Newspaper Page Text
Founders Day Issue
When Is The Best Time To:
Have Fun At Spelman College
By Pamela Denise Moore
Founder’s Day is the best
time to get involved and have
fun at Spelman College. If
you’re looking for fun,
excitement, laughter, and ac
tion, you will surely find it at
the Founder’s Day Rally. And
this year’s Rally was one of the
best. The campus was visited
by such prestigious celebrities
as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle
Dum, Star Wars figures, Mrs.
Sophia B. Packard, and Mrs.
Harriet Giles.
Actually these persons were
characters in skits performed
by Spelman students at the
rally on April 11, 1978. The
rally was organized on a
format similar to the Academy
Awards program. The
Morehouse Jazz Lab
performed under the direction
of Rod Smith during intervals
of the program. Each class
competed during the rally to
present the best song and skit.
The freshman class presented
the winning skit, “The Trial of
the Wayward Spelman
Woman or Anybody Can Do a
Moo Step”. In the play Ms.
Joan Nonconformist, a
character played by Wanda
Turner, was brought to court
for not living up to the ideals of
the Spelman woman. She was
charged with wearing curlers
to dinner, stomping the steps
of a local fraternity, and with
dating a Morris Brown man.
Up until the end the play was
highly comical, featuring the
hilarious antics of the
prosecutor, a step routine by
Moo Psi Phi, a visit by the
spirit of Ms. Sophia B. Pac
kard, and a jury that did
outrageous things. However,
when Ms. Joan Nonconformist
entered the witness stand, the
play suddenly became serious.
Ms. Nonconformist told the
crowd that she refused to live
up to the image set by Ms. Snob
(one of the witnesses), an
image that was seen through a
cracked mirror. She said that it
was wrong for others to blame
her for something a power
structure had done to their
minds. She said that a
Spelman woman was am
bitious, intelligent and as
piring. And she also said that
it was a shame that economic
and social hangups allowed
Spelmanites to lose sight of the
fact that she was their sister.
Ms. Joan Nonconformist
ended her speech by saying
that she was not a circle, but a
Continued on page 3
SPELMA N
THE VOICE
OF BLACK WOMANHOOD
SPO TLIGHT
Yol.31,No.8
Atlanta, Georgia
April, 1978
Distinguished Guests At Founders Day Exercises
by Robyn D. Mahone
Some Spelmanites com
plained about donning their
academic attire before the fact,
but more realized the
significance of the annual
Founders Day Exercises and
found their participation well
worth their while as did the
underclassmen who attended.
The exercises began with a
processional of seniors in caps
and gowns, underclassmen in
white dresses and faculty and
administrators in their
academic regalia to Sisters
Chapel.
There were lumps in throats
and a few tears shed when 101
year old Ms. Annie Alexander,
who was a Spelman student,
came to the podium and
expressed her happiness at be
ing present at the exercises
and alive to see the growth
Spelman College has made
through the years. She said, “I
am very pleased to be here
today. It’s something that I
never thought of that would
ever happen to me.”
Ms. Alexander praised the
founders of the college, Ms.
Sophia Packard and Ms.
Harriet Giles, as dedicated
Christian women who were
also dedicated to true
womanhood.
“I learned to love these
women who were so eager and
so helpful for the Negro women
who needed help. It is someth
ing that the Negro women will
remember for as long as there’s
one living,” said Ms.
Alexander.
She continued, “and
Spelman, I just want you to go
on and on to higher heights.”
Mrs. Alexander, who didn’t
graduate from Spelman
because of family hardships
(see Vol. 5 of the Spotlight),
was four years old when
Spelman was founded as a
seminary and can probably
stand up with the most en
thusiastic of alumnae. She was
given a Centennial Citation by
Dr. Donald M. Stewaat,
president of the college, from
Spelman. The citation read,
“For your embodiment of
Spelman’s pioneer past and
your dedication to the hope
and aspirations of Spelman
generations yet to come, we
love and salute you.”
Another of Spelman’s dis
tinguished guests was Dr.
Anita Allen, chief of the
division of the Advanced
Institutional Development
branch of Health Education
and Welfare. Dr. Allen gave
the message to the seniors.
“What a glorious privilege it
is for me to be your guest at
Spelman College,” she said,
“what a privilege it is for me to
be a part of this high day. As I
look around this campus I am
pleased that the bureau which
I am part of has given funds to
this college.”
Dr. Allen spoke of the role of
black women in a changing
society in the past, present and
future. She recalled how black
women worked and schemed,
out of necessity, to get their
children an education, “all the
time building with nothing the
black nation of today.”
“But more than that,” Dr.
Allen said, “in the background
there is that mother,
grandmother or great
grandmother who fought to
see that this great opportunity
came along. I don’t know
about you, but I’m standing on
the shoulders of those before
me who built the stairway, and
it is our responsibility to pave
the way for those behind us.”
Dr. Allen suggested a kind of
program to be followed by the
seniors with such advice as 1)
be politically involved 2) help
to better educational op
portunities 3) increase and
reaffirm race pride that is ours
throughout the nation, and 4)
demand no less than the best
for those in and out of the
family.
In regards to getting out into
the world of work, Dr. Allen ad
vised, “if you prepare yourself
you will make yourself so
necessary that someone will
have to give you a job. Be up
and about that promising
program now and in the years
to come.”
Dr. Allen was also presented
with a Spelman College plate
and a Certificate of Merit from
the college.
Dr. Donald M. Stewart, President, Spelman College, Dr. Jane Browning, Assistant
to the President; Ms. Annie Alexander (middle), one of Spelman’s special guests.