Michael Lomax
*Michael Lomax was born on this date in 1947. He is a Black educator, college professor, administrator, and activist.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Michael Lucius Lomax is the son of Lucius W. Lomax, Jr., a Los Angeles attorney, and Hallie Almena Davis Lomax, a journalist. Lomax was the brother of Los Angeles civil rights lawyer Melanie E. Lomax, who died in 2006.
He taught literature at Morehouse College and Spelman College, Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Georgia. For seven years, he served as president of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was able to increase enrollment by nearly 70% and complete $54 million in acquisitions and renovations, including the first new academic building since 1993, the Dillard University International Center for Economic Freedom; double the university’s assets; and nearly triple the fundraising from alumni, individuals, corporations and foundations.
Lomax also served 12 years as Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Fulton County, Georgia, part of the greater Atlanta, Georgia, region. In 1989, he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for mayor of Atlanta. Since 2004, the president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP). He is also Chairman of UNCF’s Advisory Board for the Frederick D. Patterson Institute, the first Black-led research institute in the country to design, conduct, analyze, interpret, and disseminate research to the public, policymakers, and educators.
Lomax’s ongoing involvement in civic affairs also includes service on the United Way of America's board of governors, on the board of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and on the National Black Arts Festival, of which he was the founding chair. He is on the Teach for America, Emory University, and The Carter Center board and a Sigma Pi Phi fraternity member. Former U.S. President George W. Bush appointed him to the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and (then) Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert appointed Dr. Lomax to the National Museum of African American History and Culture Plan for Action Presidential Commission.
Lomax and his wife, Cheryl Ferguson Lomax, have two daughters, Michele and Rachel. His oldest daughter, Deignan Cleage Lomax, from a previous marriage to playwright and author Pearl Cleage, graduated from Dillard University in 2000. Lomax and his family live in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
