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INSIDE MOREHOUSE, OCTOBER 2012
AT&T NATION’S FOOTBALL CLASSIC WEEKEND
Morehouse and Howard Celebrate the HBCU Tradition
SGA President Anre Washington (center) makes a point while Howard SGA president Brittany Foxhall (left) and legisative
counsel Albert Sanders ‘01 (right) listen.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The AT&T
Nation’s Football Classic weekend repre
sented more than just the academic and
athletic prowess of Morehouse College and
Howard University, said President Robert M.
Franklin ’75.
“This weekend demonstrates the soul
and gifts of black folks at historically black
colleges and universities, and the nation
needs to see this,” Franklin said.
The hard-fought football game between
Morehouse and Howard may have anchored
the Qassic weekend But the celebration of the
HBCU tradition, particularly at Morehouse and
Howard, was the dominant theme throughout
the four-day event
There were plenty of parties, receptions,
tailgating and football (Howard won a close
game, 30-29), but there was even more dis
cussion and debate about the academic issues
important on HBCU campuses.
“It was important to all of us, par
ticularly your two presidents, that this
tradition be more than just a football
game, but that it also feature a diverse
schedule of events that would educate,
inspire and spark discussion,” said Erik
Moses, senior vice president of Events
DC, which hosts the Classic each year.
The Presidential Symposium - three dis
cussions about academics, youth voting and
relationships - addressed some of those issues.
The first discussion featured a panel of science,
technology, engineering and mathematics
professionals talking about the need for more
African Americans in those fields.
“Our faculty and students need to go into
high schools and middle schools to get to those
kids early,” said Duane Jackson, chair of the
Morehouse psychology department. “When
these young kids see people who are closer to
them, it’s really getting a pipeline started, espe
cially in the middle schools.”
Later, Morehouse alumni Jamal
Simmons ’93, Albert Sanders Jr. ’01 and Elroy
Sailor ’90, along with Student Government
Association president Anre Washington,
joined other politicos who discussed the
importance of the youth vote in 2012.
“When young people vote, they get to
choose the leaders they want,” said Simmons,
a veteran political analyst and Democratic
strategist. “When they don’t vote, they
get leaders who are chosen for them. You
should make that decision and not let other
people make that decision for you.”
The final session centered on relationships
and how men and women - particularly college
students - can better connect
“Sometimes we confuse infatuation with
love,” said author and television host Alduan
Tartt ’96. “When you meet, it’s the same
thing when you first get married. There’s a
period when you are really physiologically
high off of one another. When things wear
off, you think there is no more chemistry in a
relationship. But, in reality you’re just mov
ing into the second phase of a relationship.”
Cramton Auditorium was filled to
capacity a day later for “The Game Before
the Game,” when the Morehouse and
Howard debate teams squared off in the 2nd
Annual Mordecai Wyatt Johnson-Benjamin
Elijah Mays Student Debate. The two sides
battled orally and analytically over affirma
tive action and voter I.D. laws while a crowd
cheered both teams.
“We need to protect the democracy here
at home because everything that happens in
the White House is going to be determined
through the electoral process,” said senior
Austin Williams. “And if we have a system
that can put someone in the White House
illegitimately, that needs to be corrected.”
The weekend ended with Johnnetta
Cole, director of the Smithsonian
Institute’s National Museum of African
Art, telling the audience to love HBCUs by
supporting them.
“Will we start financially supporting our
historically black colleges and universities?”
she said. “At so many of our HBCUs, the
percentage of alumni who give is pathetically
low. This must change if these institutions
that we so need, not only survive, but
wonderfully thrive.” ■
To view photos from the AT&T Nation's Football Classic and the More Than A Game activities, go to
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151158585299311.473719.316502514310&type=1.
To watch video from each event, go to http://www.morehouse.edu/events/2012/nationsfootballclas-
sic/index.html.
Students to Follow Their Passions
American Dream
tion will rise
1) unfits
evideni
ill.’*!
Spike Lee 79 talks about his time as a Morehouse student with the co-directors of the Cinema,
Television and Emerging Media Studies Program (CTEMS), psychology professor David Wall Ric<
‘95 (left) and Stephane Dunn (right).
Spike Lee 79 Tells
BY ADD SEYMOUR JR.
S pike Lee ’79 has become one of the
world’s most renowned directors.
But during his first couple of years at
Morehouse, he said he was a terrible student.
He credits Morehouse for turning his
life around.
“When I came to Morehouse, I had no
idea what I wanted to do,” Lee said. “At the
end of my sophomore year, my adviser told
me to think long and hard about choosing
a major over the summer. I asked, ‘Why?’
She said, ‘Because you have exhausted all of
your electives.’”
Lee told students gathered in the lobby of the Martin
Luther King Jr. International Chapel that Morehouse
instructors put him on the right path of following his pas
sion to becoming a filmmaker.
“My junior year and senior years, I was an A-plus stu
dent,” he said. “I decided what I wanted to do ... I said I
was going to do everything possible to become a filmmaker.
Everything I am today, really, the foundation was set here at
Morehouse.”
It was one of the bits of wisdom that Lee imparted
on students who gathered at the event hosted by David
Wall Rice ’95 and Stephane Dunn, co-directors of the
College’s Cinema, Television and Emerging Media
Studies program. Lee was there to talk about “Red Hook
Summer,” his latest “joint.”
The movie, set in his beloved Brooklyn, has other
Morehouse ties. The Morehouse College Glee Club, led
by director David Morrow ’80, performed the movie’s
final song. Many of the church members in the film are
Morehouse and Spelman graduates. And music depart
ment chairman Uzee Brown ’72 composed and arranged
three spirituals that were sung by the church’s choir.
“I’m really privileged to be involved in this,” said
Brown, who also wrote and arranged “I’m Building Me a
Home” for Lee’s 1988 film, “School Daze.”
“Spike called me and asked very specifically, ‘Uzee, can
you give me some arrangements that I can use as part of
the congregational kind of presentation in the movie?’ So I
said, ‘Sure.’”
While most ot the talk was about the film, Lee urged
students to focus on what they wanted to do in school and
in life.
“Hopefully, you have not chosen a major based on how
much money you think you can make,” he said. “That’s a
recipe for disaster. While you are here, you should be trying to
find out what it is you love. That’s the whole thing about a lib
eral arts college - you can get exposed to everything here.” ■
First Lady Named One of Atlanta’s
25 Most Influential Black Doctors
D r. Cheryl Franklin, the College’s first lady, was named
one of the 25 most influential black doctors in Atlanta
for 2012 by Black Health Magazine, a nationally distributed,
bimonthly publica
tion that focuses on
the unique healthcare
concerns of African
Americans and the
underlying causes of
their health issues.
“I am proud to
have been named by
Black Health Magazine
as one of metropoli
tan Adanta’s 25 most
influential African
American doctors
and to receive this honor in the distinguished company of
the other honorees at the 4th National Black Health Awards
Banquet,” said Franklin.
‘ As a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist, I have
had, for the past 22 years, the great privilege of helping to take
care of Adanta s women in the field of women’s health.
My involvement in women’s health has variously
included clinical and surgical care, engagement in public
health research, and attention to public health policy, in addi
tion to my cherished role as teacher and mentor to physicians
in training. I thank my nominators for recognizing my work
and its impact,” she said.
Franklin, along with the other physicians, was honored dur
ing a banquet on Sept. 22 at the Adanta Mariott Marquis. ■
—VGH