GERA Accepts Current Research Findings on Former Atlanta University President Dr. Rufus Clement

GERA Accepts Current Research Findings on Former Atlanta University President Dr. Rufus Clement’s Historic Election to Atlanta Board of Education in 1953

Dr. Carlton Brown, president of CAU and Dr. Noran L. Moffett, associate dean of CAU’s School of Education, have joined to review primary documents related to the historic election of former Atlanta University President Dr. Rufus Clement to the Atlanta Board of Education in 1953.

A summary of current findings from the research has been accepted by the Georgia Educational Research Association Annual Conference and is scheduled for presentation at the annual Conference of the GERA, the Georgia affiliate of the American Association of Educational Research (AERA).

Dr. Rufus Clement came to Atlanta University in 1937 as its president. His experiences and background placed him in a position to administer the complex set of programs under the Atlanta University umbrella until 1967.

In Atlanta, the year that Dwight D. Eisenhower became the nation’s president (1953), President Clement became an elected member to the Atlanta Board of Education. This phenomenon in the electoral politics of education in Atlanta swept the nation’s newspapers, newswire services, and Western Union telegraph stations.

Significance to Georgia Educational Research
Comparatively, Dr. Clement’s election preceded the passing of Brown v. Board of Education. Moreover, the election of the college president from one of the oldest historically black institutions to an elected position in Atlanta had not occurred since Reconstruction. To capture the sensation, lit­erary augmentation and direct congratulations marked the election of Dr. Rufus E. Clement. The presenters will utilize selected congratulatory primary documents written in 1953 to Dr. Clement from various stakeholders.

The proposed presentation method will be to provide pri­mary evidence in electronic and copied format for viewing and to support the researchers’ conceptualized framework for discussion.

Additionally, a reflective focus panel discussion, led by Brown, will offer a contemporary perspective on the impor­tance of transformation in the role of the college president through leadership and civic responsibility.