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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.