Joseph Rhodes, Jr.

Who was Joseph Rhodes, Jr.?

Joseph Rhodes, Jr. was an American politician and activist. From 1972–1980, he served four 2-year terms as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was a commissioner of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission from 1988–1995. He served as a member of several public panels, perhaps most notably the President's Commission on Campus Unrest that investigated the fatal shootings of unarmed student protesters by soldiers and police in 1970 at Kent State and Jackson State Universities.

Rhodes' father was an African-American who served as a US soldier in the Philippines during World War II. In 1945 he married Rhodes' mother, a woman of Filipino/Chinese descent, there. The couple settled in Pittsburgh. Rhodes attended Pittsburgh public schools. From 1965—1969 Rhodes was an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology, and he received a B.S. in history in 1969. Rhodes served two terms as the president of the student body. He was in residence at Harvard University from 1969–1972 as a junior fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows, where he researched racism in Victorian England.