Dr. Abercrumbie (ALLC)

African American scholar Dr. P. Eric Abercrumbie worked for the University of Cincinnati for decades. He came to UC as a counselor and cultural sensitivity trainer in 1972, and became the Program Coordinator for the Office of Minority Affairs in 1976. As one of few Black faculty members, Dr. Abercrumbie became a father figure to many underrepresented students across campus during his many years at UC. During his childhood, he was known as a “desegregation baby” because he was born before the Supreme Court ruled separate but equal unconstitutional. He was often the only black person on his sports team or in clubs and not allowed to sit with his white friends in public when they went out. In 1968, while Dr. Abercrumbie was a student at Eastern Kentucky University, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. To this day, he can still recall the white students on campus cheering and waving confederate flags as a response to this devastating time in Black history and he says this prompted his racial awakening. Abercrumbie worked as the leader of the African American Cultural and Resource Center (AACRC) as UC’s first Director of Minority Programs and Services. Dr. Abercrumbie has left a lasting legacy at the University of Cincinnati. Daniels Hall is the location of the Abercrumbie Living Learning Community (ALLC), named in honor of Dr. Abercrumbie.