Samuel Lloyd Myers Sr. (April 18, 1919 – January 8, 2021) was an American economist, university president, education adviser and civil rights advocate.
[2] One of Myers' most significant contributions to society occurred during his 18-year tenure as the president of the National Association for Equal Opportunity (NAFEO)[3] where he fought to sustain the establishment of historically black colleges by providing them access to a billion dollars of federal aid.
[7] Upon returning to college, he concluded that his focus would be in the social sciences and committed his education and life's work to combat these issues.
[9] At Harvard, Myers studied under famous economists such as John D. Black, Sumner Slichter, Gottfried Haberler, and Joseph Schumpeter.
John Kenneth Gabraith was his advisor as he worked on completing his Ph.D. thesis, titled "Product Testing and Labeling with Special References to Textiles".
[7] He left Bowie State in 1977, accepting the chair position of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.
[15] The students of the university held that Bowie lacked a curriculum on African American history, and that it failed to provide adequate dormitory accommodations.
The protests received national attention, provoking a visit to the school from Attorney General Francis B. Burch, during which he confirmed the inadequate conditions of several facilities.
[17] After retiring from Bowie State College in 1977, Myers was named president of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO).
NAFEO was founded in 1969 in Washington D.C., and its mission was to represent historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the nation in higher education.
NAFEO helped them fight an upheaval of minimum funding due to a lack of endowments, especially during tough economic times.
In the fall of November 1984, NAFEO held a reception announcing the plan to introduce one hundred corporations to its own Student Talent Identification Bank.
[21] This effort saw great fulfillment as many students took on the opportunity, and further down the road were continuously recognized at the annual National Conference on Blacks in Higher Education.
[4] With this front, Myers and his team were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to pour a billion dollars into historically black colleges and universities, and lobby Congress to pass what is now known as the Higher Education Act Title III.