The Late Dr. Lee Hagan to Be Honored at 2018 'Wall of Fame Trailblazer Pioneer Induction Ceremony'

The late Dr. Lee Frank Hagan – an NJCU professor, community activist, and namesake of NJCU’s Lee Hagan Africana Studies Center – will be inducted into the “Wall of Fame” of Jersey City’s Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center, on Saturday, June 2.

The Center is located at 140 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. To attend the 2018 Wall of Fame Trailblazer Pioneer Inducation Ceremony, call Daoud Williams at 551-998-7116 or email rupiseup@yahoo.com. Admission is free but by invitation only. Seating is limited.

Dr. Hagan, a committed scholar activist, was an NJCU professor who advanced the study of African American history and culture, and a Newark resident who was committed to community activism and to the Civil Rights movement.

Born on July 28, 1945 in Brunswick, GA.  The Hagan family migrated to Newark in 1952 where Lee attended the public schools of the city—graduating in 1963 from South Side High School (now Malcolm X Shabazz High School).

He earned Bachelor’s and Master’s of Arts degrees in history from Seton Hall University (1967 and 1969).  His master thesis, “The Black Abolitionists, 1830-1860: Their Role and Relationship with the White Abolitionists,” was completed under the direction of noted historian and future Columbia College president John B. Duff and scholar-activist in civil, disability, and labor rights Edwin R.  Lewinson. He earned a Doctorate of Education from Rutgers University in 1983.

Dr. Hagan became an Instructor (1969-1976); Assistant Professor (1976-1984); and Associate Professor (1984-1986) of Black Studies, History, and Social Science within the History Department and Director of Afro-American Studies at Jersey City State College, now New Jersey City University (NJCU).  During his 17 years at NJCU, Hagan was an advisor to numerous student organizations and belonged to the Committee on Global Studies, General Studies Curriculum Committee, Latin American Studies Program Advisory Committee, and the Executive Steering Committee for the Black Enterprise Seminar Series.

Dr. Hagan was an active member of the Schomburg Library Lecture Series Advisory Board, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and the African Heritage Studies Association.

Dr. Hagan died of cancer at the age of 41 on September 4, 1986. 

For more on Dr. Hagan, visit https://www.njcu.edu/university-centers/lee-hagan-africana-studies-center.