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Leaders of Tomorrow! FEBRUARY 1997 MBC Wolverine OBSERVER 3
Wisdom
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more people wanted education
than Black people. They have
to realize the Black College educated
the people who pulled us up after
slavery and they have to realize how
many people were burnt and how
many teachers were beaten, how
many Black people got an education
not because they were going to make
anything, but because they were
going to serve. They came back to
places where they were beaten and
some never realized their full
potential.
They have to understand that the
Black College grew out of the Black
church, as Morris Brown did out of
the AME church, Morehouse from
the Baptist church and Clark from
the Methodist church. The church
created the grade schools, then the
high schools, and eventually the
Black colleges. They have to
understand what it took. One thing
graduates of Black colleges,
especially Morehouse.
My wife attended a college in
Illinois and became the member of a
sorority, I didn’t, because they didn’t
exist at my college, there weren’t
enough Black kids to make it. I just
left two colleges - giving speeches for
Black History Month - and we were
at Iowa State where there are about
400-500 Black students on campus.
One could say that is a lot of
students and they even have a Black
Students’ Union, but the point is if
you’re surrounded by 17,000 others,
you are hardly there.
Students from Black colleges take
who they are for granted and they
take achievement as something
they are going to do, because they
know who they are. They don’t
have to fight those side battles I
fought, I dropped out of college 3
times, I didn’t know then, I know
now, the reason was I was never at
home on that campus, and because
I was fighting forces I need not
We were always reminded that we
were the talented tenth of our
period, and that it was up to us
to save the race.
Our parents had maybe a 5th grade
education and there were things that
they just couldn't teach us.
that really bothers me is that the
Alumni of Black colleges don’t give
back (to their alma mater). One
reason for that is, they don’t
understand what it took to get
there. Black History Month does
that and they are basic to Black
History. They have to understand
that the people who brought us a
mighty long way were the products
of the Black college.
Speaking as someone who went to
a majority white college, I now
realize how much I missed, but only
after I had come into a situation
where I met Black students from
Black colleges and realized they had
a better sense of self than I did. I
hadn’t even read a Black book or
poem ‘til high school, didn’t
even know that Black poets existed,
and yet they became the fire of my
life for several years. A goodly
number of our kids must realize
there wouldn’t be an America worth
saving - had it not been for the
involvement of Black people making
this or trying to make this the
democratic, Christian culture it
should become.
They have to understand what a
Howard University did in terms of
creating the strategy at the Law
School, that opened up this country.
They have to understand that this is
the only place in the country that
young intellectuals can come
together and create the future for
Black people and in the process
create it for this nation. It is only at
the Black college that this happens
in numbers.
Our children went to both
majority and predominantly Black
colleges. One daughter went to a
white college because she said it
had so much to offer. She went on
to write a full page article on racism
at the University of Kentucky for
the college paper, which eventually
led to her leaving a year later for
Clark College (now Clark Atlanta
University).
Some of our other children
attended Morris Brown and other
AUC colleges and have a better
sense of life and a network of
friends across the nation. My son
that attended Morehouse has a
network of friends and deeply
concerned people, indicative of
have fought.
I used to write term papers for
white kids to pay my way through
college. But if I put my name on a
term paper I had to argue with
professors to get an A or B. I could
promise an A or B if a white kid’s
name was on the paper. I couldn’t
tell them I had written some of the
papers they had given A’s and B’s
with no problem, I would have been
kicked out of school for being
morally incompetent, but their
morality took racism for granted.
Mr. Bennett - What are your
opinions on students today
compared to the students of
the Civil Rights Era, the 50’s
and 60’s?
Mrs. Vivian:
I think the kids today come to
college with a better background
than we did. Our parents had maybe
a 5th grade education and there
were things that they just couldn’t
teach us. I found I had to do a lot of
reading to catch up and to keep up.
It was difficult.
Dr. Vivian:
This is a problem with age. Too
many Black kids take too many
things for granted. We who fought
during the Civil Rights Movement,
the generation that is, did such a
good job that those who we did it
for don’t even know what we
went through, as a result they
are not quite as appreciative.
The other point is, if you take the
South, you will see how appreciative
Black kids were of their teachers
and their schools. That’s not at the
same level today as it was, and it
needs to be renewed.
Another point, we had a drive to
be free that always propelled
everything about us. We didn’t put it
in those terms, but that’s what it
was. We were always reminded that
we were the talented tenth of our
period, and that it was up to us to
save the race. These are terms you
hardly hear today. My grandmother
used to say you were a ‘race man’,
meaning you wanted to do and be
and become. Not simply so you can
say I made a million dollars,
because that was secondary, things
were done on behalf of all of us.
I don’t want to be negative, but I
want to go where Mrs. Vivian is
going. In terms of the potential of
the Black college student today, it
is greater than the potential of most
Black college student at any other
time and age. But, whether it is
used or not depends on what drives
that.
Mr. Bennett - What do you
see as the role of the Black
college newspaper such as
ours, especially when competing
with television and computer
technology? Also, colleges are
becoming more fiscally
responsible and in that drive
some things like the newspaper
is the first to go. Your response?
Dr. Vivian:
Ahh! exactly right, I have
owned a newspaper and was the
editor of my college newspaper in an
integrated environment, so I
speak to this both from a student
perspective and as an owner. We
can look at television all day long,
but the real problem is that the
news we see is not localized for
the student.
News in America is not directed
at the level of college intelligence,
whether the kid is black or white.
Besides, each student should know
and appreciate what’s happening in
his immediate environment. Only
newspaper can unite all these young
people, particularly when we don’t
have what we used to have, which is
mandatory campus-wide chapel.
When there was a place where
everybody communicated together,
that made the individual coming
from a particular college. That made
the Morris Brown College student,
that made the Morehouse man,
that made the Spelman woman.
They had something that
communicated that.
Now there is nothing like that,
like when I was at Shaw. We got rid
of mandatory chapel every week,
thus without that, the only thing
that brings the total campus
together is the newspaper. If a
school expects for its Alumni to
respect it, it has to have something
that ties its Alumni to the school.
If they have a really good news
paper, that should help build the
school’s coffers.
We have six kids who went to
college, so we know of the level of
disrespect when they (the
administrators) send out letters
soliciting funds, and they wonder
why they don’t get any monetary
replies. This disrespect grows out of
what happens to the kid while he or
she was in school. But the adminis
trators may point out, the kid got
his or her degree here, so why
doesn’t he give back.
Well the answer is because of how
they treated him or her while he or
she was in college. What kind of
esprit de corps he had while he was
in school, what kind of commitment
the school showed.
Through the newspaper, both
student and faculty get to know
each other in a totally different way.
It makes a difference in terms of
their feeling right. When that
alumnus looks up and sees a
picture of a professor he or she had,
that did something for him or her, it
causes him to remember what that
school did for him or her.
There are certain things in life
that we seem to think we can cut
out, but they only seem to be. We
can talk about how much the cost
is, and we don't have much money,
but I tell you what...if you cut
them out, then you will never
have much money.
Mrs. Vivian:
The situation existed where
federal dollars were awarded for
certain types of programs and some
students felt they were placed in
these remedial programs so the
school could get further funding.
Some of the students felt they were
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