At the Henry Thomas Sampson Library, with the original historical marker of then-Jackson College in the background, Dr. Lelia Gaston Rhodes looks through her handwritten manuscripts and the original photographs used in the research and writing of “Jackson State University: The First 100 Years, 1877– 1977.” Her research is stored in the library’s archives.
EDUCATION • Lanier High School, 1940 • Jackson State College, bachelor’s in education, 1944 • Atlanta University, master’s in library science, 1956 (with honors) • Florida State University, advanced master’s in library and information science-administration, 1974 • Florida State University, Ph.D. in library and information science-administration, 1975 (with distinction) CAREER HIGHLIGHTS • First woman and first African American in Mississippi to earn a Ph.D. in library scienceadministration • First Jackson State alumna to become the university’s dean of libraries • Jackson State University: dean emerita of libraries, 1988–present; dean of libraries, 1976–88; associate library director, 1973–76; associate head librarian, 1964–75; head cataloger, 1957–64; library assistant, 1944–53; professorial rank • Hinds County Election Commission, District 5 commissioner, 1993–present • Hinds Community College Board of Trustees, member, 1992–present COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT • Jackson State University National Alumni Association Inc., current national board member, past national president • The Links Inc., past member of the national executive committee, past president of the LeFleur’s Bluff Chapter • Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., past president of the Beta Delta Omega Chapter • St. James Baptist Church, deaconess • NAACP, member • Mississippi Library Association, past president
Dr. Lelia Gaston
Rhodes
Scholar, author and historian BY RIVA BROWN Dr. Lelia Gaston Rhodes of Jackson, Miss., an accomplished scholar and historian, spent six sporadic years researching and writing “Jackson State University: The First Hundred Years, 1877– 1977.” In the following pages, Rhodes speaks candidly about her family, educational background and what she endured chronicling the university’s history. “Only the author knows it was God who sustained her and brought her through an experience that was challenging, traumatic, painful and yet pleasurable,” Rhodes writes in the book’s acknowledgements. What was it like growing up in Jackson in the mid-1920s and 1930s?
I grew up in Washington Addition as the oldest of seven children. My father worked in the baggage room of the Illinois Central Railroad, and my mother was a homemaker. My parents were very strict, and they only allowed me to interact with other girls at church and school. I attended Jim Hill Elementary School, then on Lynch Street, for first through sixth grade, and Lanier High on Ash Street for seventh through 12th grades. Attending college out of state was my preference, but my parents were not able to send me. How did you end up working at Jackson State College after you graduated? While I was working as a clerk typist at the Penta-