Lincoln University of Missouri bestowed an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to graduate Dorothy Lathan during Commencement ceremonies May 10, 2025. Lathan, a 1954 graduate of Lincoln, was honored “in recognition of her life of service, not only in education but in the pursuit of civil rights.”
A St. Louis native, Lathan graduated in 1953 and she and her husband Arthur Lathan moved to San Francisco. They would become the first Black family to buy a home in a west San Francisco neighborhood in 1960. She became the first Black teacher at a school that was not predominantly Black students and retired as a principal in 1993.