Joan Hamby Burroughs

Joan Hamby Burroughs, PhD, was born in Village Springs, AL, just 20 miles outside of Birmingham, AL. Daughter of Thurston Edison Hamby, a laborer and minister, and Maudetta Griffith Hamby, a teacher in Birmingham. Coming from a long lineage that attended Tuskegee Institute (prior to it becoming Tuskegee University), it only made since for Burroughs to enroll as student. She was a student at Tuskegee during a turbulent time in the Civil Rights Movement during 1964-1968. In this time Joan participated in the Selma to Montgomery March and surrounding protest, she was a member of the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League, and participated in Dean Bert Phillip’s Tuskegee Institute Community Education Program.

Years after graduating she taught in New York City, continuing her organizing career alongside Coretta Scott King by fighting to keep a high school bearing Dr. Martin Luther King’s name in its prominent location near Lincoln Center. She later earned a PhD at New York University in Dance and Dance Education, and an extensive career in dance instruction and education advocacy.