The Reverend Dr. Alger Leroy Adams

Reverend Alger Leroy Adams (1910-1992) of Omaha, Nebraska, became the first Black student to receive a degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, in 1932.  Adams later studied at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan and was ordained.  He helped build churches in Black communities in New York between 1947 and 1955. During this time, he was vicar of St. Augustine’s now Holy Cross Yonkers and St. Francis of Assisi now St. Francis and St. Martha’s, White Plains.  In 1950, he pursued entrepreneurial interest. He and his wife Jessie M. Wells Adams purchased The Westchester County Press (WCP), a weekly paper, created to serve the Black community in Westchester county.  He reduced his ministry in 1957 from a parish priest to a supply priest serving churches in Westchester county and continued this until he retired.  Through the development of a newspaper, he was drawn to civil rights causes and it enabled him to give the African-American community a cohesive voice.  In 1962, the couple developed The Creative Printery, specializing in the publication of high school and college newspapers.  The WCP publication was sold in 1986 and still exists as a local paper.  In addition to the many honors referenced in the slide show associated with The Story of the Rev. Dr. Alger L Adams and his wife, Jessie–A Black History Story, Hobart and William Smith Colleges announced in October 2022 and opened May 2023 the Adams Intercultural Center (AIC), in honor of the Reverend Alger Adams ’32, D.D. ’83, Hobart College’s first Black graduate.

Click here to view his obituary published in the New York Times on September 4, 1992.