Honorary Degree | Jacquelyn Yvonne McLendon L.H.D. '21
Jacquelyn Yvonne McLendon, in the nearly three decades since you arrived at William & Mary, you have played a pivotal role advancing scholarship, learning and self-understanding at this university. Even in your retirement, the fruits of your research shine a light on members of our community whose stories have seldom been told.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, you grew up loving to read and write and dreamt of one day becoming a writer. After working for the government and starting a family, you decided to attend college in hopes of moving up in the government sector. Little did you know you were embarking on a 10-year-long path to become a scholar, academic, diversity advocate and beloved professor.
After earning your undergraduate degree at Temple University as a single mother, you moved home to Ohio to pursue your master’s and doctoral degrees at Case Western University while caring for your mother. At the encouragement of several professors, you chose the arduous path of an academic trailblazer.
From the moment you came to William & Mary, you propelled change. You pioneered the creation of a Black Studies Program and served as its founding director, and you continued to shape its development as it evolved with the expanding discipline into Africana studies. As professor of English and Africana studies, your scholarship illuminated the Harlem Renaissance, and the work of Black women writers and Black American artists. When William & Mary marked the 50th anniversary of
the university’s first African-American students in residence, you leaned in once again, to chair of the commemoration planning committee.
The conversations you had, people you met and stories you heard during the year-long commemoration inspired you to write the university’s first history of its Black community: “Building on the Legacy: African Americans at William & Mary, An Illustrated History of 50 Years and Beyond.” You
have fulfilled your childhood dream of becoming a writer by authoring and editing numerous other books, including “The Politics of Color in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen,” “Phillis Wheatley: A Revolutionary Poet” and “Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Nella Larsen.”
An honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa, you have continued to teach part-time since retiring in 2013, including your current role teaching remotely for the University of Maryland Global Campus.
Jacquelyn Yvonne McLendon, we honor your groundbreaking work amplifying voices who have too long been lost and silenced. William & Mary has been fortunate indeed in your leadership. By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Board of Visitors and the Ancient Royal Charter of The College of William & Mary in Virginia, I hereby confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa.
