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John Houston Burrus

1849–1917

United States

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Biography

John Houston Burrus (February 22, 1849 – March 27, 1917) was an educator in Nashville, Tennessee and Lorman, Mississippi. He was a member of the first class of students at Fisk University in Nashville and when that class graduated became among the first group of African-Americans to graduate from a liberal arts college south of the Mason–Dixon line. He was a professor of mathematics at Fisk and in 1883 became the second president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, a position he held until 1893.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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