Newspaper Page Text
VOL. 1, NO. 5
Wednesday, May 4, I960
our campus on Friday
11, 1960 was a contempor-
of great renowsi who has
the admiration 'of many
lerican people and especially
of the Negro people. The poet is
Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes 1 has written
forty different books. His works
include autobiographies, poems,
anthropologies, novels, short stor
ies, humor, history, plays, and
books for children. One of his
plays, “Mulatto,” ran for almost
two years on Broadway.
The poet told us that his first
inspiration to write poetry came
when he was unanimously chosen
class poet in the eighth grade. Be
fore that time, he had not shown
any indication of literary talent.
His school teachers encouraged
him in his literary career. Lang
ston Hughes accredits Paul Law
rence Dunbar, a famous Negro
poet, as having helped to increase
his literary powers. His profes
sional career began with the pub
lication of his first three jazz
poems.
In 1947 Langston Hughes was
the visiting professor in creative
writing for the Atlanta Univer
sity. He is contributing editor for
the Phylon, the Atlanta Univer
sity quarterly.
In his lecture, Langston Hughes
told of his travel experiences
in Mexico, Africa, Europe, and
America. 'He also spoke of his ex
periences in America as an Amer
ican Negro. Out of these experi
ences grew 1 the ideas for his liter
ary pieces which largely depict
Negro life in America.
The first poem, which he read
was the first published- poem
“Dressed- Up” which he wrote
at the age of 15. The dramatic
manner in which he presented
his poems kept his audience
spellbound. Some of the poems
were “Harlem Sweeties,” “Merry-
Go Round,” and “I Live In Am
erica.”
After hearty .applause by an
appreciative audience, a reception
for Langston Hughes was held in
Rockefeller Lounge at which the
poet autographed copies of some
of his books which were on sale
by the Library Club.
Our Speiman
Traditions
Like all colleges and univer
sities throughout the world, Spei
man has its traditions and cus
toms, which keep her daughters
always close to each other re
gardless of whifSher or not they
have met or will ever meet.
Let us go back to the time
when we first entered the sacred
walls pf Speiman: We first be
came acquainted with the ring-
ingof the Bell on Packard which
begins and ends each day. This
Bell became a regular alarm
clock for each of us. On the first
Sunday we are here there is a
traditional visit to Friendship
Baptist Church in the basement
of which Speiman was founded.
The traditional colors of the
college are Blue and White and
the college motto is “Our Whole
School For Christ.”
The class colors, mottoes, and
emblems have also become tradi
tional. The juniors regard the
freshmen as their “little sisters,”
and even the following year when
the juniors are seniors and the
freshmen are sophomores, they
continue to regard each other as
sister classes. Blue is the color
of the class of 1960 and the Owl
is their emblem. Green and the
the Lamp are the color and em
blem, respectively, of the class
of 1961. The color Red and the
emblem of the Eagle are the pro
perties of the class of 1962; and
the color yellow and the emblem
of the Sphinx belong to the class
of 1963. When a class graduates,
its color and emblem become the
property of the incoming fresh
man class.
We look forward to the tradi
tional Thanksgiving Rally when
we can help the poor and needy
in the city through the giving of
baskets of food and donations to
the various charity organizations.
Not one young lady who has
been to Speiman, if only for a
year, can forget the Christmas
Carol Concert in which the At
lanta - Morehouse - Speiman Cho
rus, the Speiman Glee Club and
(Continued on Page 4)
The Exchanges
From Skidmore
For the two weeks before
Spring Break, Speiman College
was hostess to four interesting
exchange students from Skid
more College in New York. Stu
dents interested in attending a
Negro College applied, and the
four present on our campus were
chosen to come here. At the time
of publication several Speiman
students were taking advantage of
the other half of the program at
Skidmore. They iwere Josephine
Jackson, June Gary, Mary D.
Echols, Ella ' P. Blackmon, and
Norma J. Wilson.
Alice Norman is a sophomore
English major from New York
City, who at present plans to be
come a college English teacher.
She likes the theatre, and enjoys
tennis and reading. She is especi
ally interested in literature. Sev
eral of her favorite authors are
Hemingway, Faulkner, D. H.
Le wrence, and James Joyce; re
cently she read The Sound and
the Fury. She is copy editor of
her school newspaper—a weekly.
Brubeck At
Morehouse
The Speiman College Student
Government and Psi Chapter of
the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity,
will preseftt the great Dave Bru
beck Quartet in concert Thurs
day, May 5, 1960, at 8:00 p.m. in
the Morehouse College Physical
Education and Health Building.
This quartet is world-known
for its ability. Indeed, when Dave
Brubeck’s picture appeared on the
cover of TIME magazine, Nov
ember, 1954, it was apparent that
this tall “loner” from California
had suddenly emerged as one of
the few jazz men to capture the
interest of the general public. The
year prior to TIME’S cover story,
the Dave Brubeck Quartet won
the Down Beat critic’s poll as well
as the readers polls of DOWN
BEAT and METRONOME maga
zines. Jazz fans chose Dave Bru-
The American
Gandhi
Dr. Martin Luther King, T ’’
a rising Negro leader in the
was our Founders Day
Dr. King is not a stranger
Speiman, for he was a 1948 gra
uate of Morehouse, and
conscientious student here
aware of what he has been
His fame began in 1954 when
he accepted the' pastorate of Dex
ter Avenue Baptist Church, Mont- •
gomery, Alabama. In this capa-,*
city, he was instrumental in
■bringing about the Montgomery
bus boycott of 1955 which lasted •
for a year and gained for the
citizens of this Southern com
munity racial equality on public
buses.
His philosophy of non-violent|
resistance was carried out in this
attempt and 1 is being adopted by
Negroes all over the South in or
der to secure rights which are
the Year” in 1954 and 1955. Since
then, the winning of polls has
become a habit of the Quartet and
its members—their most recent
honor placing them for the sec
ond' consecutive year as the top
combo of the nation in the PLAY
BOY poll, the largest of its kind.
Alice described her stay here
as being “most interesting, won
derful, and exciting,” but hasten
ed to say that these words do not
really convey all that it has
meant to her. She, along with the. ^cockton, California, he organized
other exchange students, attendeL^bis band,
one day of the Sibley hearings.
Brubeck starte^^laying jazz in
local dance bandSBlone, Califor
nia) at the age of thirteen, and as
• music major at the Pacific,
D
She was amazed at the partiality
of the chairman because she had
always assumed that chairmen
were to be neutral—at least pub
licly.
Alice applied for the exchange
program mainly from the desire
to see how a Negro college and
college students were different
from other colleges and students
she had come in contact with.
After a week of Speiman life she
skid that she wished she could
stay here. Her candid closing re
mark about hfer Visit would be a
tribute to any [college. She said,
“Students here are more interest
ed in problems than . other stu
dents I have known are interest
ed in anything. They are more
aware and have more real stake
in the world.”
Christian e Boeres, better known
as “Titi,” is an exchange student
originally from Evry-Petit-Bourg,
France, which is twenty miles
from Paris. She is a special stu
dent at Skidmore, teaching French
composition labs. Titi likes to
travel because it brings her into
contact with many people. She
lives with other families in vari
ous countries; while, at home
her parents have students living
with them. She also enjoys read
ing, attending concerts, skiing,
and participating in other sports.
Before Titi attended the Sibley
hearings, she knew that some
whites were opposed to integra
tion, but was surprised to find
out that the reasons they used
to defend segregation were so
primitive.
When asked how she liked
(Continued on Page 4)
beck as the “Jazz Personality of | legally theirs. The root of
philosophy stems froru Mahandas
Gandhi. For this ’reason, Dr. King
has been called “the American
Gandhi.”
Dr. King is favored as a leader
among his people not only be
cause of the successful boycott,
but because of the courageous
way in which he responded to the
will of his people, his unwavering
determination to succeed and the
calm way in which he reacted
to the injustices placed upon him.
In February of this year', Dr.
King resigned his pastorate at
Dexter and assumed the role of
assistant pastor at his father’s
church, Ebenezer Baptist Church
in Atlanta. Here he plans to work
on a larger scale to gain equality
in the South.
His book, Stride Toward Free
dom, gives an account of the
Montgomery story. He presents
accurately the way in which the
Negroes of Montgomery by non
violence won their struggle for
racial equality on public buses.
Many people have hailed' this
book as one of the best written
about the racial situation.
Bette Durrah
The Dave ! Brubeck Octet, a
youthful, avante-garde jazz band
was organized over ten years ago
when Dave was still a student of
Darius Milhaud at the Mills Gra
duate School. The octet attracted
serious musicians by its experi
ments in the use of counterpoint,
fugue, polytonality, polyrhythms
and even poetry in jazz. When
Paul Desmond joined forces with
Dave in 1951, the now famous
Dave Brubeck Quartet was
launched. Their musical ideas
blended so together that they
are genera^^fttecognized as the
finest tearJ^^^^Tz artists to use
counterpoin o
' .<&>'
Brubeck has said of his band,
“Our group is sometimes emo
tional, sometimes cerebral, some
times hard-driving, sometimes
light swinging, humorous or pro
found, according to the prevailing
mood and the conception of the
soloist. I had tried to avoid musi
cal strait jackets in my own play
ing, and I have not tried to force
them upon the quartet in a fruit
less search for a ‘sound’ or a
‘style’.
Early in 1958, the Dave Bru
beck Quartet in most of the Euro
pean and the Middle-East on a
four-months tour which took
them behind the Iron Curtain
into Poland, and on to Turkey, In
dia, Pakistan, Ceylon, Afganistan,
Iran, and Irak. The major portion
of this tour was sponsored by the
U. S. State Department. An exam
ple of their reaction to Dave Bru
beck’s music is included in the
following item from a newspaper
in Madras India.
(Continued on Page 4)
Ellabelle Davis
On May 1, I960 Speiman Col
lege will be .hostess to the great
American soprano singer, Ella
belle Davis. Miss Davis, after ten
tours of Europe, Israel, South
America, and Mexico has 'been
acclaimed in eleven countries of
three continents as one of the
greatest sopranos of our time.
In Rotterdam the Courant made
the following comment after her
appearance; “Phenomenal! A
beautiful soprano voice which
■soars to thrilling heights and son
orous depths. Masterful singing.
There were storms of enthusi
asm.” The Paris Herald Tribune
said she had .“a voice of god. Ella
belle Davis cast a spell over the
hall.”
On May 1, we too will have
a chance to hear this world-famed
American artist. The public will
be admitted free. This is an op
portunity we cannot afford to
miss.
Mary Miller