Albert W. Dent

Albert Walter Dent (September 25, 1904 – February 13, 1984) was an academic administrator who served initially as business administrator of Flint-Goodridge Hospital and later as president of Dillard University (1941–1969), a predominantly black liberal arts college in New Orleans, Louisiana. In these roles, he was a community leader who improved education and health care for African-Americans and impoverished people in the American South.

Early life and education Dent was born on September 25, 1904, in Atlanta, Georgia, of African-American heritage. His father was a day laborer who died shortly before Albert's birth. His mother worked as a domestic servant to support Albert and his two sisters. The Dents had a family friend who mentored young Albert, important in a fatherless family.

In 1926 Dent graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta with a degree in accounting. While matriculating at Morehouse College, Dent was extensively involved in campus activities and student affairs while also working at the Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Upon graduation, Dent took a job as branch office auditor for the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.

Shortly thereafter, Dent became vice president of the Safety Construction Company in Houston, Texas, where he worked for four years. However, he was subsequently recruited by John Hope, then president of Morehouse College, to return to Atlanta to serve in fundraising and alumni relations roles at the college. During this time of Jim Crow Laws in the Southern United States, this hospital and its administration were particularly important to African-Americans in southeast Louisiana. For an annual premium of $3.65, the insured was guaranteed up to 21 days of hospitalization each year. The plan was heavily subscribed, and it served as a prototype for low-coast health insurance for African-Americans at the time. It was eventually replaced in 1943 with an insurance plan offered by the city of New Orleans.

A member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Dent was instrumental in forming the fraternity's Theta Sigma Chapter at Dillard in May 1936. He served as the organization's 16th Grand Basileus from 1937 to 1940.

National and community involvement

Dent acquired a reputation for fund-raising, and he had cultivated relationships with philanthropists. For this reason, he participated in the committee that formed the United Negro College Fund in 1944 and subsequently served as the fund's chairmanchairman, from 1965 to 1970. Additionally he served as president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools for Negroes in 1948.

Dent was president of the New Orleans CItizens Committee on Race Relations, vice-president of the Louisiana Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission, and a member of the board of directors of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. and he was the first African-American to receive this award.

Dent also received the Whitney Young Brotherhood Award, the Weiss Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the Silver Beaver Award of the Boy Scouts.

Personal life

In 1927 Albert W. Dent married Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent, a concert pianist. Their first born child was poet and writer Thomas Dent. Their other children were Benjamin Albert Dent and Walter Jesse Dent.

Dent died in his New Orleans home on February 13, 1984. At the time of his death, he and his wife had two grandchildren in addition to the three sons. Memorial services were held for Dent at the chapel on the campus of Dillard University.

Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent

Dent's wife Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent (née Ernestine Jessie Covington) was notable in her own right. The fair came into being through a contact that Jessie Dent had with John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Co. in 1956 about organizing a fashion show to benefit the Women's Auxiliary. The success of this initial show lead to the formation of the Ebony Fashion Fair.

Jessie Covington Dent was a charter member of the New Orleans Alumnae Chapter, formerly the Alpha Eta Sigma chapter, of Delta Sigma Theta. Chartered in June 1936, it was the second alumnae chapter in the state of Louisiana and Mrs. Dent served as its second president. Mrs. Dent was also instrumental in establishing the sorority's Beta Gamma Chapter at Dillard University in 1937 and the Gamma Alpha Chapter at Xavier University of Louisiana in 1940.

Jessie Dent died in New Orleans in 2001 at age 96.

Dillard University awards the Jessie Covington Dent Memorial Scholarship in Music.