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> INSIDE MOREHOUSE, OCTOBER 2013
AUC Civil Rights Veterans Reminisce
About the March on Washington
BY ADD SEYMOUR JR.
AN ESTIMATED 250,000 PEOPLE gathered on the National Mall in
Washington, D.C., under a sunny, pleasant sky on August 28,1963.
But it was hardly a pleasure trip, former Atlanta Student
Movement member Charles Black told a group of students dur
ing a teach-in at the Robert W. Woodruff Atlanta University
Center Library exactly 50 years later.
“It wasn’t a celebration,” he said. “The people who were
there for the most part were actively involved in movements back
home. They were representatives of the masses of people and
had come to Washington, not to praise the leadership that was
there. They came to make the statement loud and clear ‘We’re
not cooling off. We are not stopping. We are not going to be
patient. This movement is moving on until we see the end result
that we demand.’”
Black’s recollections were part of a teach-in sponsored by
the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. It gave
AUC students an opportunity to hear in-depth what the mood and
thoughts were of marchers that day.
Black was pat of a three-person panel of marchers from
1963. Other panelists were Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee member Doris Derby and Lonnie King ’69, the
founding chairman of the Atlanta Student Movement
Moderated by King Collection director Vicki
Crawford, the discussion included a multi-media presenta
tion by Morehouse history professor Larry Spruill of the
historic events that occurred in 1963, such as the assassina
tions of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights activist
Medgar Evers.
But the march was the focus of the discussion.
King said these kinds of conversations can help college
Lonnie King tB, one of the organizers of the Atlanta Student Movement talks about
being at the 1963 March on Washington. Seated at right are fellow marchers Doris
Derby and Charles Black.
students understand what they need to do to become the
new generation of civil rights activists.
“Because we’ve got to save our people,” he said. “We’ve
got to find a way to merge the wisdom of people like me with
the enthusiasm of young people to form a team who can do
the hard work,” he said. ■
Former Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman
to be Leadership lecture Series Speaker
TELE THIRD FORMER U.S. presidential candidate in the span of
seven months will be visiting Morehouse.
Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. will be the Oct. 29 speak
er for the Leadership Lecture Series in the Shirley A. Massey Executive
Conference Center’s Bank of America Auditorium.
He will speak at 4:30 p.m. in a talk that is free and open to the public
Huntsman, Utah’s governor from 2005-09, was a Republican
presidential primary candidate in 2012. He is the third candidate from
that election cycle to visit Morehouse this year as fellow Republican
candidate Herman Cain ’67 was here in April and President Barack
Obama spoke at Commencement in May.
Before Huntsman ran for president, he was U.S. Ambassador to China from 2009-11.
Huntsman has also been the U.S. Ambassador to Singapore from 1992-93.
Currently he serves on the board of Ford Motor Company, Caterpillar Corporation,
Huntsman Corporation, The U.S. Naval Academy Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania
Huntsman is also a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institute, a trustee of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, a trustee of the Reagan Presidential Foundation and is chair
man of The Huntsman Cancer Foundation. ■
-AS
Morehouse Community Walks
Around AUC to Beat Breast Cancer
MARY PEAKS WANTS to spread the word. A leader of the 14th Annual Morehouse
College Breast Cancer Awareness Walk on Oct. 19, she is enlisting the Morehouse com
munity to let everyone they know that they should be part of this year’s event.
“Make copies of the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk flier (that she has sent out
through email) and registration form and give it to family and friends, church mem
bers,” she said. “We want everyone to come out and walk.”
The two-mile walk around the Atlanta University Center raises awareness of breast
cancer, particularly in light of statistics published this month in the online publication, CA
A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The study showed that incidents of breast cancer are rising
among African American women, while remaining stable for white, Asian American/Pacific
Islanders and Native Americans. The number is declining slightly for Hispanic women.
And while the numbers aren’t as high, breast cancer is a disease that affects men as well.
“We want people to know that if you can get to it early, it can be taken care of,”
Peaks said. “Early detection is the best protection against breast cancer. It’s very near
and dear to my heart, as I am a 16-year survivor, and mine was found early.”
Over the past 14 years, the Morehouse College Breast Cancer Awareness Walk has raised
nearly $200,000 that has gone to the American Cancer Society and Making Strides Against
Cancer. The money stays in Georgia and goes toward things such as free screenings.
This year’s walk begins at 8 am. on the plaza of the Martin Luther King Jr. International
ChapeL Music and refreshments will be provided.
The registration fee is $20 (which includes a T-shirt). To receive a registration form,
contact Peaks at (404) 215-2636 or at mpeaks@morehouse.edu. ■
Morehouse and Howard Celebrate During
Nation’s Football Classic Weekend
BY ADD SEYMOUR JR.
A HUGE CROWD cheered as the maroon-
clad team from Morehouse battled their
opponents in blue, Howard University.
One team would go hard offensively
while the other countered with strategic
force, both seeking to outdo the other.
And that was just the Mordecai
Wyatt Johnson - Benjamin E. Mays
Student Debate, one of the most popular
events during the “More Than a Game”
Activities preceding the AT&T Nation’s
Football Classic Weekend, Sept. 5-8.
“This is the point of the weekend for
me,” said President John Silvanus Wilson
Jr. ’79. “This is it because it centralizes
brainpower. Here we... see brainpower on
display and I invite you to appreciate it and
where you can, to emulate it.”
It was one of a number of events
over four days that showcased the talent
of both schools off the field to go along
with the big battle on the field, the 3rd
Annual AT&T Nation’s Football Classic
game between Howard and Morehouse
(Howard hung on for a 27-16 win at
Washington, D.C.’s REK Stadium).
From a day-long Presidential
Symposium to a Sunday sermon on love
delivered by the Rev. Otis Moss III ’92,
each event mainly featured Howard and
Morehouse students, faculty, staff, alumni
and administrators who each demonstrated
the event’s theme, the HBCL r experience is
truly More Than A Game.
“It’s really central to why we wanted
to host the Classic weekend in the nation’s
capital, said Erik A. Moses, managing
director of the Sports and Entertainment
Division for Events D.C., the Washington,
D.C., organization that started the AT&T
Nation’s Football Classic. “We really
feel it’s important not only to highlight
the global contributions and impact that
HBCUs make on the African American
A Morehouse debate team member makes his point
community, but to society at large.”
The activities started with HBCU pres
idents Sidney Ribeau (Howard), Glenda
Baskin Glover (Tennessee State) and
Michael Sorrell (Paul Quinn) discussing
the need for and the relevancy of histori
cally black colleges and universities during
the Presidential Symposium.
“If you are talking about relevancy, you
are on the defensive,” Sorrell said. “Let’s
raise the bar. Let’s change the narrative.”
Friday, Howard’s Cramton
Auditorium was full as the Howard and
Morehouse debate teams went back and
forth over the issues of privacy versus
national security and national health care.
No winner was named, but both teams
impressed with their arguments.
Football took center stage Saturday
afternoon as Howard and Morehouse tail-
gaters flooded the parking lots around RFK
Stadium with plenty of food and music, along
with boasts of who would win the game.
Howard won, but both sides walked
away with a healthy respect for the other.
That’s exactly the kind of love that
the Rev. Otis Moss III ’92 said during the
weekend ending Sunday Chapel Service
that he was looking forward to seeing. ■