Jessie P. Guzman

Jessie Parkhurst Guzman (December 1, 1898 – October 25, 1996) was a writer, archivist, historian, educator, and college administrator, primarily at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. In her work at the Tuskegee Institute, particularly in the Department of Research and Records, she documented the lives of African Americans and maintained the Institute's lynching records.

Personal life and education Guzman was born to David C. and Ella Roberts Parkhurst in Savannah, Georgia. She lived with her godparents, the Wragg family. Reverend Doctor John Percy Wragg was a clergyman who led the American Bible Society's Agency Among the Colored People of the South. After completing her high school education at Atlanta's Clark University in 1915, Guzman attended Howard University where she graduated with an A.B. degree in 1919. She received her M.A. from Columbia University in 1924 and continued her studies at the University of Chicago and American University. In 1940, she married Ignacio L. Guzman, a member of the Tuskegee Institute's faculty.

While in college, she was a member of the sorority group, Alpha Kappa Alpha, in their South Eastern Region. She was part of the Beta Xi Omega Chapter.

She died in Jacksonville, Florida on October 25, 1996.

From 1938–1944 Ms. Guzman was the Dean of Women at the Institute, and then in 1946 became the Director of the Department of Records and Research — a successor in her own right to Monroe Work’s legacy. In 1950, she was named the Tuskegee Woman of the Year. "Contributions to Negro Life: Establishing and Directing the Department of Records and Research at Tuskegee Institute" (Journal of Negro History, 1949) Some Achievements of the Negro Through Education. (Tuskegee, Ala.; Department of Records and Research, Tuskegee Institute, 1951) George Washington Carver; a Classified Bibliography. (Tuskegee, Ala.; Department of Records and Research, Tuskegee Institute, 1954) "The Social Contributions of the Negro Woman Since 1940" Crusade for Civic Democracy: The Story of the Tuskegee Civic Association, 1941-1970 (1983)