Joseph Vaughn Day 2025 will take place January 31

This year’s observance of Joseph Vaughn Day will take place on Friday, Jan. 31. Weather permitting, people are asked to gather on the Joseph Vaughn Plaza at 12:15 p.m. for a few words of inspiration. The crowd will begin the Walk of Honor along Milford Mall to Daniel Chapel for the program at 12:30. In case of rain, the events will begin at 12:30 in Daniel Chapel.

Furman unveiled a statue to Joseph Vaughn on April 16, 2021.

Joseph Vaughn Day, held each year, usually the Friday following Jan. 29, celebrates the university’s first Black undergraduate student, and acknowledges a time when people were denied access to many places, including Furman, because of the color of their skin. Furman set aside a day to remember Vaughn starting in 2020.

In 2024 the Black Alumni Council begin presenting the Idella Glenn ’84 Black Alumni Award. This year’s recipient will be Jackie Carson, a 2000 graduate of Furman with a storied career as a basketball player. She was inducted into Furman’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005 and was named head women’s basketball coach in 2010. In July 2024 she was named senior associate commissioner for women’s basketball at the Atlantic Coast Conference.

For a full biography of Joseph Vaughn’s life, read “This is Him: The Life of Joseph Allen Vaughn.”