REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF DR. RALPH J. BRYSON
player. Additionally, Brother Bryson is listed in the Directory of American Scholars, Who’s Who in American Edu- cation, Who’s Who in Alabama, Who’s Who in Black American and They Came and They Conquered (Ohio State University). They Came and They Con- quered is a volume which featured the perspectives of 148 African Americans who earned doctorates from the Ohio State University. The central theme was supreme emphasis and pursuit of collegiate-level education which culmi- nated with improved economic op- portunities and cultural enrichment for the entire cohort. He also stressed the importance of collective agency. Specifi- cally, one who earned an undergraduate or a graduate degree almost certainly would not be the sole beneficiary of that learning experience, Bryson counseled. One’s nuclear family and extended com- munity were likely to benefit as well, he explained. As technology advanced and egalitarian citizens worldwide strived to achieve greater equality, Bryson rea- soned, a well-educated man or woman would be in high demand regardless of his or her skin color. Professor, Scholar, Educator and Administrator Dr. Bryson was a lifelong educator who began his impressive career as a classroom teacher in Southern Pines, North Carolina. He taught in the Eng- lish Departments at Southern Univer- sity A&M College and University and Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Bryson also served as an Adjunct Professor of English at the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) and a Guest Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh near the completion of his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Education. Alabama State College (ASC) President Harper Councill Trenholm came to Chicago on a spring recruiting trip for ASC and asked Dr. Bryson to meet him in Chicago for an interview at the Con- rad Hilton Hotel. Trenholm suggested Dr. Bryson teach at Alabama State College for the summer of 1953 to see how he would fit in. At the end of the
Psi. Both would become close friends through Kappa Alpha Psi alumni work. Subsequently, Dr. Bryson joined the English Department at Alabama State College in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Bryson held the rank of Professor of English at ASU since 1962. He served in many capacities at the institution including but not limited to Chairman of the English and Foreign Languages Division, Chairman of the Division of Humanities, Chairman of Freshman English Division and President of the Faculty Senate. A renowned scholar who held membership in nearly every profes- sional honor society, Dr. Bryson spent 59 years at ASU, retiring in 2012. During his 59-year career, he served as Univer- sity Marshal and he continued to serve as Professor Emeritus and Acting Chair and Professor of Languages and Lit- erature. Later as a tenured professor in Literature, Dr. Bryson pushed for Black inclusion in the annual anthologies of American writers.
summer semester, Trenholm followed up with Dr. Bryson. Despite Dr. Bryson receiving offers to teach at Morehouse College and Ohio State University, his alma mater, Dr. Bryson declined those offers and took Trenholm’s second offer to remain at Alabama State College. During this time, Dr. Bryson was also an eyewitness to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Less than a year later, Dr. Bryson was in the congre- gation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (with the encouragement of Leila Barlow, also an English Professor at Ala- bama State College) when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took the pulpit to give a trial sermon on the cusp of the begin- ning of the Civil Rights Movement. The day after the bus strike ended, Dr. Bryson, his friend Thelma Glass and his colleague Jo Ann Robinson rode all over town on the very front seat of the first city bus they could find. Later Dr. Bryson would be elected Keeper of Records during the same time Brother Ralph David Abernathy was the Polemarch of the Montgomery (AL) Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha
Dr. Bryson was a member of many professional organizations such as the
From left: 6 th Southern Province Polemarch and 33 rd Grand Polemarch Thomas L. Battles, Jr., 7 th Southern Province Polemarch and 91 st Elder Watson Diggs Awardee, Dr. Frank S. Emanuel, 8 th Province Polemarch and 117 th Elder Watson Diggs Awardee Ronald E. Range, 9 th Southern Province Polemarch and Southern Province Foundation President Linnes Finney, Jr., Esq., and Southern Province Polemarch Chauncy E. Haynes.
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