NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION FOR DR. KEVIN L. ANTOINE
The Newtown Township Human Relations Commission (“Commission”) hereby expresses its gratitude and
appreciation to Dr. Kevin L. Antoine for his significant and impactful leadership and service to
the Commission. Dr. Antoine served as a voting Member and as Chair of the Commission from February
2021 through January 2025.
Dr. Antoine’s many achievements as Chair include his outreach and coordination with other human
relations commissions in Bucks County on issues involving policing and education. He initiated a
series of presentations from community and business leaders to brief the Commission on equality and
inclusion efforts being promoted by those organizations. Under his leadership, the Commission
entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to
enable
collaboration in the handling of discrimination complaints in our Township.
Dr. Antoine recently retired from his position as the Associate Vice President for Student and
Veteran Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania.
His service on the Commission was part of a lifetime professional and personal commitment to
promote civil rights and equality in our country.
His distinguished career includes being named a Fulbright Specialist Scholar, a law degree from the
College of William & Mary School of Law and a one-year Fellowship at the Harvard School of Public
Health, researching discrimination in healthcare. As an undergraduate at the University of Southern
Mississippi, he was the first African American elected Vice President of Student Government and
President of the Student Senate at a predominantly white college in Mississippi. Dr. Antoine served
as a Captain in the United States Air Force.
Upon retirement from the military, he returned to Mississippi and worked in local government before
entering politics. In 1996, at age 37, he was the first African American to win a political party’s
nomination to the United States House of Representatives from Mississippi’s former majority-white
4th Congressional District. After leaving politics, he made a career in higher education as college
vice president and professor for twenty years at New York and Pennsylvania colleges. Finally, Dr.
Antoine is author of several books and articles, including New Black Power: A Memoir of Kevin
LaVigne Antoine. The book chronicles his parents’ involvement in the civil rights movement in
Mississippi and his history-making campaign for the United States Congress in Mississippi’s
majority-white Fourth Congressional District.
The Commission thanks Dr. Antoine for his dedicated service and commitment to Newtown Township and
the Newtown Township Human Relations Commission.
