Hon. John W. Rogers, Sr. (Iota 1941): Tuskegee Airman, Attorney, and Judge Rogers earned a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1948. During World War II, Rogers served as a captain in the 99 th Fighter Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen). Post-war, he entered private legal practice and served 21 years as a Cook County Juvenile Court Judge. He is the father of John W. Rogers Jr, CEO of Ariel Capital Investments and University of Chicago trustee. Judge Rogers Sr. entered the Chapter Invisible in 2014.
George H. Stanton, Jr. (Iota 1963): Educator, Basketball Coach
A basketball star at Chicago Teachers College while earning his bachelor’s degree, Stanton did not stray far from athletics. After earning a master’s degree at University of Illinois-Chicago, he taught physical education at various Chicago public school. He served as the head men’s basketball coach at Simeon and Whitney Young high schools respectively. He won an Illinois state basketball championship in 1998. Among his many achievements, Stanton was inducted in 1999 into Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Karenga Kofi Moyo (formerly Lloyd E. Saunders) (Iota 1959): Entrepreneur, Author, Photojournalist A graduate of George Williams College, Moyo began his career as a freelance photographer for the Chicago Defender, Ebony Magazine, and other publications. In 1989, he co-founded with his wife Real Men Cook (RMC) for Charity leading to a book with Simon and Schuster, titled Real Men Cook: Rites, Rituals, and Recipes for Living with a foreword by then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama who was a regular participant in RMC events.
Dr. Walter L. Walker (Iota 1954): University President and Executive, U.S. Air Force officer, Weather Forecaster Walker earned his bachelor’s degree in 1956 from the University of Chicago. He served in the United States Air Force as a weather forecaster. Post-graduation, he worked at the University of Chicago as a professor and eventually rose to the position of Vice-President of Planning prior to leaving in 1974 to assume the presidency of LeMoyne-Owen College located in Memphis, TN. Walker entered the Chapter Invisible in 2008.
Frederick Sengstacke (Iota 1940): Newspaper Publisher
A graduate of DePaul University, Sengstacke was the nephew of the Chicago Defender newspaper founder and second Laurel Wreath Wearer Robert S. Abbott (Chicago (IL) Alumni 1919). He worked as the chief operating officer of the Chicago Defender assumed control of the newspaper when his older brother John H. H. Sengstacke passed in 1997. Brother Sengstacke entered the Chapter Invisible in 2009.
Lt. Sherman W. White, Jr. (Iota 1939): Tuskegee Airman
A native of Montgomery, AL, White left the University of Chicago to enlist as a U.S. Army Air Force aviation cadet at Tuskegee, Alabama. White was one of the first African American military aviators in the history for United States armed forces. Lt. White served in the 99th Fighter Squadron, the first African American tactical air unit in the history of the American Armed Forces. He was killed in combat in 1943 when his aircraft was shot down while escorting B-25 allied bombers over Mediterranean Sea. His body was never recovered. Lt. White was one of the first African American aviators killed in action in U.S. military history. Lt. White’s name is included on the Tablets of the Missing at the NorthAfrica American Cemetery and Memorial in the country of Tunisia.
Dr. Herbert A. Sheen (Iota 1923): Physician, Foundation Founder
Dr. Sheen attended Howard University prior to graduating from University of Chicago with B.S. in 1924. He was a family physician in St. Louis, MO, Chicago, IL, and Tyler, TX before settling in Watts, CA in 1945. In post-Watts riots of late 1960s, Dr. Sheen invested his own assets to start his own non-profit foundation, Sheen Educational Foundation. Along with his daughter, Dolores, Dr. Sheen opened in 1971 the Sheenway School and Culture Center, which serves the Watts/ South Los Angeles communities. Interestingly, Dr. Sheen was married briefly in the late 1920s to famed novelist and short story writer Zora Neale Hurston best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Dr. Sheen entered the Chapter Invisible in 1976.
Hon. W. Sylvester White, Jr. (Iota 1933): Attorney, Judge, United States Naval Officer White earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago. After college, White joined the United States Navy where he became one of its first 13 African American commissioned officers, a historic group dubbed the “Golden Thirteen”. After his honorable discharge from the Navy, he worked as an assistant U.S. attorney and in the Cook County state’s attorney’s Illinois Appellate Court judge. In 1964, White was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court. In 1968, he became the second African American presiding judge of the Cook County of the Juvenile Court with the first being Hon. Wendell E. Green (Iota 1918). Judge White entered the Chapter Invisible in 2004 at the age of 89.
Dr. Samuel B. Stratton (Iota 1923): Educator, African History and African American Culture Scholar A graduate of Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, Stratton earned his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1926. He worked in the Chicago Public Schools retiring in 1962 and is widely credited with the introduction in the 1940s of African American history and culture into Chicago Public School system curriculum. Stratton taught an African American History course at the University of Chicago in 1962, a first for the school. In a 1972 Chicago Tribune editorial, Dr. Stratton was characterized as “one of the finest living lecturers on the history of black Americans.” Known in Chicago as the “Dean of Black Studies”, Dr. Stratton entered the Chapter Invisible in 1972.
70 | WINTER ISSUE THE JOURNAL
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
THE JOURNAL WINTER ISSUE | 71
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