Ira De Augustine Reid

Ira De Augustine Reid (July 2, 1901 – August 15, 1968)

Early life and education Reid was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia, the son of a Baptist minister, but grew up in Harrisburg and Germantown, Philadelphia.

While attended for his masters degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Reid met and wed Gladys Russell Scott, with whom he adopted a child.

McCarthy Era controversy

The United States Department of State suspended Reid's passport from 1952 to 1954 for suspicion of "communist sympathies," based upon the scholarship that had gained him renown. Reid protested the allegations, and succeeded in securing the return of his passport.

Haverford College's Black Cultural Center is named for Reid and was rededicated in February 2013. After the 1954 Supreme Court Decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Reid edited a special issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (March 1956), themed "Racial Desegregation and Integration."