Albert W. Dent
Albert Walter Dent (September 25, 1904 – February 13, 1984) was an academic administrator who served initially as business administrator of Flint-Goodridge Hospital and later as president of Dillard University (1941–1969), a predominantly black liberal arts college in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In these roles, he was a community leader who improved education and health care for African-Americans and impoverished people in the American South.
While matriculating at Morehouse College, Dent was extensively involved in campus activities and student affairs while also working at the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.
Upon graduation, Dent took a job as branch office auditor for the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.
[3] Shortly thereafter, Dent became vice president of the Safety Construction Company in Houston, Texas, where he worked for four years.
[3] During his tenure at Morehouse College, Dent met Will W. Alexander who was serving as acting president of Dillard University in New Orleans.
[4] During this time of Jim Crow Laws in the Southern United States, this hospital and its administration were particularly important to African-Americans in southeast Louisiana.
Early in his term at Flint-Goodridge Hospital, Dent cultivated a close working relationship with New Orleans businessman and philanthropist Edgar B. Stern.
Stern was an influential member of the Board of Trustees for both Flint-Goodridge Hospital and Dillard University, since the two institutions had shared governance.
The relationship was useful to Dent in his fundraising efforts, since hospitals and universities for African-Americans were chronically short of money at the time of the Jim Crow South.
His fund-raising success included such institutions as the Rosenwald Fund and the General Education Board, in addition to the United States Public Health Service.
Additionally, as hospital superintendent, Dent developed summer programs for the continuing education of African-American physicians in the region.
[2] Hospital superintendent Dent also developed health outreach programs for the local African-American community to address their high rates of morbidity and mortality.
The plan was heavily subscribed, and it served as a prototype for low-coast health insurance for African-Americans at the time.
In 1933, through an agreement that Dent arranged, the American Social Hygiene Association and the United States Public Health Service provided staffing at the hospital for clinical work on these diseases.
The National Medical Association recognized Flint-Gooddridge Hospital as being a leader in public education on these diseases.
[3] As at Flint-Goodridge Hospital, Dent raised funds to significantly enlarge Dillard University's financial endowment which continued to grow, and he accomplished the fundraising in part by developing relationships with philanthropic organizations.
Noted speakers included: Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, Mary McLeod Bethune, Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, and Jackie Robinson.
[4] His local board memberships included the United Fund, the Delgado Art Museum, the YMCA, the New Orleans Council of Social Agencies, the Red Cross, the Boy Scouts, and Flint-Goodridge Hospital.
While at Juilliard, Jessie Dent organized the first African-American choir to sing at the Southern Baptist Convention.
For a brief time, Jessie Dent taught private piano lessons in Houston after completing her studies at Juilliard.
