J. Saunders Redding
J. Saunders Redding (October 13, 1906 - March 5, 1988) was a writer and educator. He was the first African American faculty member in the Ivy League. Early life. Jay Saunders Redding was born October 13, 1906 in Wilmington, Delaware. After a year at Lincoln University, Redding transferred to Brown University, where he graduated in 1928. Redding received his master's degree from Brown in 1932. Career. In 1949, Redding was hired as a visiting professor at Brown University, becoming the first African American to teach at an Ivy League institution. In 1970, Redding became the first African  American professor at Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences and then retired in 1975. Works. Redding's literary works include "To Make a Poet Black" (1939), an autobiography, "No Day of Triumph" (1944), "Stranger and Alone" (1950), "They Came in Chains" (1950, revised edition 1973), "An American in India" (1954), and "Cavalcade" (1970), an African American literature anthology he edited with Arthur P. Davis. Redding died on March 5, 1988 in Ithaca, New York at age 81.