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MBC Alumnus Wins Pulitzer Prize;
First Black Ever To Win
Reprint from the Atlanta
Constitution
James Alan McPherson,
Morris Brown alumnus, won
the Pulitzer Prize for fiction
recently. He was the first black
to win in that area of the
prizes.
The 34-year old author, now
an associate professor of
English at the University of
Virginia, won the prestigious
award for “Elbow Room,” a
volume of short stories on
various aspects of the black
experience. The work carries
on the themes of the previously
published “Hue and Cry” —
also a collection of short
stories.
The Pulitzer Prize, ad
ministered by the trustees of
Columbia University,
amounts to $1,000 in each
category and is perhaps the
most coveted American award
in the arts and journalism.
Reached at his Charlottes
ville, Va., home McPherson ad
mitted that he had just about
given up hoping that he would
win the prize after the book
failed to capture a National
Book Award last week.
The author said that he grew
up in Savannah reading Guy
de Maupassant — an early in
fluence. He then came to
Atlanta and Morris Brown,
where he dove into the works of
Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison and
Isaac Babel, among others.
It was also in Atlanta, while
he was editing both the school
yearbook and its newspaper,
that McPherson began writing
short stories. “The second
story I wrote won a prize,”
McPherson said.
The author, who worked^
summers as a waiter on
railroad dining cars, used the
$1,000 Reader’s Digest prize to
enter. Harvard Law School,
from which he graduated in
1968.
McPherson said Monday
that he would not reveal the
names of his favorite writers,
but did mention with special
admiration the works of Ralph
Ellison.
While Ellison, Richard
Wright and James Baldwin
have won critical approval
and are widely read by black
and white audiences alike,
other black authors have
found it difficult to connect
with white audiences.
McPherson was asked if that
state of affairs is changing.
“Each generation has new
difficulties, new spinoffs to the
old problems,” McPherson
said. “You have to temper your
art to the climate of the times
and hope that things will be
better for those who come
along after you. Maybe in four
generations we won’t even
have to make a distinction
between white and black
audiences.”
McPherson sounded like a
man who is not in search of the
limelight. “I certainly don’t
want to be a celebrity,” he said.
“If anything I will probably
just go out and get a haircut.”
He has also been a con
tributing editor of Atlantic
Monthly magazine. His work
has appeared in many
publications, including Black
Insights, Cutting Edges, New
Black Voices and Playboy.
Vol. 45, No.8 Atlanta, GA. 30314 May, 1978
185 Seniors Expected to Graduate
By S. Weston Milligan
Close to 185 seniors will be graduating this year. This
appears to be a good number but, some seniors are return
ing from the 76-77 school year and are just leaving.
Non-graduating seniors has been a problem at MBC for
some time. Students who have not reached the senior level
yet should be aware of what courses to take in order to
receiv-j a degree.
It has been said many times that Morris Brown is a
school with no accreditation and poor instructors. Time
afijr time again these accusations have been proven false
b' the accreditation associations and boards.
It is not easy anywhere to get a degree and Morris Brown
Joes not literally give them away.
Here seniors have experienced everything from A to Z.
The environment tells you many things and Morris Brown
has prepared their graduates.
So, to the graduating class of 77-78 the Observer
congratulates you. After graduation we are sure you will be
able to have a pleasant summer knowing you have a degree
from “Dear 01’ Morris Brown”.
Seniors graduating this year: Abdusha Ali, Rodney
Allen, Denise Brown Anderson, Purcella Anthony,
Perrolyn Arnold, Kenneth Ates, Douglas Atkins, Janet
Alease Bailey, Charles Baker, Shyril Beck, Perdeda
Billingslea, Leila Mae Blount, Jerry Jerome Bolton,
Caressa Kay Bownes, Deborah Boyd, Patricia Boykin,
Mary Bray, Rene Brown, Glenda Bryan, Rhonda Bush,
Earl Campbell, Sandra Chandler, Janice M. Chinn, Henry
L. Carson, Dezma Cobb, Marvin Cole, Audrey Collins,
Cynthia Colton, Sharon Cooper, Beverly Crawford, Dennis
Crawford, Patricia Dailey, Lillie Dawson, Audrey Dennis,
Marilyn Devoe, Thelma Devoe, Barbara Dowdell, Cynthia
Doyle, Marcel Dozier, Jr., Yvonne Durham, Vivian Elridge,
Leon Engram, Nse Augustine Etukudo, John Richard
Farmer, Michael Faulkner, Andrew Fleming, Artis L.
Floyd, Annie Freeman, Barbara Garris, Bonita Joyce Gay,
Pamela A. Gay, Sheila Goldsmith, Denise Gordon,
Theresita Grant, Robert Green, Pluria Ann Grier, Jamelia
Hagan, Sharon Hall, Pamela Hampton, Sheryl R. Harris,
Bobby Hayes, Cynthia L. Hill, Gerald C. Houser, Deborah
Delores Huff, Calvin Hunt, Yolanda Hunt, Erma Huston,
Helen Ika, Bernard Jacks, Laura Lileve Jackson, Marilynn
Anita Jackson, Jacquelyn Wynne, Robert Jaudon, Melody
Ann Jester, Cheryl Johnson, Glenda Johnson, Kevin
Johnson, Patricia Johnson, Rwanda Jolivet, Sabrina
Jolly, Audrey Jones, Phyllis Jones, Esther Kihara, Karen
McAfee, Kim McArthur, Rita McBride, Marie O. Mitchell,
Sabrina Mitchell, Steven Medcalfe, Clement Mkwanazi,
Calvin Moody, Geneva Ann Morgan, Janet L. Morris, v
LaRonnia James Mosley, Sabrina Murphy, Debra Nettles,
William Norman, John Nwokoro, Dargenia Kay Parham,
Henry Perry, Jr., Diane Plummer, Randy Reed, Gloria
Roberson, Gevonia Robinson, James Rucker, Sherman
Rucker, Danny Scott, Karen Scott, Maeretha Smith,
Willene Smith, Gregory Stanley, Lanier Stuckey, Brenda
Swint, Karhn Thompson, Autherine Thompkins, Mercia
Timberlake, Sheila Turner, William Vickers, Deborah
Vining, Sherri Walthall, Alycia Walton, Yvonne Walton,
Alice Washington, Jerome Waters, Donald Weathers,
Sylvia Wells, Marsha White, Freddie Wilbon, Alice
Williams, Genia Williams, Larry Williams, Theopolis
Williams, Wanda Williams, Cynthia Willis, Gail Wilson,
Dennis Witherspoon, Michael Woods, Morris Wormley,
Larry Yeoman, Cassandra Young, and Muriel Young.
Summer School
Registration
to Begin
The 1978 Evening
Undergraduate Summer
School program is designed
primarily for the mature
student throughout the
Atlanta University Center and
community, who, because of
summer employment and/or
other daytime commitments
desires to matriculate his/her
academic studies during the
evening and weekends.
The program shall begin at
4:00 p.m. Mondays through
Fridays; Saturdays and Sun
days, 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
For further information,
please contact: Dr. V.
Williams, 523-2691 or 523-7831,
ext. 61 or 62.
Registration begins Monday
June 13, 1978 at the Atlanta
University.