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Campus Mirror
Published During the College Year by the Students of Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
VOL. XIV MARCH 15, 1938 ^77
I he L niversity Convocation
on the Seventieth Birthday
of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois
At eleven o’clock on the morning of
February 23, the entire University com
munity assembled in Sisters Chapel for
the celebration of the seventieth birthday
of Dr. W. E. R. DuBois. On this unfor
gettable occasion the honored man was
the principal speaker. His address was
called “A Pageant in Seven Decades,
1868-1938’’ and included an account of
his life with brilliant, terse comments on
the history of the world as it has un
folded during his lifetime. He stated
the purpose of the address, which was
published in a booklet of forty-four
pages, as follows:
“I have been asked to review my life
and I have chosen to essay this from the
aspect of an historical pageant of human
kind in which I have been a more or less
active spectator, and whose end and
meaning I have sought to see. It is not
easy to do this; deeds, facts, and fancies
flow so ceaselessly and, with occasional
whirlpools, so smoothly on, that one
grasps and arranges them and views them
with difficulty.”
But he proved himself an able master
of the situation and through the pages
of his speech held a responsive, appreci
ative audience. Beginning with 1868,
the year of his birth and “the year that
the Freedmen of the South were enfran
chised, and for the first time as a mass
took part in government,” Dr. DuBois
sketched his lifetime up to 1938, divid
ing the years into seven decades. As the
address went on, the audience was aware
of happenings in his lifetime of which
he was able to speak familiarly, and
which seemed foreign and age-old when
studied in history. He mentioned, dur
ing the first decade of his life, “U. S.
Grant, Tweed, Hayes, Tilden, and
Charles Sumner.” He said, “. . . when
I was eight there came the revolution
of 1876. But I hardly knew of it. And,
too, of the world overseas: the Franco-
Prussian War; the ups and downs of
Disraeli and Gladstone; the opening of
the Suez Canal . . .” And so on through
the highly interesting address were such
references to great historical characters
and events. But ms the man grew older
his comments proved his ability to in
terpret and, in some instances, take a
part in the things which went on around
him.
As to his own personal life, he began
with his life in the little village of Great
Barrington, Massachusetts, of which he
says, “The town and its surroundings
were a boy's paradise: there were moun-
Spring
Ruby L. Sanders, ’38
What makes the earth in harmony re
joice
And faces gleam with brightness as they
pass?
There is excess inflection in each voice,
And smiles on lips of every lad and lass.
The birds have come and with uplifted
heads
Are singing in the coolness of the breeze;
Green grass peeps up and widely, densely
spreads
Enchanting beauty of the spring-dressed
trees.
There is no wonder all the world is gay
And soft reflecting music fills the air;
The scent of perfume all along the way
Is given off from blossoms rich and rare;
For W inter has removed his clinch from
earth,
And Spring is born anew in joy and
mirth.
tains to climb and rivers to wade and
swim; lakes to freeze and hills for coast
ing.” Of his family he says, “My family
were pleasant and miscellaneous: the
father was dead before I can remember;
the mother, brown and quietly persistent;
the aunts and one uncle a bit censorious
but not difficult to get on with; and then
an endless vista of approving cousins.”
He took his audience with him from that
small town and “pleasant and miscel
laneous” family on through his early
school days, his migration South to Fisk
University, and finally through Harvard
tor his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D., from
which place In* went to Berlin for study.
Then in a most humorous fashion he
recounted his advent into the world to
make a living. ‘‘I returned to the Fnited
States," he related, “by way of Paris,
where I stayed as long as possible and
then, having reduced myself almost to the
last cent, took passage to the United
States in the steerage, quite penniless.
It was by no means a pleasant trip, but
perhaps it was a good introduction to the
new life, because now at last at twenty-
six years of age and after twenty years
of study I was coming home to look for
a job and to begin work.”
And one seemed to feel that with his
sense of humor, his talent for laughing
at and with the world, the marvelous
ability which he had already shown for
getting along with people, and his schol
astic record, Dr. DuBois would never
have to look very hard and far for a
job. As his life unfolded, admiration,
awe, wonder, and envy of such a person
fused themselves in the hearts and minds
of the people listening. And each one
wondered how it would feel to live such
a useful and glorious life. He is still
living it and drawing from it those worth
while things, taking note of this and
that thing that is happening now, and
again one wonders how many living today
will be able to tell in such an able man
ner the things which he will relate when
the next decade passes on.
From donations made by friends and
admirers of Dr. DuBois, a portrait bust
of him, the work of Alexander Portnoff,
was purchased. A part of the program
was the presentation of this bust to At
lanta University. Dr. Logan, in words
of praise of Dr. DuBois, presented the
bust to Dr. Rufus E. Clement, president
of Atlanta University.
The platform party was made up of
Mr. Ira DeA. Reid, Atlanta University;
Dr. Charles 8. Johnson, Fisk Univer
sity; Miss Florence M. Read, president
of Spelman College; Mr. J. E. Spingarn,
president of the N. A. A. C. P., and
donor of the Spingarn medal; Dr. Rufus
E. Clement, president of Atlanta Univer
sity; Dr. \V. E. B. DuBois; Dr. James
Weldon Johnson, of Fisk University;
Dr. L. 0. Lewis, Morehouse College, and
Dr. Rayford W. Logan, of Atlanta Uni
versity.
The program began with an organ pre
lude, “Largo” from Symphony in E
minor by Dvorak. The Atlanta-More-
house-Spelman Chorus sang two num
bers, “Fierce Was the Wild Billow,” bv
Noble, and “Inflammatus from ‘Stabat
Mater,’ ” by Rossini. The Negro Na
tional Anthem was sung by the audience,
the words of which were written by Dr.
James Weldon Johnson, who was a mem
ber of the platform party.
The celebration for the day was con
cluded by a banquet given at the Atlanta
University dorinitorv.