{"id":55283,"date":"2023-12-14T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=55283"},"modified":"2023-12-14T14:21:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T19:21:42","slug":"in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
Dr. John A. Lapp<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954<\/strong>, a history professor at Eastern Mennonite College during the Civil Rights Movement who helped lead the charge for local school desegregation, died on Dec. 5 at the age of 90. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remembered by many for his strongly held opinions and his booming belly laugh, Lapp died at the Waterford Crossing retirement community in Goshen, Indiana, where he had been living since 2011. A memorial service in celebration of his life will be held at a later date at College Mennonite Church in Goshen. An obituary with further details is available to read here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lapp also held distinguished careers at Goshen College and at Mennonite Central Committee. He was the 2015 recipient of EMU\u2019s Distinguished Service Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born on March 15, 1933, in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, Lapp was the first of nine siblings. He served as a mentor to his younger sisters and brothers, including Joseph, who would become the seventh president of EMC, and EMU, from 1987 to 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was the one who was breaking the ground in education and he was a big reader,\u201d said President Emeritus Joseph Lapp \u201966<\/strong>. \u201cHe was the one who paid attention to politics, and so he stimulated a lot of discussion in our home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Lapp earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in history from EMC in 1954. He later received a master\u2019s degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Life at Eastern Mennonite College<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After two years of alternative service as a conscientious objector to the military draft, he returned to EMC to teach as a history professor from 1956 to 1969. During his tenure as a professor, he was active in the Civil Rights Movement and, along with several friends and faculty members, participated in the landmark \u201cMarch on Washington for Jobs and Freedom\u201d in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professor also was instrumental in the formation of the local chapter of the Virginia Council on Human Relations. The \u201cbiracial organization sought to improve interracial relations through support of educational programs, school desegregation, fair employment practices and other related issues” (EMU News<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a campus visit<\/a> from African-American Mennonite activists Vincent and Rosemarie Harding in 1963, John Lapp and fellow EMC history professor Samuel Horst, newly inspired, formed the committee largely responsible for the desegregation of Harrisonburg, Virginia, schools and hotels. Lapp and Harding were \u201cmajor players in Harrisonburg\u2019s \u2018Concern Movement\u2019 that pushed the city schools to desegregate,\u201d according to EMU history professor Mark Metzler Sawin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Lapp, who was 10 years younger than John, recalled his time as an EMC student in his brother\u2019s History of Western Civilization class. \u201cHe would lecture almost nonstop for a whole hour,\u201d he said. \u201cHe held everybody\u2019s attention. And, if you talked to alumni of that time period, they\u2019ll say that was probably their favorite course and that he was their favorite professor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Life after EMC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

John Lapp left EMC in 1969 with his wife Mary Alice Weber \u201955<\/strong> and their three children to direct the Peace Section at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Akron, Pennsylvania. He later served as executive secretary of MCC from 1985 to 1996. A wonderfully in-depth writeup on his life can be read on the MCC website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In between those two stints, he served Goshen College for 12 years. Lapp was academic dean of the Mennonite school from 1972 to 1981 and provost from 1979 to 1984. To read more about his impact at Goshen, read their story about him here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following his retirement in 1996, he spent 16 years leading a Mennonite World Conference project known as the Global Mennonite History Project. He fundraised and supervised an international team that ultimately produced five separate published volumes on Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia and North America. In addition to that, he taught courses at Bishop\u2019s College in India, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania and at EMU\u2019s Lancaster campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Lapp shared an anecdote about his brother he\u2019s heard others tell around campus. One day when John was teaching a history class in the lower level of Lehman Auditorium, noise from the physical plant kept interrupting him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were pounding and making noise and it was interfering with the lecture. So, he said, \u2018OK, we\u2019re all going to go to the administration building\u2019 \u2014 and it had these open stairways going up to the second floor; this was the old building, not the current one. So, he had his class sit on those steps and he stood at the center and continued to lecture there for the rest of the period just to make his point about the interference that was occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, a history professor at Eastern Mennonite College during the Civil Rights Movement who helped lead the charge for local school desegregation, died on Dec. 5 ... read more about In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":55284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,5583,17562,5642],"tags":[17980,6937,17480,8325,16290,17979],"feature":[17427,17426,17241,17422],"class_list":["post-55283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-campus-community","category-digest","category-faculty-and-staff","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-goshen-college","tag-history","tag-john-lapp","tag-joseph-lapp","tag-mcc","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature","feature-news-landing-page-main-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, a history professor at Eastern Mennonite College during the Civil Rights Movement who helped lead the charge for local school desegregation, died on Dec. 5\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-14T14:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-14T19:21:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/\",\"name\":\"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-14T14:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-14T19:21:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1024},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf\",\"name\":\"Ryan Cornell\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation - EMU News","og_description":"Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, a history professor at Eastern Mennonite College during the Civil Rights Movement who helped lead the charge for local school desegregation, died on Dec. 5","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2023-12-14T14:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-14T19:21:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1536,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Ryan Cornell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ryan Cornell","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/","name":"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png","datePublished":"2023-12-14T14:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-14T19:21:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/12\/13160335\/David-Augsburger-4.png","width":1536,"height":1024},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/in-memoriam-dr-john-a-lapp-54-emc-history-professor-and-major-player-in-city-schools-integration\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In Memoriam: Dr. John A. Lapp \u201954, EMC history professor and \u2018major player\u2019 in school desegregation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf","name":"Ryan Cornell"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55283"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55301,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55283\/revisions\/55301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55283"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=55283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}