In Memoriam: Marie Alexandria Malveaux, 1928-2021

Marie Malveaux, the second African American faculty member at the University of Mississippi, died late last month at her home in San Francisco after a long illness. She was 93 years old.

Born and raised in Biloxi and Moss Point, Mississippi, Malveaux attended Xavier University in New Orleans from 1946 to 1949. She moved to San Francisco to join her mother and to earn a bachelor’s degree in social work at San Francisco State University in 1951.

Malveaux worked as a teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District and as a social worker with the San Francisco Department of Social Services. As a social worker, she focused on the needs of the elderly. Malveaux studied gerontology at the University of California at Berkeley, earning a master’s degree in 1972.

Malveaux joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi as an assistant professor in 1973, three years after Jeanette Jennings, the first African American faculty member. She taught in the department of social work, did coursework toward a doctorate and was on the tenure track until she left the university in 1976.