William H. Harris

This article is about the Alabama State University president. For others with similar names, see William Harris (disambiguation).

William Hamilton Harris (born July 22, 1944 in Fitzgerald, Georgia; died April 19, 2024 in Hilton Head, South Carolina) was a historian and president of Alabama State University for two separate terms, from 1994 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012.

Harris grew up in Georgia and earned his bachelor’s degree at Paine College in Augusta in 1966. He went on to complete a master of arts and Ph.D. at Indiana University in Bloomington in 1967. After a few years teaching at Paine College he returned to Indiana to pursue a Ph.D. Before completing his doctorate in 1973 he spent a year teaching at the University of Hamburg in Germany under a Fulbright fellowship. He was hired as an assistant professor of history at Indiana and also served as the university's acting affirmative action officer. He was promoted to associate professor in 1977, to associate dean of the graduate school in 1979, and to full professor in 1981.

In 1982 Harris returned to Paine College to succeed Julius Scott Jr as president. He left in 1988 to accept the presidency of Texas Southern University in Houston. He was invited to join the editorial board of the Journal of Negro History in 1991.

Harris came to Alabama State as president in 1994. He labored to position the school as a "comprehensive regional university" by overseeing the creation of a School of Allied Health, the ASU Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture, and a Business and Technology Center, and also establishing a basis for the college to offer doctoral degrees.

Harris announced his retirement in 2000. In 2005 he accepted an interim role as president of Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Georgia. He filled the same position at Texas College in Tyler, Texas in 2008. Within a year he returned to Alabama State as interim president, then agreed to take on the full-time job for a second time. He retired again in 2012. His successor, Joseph Silver, was terminated within a few months of beginning his term and Harris returned as interim president until Gwendolyn Boyd was hired in 2014.

Harris lived in Hilton Head, South Carolina in retirement. He died in 2024 and was survived by his wife, Wanda, and son, William J. Harris.

Publications

• Harris, William H. (1982) The Harder We Run: Black Workers since the Civil War. Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195029413
• Harris, William H. (1991) Keeping the Faith: A. Philip Randolph, Milton P. Webster, and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925-37. University of Illinois Press ISBN 9780252061288

References

• "Dr. William H. Harris, Former Alabama State University President, Dies at 79." (April 22, 2024) The Birmingham Times