Pulteney Street SurveyFall 2019
100 Things to Explore
79. The Rev. Dr. Alger L. Adams '32, D.D.'83 arrived in Geneva in 1928 only to discover that Hobart College, which had granted him a scholarship, would not house him because of his race. With the encouragement of the city's African-American community, which welcomed him into their homes with open arms, Adams became the first black man to receive a degree from Hobart, graduating magna cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to found churches outside New York City before leaving the active ministry to devote himself to civil rights initiatives, the arts and his community. A novelist, painter, musician and lifetime member of the NAACP, Adams had a creative spirit shaped by a sense of service. For many years, he and his wife Jessie Wells ran The Westchester County Press, a weekly paper, and The Creative Printery, a workshop for students interested in the printing process, to offer the local African-American community a cohesive voice.