About Dr. Edgar A. Toppin...


Edgar Allan Toppin, Sr. (January 22, 1928 - December 8, 2004) was an African American professor of history, and an author who specialized in Civil War, Reconstruction and African American history. He was a native of New York who married Virginian Antionette Lomax. He spent the majority of his 40+ year teaching career at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia, where he was a Professor of History, Dean of the Graduate School and Provost and Academic Vice President. He also taught at Alabama State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Central University and the University of Akron. Mrs. Toppin was an Associate Professor of English and Reading at Virginia State University. The Toppins had three children, Edgar Jr., Avis Toppin Bent and Dr. Louise Toppin, director of Videmus.

He wrote ten books on the subjects of American and African American history. In addition he wrote many articles for scholarly quarterlies and popular journals, including a fifteen-part series for The Christian Science Monitor. Among his ten books are: Loyal Sons and Daughters (the history of Virginia State University), A Biographical History of Blacks in America and a widely used textbook, The Black American in United States History. He co-authored the best-selling American History textbook for elementary school, The United States, Yesterday and Today. His educational television course, "Americans from Africa," the first such in the nation, was produced in 1968-1969 and shown all over America. He also did nine of the 108 lectures on the CBS television Black Heritage series. Professor Toppin served as a visiting professor at such schools as San Francisco State and Western Reserve Universities and for 1985-6 he was visiting professor at the College of William and Mary in the James Pinckney Harrison endowed chair. For the final fifteen years of his teaching career, he was a Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia as well as remaining a professor at Virginia State University.

He served on several historical boards including the National Park Service, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Association for the Study of Afro-american Life and History, the later serving as President. As President, he was instrumental in turning Black History Week into Black History Month in 1976. He was the first African-American ever to serve on the National Parks Board and on the National Historical Publications Commission. He was named a Distinguished Virginia by Governor Linwood Holton in the only such affair ever held (Arthur Ashe, Admiral Samuel Gravely, and opera star Camilla Williams were the only other blacks chosen).