John Foster Potts, Sr., African American educator and author, was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas on April 18, 1908 to Leila Snead and John Moultrie Potts. In 1916, the family relocated to their ancestral home in East Flat Rock, North Carolina. Potts attended Lincoln Academy, Kings Mountain, N.C., and Benedict College's high school division, Columbia, S.C. He received a college degree from Benedict in 1930. Potts began substitute teaching, eventually becoming assistant principal at Columbia's Booker T. Washington High School. In 1936, he moved to Gary, Indiana to teach at Roosevelt High School. He received his Master's degree from Cornell University in 1937. In 1939, Potts became Principal at Waverley Elementary School in Columbia, S.C. From 1942-45, he served in the United States Naval Reserve as Chief Petty Officer, Recruiting Specialist. After an earlier marriage and divorce, he married Muriel Logan in 1943, and raised five children: Leila, John Jr., Paula, Camille, and the adopted Alma Young. In 1945, the American Missionary Association named Potts Director of the Avery Institute, Charleston, S.C, where he served until the school closed in 1954. In the same year, Potts became President of Voorhees School and Junior College, Denmark, S.C. Under his administration, Voorhees became an accredited four-year liberal arts school in 1968. Potts retired from Voorhees two years later. From 1970-1973, he became Executive Director and Secretary of the Triangle Association of Colleges of South Carolina and Georgia, Columbia, S.C. and Director of the Moton College Service Bureau, Washington, D.C. He returned to Voorhees for a year, and then from 1974 to 1985 worked as an independent educational evaluator and consultant to several historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and authored two books, The History of South Carolina State College, and A History of the Palmetto Education Association. He returned to Voorhees as President Emeritus in 1983. In his third retirement (1985-86), Potts served as Director of Church Relations at Voorhees. Potts served as president and/or vice president for several educational organizations including the Palmetto Education Association (PEA) (1946-1950); Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (1952); and was a board member for numerous national organizations. Potts was awarded three Honorary Doctorates, Morris College, Sumter, S.C. (1956); Benedict College, Columbia, S.C. (1959); and Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va. (1969). He was a former Grand Basileus of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity (1953). Potts died in 1998.
From the description of John Foster Potts, Sr. papers, 1885-2005 (bulk 1935-1991). (College of Charleston). WorldCat record id: 166409038
