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INSIDE MOREHOUSE, DECEMBER 2012 / JANUARY 2013
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FRANKLIN’S FINAL ADDRESS
‘Lean Forward Into the Future’
President Robert M. Franklin ’75 gave a passionate and uplifting final address during the Renaissance Worship Service on Nov. 11 in the
Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. In it, he thanked the Morehouse community for its support during his five-year tenure and urged
everyone to focus on a successful future. Following are excerpts from Franklin’s farewell address:
“I’m so proud, gentlemen, that you embraced
[the] Five Wells. You declared we can defy
those stereotypes and young men could be
well-read, well-spoken, well-traveled, well-
dressed and well-balanced. We could be
Renaissance Men with a social conscious,
even in a hip-hop culture.”
“I will miss and cherish the evenings I walked
across this campus, staying late ... In walking,
I’d hear the clash of football pads on one side
of campus. On the other side of campus, I’d
hear a lecture on physics being offered. Or I
would be listening to the young preachers and
chapel assistants here in the chapel practicing
their sermons. I said, ‘What a magical place a
college campus can be.’”
“Paul’s word to us this afternoon is the past
is forgettable. The past can be forgotten and
placed in context. But allow the past - your
past, our past — to offer you lessons about
how to go forward.”
President Robert M. Franklin 75
“The present is a time of change. It is mal
leable. The present is forgiveable for yester
day is gone and there is nothing you can do
about it. And tomorrow is not promised to
any of us. But what you do have, what you
do control is right now.”
“Reflect on your time and purpose. Redeem
the moments. Make the decision in the now.
Decide what you hold on to, let go of the
past and lean forward into the future.”
MY WORD
Inside
MOREHOUSE
Director of Public Relations
Toni O’Neal Mosley
tmosley@morehouse.edu
Executive Editor
Vickie G. Hampton
vhampton@morehouse.edu
Editor
Add Seymour Jr.
aseymour@morehouse.edu
Calendar Editor
Julie Pinkney Tongue
jtongue@morehouse.edu
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Add Seymour Jr.
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Glennon Design Group
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Inside Morehouse is
published monthly during
the academic year by
Morehouse College,
Office of Communications.
Opinions expressed in Inside
Morehouse are those of
the authors, not
necessarily of the College.
The Campus Tour: A New Perspective
By VICKIE G. HAMPTON
TO BE HONEST, my daughter was not exactly
thrilled about going on a campus tour of
Spelman College. It was the same lamentation
that many parents of high school seniors hear:
It’s too close to home.
She reconciled herself to the inevitable visit
and tour with one consoling thought: “At least
I will see what type of woman I can become
after spending three or four years at Spelman.”
(Did I mention my daughter is brilliant?)
The thought bred a similar one in my mind: What impression would
a young man have after touring Morehouse? So, less than an hour after our
Spelman tour, we joined a family of five from Florida for the Morehouse tour.
From the start, the Morehouse tour was more than facts, figures and
facilities. It was a narrative, a crafted story that had a beginning—the King
statue’s pointing finger—and an end—the place that it’s actually pointing to.
At the gravesite of President Hugh Gloster ’31, we learned that he
was the first in what has become the tradition of alumni presidents.
In the hushed sanctum ot the Martin Luther King Jr. International
Chapel, it was inspiring to re-see this sacred space from the eyes
of strangers. It’s easy to take for granted the beauty of our unique
“stained glasses”: oil portraits of human and civil rights leaders so life
like that it seems at any moment they will relax their long-held pose
and take a deep breath.
As someone who has walked by the image of King so often, you
may never ask why the individuals above him are in black and white,
and those under him are in color. Or why Mohandas Gandhi’s eyes
are closed and ears are open, while his wife’s ears are covered and eyes
are opened.
You may even have gotten a bit blase about King’s words etched on the
lobby walls. But when strangers see them for the first time, you see it in their
eyes, hear it in their reverent whispering—that these words are so powerful
that they shifted the course of human history.
Throughout the tour, the guide nodded or spoke to fellow students.
Several of these young men joined us briefly to introduce themselves. The
beauty of these interactions was that they were completely un-choreo-
graphed—just spontaneous, unrehearsed spiels about their major and their
interests, punctuated by fist bumps and those male-approved half hugs.
As we neared the end of the tour, 1 asked the mother: “So, where
is Morehouse on your son’s list.”
1 hough he was a few paces ahead of us, the son overheard my
question, turned back and answered before his mother could: “It’s
moved up a lot higher now,” he said. “I really like this.”
Although Morehouse has a great story—one that we should all
know and share—I don’t think it was just the talk of King or alumni
presidents that swayed him.
I believe that during the tour, he saw, heard and felt what my
daughter sought from the Spelman tour: a glimpse of who he could
become after three or four years at Morehouse.
1 n these times of transition, economic uncertainty and talk of fur
loughs, it is easy to become distracted by fear of change and challenge.
But perhaps the true kindness of strangers is that they lend us their
perspective, helping us see the things and circumstances that have lost
clarity and perhaps meaning—within our own myopia.
Let s remember what is sacred. Let’s all learn and relay the
Morehouse story. And, most importantly, let’s refocus on why we re
all here: the men of Morehouse ... and the young brothers who aspire
to be like them. ■
Do you know?
Why are Gandhi’s eyes closed and ears open?
* What is King pointing to?
Why is May s tassel on the wrong side?
Why don’t students walk on the grass (two reasons)?
Get the answers by joining a scheduled tour. Contact Marilyn Bibby
(mbibby@morehouse.edu) in the Office of Admissions and
Recruitment.
Vickie G. Hampton is executive editor of Inside Morehouse and the
publications manager in the Office of Communications.