Newspaper Page Text
Page 5 - Spelman Spotlight
Ms. Jordan:
Customs and History Losing Significance
By Shelia Poole
“I wonder if the students
really understand the
significance, customs and his
tory of Founders Day or care,”
said Ms, Millicent Dobbs
Jordan, in an interview.
Ms. Jordan, assistant
professor of English at
Spelman College, remembers
the past traditions and
significance of Founders Day
at Spelman.
“Founders Day was the
essence of solidarity among
the Spelman family. It gave
students an opportunity to feel
the sisterhood and to
participate in the celebration
of Spelman’s birthday,” she
said.
If anyone is aware of the im
portance of Founders Day, Ms.
Jordan is. After all, Ms.
Jordan’s family has been a
part of Spelman College for 30
years.
“I was the third of six sisters
to attend Spelman and I’ve
had five nieces at Spelman,”
she said. Ms. Jordan’s oldest
sister attended Spelman when
it still had a high school.
“When I came to Spelman, I
had already anticipated the
feelings I would have for
Founders Day through my
sisters’ reactions,” Ms. Jordan
said.
Ms. Jordan still has vivid
memories of past Founders
Day activities. “At that time
Spelman was, of course,
smaller and there was more of
a family feeling,” she said.
Since physical education
was required there were
competitive games, gymnas
tics, and a walk-a-thon.
“About six or seven years ago
Spelman tried to recreate
family oriented activities, Ms.
Jordan said. “There were
games in the gym such as bad
minton, volleyball and a walk-
a-thon.”
“There was a feeling of old-
fashioned friendship. Another
tradition until the ’60s was to
have all the students in a line
and march to Sisters Chapel
behind the administration,”
she said. Ms. Jordan admits
that there was more student
and faculty participation in
the past.
Photo by Terrence V. Smith
the school financially.
“Classes used to compete to
donate money to the school,”
Ms. Jordan said. “Founders
Day was a big occasion to raise
money.”
Ms. Jordan feels that
student apathy can hurt
Spelman’s future financially.
“Do students want Spelman
to survive or will their feelings
disappear with commence
ment?” asks Ms. Jordan. 1
Apartheid:
Racism To The Extreme
Ms. Jordan feels that
students and members of the
faculty have little regard for
tradition. “Americans are so
apt to live in many different
environments; formerly they
had roots, but they are now
becoming rootless,” she said.
“People are becoming more
and more American and less
and less black,” she said. Ms.
Jordan says that if students
are properly motivated they
will learn their heritage and
value traditions.
“Most students feel a
coldness and indifference
towards the activities,” she
said.
Founders Day also helped
By Avy Long
“This message is not to the
blacks of South Africa but to
the placent, smug, in-
contractable whites in South
Africa; to the businesses and
corporations in South Africa;
to the United States
government.”
Ms. Margaret B. Wilson,
chairperson for the NAACP
National Board of Directors
presented this message to
throngs of marchers at the
NAACP’s rally in Centennial
Park, the final destination of
the anti-Davis Cup March in
Nashville, Tennessee.
We are determined there will
be no place on the face of the
earth where racism will
survive, Ms. Wilson said.
Many have raised the issue
of discrimination in Russia,
China, the Philippines and
other countries, so why protest
that in South Africa
specifically? Ms. Wilson
pointed out that the NAACP
and its allies abhor the
violations of civil rights in any
part of the world, but there is
hardly a place where racism
has been carried to the extreme
as in South Africa. She said in
other countries political,
ideological, and religious
differences have been mainly
Continued on page 7
Two Views of Drama Departments^Colored Girls”
By Sheron Covington
“For Colored Girls” . . . It’s
Real and We Can All Identify
With It!
On a beautiful spring
afternoon, on the lawn of the
Fine Arts building, a play
based on “For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide
When the Rainbow is Enuf”
was presented before a recep
tive audience, by ten vety
talented Spelman women.
“For Colored Girls” is an
original Broadway play
written by Ntozake Shange
that expresses the moods of
black women. This particular
play had special significance
in the Spelman Founders Day
activities because the play is
about black women and the
sensitivities of black women.
Vicki-Elaine Felder, one of
the members of the drama
group commented by saying,
“This play was more or less a
drama workshop that
exercised all of the department
with all of the participants.”
Each of the actresses
portrayed 'an emotional
situation that black women
have or will go through. These
situations ranged from cries
from an unwanted abortion
and too many sorries to
somebody walked away with
my stuff.
Ms. Felder also added, “It’s
an expression of the sen
timents of black women and
the kinds of things they en
counter in life, we are just shar
ing with everyone.”
The group of nine drama ma
jors and one English major
were Cassandra Clayton, sr.,
Cheryl Cloyd, jr., Vicki-Elaine
Felder, sr., Carmen Kelly, jr.,
Tama Lee, sop., Iris Little, jr.,
Gwendolyn Nelson, jr.,
Yolanda Snowball, fr., Paula
Smith, jr., and Sharon
Williams, jr.
Ms. Felder concluded by
saying, “It’s real and we can
all identify with it.”
By Malrey Head
To all the “Spelman women
who have moved on to the end
of their rainbows”, the
performance on April 7, in
celebration of Spelman’s 97th
birthday, was done for you.
Drama students gave a
performance in the style of
Ntozake Shange’s “For
Colored Girls Who Have Con
sidered Suicide When the Rain
bow is Enuf.” Each of the ten
actresses recited and
performed her story of mis
fortune with a man.
Tama Lee gave a realistic
performance about abortion.
She explored the doubts and
fears of having an abortion.
She seems to feel that she has
been violated by “tubes enter
ing my womb”. The fact that
she couldn’t be seen pregnant
by her friends was the reason
for the abortion.
Carmen Kelly performed
“Nite With Beau Willie
Brown”, which was the most
gripping of the stories. The
story is that of a woman
named Crystal and her
relationship with Beau Willie,
by whom she has two children.
Crystal had at one time been
in love with Beau Willie, but
now she wants nothing to do
with him. Beau Willie wants to
marry her and is always com
ing to her house. Because she
refuses to marry him, he often
beats her. She obtained a res
training order from the courts
to keep him from her and the
children.
But no matter how hard
Crystal tries to be, Beau Willie,
a smooth talker, always gets
in. One day he smooth talks
the children back to his side.
Once he has them on his side,
he uses them to try to get
Crystal to say she’d marry
him. He holds the children
over the window ledge and
wants Crystal to shout to the
people that she’s going to
marry him. She can’t do it and
he drops the children off the
ledge.
Gwen Nelson was a woman
plagued by a man who was
forever saying he was sorry.
But she lets him know that she
is tired of and has no use for his
sorries. “Sorries”, she says,
1881
On April 11th Sophia B. Pac
kard and Harriet E.' Giles
opened a school in the
basement of Friendship Bap
tist Church with 11 students in
attendence. On December 3rd
Reverend Frank Quarles, Pas
tor of Friendship Baptist
Church, died. Reverend
Quarles was very instrumen
tal in enlisting the help of
other ministers to begin the
school which is today known
as Spelman College.
1928
Ms. Mary McLeod Bethune,
can do nothing for her.
Other performances were by
Iris Little, Cheryl Cloyd, Cas
sandra Clayton, Paula Smith,
Vicki-Elaine Felder, Sharon
Williams and Yolanda
Snowball.
Eventually all the women
reached a point where they felt
they needed something else in
their lives. Something was
missing, they said. But they
found this something else
which gave comfort and
understanding.
“I found God in myself and I
loved her fiercely,” they all
sang. At this point the
performance ended.
then president of Bethune-
Cookman College and
president of the National As
sociation of Colored Women,
gave the Founders Day ad
dress here at Spelman. She
asked that students, “take in
that you may give to others.
Train roundly in head, hand
and heart, that the masses
may be served.
1947
Spelman College Alumnae
gave a banquet honoring Ms.
Florence M. Read’s twentieth
anniversary as president of
Spelman.
talent; it was a personal thing
Cheryl Cloyd, Vicki-Elaine Felder, Carmen Kelly, Tama
Lee, Iris Little, Gwendolyn Nelson, Cassandra Clayton,
Yolanda Snowball, Paula Smith and Sharon Williams in
“Colored Girls.” (Photo by Karen Johnson)
This Month In Spelman’s History