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Vo I. XXXI No. 8
‘Bronze
Attracts
Artistic
Leadership
By Denise L. Green
Panther Feature Editor
and A Lineve Wead
Panther Editor
As a near capacity crowd
viewed the second annual
WETV - 30 sponsored “Bronz
Jubilee” awards, preparations
were being made for Atlantans
to celebrate in other WETV
week - long activities (Feb. 4 -
10.)
Capturing the awards this
year in Morehouse College’s
Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel
were: Joe Jennings, teacher,
performer, musician, Music;
Valjean Grigsby, founder
Valmar Dance Co., Dance;
Ray Mclver, author “God is a
Guess What?” Literature;
Curtis Patterson, sculpture,
Visual Arts; Walter Dallas,
Proposition Theater (two - time
winnerO, Drama; Chet Fuller,
Journal Associate Editor and
author of series, “Black Man’s
Diary,” Communicative
Arts; Alma Simmons, Arts
Educator; Iris Little,
Spelman student, Outstan
ding Student; Georgia Allen,
Long Term Contribution to
the Arts; C. A. Scott, Editor,
Atlanta Daily World, Com
munity Service Award; and a
special contribution to the Arts
Community Award was given
to Fulton County Com
missioner, Michael Lomax.
As former director of Bureau
of Cultural Affairs, Lomax’s
recognition was considered
“timely” by the award
presenters, Jocelyn Dorsey,
and Lt. Governor Zell Miller.
Responding to the award
given, Lomax said, “This
award ... is not mine in
dividually ... it belongs to the
city of Atlanta.”
Among the national figures
participating in this year’s
awards program, were Belinda
Tolbert of CBS’s “The
Jeffersons,” and Robert
Johnson, Editor, Jet.
An ATLANTA UNIVERSITY CENTER lnstituti~
February 15, 1979
'Hooks Leads Crusade For
Black History Month
By Michael H. Cottman
Panther Staff Writer
Clark Grad, a native of Griffin, Ga. will return home to
address Clark’s Founder’s Day.
Ward to Address
110th Founders Day
When Haskell Ward, a
graduate of Clark College and
Griffin, Ga. native, comes to
Atlanta to deliver the Clark
College Founder’s Day ad
dress, he will probably bring a
familiar story.
The story deals with Clark
College while he was working
as a research assistant when
he happened upon a written
evaluation of himself. It is said
that he has a lot of ambition
for someone from a deprived
background. His ambition
then was to become a
psychiatrist, and Ward is look
ing at a long term career in
politics now. He laughs , as he
recalls this ironic story while
at Clark.
Yet, on Feb. 20, 1979, Ward,
the newly appointed deputy
mayor for Human Services for
New York City, will show how
wrong this instructor was.
Formerly, Ward served as a
deputy administrator in New
York. Since leaving Clark,
Ward spent two years in the
Peace Corps in Ethiopia,
returned to the U.S. as a
Woodrow Wilson and John H.
Whitney Fellow to receive his
master’s degree in African
Studies at UCLA. Later he was
on the policy planning staff
with the U.S. State
Department and worked at the
Ford Foundation in
Washington from 1970 - 76.
According to Ward’s ex-wife,
Jennifer Ward, “Haskell is an
extraordinarily committed in
dividual. He’s basically
honest. A man of his word and
a man of action.”
SUPPORT
UNCF
Following an informal
survey among the students at
Clark College, it was interes
ting to note how many
students were unfamiliar with
the purpose of our annual
Founder’s Day celebration.
Yet, when our speaker
Haskell Ward, delivers the ad
dress this year, he will be stan
ding in the gymnasium of a
building that was dedicated in
honor of 'our late school
president, Vivian Wilson
Henderson (VWH).
VWH is the eleventh build
ing erected on Clark’s present
site in 1976; following was
Clark College Courts, acquired
in 1975; McPheeter’s-Dennis
Hall in 1971; Brawley Hall in
1959; Kresge Hall in 1954;
Holmes Hall in 1949; Turner-
Tanner Building in 1946;
Thayer, Pfeifer, Merner and
Haven-Warren Halls erected
in 1941.
Clark, founded in 1869, had
its beginnings in a virtually
unfurnished room in Clark
Chapel Methodist Episcopal
Church in Atlanta
(Summerhill section).
Beginning as Clark
University, its purpose then
was to serve as a religious
institution to provide Negroes
with a formal education
following the Civil War.
Clark University was
named after Bishop Davis W.
Clark, the first president of the
Freedmen’s Aid Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church.
One leader in the church
visualized that Clark would
“set the tone” for all other
Methodist educational
institutions for all Negroes.
Today Clark continues to
“set the tone” in its many ways
through its many areas of ad
vanced study.
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“If we as blacks should forget the sacrifices made by so many
I people who made it possible for us to be here today, then we are
! not fit to walk into the bright sunlight of tomorrow,” said the
famed Dr. Benjamin Hooks, National Executive Director of the
| National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
| (NAACP).
| Hooks, a former Federal Communications Commissioner, and
■ Tennessee’s first black criminal judge, initiated Black History
■ Month, by speaking to Georgia State University students Tues^
■ day, in an effort to encourage black students to become more in-
I voived in the NAACP’s crusade to obtain equal rights for blacks.
Hooks, who is dlso a minister and a lawyer, said the NAACP
■ needs the support of young blacks in order for the NAACP to con-
I tinue their plight for equal rights.
“I want the young brothers and sisters to realize that it’s not
(your donations we want, we want you,” said the esteemed
| veteran civil rights leader.
| Hooks encouraged students to support the NAACP, and
| stressed the importance of black students becoming a part of an
organization that will be instrumental in strengthening their
I * black awareness.
“It is important for black students to support a black cause,”
I Hook said, “If not the NAACP, become a part of something so our
I nation will continue to move forward.”
§ Hooks pointed out that young blacks must be unified in order
ijfor blacks to assist each other in achieving their goals,
jg “Please do not forget from whence you came;” Hooks said with
^intensity, “once you open that door, bring a brother or a sister
■through that door with you.”
Hooks went onto say that it is time for white America to realize
■that blacks now want something in return for the many years
Ithat blacks were oppressed.
I “America, we as black people have paid the price,” Hooks said
|with authority, “whatever you have required of us, we have done,
|and now it’s time for you to cash our checks.”
Hooks commented briefly on President Carter, by saying that
■there is a “grinding hault” to America’s commitment to their
■poor and underpriviledged, and he attributes this problem t<
^President Carter.
“I’m not going to give up on him yet,” Hooks said, but I am
■very disturbed by some of the things he’s doing, particularly in
Ihis latest efforts as they involve the budget.”
I Hooks stated that he is dedicated to theblack cause, and again
|urged black students to become part of the move to strive foi
(equal rights.
| “I feel a sense of obligation to the black cause, and I canno
rget from whence I came,” said Hooks with sincerity, and voi
E so cannot afford to forget, by the way, what you are doing U
ake this world a better place?”