Source: Legacy.com

Clifton R. Wharton Jr. was a former Michigan State University president and deputy secretary of state who broke racial barriers when he took the MSU post in 1970. 

When Wharton began his tenure as president of Michigan State University in 1970, he became the first Black president of a major, predominantly white U.S. public research university, pushing past obstacles he had repeatedly faced while working his way through the academic field. 

Wharton came from a background that embraced such barrier-breaking. His father, Clifton R. Wharton Sr., was the first Black officer in the Foreign Service, going on to a 40-year career in the service, then as a U.S. ambassador. His son followed suit. Wharton Jr. was accepted to Harvard University at just 16, eventually making history earning a master’s in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University, and a master’s and doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. He was the first Black student to earn a Ph.D. from Chicago, and the first Black student admitted to the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins.