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Oscar W. Ritchie papers (faculty-Sociology)
Special Collections and Archives
Oscar W. Ritchie papers (faculty-Sociology)
Special Collections and Archives
Oscar W. Ritchie papers (faculty-Sociology)
Biography of Oscar W. Ritchie
Biographical Summary: Oscar W. Ritchie was the first Black faculty member appointed at Kent State University and the first to be appointed at a predominantly white state university in Ohio. He taught sociology from 1946 until his death, at the age of 58, on June 16, 1967. His areas of scholarship included juvenile offenders (at the time referred to as juvenile delinquents), juvenile justice and rehabilitation, services to children within social welfare systems, and vocational rehabilitation and manual arts programs within correctional systems. He was also involved with national, state, and local mental health organizations and was instrumental in establishing a family counseling and mental health center in Portage County, Ohio. Ritchie's excellence as a teacher, an in-demand speaker, and noted scholar made him one of the most prominent faculty members in Kent State University history. In 1977, the former Student Union was renamed Oscar Ritchie Hall in his honor and is currently home to the Department of Africana Studies, the Center of Pan-African Culture, the African Community Theater, the Uumbaji Art Gallery, and more.
Detailed Biographical Note: Oscar W. Ritchie was born in Hallendale, Florida, in 1909. While he started his collegiate education at Florida A & M from 1928 to 1930, financial circumstances brought on by the Great Depression forced him to delay completion of his undergraduate education at that time. While working as a member of a musical band, he moved to Illinois, where he met his future wife Edith Bowen. After their marriage, the Ritchies relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, and then to Massillon, Ohio, where Ritchie was employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and afterward held other jobs, including at Republic Steel. He took night classes and eventually enrolled as a full-time student at Kent State University in 1943, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in 1946 and a Master of Arts in sociology in 1947. He was appointed as a graduate assistant in 1946, and as an instructor in 1947. He was the first Black faculty member appointed at Kent State University and the first to be appointed at a predominantly white state university in Ohio. Ritchie was also the first faculty member in sociology-anthropology to hold every academic rank from graduate assistant to full professor. In the summer of 1947, Ritchie received a scholarship for a special study institute on alcoholic studies at Yale University and, in 1948, he was awarded the prestigious Rosenwald Fellowship--the first Kent State graduate to receive this award. He earned his doctoral degree (PhD) at New York University in 1958. Ritchie was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and helped to establish a local chapter of the fraternity at Kent State. He also helped to establish and administer the national fraternity's education foundation. In 1959, Ritchie was appointed to the Educators' Advisory Committee of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
In April 1961, Ritchie was one of eight faculty members to compose and sign a letter to the editor of the Daily Kent Stater campus newspaper, decrying racial segregation of student housing in the city of Kent and the university's practice of maintaining separate housing lists for white and Black students. This letter, written in support of student activists working to end housing segregation in Kent, was generally met with indignation by university administrators, most notably President George Bowman who expressed his deep disapproval to the faculty members who wrote the letter. In the following weeks, a student demonstration occurred and a petition signed by 1,200 students was presented to President Bowman. Many campus and community members, including local landlords, supported Bowman's stance and opposed any change to the university's housing policy. However, later that spring, the Kent State Board of Trustees approved a policy revision that banned discrimination in university-approved housing.
Other notable achievements included being asked to serve on a governor-appointed State of Ohio Council on Vocational Rehabilitation charged with conducting a comprehensive study of the state's vocational rehabilitation services and needs in the state. Along with his Kent State colleagues Dwight L. Arnold and John Guidubaldi, he co-founded the Portage Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, serving all of Portage County. In 1964 his book, with co-author Marvin R. Koller, Sociology of Childhood was first published. He is also known for his work, with H. Ashley Weeks, entitled An Evaluation of the Services of the State of Ohio to its Delinquent Children and Youth. Ritchie was elected Acting Chair of the sociology-anthropology department in 1967, an appointment that was cut short by his untimely death in June of that same year. A Faculty Senate memorial resolution in his honor stated that "...Kent State University [had] lost a great leader, public servant, and member of the human race." In 1977, the former Student Union was renamed Oscar Ritchie Hall in his honor and is currently home to the Department of Africana Studies, the Center of Pan-African Culture, the African Community Theater, the Uumbaji Art Gallery, and more.
Scope and Content
This collection includes selected personal and professional papers of Oscar W. Ritchie. It is not a complete archive of his career at Kent State University. Many of the materials date from later in his life. Included are correspondence, publications, and subject files.
Statement of Arrangement
The collection has been organized into the following series.
- Series 1: Biographical
- Series 2: Correspondence
- Series 3: Publications
- Series 4: Speeches
- Series 5: Subject Files
Separated Material
Selected publications and other works by Ritchie, including his masters thesis and doctoral dissertation, are shelved separately and cataloged in LIBRARYsearch.
Related Material
Additional biographical information on Oscar W. Ritchie is found in the Kent State University Academic Personnel records, the Kent State University Communications and Marketing records, and the University Photographs collection. Several digitized photographs may be found in the Kent State History: Digital Archive. See also the Daily Kent Stater Digital Archive for articles by and about Ritchie. Please contact Special Collections & Archives staff for assistance in locating related materials.
Preferred Citation
Oscar W. Ritchie papers. Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives.
Acquisition Information
The majority of the papers in this collection were donated to Special Collections & Archives by Edward W. Crosby. Other materials were accumulated and gathered by Special Collections & Archives from various sources.
Controlled Access Headings
The following are found in this collection:
Subjects:
- Ritchie, Oscar W.--Archives
- Kent State University--History--20th century
- Vocational rehabilitation--Ohio--History--20th century
- Community mental health services--Ohio--Portage County--History--20th century
- Mental health services--Ohio--Portage County--History--20th century
Functions:
- Sociology--Study and teaching
- Social advocacy
Occupations:
- College teachers
- African American college teachers
- Sociologists
- African American sociologists
Material Types:
- Business correspondence
- Correspondence
- Speeches
- Publications (documents)
Detailed Description of the Collection
