Huey Battle

Huey Jefferson Battle (October 31, 1918 – January 23, 1991) was an American economist who was an economics professor and administrator at Langston University and Virginia State University. He was the first African-American in Oklahoma to earn a doctoral degree, and was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma State University Diversity Hall of Fame in 2017.[1]

Huey Jefferson Battle
BornOctober 31, 1918
Rusk, Texas, U.S.
DiedJanuary 23, 1991 (aged 72)
Petersburg, Virginia, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Academic career
InstitutionVirginia State University
Langston University
FieldAgricultural Economics
Alma materLangston University, (BA) 1947
University of Wisconsin, MA
Oklahoma State University, (1954) PhD

Education and early life

Battle was born in Rusk, Texas in October 1918, and raised in Wewoka, Oklahoma.[2] He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, and then graduated from Langston University. In 1954, he was the first African American to receive a PhD degree from Oklahoma State University, writing a dissertation in Agricultural Economics entitled, "Economic effects of some major changes in the flour-milling industry."[3] He was a life member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[2]

Career

Battle began his professional career as high school teacher, later becoming a professor at Langston University, where he served as department chair. In 1962, he became chair of the Department of Agriculture at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia. He retired from that institution in 1985 as vice president of research and development. He was also a president of the National Economic Association.[1][2]

References
  1. "OSU Diversity Hall of Fame honors seven new inductees and two rising stars - Oklahoma State University". news.okstate.edu. 18 October 2017. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  2. "Bro. Dr. Huey J. Battle, The Sphinx | Spring 1992 | Volume 77 | Number 1199207701". Issuu. Spring 1992. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  3. "Negro to Receive Ph.D at College Miami News-Record from Miami, Oklahoma on August 5, 1954". Newspapers.com. August 5, 1954. Retrieved 2021-02-10.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.