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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