Research

Miami University's history is in many ways similar to that of other U.S. higher education institutions and it has also been shaped by its unique context and circumstances. Much of Miami University was built by African American labor throughout the 20th century. Archival records reveal that over 225 African Americans worked for Miami from 1900 to 1950 as janitors, laborers, cooks, maids, kitchen help, and dining room servers. These African American employees were also citizens of Oxford whose families and churches provided decades of financial and emotional support to Black students. They also created civic organizations that worked with and challenged Miami University to improve relations throughout the 20th century.

While well-known figures such as Wallace P. Roudebush (1890-1956; MU class of 1911, Secretary to the President, Vice President, and Treasurer of Miami University) are known for shaping institutions, often less familiar figures such as Sidney Cheeks (1866-1938) shaped both the University and the Oxford community in significant ways. Cheeks worked as a Miami janitor as early as 1903 until his passing in 1938. His wife Mary was the daughter of Peter Bruner, a formerly enslaved man who worked for Oxford College, Western College for Women and Miami University as a laborer, janitor and handyman, later published his autobiography, and was Oxford's “Mayor for the Day” in 1938. The Bruner and Cheeks families were mainstays of Oxford's Black community and churches. Mary and Sidney had seven children. One of them, Thomas Monroe Cheeks, exemplified Black achievement. He attended Miami University from 1925 to 1929, studying for a Bachelor's degree in Physical Education. He worked with his father in Miami's janitorial department through his teens, and his father's employment granted Thomas a tuition waiver. He became a life member of Omega Psi Phi, an historically African American fraternity, and had a long, successful career in secondary education. In 1976 he was recognized by Miami with the Bishop Medal, the highest honor awarded to Miami alumni. This is just one of dozens of similar stories of ways in which Miami University benefited from the labor, studies, and later, the careers of African Americans in Oxford and beyond.