G. David Houston

Gordon David Houston (6 May 1880 - 24 June 1940) was Professor of English at Howard University, one of the first African-American educators to teach Old English literature and the first African-American from Cambridge to graduate from Harvard University.

Biography Houston was born on 6 May 1880 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to parents John Benjamin and Sarah Jane. His brother was Joseph William. He graduated from the English High School in Boston in 1898 and the Latin High School in 1900. He then began to study for his undergraduate degree at Harvard University and graduated from there in 1904. He was the first African-American from Cambridge to graduate from the 'local' university. He graduated in the same class as Franklin D. Roosevelt and their acquaintance continued for many years. In it he praised Bailey's youthfulness, his industry and his love of baseball. According to one account, Washington had manipulated Houston's pastor into passing on letters by Houston, which were critical of him.

Houston died on 24 June 1940. 'A Negro Senator' in The Journal of Negro History (July 1922). 'Reconstruction in the Teaching of English' in The Howard University Record (November 1919). 'Weaknesses of the Negro College' in The Crisis (1919). 'John Woolman's Efforts in Behalf of Freedom' in The Journal of Negro History (April 1917).

Personal life Whilst Houston was working at Tuskegee he married Dora Mayo Lawrence on 20 August 1907. Zaluda considers that Houston's writings on literacy and teaching within the context of "nineteenth century racist criticisms of African American higher education". Rambaran-Olm argues that Houston's advocacy for "close-readings and appreciation" of Old English texts "some twenty years before Tolkien’s seminal piece on reading Beowulf as poetry" was written.