In Memoriam: Jane J. Martin, 1931-2020

Jane J. Martin, a scholar who spent much of her career teaching in Africa, died on April 14 at the Jewish Home of Eastern Pennsylvania in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was 88 years old.

Dr. Martin earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in African history at Boston University.

Dr. Martin began her career-long association with Africa in 1961 when she trained teachers in Liberia for that nation’s Ministry of Education. She did extensive research on the Glebo people of southeastern Liberia and on the Liberian diaspora in other African nations. Dr. Martin was a co-author of Liberian Women Peacemakers: Fighting for the Right to Be Seen, Heard and Counted (African World Press, 2004).

Dr. Martin taught African history at various institutions of higher learning in the United States as well as at the University of Liberia and the University of Calabar in Nigeria. From 1984 to 1989, she was executive director of the U.S. Educational and Cultural Foundation in Liberia.

The Jane Martin Collection, which includes reports, books, programs, and newsletters from organizations in Liberia from 1966 to 1997, is held in the archives of Indiana University.