Contributed by the Family
Dr. John E. Fleming, a distinguished museum leader, historian, husband, father and mentor to many, passed away on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, after battling against cancer. He was 81 years old.
Dr. Fleming was a pre-eminent scholar whose life’s work was the preservation and interpretation of African American history and culture.
His was firmly rooted in a historic Black community as he came of age. A native of Morganton, N.C., he received his bachelor’s degree from Berea College and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, East Africa, where he was assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture. After his return to the United States, he worked for Pride Inc. under Marion Barry and as a program analyst for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He went on to pursue advanced degrees, earning a master’s degree and a doctorate in American History from Howard University. While a Senior Fellow at Howard’s Institute for the Study of Educational Policy, he wrote two books, “The Lengthening Shadow of Slavery” and “The Case for Affirmative Action for Blacks in Higher Education.”
Dr. Fleming’s museum career began in 1980 when he joined the Ohio Historical Society as the Afro-American Museum project director. He was the founding director of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio, and later became the director and chief operating officer for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Over the course of his career, he was directly involved in the development of six museums, including the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the National Museum of African American Music, where he served as immediate past director. He was also Director Emeritus of the Cincinnati Museum Center and an adjunct professor in the Department of History at the University of Cincinnati.
His leadership extended across several respected historical and cultural organizations. He was president of the Ohio Museums Association, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the Association of African American Museums. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the commission for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He was the immediate past chair of the board for the American Association for State and Local History and was recently appointed by Governor Mike DeWine to the Ohio Semiquincentennial Commission.
Dr. Fleming was also a prolific writer and scholar: he was author of three books and 50 articles throughout his career. In addition to his scholarly works, he published two memoirs: “A Summer Remembered,” about his childhood in North Carolina, and “Mission to Malawi,” about his time in the Peace Corps.
He was a recipient of numerous accolades, including distinguished service awards from the Association of African American Museums, the American Association for State and Local History, the National Peace Corps, Berea College, the Ohio Library Association, and the National Peace Corps. In his honor, the Association of African American Museums named its highest honor the John E. Fleming Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, he was named one of the Top Ten African Americans in Dayton, Ohio.
But Dr. Fleming was proudest of the time that he devoted to his family and community. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, a psychologist and mystery writer, of Yellow Springs, Ohio; his two daughters, Diara Spelmon, a lawyer in Atlanta, and Tuliza Fleming, who followed in her father’s footsteps as the Supervisory Curator of American Art at the National African American Museum in Washington, D.C; and his brother, James (Jimmy) Fleming, of Morganton, N.C., and sister, Patricia Hardin (Fleming), of Knoxville, Tenn.
He was a former board member and volunteer for the St. Vincent de Paul Homeless shelter in Dayton. And he was a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi, known as the Boule.
Memorial Services honoring the life and legacy of Dr. John E. Fleming will be held at a later date in Morganton and in Ohio.