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Campus Mirror
Published During the College Year by the Students of Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
VOL. XVIII APRIL, 1942 No. 7
JPack arc! an c) Jim
Owen Dodson
Two omen, here in April, prayed alone
And saw again their vision of an altar
Built for mind and spirit, flesh and bone.
They never turned away; they never said:
“This dream is air, let us go hack to our
New England spring
And cultivate an earth that is not dead; , T , , , . , . .. ,
"Let dark mothers weep, dark children
bleed.
This land is barren land.
Incapable of seed.”
They made their crucifix far more
Than ornament; they wrestled with
Denial
And pinned him to the floor.
Owen Dodson, in “The Negro Cara
van.” Printed by permission of the
author secured, April, 1941.
They made defeat an exile:
And year by year their vision shed its
mist:
And still they smiled their Noah smile,
Knowing that they had no death to fear.
Knowing that their future would he now
And all the Aprils we assemble here.
Founders Day Address
On Saturday, April 11, at 3 p. m.. the
Honorable Max Brauer spoke to the
large and attentive Founders Day audi
ence, which filled Sisters Chapel, on the
subject "Totalitarianism versus Democ
racy." As a former member of the Prus
sian Senate, and ex-mayor of a German
town. Mr. Brauer s knowledge and un
derstanding of government is far reach
ing; as an exile from his own country,
now under totalitarian control, and a
refugee in a democratic land, he is able
to dravs an accurate contrast between to
talitarianism and democracy in action.
According to Mr. Brauer. at the center
of the present world conflict can be
found a basic conflict between the two
types of government, totalitarianism and
democracy. Because the aims of these
two types of government are in conflict
with each other, one of them must in
evitably overcome the other, for totali
tarianism *-eeks to overcome the world,
while democracy seek*- to give equal op-
(Continued on Page 4)
A Tribute to the Founders
This year marked the sixty-first anni
versary of the coming of Miss Packard
and Miss Giles to Atlanta to open a
school for young Negro women. They
were in a situation that might have
proved hopeless had they not faced it
bravely and with courage. Since their
problems were inevitably bound up with
the problems of living, money, illness,
mistakes, weariness, joy, do you wonder
that there w r as plenty of room for de
spair. These two women did not de
spair; they went on developing their
dream and today that dream is an ac
tuality.
It is not enough that we should pause
for a mere day to say a word of com
memoration, for nothing we say can con
secrate them, hut every one of Spel-
man's daughters should reflect teachings
and ideals for which Miss Packard and
Mis- Gil es so nobly and unselfishly gave
their lives.
Ridgelv Torrence, Famed
American Poet, Discusses
Negro Drama at Spelman
College
Ridgely Torrence, one of the most
distinguished of American poets and au
thor of “Plays for a Negro Theatre.”
the first serious plays to be written for
Negroes, visited Spelman College March
9-16 and in the course of his stay lec
tured on various occasions and read a
number of his poems.
He spoke on “Negro Drama to a
large audience in Howe Hall and told of
his early struggles to produce his plays
with all Negro participants, even down
to technicians and directors. His task
was difficult because there were no ac
tors for serious plays at that time in
asmuch as only musical comedies or
“Uncle Tom shows had parts for Ne
groes.
rhe race situation, Mr. Torrence de
clared, to be a- dramatic a- any situa
tion that has ever existed, but the great
( Continued to Page 11