recently updated in April 2009

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The university has awarded more than 83,000 degrees and certificates since its
founding 131 years ago. Although it has grown and diversified, Howard remains
true to its mission of "producing distinguished and compassionate graduates
who seek solutions to human and social problems in the United States and
throughout the world." carefirst.com

Howard University c1900

On this site I shall provide some information about the many Jamaican men and
women who studied at Howard University in the sixty years between 1880 and
1940. I have, at the moment, more information on earlier graduates, and less on
those of the 1930s, but I hope to remedy that situation. In general I have fair amounts of information on some graduates, and almost nothing on others,
especially those who did not return home. Unfortunately I do not have photographs of many of these men and women, and again I hope I may find more in the future.

I shall continue work on this site as and when I can, while I struggle to catch up with the back-log of sites which I have accumulated! Joy Lumsden

UPDATE (April 10, 2008): I have received from the Howard Archives copies of the Class Lists for the 1930s, so I hope to be able to add more names of Jamaican graduates in that decade. Many thanks for the help!

If you can add or correct any information on any of the Howard graduates please email me at our.history(at)jamaica.la

April 29, 2009 (President Obama's 100th day!)
I have just found that I can access through Google books a listing of students and graduates in the Howard Medical Department before 1900. (Howard University Medical Department, Washington, D.C.: a historical biographical and statistical souvenir, by Howard University. School of Medicine, Daniel Smith Lamb, 1971, reprint of the 1900 ed.) There I have found references to Jamaicans and others with Jamaican links that I had not listed before; a particularly interesting entry is that for Henry H Kelley or Kelly who was born in Jamaica in 1854 and graduated Phar. D. from Howard in 1887, making him the earliest Jamaican studying at Howard that I have so far identified. I will be inserting the information on the new names I have found on this list into the relevant pages on this site.
There are two pages in the book with Jamaican references that I cannot access because only a limited preview is available; the book costs about USD50 from the publisher, and I hope to be able, somehow, to get access to the complete text!