Pezavia O'Connell

Pezavia O’Connell (1861-1930) was a Methodist minister, scholar of Hebrew, and African-American activist. He was also the first African-American to earn a PhD in Semitic languages.[1]

Early Life and Education

Born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1861, two months after Mississippi’s secession from the Union, Pezavia O’Connell earned a Bachelor’s degree in divinity from Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia in 1888,[2] and then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he pursued doctoral studies in a program that was then called "Semitics" and which is now the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC).[3]  He earned his PhD degree from Penn in 1898, for a dissertation entitled, “Synonyms of the Clean and Unclean in Hebrew.”[4]  

Career

After earning his PhD at Penn, Pezavia O'Connell went on to serve as principal of Princess Anne Academy (now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, UMES), in Salisbury, Maryland, from 1899 to 1902, and then led a ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1902 until 1911.  From 1911 to 1913, he was a professor at Howard University Divinity School in Washington, D.C.  From 1913 to 1916 he was a professor at his undergraduate alma mater, Gammon Theological Seminary.[2]  From 1910 until his death in 1931, O’Connell was a professor of History and Philosophy[5] at Morgan College (now Morgan State University), in Baltimore, Maryland.

Death and Legacy

Pezavia O'Connell died on November 26, 1930, at age 69.[2] Today, one of the residence halls at Morgan State – O’Connell Hall (built in 1964, and renovated in 2000) – still bears his name.[6]  In an obituary that appeared in the Journal of Negro History in 1931, colleagues remembered O’Connell as an eloquent and outspoken figure, and as a fearless and uncompromising advocate for the rights of African-Americans.[7]

  1. Greene, Harry W. (1946). Holders of Doctorates among American Negroes: An Educational and Social Study of Negroes Who Have Earned Doctoral Degrees in Course, 1876-1943. Boston: Meador Publishing Company. p. 132.
  2. Dumpson, Kimberly Conway (2011). "Pezavia O'Connell". University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (UMES). Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  3. Sharkey, Heather J. (January 14, 2020). "Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania". academia.edu. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  4. O'Connell, Pezavia (1898). Synonyms of the Unclean & the Clean in Hebrew. Philadelphia: PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
  5. "Cumberland High Has Ten Graduates: Dr Pezavia O'Connell of Morgan College Is Commencement Speaker". Afro-American. July 2, 1927.
  6. Morgan State University. "Buildings History" (PDF). Morgan State University. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  7. "Dr. Pezavia O'Connell". The Journal of Negro History. 16:1: 123–24. 1931 – via JSTOR.
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