Johnnetta Cole | |
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 Cole in 2015 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Johnnetta Betsch (1936-10-19)October 19, 1936 (age 89) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Education | Fisk University Oberlin College (BA) Northwestern University (MA,PhD) |
Johnnetta Betsch Cole (born October 19, 1936) is anAmerican anthropologist, educator, museum director, and college president. Cole was the first femaleAfrican-American president ofSpelman College, ahistorically black college, serving from 1987 to 1997. She was president ofBennett College from 2002 to 2007. During 2009–2017 she was Director of theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Museum of African Art.[1] Cole served as the national chair and 7th president for theNational Council of Negro Women from 2018 to 2022.[2]
Johnnetta Betsch was born inJacksonville, Florida,[3] on October 19, 1936.[4] Her family belonged to theAfrican-American upper class; She was a granddaughter ofAbraham Lincoln Lewis, Florida's first black millionaire, entrepreneur and cofounder of theAfro-American Industrial and Benefit Association,[5] and Mary Kingsley Sammis. Sammis' great-grandparents wereZephaniah Kingsley, a white slave trader and slave owner, who purchased African slaveAnna Madgigine Jai in 1806, when she was 13 years old and he was 43 years old. Within 5 years, Anna bore three children, George, born June 1807; Martha, born July 1809; and Mary, born February 1811. When she was 18, Zephaniah freed Anna and she herself became a slave owner alongside her husband. It is claimed that Anna was aWolof princess, originally from present-daySenegal. Today theFort George Island Kingsley home is protected asKingsley Plantation, aNational Historic Landmark.[6]
Johnnetta Cole enrolled at the age of 15 inFisk University, a historically black college, and transferred toOberlin College in Ohio, where she completed aBachelor of Arts degree in sociology in 1957. Cole attended graduate school atNorthwestern University, earning herMaster of Arts (1959) andDoctor of Philosophy (1967) degrees inanthropology. She conducted dissertation field research inLiberia, West Africa, in 1960–1961 through Northwestern University as part of the university’s economic survey of the country.[5]
Cole served as a professor atWashington State University from 1962 to 1970, where she co-founded one of the US's firstblack studies programs. In 1970 Cole began working in the Department of Anthropology at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst, where she served until 1982. While at the University of Massachusetts, she played a pivotal role in the development of the university's W. E. B. Du Bois Department of African-American Studies. Cole then moved toHunter College in 1982, and became director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program. From 1998 to 2001 Cole was a professor of Anthropology,Women's Studies, and African American Studies atEmory University in Atlanta.[5]
In 1987, Cole was selected as the first black female president of Spelman College, a prestigioushistorically black college for women. She served until 1997, building up their endowment through a $113 million (~$204 million in 2024) capital campaign, attracting significantly higher enrollment as students increased, and, overall, the ranking of the school among the best liberal arts schools went up.[7] ComedianBill Cosby and his wifeCamille contributed $20 million (~$28.3 million in 2024) to the capital campaign.[8]
After teaching at Emory University, she was recruited as president ofBennett College for Women, also a historically black college for women. There she led another successful capital campaign. In addition, she founded an art gallery to contribute to the college's culture.[8] Cole is currently the Chair of the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute founded atBennett College for Women. She is a member ofDelta Sigma Theta sorority.
She was Director of theNational Museum of African Art, part of theSmithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, during 2009–2017.[8] During her directorship the controversial exhibit, "Conversations: African and African-American Artworks in Dialogue," featuring dozens of pieces from Bill and Camille Cosby's private art collection was held in 2015, coinciding with accusations of sexual assault against the comedian.[9]
Cole has also served in major corporations and foundations. Cole served for many years as board member at the prestigiousRockefeller Foundation. She has been a director ofMerck & Co. since 1994. From 2004 to 2006, Cole was the Chair of the Board of Trustees ofUnited Way of America[10] and is on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Greater Greensboro.[11] She is a senior fellow at theKettering Foundation, an Americannon-partisan research foundation.[12]
Since 2013, Cole has been listed on the Advisory Council of theNational Center for Science Education.[13] She is a member ofThe Links.[14]: 105
President-electBill Clinton appointed Cole to his transition team for education, labor, the arts, and humanities in 1992.[15] He also considered her for the cabinet post ofSecretary of Education.[16] However, whenThe Jewish Daily Forward reported that she had been a member of the national committee of theVenceremos Brigades, which theFederal Bureau of Investigation had tied to Cuban intelligence forces, Clinton did not advance her nomination.[17]
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I pose that question to myself, why, in the 107 years of the history of this historically Black college for women, there has not been an African-American woman president.
— Johnnetta B. Cole[4]
This is a nation whose spoken and written vision is chillingly beautiful.
— Johnnetta B. Cole[25]
The more we pull together toward a new day, the less it matters what pushed us apart in the past.
— Johnnetta B. Cole[26]
We are for difference: for respecting difference for allowing difference, for encouraging difference, until difference no longer makes a difference.
— Johnnetta B. Cole[26]
The ultimate expression of generosity is not in giving of what you have, but in giving of who you are.
— Johnnetta B. Cole[27]
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