Another Light on the Hill Black Students at Tufts

James Vance

In thirty semesters at the ExCollege, James Vance taught over 500 students, 1990

James Vance Jr. was an instructor in the Tufts Experimental College for fifteen years. He taught the class “Race Awareness in American Society.” This class was extremely popular, and Vance taught over five hundred students over the course of thirty consecutive semesters. The course was known as “difficult and painful” but worthwhile, as students “developed mutual respect and trust with other members of the class that cut across racial and ethnic boundaries.”

Before teaching at Tufts, Vance was qualified through the United States Navy, where he was trained as a specialist in race relations. In addition to teaching at Tufts, he worked as an investigator for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He passed away on October 12, 1994. After his death, a scholarship was funded in his name.

Biography written and researched by Peter Lam

Sources:

“Class Notes.” Tuftonia. Winter 1995.