James Earl McLeod, a Dothan native who rose through the ranks of academia to serve as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is the Alabama African American History’s Beyond the Book honoree for October.
In 2019, The Alabama Bicentennial Commission African American Heritage Committee published The Future Emerges from the Past: Celebrating 200 Years of Alabama African American History and Culture exploring history, people, events, institutions, and movements that helped shape the state’s first 200 years.
The Beyond the Book website (alafricanamerican.com) continues that exploration, featuring notable contributors. McLeod’s story will be featured on the site through October, and will then be archived.
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McLeod, who was educated in the Dothan school system and graduated at age 16 from Carver High School in 1960, attended Morehouse College and spent two years at the University of Vienna before returning to Morehouse to complete his degree. He received his Master’s degree from Rice University, and was an outstanding educator and administrator at Washington University-St. Louis until his death in September 2011.
As a Beyond the Book honoree, McLeod joins fellow honorees Congressman John Lewis, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, George Washington Carver, and Bryan Stevenson, among many others.
After his death, students collaborated to collect Dean McLeod’s instruction from his popular orientation class at Washington, and published Habits of Achievement: Lessons for a life well-lived, celebrating his contribution to shaping young minds.