The Honorable Horace G. Dawson

Ambassador The Honorable Horace G. Dawson was born on January 30, 1926 in Augusta, Georgia to Mary Bell Smith and Horace Greeley Dawson, Sr. Dawson attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania for two years before being drafted into the Army, where he served a two-year tour of duty in Europe and the Philippines. Dawson then returned to Lincoln University to finish his studies, receiving his B.A. degree in English in 1949. He went on to study English and comparative literature at Columbia University, where he received his M.A. degree in 1950. Dawson received his Ph.D. degree in mass communications from the University of Iowa in 1961.

After receiving his M.A. degree, Dawson was hired as an English teacher at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he taught for three years. He then went on to teach at North Carolina Central University, where he worked as an associate professor of English and the director of public relations. After receiving his Ph.D. degree, Dawson was hired by the United States Information Agency (USIA) in 1962 and worked as a cultural affairs officer in Uganda until 1964 and Nigeria until 1967 and then as a public affairs officer in Liberia until 1971. He then returned to the United States, where he was appointed cultural advisor for the USIA. From 1973 to 1977, Dawson served as Director of African Affairs for the USIA before being named the USIA’s minister of information and government in the Philippines. In 1979, he was appointed the ambassador to Botswana by President Jimmy Carter. As ambassador, he worked to improve Botswana’s education system and end apartheid in South Africa. Returning to the United States in 1983, Dawson worked in the recruitment division of the State Department, special assistant to the director of the USIA, and director of the USIA’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity until his retirement in 1989. He then joined the faculty at Howard University and was appointed director of its Patricia Roberts Harris Public Affairs Program. In 1993, Dawson established the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University, and in 1997 became the director of that program as well.

Dawson has served as a member of the Peace Corps Advisory Board, chairman of the Selection Committee for the Franklin H. Williams Memorial Internship Program of the Council on Foreign Relations, chairman of the Association of Black American Ambassadors, and chairman emeritus of the Senior Board of Stewards of Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, D.C.

Dawson lives in Washington, D.C. He has two sons.

Horace Dawson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 6, 2003 and May 11, 2022.