Photo credit: Colgate University

This weekend has more news of the passing of another pioneer in the African-American community.

Black studies scholar Roy S. Bryce-Laporte passed away on July 31 at the Copper Ridge assisted living facility in Sykesville, Md., according to The Post. His brother told news outlets that the professor suffered small strokes. He was 78 years old.

Bryce-Laporte was the founding director of the Research Institute on Immigration and Ethnic Studies at the Smithsonian Institution in 1973. He was also instrumental in establishing the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall.

His other major accomplishments included leading the nation’s first African-American studies program at Yale University. He became the director of the university’s new program in 1969. At Colgate University, he was the director of the university’s Africana and Latin American Studies program and taught anthropology and sociology.

To read, the rest of The Post’s obituary of Bryce-Laporte click here.