OPINION: We too celebrate Dr. John Peoples’ 100th birthday

By Ivory Phillips

JA Contributing Editor

Born August 26, 1926, in Starkville, Mississippi, John A. Peoples Jr. turns 100 years old this month. During his lifetime, his contributions are too numerous to enumerate. We are deeply indebted to him. We applaud his military service, his work in the public schools, his service as JSU president, and his actions as a husband and father.

In his book, To Survive and Thrive, with subtitle “the Quest for a True University,” Dr. Peoples reveals the vision behind his nearly 20-year tenure as JSU president. Based upon his book, along with his first-hand knowledge as a faculty member during Dr. Peoples’ tenure, the writer herein enumerates 20 of the major contributions that can be credited directly to Dr. Peoples, the debt, so to speak.

(1) Dr. Peoples upgraded the college’s affiliation with and the operation of the national alumni association. There had long been an association, but Dr. Peoples appointed Dr. Hilliard Lackey to head an Office of Alumni Affairs that would be more visibly active with the college. 

(2) He drafted Professor David Bass to develop a constitution and by-laws for the first faculty senate. 

(3) He elevated the Student Government Association and had students included on all the college’s advisory committees. 

(4) He emphasized free speech on the campus by welcoming controversial speakers such as Stokley Carmichael. 

(5) He adopted “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” as the college motto. This reflected the new spirit that he brought to JSU. Apparently, Dr. Peoples felt that organized and informed alumni, faculty, and students would provide additional wisdom to the college in terms of decision-making AND could serve as allies and buffers if and when his administration had to deal with unfriendly outside forces. Together they could and would pursue the truth as a true university.

(6) He heightened the effort to fully develop the liberal arts and industrial arts curricula into schools on par with teacher education. All three had existed before, but the former two had taken a backseat to education. Emphasizing Jackson College as a teachers’ college had been the selling card for the state’s assumption of Jackson College in 1940. 

(7) In conjunction with the curriculum upgrades, Dr. Peoples sought out grant programs that would support JSU faculty members returning to graduate schools to earn terminal degrees. In a fairly short period of time, he moved the faculty from having approximately 10% with such degrees to more than 80%. 

(8) This dramatic increase in faculty holding Ph.D. and other terminal degrees in turn made it easier for him to push for and gain accreditation for many academic programs. 

 (9) During Dr. Peoples’ administration, the evening program was greatly expanded, leading to more professionals being able to earn doctoral degrees, such as those in early childhood education. All of those initiatives were helping to make JSU a true university.

(10) Dr. Peoples greatly expanded the Marching Band and created the first Prancing Jay-Cettes. 

(11) The band and dancers organizations, along with winning athletic programs, helped spread the college’s reputation, which in turn boosted recruitment and fund-raising efforts.

(12) Dr. Peoples’ administration made aggressive recruitment efforts, enabling it to boost student enrollment from slightly over 2,000 to a head count of nearly 8,000 in 10 years. Such a recruitment campaign was being pursued because it would increase state funding and draw more support from across the state and around the country. 

(13) Based upon JSU’s program expansion and student enrollment, Dr. Peoples requested more facilities. While the requests were not always granted, the number of campus facilities did nearly double during his administration. 

(14) To further improve financial conditions, Dr. Peoples applied for federal urban colleges grant money – similar to the older, land grant allocations – by labelling JSU as an urban institution. The college board later used the urban label for JSU when it classified its eight public institutions. Dr. Peoples was thus able to secure supplemental funds from the federal government and to convince the state to approve some of its urban studies programs.

(15) Based upon the number of successful endeavors that he had undertaken, Dr. Peoples began lobbying for JSU to be granted “university status.” For some years the college board refused, but in 1974, relented and awarded university status to not only Jackson State College, but to the other smaller public colleges as well. They thus benefitted from the efforts of Dr. Peoples.

(16) The state’s historically Black colleges also benefitted from the lead which Dr. Peoples took in cooperating with the plaintiff’s attorneys in the Ayers vs. Waller case. At that time, the HBCUs were listed as plaintiffs in the litigation. Because they were being supervised by the college board, however, the Black presidents were reluctant to openly cooperate. Following Dr. Peoples’ lead, nevertheless, they did cooperate through their alumni. The cooperation of the HBCUs only ended after the college board had the court to change them to being defendants.

(17) The HBCUs also benefitted when Dr. Peoples boldly requested that the three Black presidents be permitted to attend college board meetings. Prior to that, only the white presidents attended; the Black presidents were briefed on their budgets AFTER the meetings. 

 (18) Another most bold, but fitting, act was the one wherein he declared in a closed meeting after the 1970 massacre, that for this, “somebody has to pay”. For that the college board called him in for “an explanation.” 

(19) He followed that up by weeks later opposing a suggestion to move JSU from Lynch Street to rural Hinds County. In these instances, he clearly showed his historical and emotional investment in JSU and its Black community.

These new and bold actions landed Dr. Peoples in “bad graces” with the college board, leading to his release as president in 1984. On the other hand, it was such actions that endeared him to the JSU and Black community. 

(20) Finally, as he was literally on the way out of the door, after the college board had hired a new president, Dr. Peoples published a research paper explaining how the number of Black school teachers was being systematically reduced through state policy changes. This revelation was in keeping with his history of promoting Black education and the adopted motto that, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

It is for this kind of wise and courageous leadership that we are indebted to Dr. Peoples. Therefore, we should not only wish him Happy Birthday, but help multiply his efforts by producing and supporting additional leaders who are similarly wise and courageous.