HBCU Times Magazine

SUMMER 2019

Cover Story:

Congressman James Clyburn ROBERT SMITH and the $40 Million Gift Heard Around the World Norfolk State University’s Rector Joan Wilmer National Treasures

by DR. BELLE WHEELAN TMCF, Big Sean and Ally Team Up HBCU POWER ALUMS

National Treasures HBCUs:

$5.00

HBCU Times Summer 2019

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Post-doctoral Opportunity: Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training (ARRT) Program at the LU-RRTC on Research and Capacity Building for Minority Entities PROJECT OVERVIEW:

The Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training (ARRT) Project at the Langston University (historically Black college/university [HBCU]) Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (LU-RRTC) on Research and Capacity Building represents a collaborative effort between the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston ([ICI] Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University ([NCA&T] HBCU), South Carolina State University ([SCSU] HBCU), and Jackson State University ([JSU] HBCU). The Project implements a Peer-to-Peer Multiple Mentor Model to help post-doctoral fellows navigate institutional context and cross-fertilize their independent research project and research grant proposal through exchanges with a primary mentor and a scientific panel of mentors comprised of content experts, multicultural specialists, methodologists, and statisticians.

The ARRT Program works in concert with the LU-RRTC drawing upon the center’s extensive minority-serving institution research capacity building expertise, collaborative networks, resources, and interventions (e.g., methodology and grant writing web-based trainings, communities of practice, strategic planning, sponsored programs office and institutional review board technical assistance and consultation), offer courses, webinars, and implement peer mentoring as an innovative strategy to holistically address the fellows’ research skill building needs.

INVITATION TO APPLY:

We invite individuals who have earned a doctorate from a minority-serving institution (i.e., HBCU, Hispanic serving institution, or American Indian tribal college) or traditionally White institution (TWI) and current doctoral candidates (must graduate before beginning fellowship) at minority-serving institutions or TWIs interested in employment research to apply to participate in the post-doctoral fellowship. Minority-serving institution based faculty members who have earned doctorates are also eligible to apply (i.e., 80% research supplements through subcontract for such faculty in residence at their employing minority-serving institution are optional). We strongly encourage individuals with disabilities to apply. We are particularly interested in recruiting candidates who have a strong desire to obtain an academic faculty position or research position at a minority-serving institution upon completion of the fellowship program.

PARTICIPATION INCENTIVES:

• Salary and benefits package- Annual salary with full health benefits • Peer-to-Peer multiple research mentorship opportunity with scientific panel mentors • Financial research agenda start-up package- i.e., study participant honorariums/fellow research travel • Peer reviewed publications • Present research findings at national and/or international rehabilitation related conferences If you have any questions regarding the Langston University Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training Program (LU-ARRT), please contact Dr. Corey L. Moore, Principal Investigator/Training Director at (405) 530-7531 email:Summer capacitybuildingrrtc@langston.edu.

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Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (LU-RRTC) on Research and Capacity Building for Minority Entities The MISSION of the Langston University RRTC is to improve minority entities’ (e.g., historically Black colleges/universities [HBCUs], Hispanic-serving institutions [HSIs], and American Indian tribal colleges/universities [AITCUs]) disability and rehabilitation research capacity and infrastructure by conducting a programmatic line of research examining experiences and outcomes of persons with disabilities from traditionally underserved racial and ethnic populations and communities and capacity-building efforts.

LU-RRTC TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

The LU-RRTC serves as a national resource center for minority entities (MEs) seeking to develop their research infrastructure (RI), and to enhance their capacity to engage in disability and rehabilitation research.

To this end, the RRTC initiates dissemination, training and technical assistance (TA) activities to develop strong RIs within MEs for the conduct of research, preparation, submission, and management of NIDILRR funded research grant projects. TA services are provided as a part of LU-RRTC interventions for research project participants and to ME and SVRA requestors around the country. The quality, intensity, and duration of TA vary by system (i.e., ME or SVRA) and the readiness of TA recipients.

Minority Entity TA Areas- • Faculty Scholar Role & Function Balance Consultation (e.g., teaching/service/research balance)• Sponsored Programs Office Operations Consultation • Research Infrastructure Strategic Planning • Institutional Review Board (IRB) Operation Consultation • NIDILRR Research Proposal Development Mentorship • NIDILRR Research Project Management Consultation • Manuscript for Peer Reviewed Publication Development Mentorship • NIDILRR Request for Comment (RFC) or Request for Proposal (RFP) Interpretation Consultation • NIDILRR Expert Panel Application Development Consultation • Data Management and Analysis Software and Related Technology Support Consultation State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (SVRA) TA Areas- • SVRA Policy Consultation to Improve Outcomes for Persons from Traditionally Underserved Communities • SVRA Rehabilitation Practitioner Consultation or Training to Improve Outcomes for Persons from Traditionally Underserved Communities LU-RRTC PEER-TO-PEER MENTOR RESEARCH TEAM ACADEMY

The LU-RRTC Peer-to-Peer Mentor Research Team Academy represents a collaborative effort between Langston University and the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

The Academy mentors Fellows to conduct research that addresses the rehabilitation needs of persons with disabilities from traditionally underserved backgrounds and communities. Ultimately, the program builds Fellows’ scholarly self-efficacy and research skills by providing them with state-of-the-science knowledge of scientifically valid measurement strategies and methodologies, and direct hands-on experience in the conduct of research and grant proposal development.

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A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

welcome to the summer 2019 issue of the illustrious hbcu times magazine!

DR. DAVID STATEN

It is heating up, both outside and in this very special summer issue of HBCU Times! The academic school year may be over, but we are celebrating HBCUs and black excellence all year long. The theme for this edition is, “HBCUs: National Treasures,” specifically inspired by Congressman James E. Clyburn’s reference to our beloved institutions.

Our cover story is a phenomenal feature by Ashley Elliot on Congressman Clyburn, chronicling his journey from a Civil Rights activist on South Carolina State campus, to a change agent in Congress. He shares how his time as a student at SC State significantly shaped his character, as he built lifelong relationships, fought for worthy causes, and carried the wise words of alumni through his matriculation.

Congressman Clyburn went from majoring in history, to making history through legislation, such as the 2019 Lands Bill, which includes the reauthorization of the HBCU historic preservation program. He educated himself on his home state of South Carolina, in order to become a true public servant, which he credits South Carolina State’s campus as playing a major role in. Additionally, in his article, “HBCUs: A Proven Vehicle for Repairing Faults,” Congressman Clyburn presents a brief history lesson about inequities in higher education for blacks, as well as his involvement in a current bill to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans.

The venture capitalist, Dr. Robert Smith, whose generosity was covered by nearly all news outlets, is also featured in this issue. Dr. Smith, the wealthiest black man in the United States, presented the Morehouse graduating class of 2019 with a pledge to eliminate all their student loans. His pledge was worth up to $40 million and sparked national discussion of issues such as fundraising in higher education, endowment gifts, and alumni contribution.

Now it would not be HBCU Times if we did not include several stories of former HBCU students exemplifying excellence within their fields and communities; this round, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University is taking center stage. Keith Harriston’s article spotlights Grammy award winning vocalist and songwriter, Kendra Foster. As the first female jazz studies major at FAMU, Foster credits her committed teachers for molding her talents and guiding her towards career success, including working alongside award-winning artist, D’Angelo. Continuing the trend of FAMU excellence, Ebony Hillsman’s article, “Building Legacies One Alumni Chapter at a Time” tells the story of eight Atlanta high school teachers and FAMU alumni who joined forces to charter the Northwest Georgia chapter. With goals to better assist students accepted to their alma mater, the newly founded chapter developed a support system for students, aligning their academic performance and interests with accessible scholarships.

Finally, this edition displays a very unique partnership in an article

by Dr. Harry Williams. With the current entrepreneurial rise, Ally Financial Inc. teamed up with Detroit native and entertainer Big Sean and Thurgood Marshall College Fund to create an innovative program aimed at preparing HBCU students to become future entrepreneurs and Moguls in the Making business community.

The purpose of this partnership is to provide opportunities and encouragement for HBCU students with impeccable talent and ideas.

As you can see, the work needed for the advancement of HBCUs and production of black excellence is never done. Luckily, these notable figures and many more are consistently contributing to the efforts to empower prospective and current students, as well as create and improve access to opportunities. HBCUs are national treasures, so we must continue to protect them and celebrate their greatness. Now, pull up a chair by the pool, soak in the sun, and enjoy this summer edition of HBCU Times!

Dr.David Staten Sincerely,

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8 morehouse: robert smith and the $40 million gift heard around the world 12 norfolk state university: joan g. wilmer 16 rise, shine: bragging rights and best kept secrets of hbcus 18 hbcus: national treasures

spotlight

LEGACY

POLITICS

FOR THE CULTURE

WHAT’S INSIDE

36 hbcu students and the stem workforce 38 hbcu impact 40 building legacies one alumni chapter at a time 41 charles d. king at howard university charter day

24 cover story: leading change: congressman james clyburn

43 power alum dr. wes bellamy ala’torya cranford l. kobie wilkerson jennifer bishop

28 hbcus: a proven vehicle for repairing faults

47 student spotlight: markayla brooks

30 hbcus and prison education: the new frontier

48 morgan state university: national treasures

20 famu: the kendra foster story

32 tmc, ally and big sean: moguls in the making HBCU Times Summer 2019

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Celebrating Diversity in Education

Charleston County School District,

the second largest school district in South Carolina, serves approximately 50,000 students. CCSD includes 86 urban, suburban, and rural schools along the coast. The district features a diverse, expanding portfolio of options including neighborhood, charter programs, and magnet schools. With a staff of over 5,000, CCSD is Charleston County’s fourth largest employer.

www.ccsdschools.com

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C R E D I T S EDITOR AND CO-CEO Dr. David Staten CO-CEO Dr. Bridget Hollis Staten ART DIRECTOR Mia Salley ASSOCIATE EDITORS Octavia Robinson Adrienne Jorgensen Dr. Regina Bush CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Amori Washington Ashley Elliot Congressman James E. Clyburn Dr. Belle Wheelan Gerard Robinson Ericka Blount Danois Keith Harriston Dr. Glenwood Green Dr. Lawrence Flowers Dr. Harry L. Williams Kyra M. Robinson Olanma Hazel Mang Howard University Staff Report Dr. Wes Bellamy Ala’Torya Cranford Dr. Lawrence O. Flowers Ebony Hillsman L.Kobie Wilkerson Markayla Brooks MODELS Carlisle Cooper Ala’Torya Cranford Ila Wilborn Tamera Fields Sierra Cunningham Morgan Poole LOGO DESIGNER Lionel T. Angevine PUBLISHER Georgetown Times

CREATIVE CONSULTANTS G.Kenneth Gary Ebony Hillsman Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell Dr. Demarcus Bush Dr. Corey Phillips Dr. Carlton Watson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Thurgood Marshall College Fund Terrell Maxwell of Maxwell PhotographyCover and all James Clyburn photos Jeanette Brewster Clever Agency MShon Pulliam Gordy Cox Perrice Ledbetter #Lazy Couch Media Jessica Duboise AG3 Digital Photography Lamar Pacley of Shutter Eye Photo Howard University Morgan State University Norfolk State Univesity Rolando Davis Yolanda Rouse Photography Morehouse College Northwest GA FAMU Additional Photos provided by the authors.

HBCU Times Inc, LLC Follow Us On:

@HBCU Times

hbcu_times8892 @HBCU_Times www.hbcutimes.com HBCU Times inspired by Ethel and Jordan Staten

HBCU Times Summer 2019

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Morehouse:

Robert Smith and the $40 Million Gift Heard Around the World

R

obert Smith, a venture capitalist and the wealthiest black man in the United States, was 33 minutes into a 35-minute commencement speech at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, when he asked the graduating seniors to stand up from their seats.

“Give each other a hug,” Smith said.

Lennard Long, a D.C. native who is among the Morehouse Class of 2019, said that was a smart move. “It was hot,” said Long, “and he was losing the crowd.”

Then Smith dropped a bomb, a gesture so generous—and to many so unbelievable—that several in the audience said they were unsure of what they heard.

by keith harriston

“On behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus. This is my class, 2019.

My family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.”

Smith’s pledge stunned Cameron Edge, a Brooklyn, New York City native, who was graduating from Morehouse with a major in sociology and a minor in African-American studies. In his head, this number kept popping up: $150,000. That was Edge’s total in student loans he owed after four years at the college.

“It was like a movie,” Edge said. “A lot of us didn’t believe it until we started seeing it in The Washington Post and The New York Times. And then? It was just amazing. It is a huge weight off of my family’s and my shoulders.”

Smith’s pledge to the 396 graduates of Morehouse’s Class of 2019 could be worth up to $40 million, some experts have estimated.

The college administration, which was just as surprised at the announcement as the students, is still working through details of exactly how this will work.

In a statement after commencement, the college thanked Smith, the founder, chair and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. “To be free from the financial burden of paying off student loans will be life-changing for the Class of 2019,” the statement said. “Our Office of Business and Finance, as well as our Office of Enrollment Management, have been working diligently to calculate the student loan debt and other details of this gift. As soon as we have a final figure, we will share it with our new graduates so that they

can continue on the path to careers and top-tier graduate schools student loan debt free.”

Smith’s “grant,” as he called it, has focused attention and discussion on student loan debt, the role of philanthropists in higher education and in alumni relationships with their alma maters, especially historically black colleges and universities like Morehouse.

Part of the discussion was driven by Smith’s words. He challenged the graduates to “make sure [to] pay this forward.” And to alumni, Smith said: “This is a challenge to you…. Let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity going forward. Because we are enough to take care of our own community.”

According to Forbes magazine, the average student in the Class of 2017 had more than $28,000 in student loan debt. The issue is compounded for graduates of HBCUs. The Wall Street Journal reported in April 2019 that in 2017, students at HBCUs are graduating with “disproportionately high loans compared with their peers at other schools.”

Brian Bridges, vice president of research and member engagement at the United Negro College Fund, said Smith’s “gift is transformative.

Our hope is that this inspires more alumni and more philanthropists to give. If someone like Robert Smith who did not go to an HBCU but values their contributions enough to make this

kind of gift, maybe other philanthropists who have not invested in HBCUs as they have at wealthier institutions will take notice.”

Noah Drezner, an associate professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has researched philanthropy and fundraising in higher education, called Smith’s pledge “a shocking gift to Morehouse and the whole nation.”

“There’s a possibility it can inspire others,” Drezner said. “And if it inspires others to give to HBCUs, which sadly lag behind white institutions” in endowment gifts, that “would be tremendous.”

Edge, the Morehouse graduate, couldn’t agree more. He said that since commencement members of his class have talked about how they can work to make sure that people understand the importance of giving to HBCUs in ways big and small. He said they’ve talked about targeting wealthy black Americans in particular, citing music mogul Dr. Dre, whose given name is Andre Young, as an example.

In 2013, Dr. Dre along with music industry leader Jimmy Iovine donated $70 million to the University of Southern California to establish the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.

To put that in perspective, Morehouse’s endowment a year ago was about $145 million— about half of Dr. Dre’s donation to USC. The USC endowment a year ago was about $5.5 billion.

“We know our endowment is not large enough to fund a lot of scholarships,” Edge said. But we are going to work to get the attention of wealthy black business people. He said that Sean Combs and New York radio host Charlamagne tha God among others responded with financial donations when Edge and other students were raising money last year through their LYTEhouse mentoring program. In a week, he said, they raised $22,000 to help the homeless. “$22,000 is relatively not a lot of money,” Edge said. “But we did it in a short amount of time.

And for what we need at HBCUs, it will take a lot of effort. Some big and some small.”

Long, Edge’s classmate, already is planning his own, individual way of “paying it forward.” He finished Morehouse with a degree in sociology and student loan debt of $20,000. He said he is committing to a scholarship fund at Morehouse starting at least $1,000 a year.

“Smith definitely has made the process of us giving back to Morehouse easier,” Long said.

“I’m starting with a small amount, but I know the difference it can make for a student. The Morehouse Class of 2019? We have no excuses.”

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“I came to serve the school that gave me so much.”

Joan G. Wilmer on her new role as rector of Norfolk State University by olanma hazel mang

J

oan G. Wilmer was appointed rector of the board of visitors at Norfolk State University by then-Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe. For over two decades, this position was always occupied by a man. Then on January 28, the university announced Wilmer as its first female rector since 1998.

The public discourse about women in the workforce today is pervasive. It’s in the virtual spaces online and company conference rooms where the reality of gender disparity is glaringly tangible. With talk of gender diversity in the work place changing the landscape of corporate America, everyone aims to be at the forefront of this social change. And Norfolk State University is not lagging behind.

“I think when you look at HBCU leadership as a whole, it has been heavily male,” Wilmer said in an interview with HBCU Times.

“So, we see an emergence of females in this part of the world, and it’s coming about during a time when the country is ready for change.”

This change towards gender diversity is something the rector said is crucial to ensuring longevity in today’s educational sector.

Historically black colleges and universities, like Norfolk State, must be dynamic in order to avoid becoming antiquated. For the first time in its history, the university boasts of three key leadership offices that are held by women – the university’s president, the rector and vice-rector of the board of visitors.

Yet, to claim being a woman as her main qualification for rector is to flagrantly understate Wilmer’s achievements. Her career in human resources spans over 20 years and is punctuated with numerous successful business strategy executions under her leadership. As vice president of human resources at Caesar’s Entertainment, she spearheaded a widely successful recruitment program that brought more than 2,000 new employees from over 40,000 applicants to the gaming company. She has also held HR leadership positions at the 12 HBCU Times Summer 2019

Federal Reserve Board, CBRE Group, Toyota, The American Red Cross, and Citigroup. Her work has attracted several awards including Toyota’s President’s Award, and recognition from Ebony Magazine and Baltimore Business Journal as one of the Top 30 Under 30 Leaders and Top 40 Under 40 Leaders, respectively.

With numerous accomplishments under her belt, one might conclude the journey has been easy for Wilmer. However, it’s been the opposite.

Once upon a time, a 16-year-old girl arrived in Norfolk, Virginia with her mother. They had been on the road for more than five hours, traveling in a rented van from White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. They didn’t have a lot of money, but they thrived in an abundance of faith and joy. Nobody else in her family had gone to college; little Joan Wilmer would be the first.

“She had to return the van on that day,” Wilmer narrated. “She didn’t even know what I needed; I literally only had a duffle bag of stuff.”

At the time of their arrival, the housing department was closed. So, with a bag full of stuff and a mother’s heart full of faith, the pair rode around town for a while before stopping at a salon. They needed directions and some information about the area. Inside, a woman would give them more than that.

“The lady said, ‘Well my sister is the head of international studies at Norfolk State University and her name is Dr. Bertha Taylor Escoffery. I’ll call her.’”

Wilmer said the decision to go to that particular salon was piloted by their faith in God. It was this faith that allowed her to remain at Norfolk State and to graduate in 1999. Throughout her enrollment at the university, Dr. Escoffery would become a mentor and a friend to Wilmer, connecting her with work-study and scholarship programs. As a human resources expert today, she makes it a point to also mentor young up-and-coming professionals. She currently mentors eight people who she said she also learns from.

“Seeing those individuals grow and to see someone who was like me - unsure, trying to figure out who Joan was, when she was sixteen going to college - that means more to me than any paycheck, and that’s the truth.”

The choice to attend an HBCU was spurred on by her desire to learn more about black American history. Having grown up in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood, she said she needed a space where she could connect with the black American community. So, she applied and gained admission into Howard University, Hampton University, Clark Atlanta University and Norfolk State.

“It was when I went to Norfolk State for that tour, I felt immediately at home.

Everyone was so kind. They looked me in my eye and said, ‘You’re going to be something great!’”

The connection she felt with her alma mater, reinforced a confidence she now carries throughout her professional and personal life. It allows her to step out of her comfort zone, to be open to meeting and engaging with people from different walks of life, and to face challenges with unwavering resolve.

“Norfolk State helped me figure out who I was, and I can’t put a price tag on that,” Wilmer said.

It was this confidence she carried later on to her role as vice president of human resources at Citigroup. In a post-apartheid South Africa, she implemented the Employment of Choice Strategy, which focused on making the investment banking company a more appealing option to job-seeking graduates in the African country. But for a foreigner, connecting with locals was not easy. Still freshly embedded in the aftermath of apartheid and the uncertainty of traversing a new country with a new president, South Africans were in a place of distrust.

“I had to figure out ways to connect with them without feeling like I was pushing an agenda,” Wilmer said.

Simultaneously, she had to build and lead a team to execute the strategy. She set to work, determined to accomplish the goal. It was a challenge, but one she ultimately overcame.

“It took me about four or five months just to make the relationship connections before I could start the real work of being the HR leader.

But I learned so much about what it means to connect with people, to understand the human aspect of everything we do.”

The strategy was eventually adopted in 13 southern African countries, establishing her as leader in her field. Citigroup presented her with a Circle of Leadership Award, and she underscores her work in South Africa as a highlight of her career.

Now, Wilmer draws parallels between her new role as rector of the board and her work as Citigroup’s vice president of HR. As was the case in South Africa, she has a lot of team building to do, with her eyes on the prize which is growth.

To start off on the right foot, she studied and did research on the university’s history, reading the minutes of previous board meetings and studying the academic requirements for the courses. This allowed her to outline three cornerstones of her leadership: open communication, uniting the board and supporting the president.

“We have a great board. I am one of 13 and my job is to make sure that the members of this board and their voice and their expertise are brought forward in a strong way to leverage the school,” the rector said.

For more than a year, the university conducted a search for its next president, after the former president announced his retirement in September 2017. The criteria required someone with leadership qualities, executive experience and knowledge about the educational sector.

On February 22, Norfolk State announced Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston as the president-elect, to start her tenure on June 24. She would be the seventh president of the university.

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Norfolk State University Rector Joan Wilmer and Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Leroy Hamilton pictured at NSU 2019 Spring Commencement Ceremony

“Dr. Adams-Gaston is going to be an amazing leader,” Wilmer said. “She’s a culmination of this experience.”

To support the new president, the rector said, “We are partnering with our administration in Richmond to do a full analysis of where we are and where we want to grow at the university. So, we are doing a lot of internal reflection and assessment in order to give her all the information and tools she needs to be successful.”

This internal reflection has allowed Wilmer to highlight areas of improvement to focus on: improving internal leadership and operational systems, advancing academic programs and offerings, elevating the school experience, strengthening relationships with the school’s political and business partners and fostering international learning opportunities that would facilitate student exchange and study abroad programs.

Nevertheless, the university has celebrated some accomplishments in recent months. In its fall 2018 semester, it launched a new bachelor’s degree program in theatre and drama. It also opened a Cybersecurity Complex, in April of last year, to provide training for students in cloud computing, intelligent intrusion detection systems and digital forensics.

“So, if we’re doing that now, then what are we going to be doing in the next five to ten years?”

Wilmer asked. “I’m really excited about it, and I’m excited to serve with this board on how we build upon that success for the future.”

The plan to steer the school towards growth cannot be complete, Wilmer said, without also building great rapport with its students. Her own HBCU experience at Norfolk, she recalled with fondness, was steeped in the connections she made with her colleagues, faculty and staff. She thrives on these relationships, some of which, she said, have lasted for more than twenty years. They, along with her faith, reenergize her when she needs motivation and support. As a result, creating an environment that fosters the birth and growth of long-lasting relationships is very important to the rector.

Through her mentorship, she emphasizes the value of forming these connections with people.

“Take time to really get to know people,” she advised. “When you’re such an ambitious woman, and you want to get out there and learn the world, see the world, solve the world, do so at a pace that allows you to take in the world.

When you can breathe in and really immerse yourself in the feeling of discovery.”

and herself – like maybe hosting a show on HGTV because this HR trailblazer is also, selfadmittedly, a pretty good interior decorator and landscaper. Also on her to-do list is publishing a book she’s titled Behind Closed Doors. The book, she explained, would explore the reality of being a black woman navigating corporate America, to perhaps be a manual that guides the next generation towards even more success.

But for now, Wilmer is focused on her new role as rector. The pressure is on. All eyes rest on her, watching, hoping, learning. Drawing strength from her faith and the people around her, she’s shooting for the stars and everyone is welcome to come along for the ride.

Evidently, Wilmer is a woman who wears many hats and dreams big dreams for her career

(From left to right) Norfolk State University President Javaune Adams-Gaston and Rector Joan Wilmer pictured at NSU Board of Visitors Presidential Welcome and Reception Dinner in May 2019

Mang’s career in journalism was birthed by a penchant

“Remembering the Orangeburg Massacre” for The

to tell the stories of people around the world – their

Panther. She has also received Best Journalist and

plight, their politics, their passions. Inspired by award-

Best Feature and Editorial Writing awards from Claflin

winning journalist, Christiane Amanpour, Mang focuses

University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

on political reporting. Nevertheless, she also covers a

Under her leadership as the editor, the collegiate

range of topics including academia, business, campus

newspaper also received awards for first and second

and local news. Some of her news articles include

place special edition and third place page one design

coverage of the Orangeburg Massacre, U.S. midterm

from the South Carolina Press Association at their 2019

elections and political rallies, featuring presidential

meeting and awards event.

candidates Beto O’Rourke and New Jersey Senator OLANMA HAZEL MANG is an aspiring journalist from Nigeria. She studies mass communications with minors

Cory Booker, CNN analyst Bakari Sellers, civil rights

Mang’s ultimate goal is to advance unto the global

lawyer Benjamin Crump, etc.

stage as an international news journalist. She prides her work in reporting with accuracy and journalistic

in biology and chemistry at Claflin University. Currently, she serves as the editor for the university’s newspaper,

So far in her young career in journalism, Mang has

integrity. As she continues her career after graduating

The Panther. In addition to interning for HBCU Times

received awards from the South Carolina Press

in May 2019, she hopes these traits will be an intrinsic

magazine, she reports for The Times and Democrat, a

Association as the 2018 Collegiate Journalist of the

part of her journey.

daily newspaper in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Year and second place photograph for her photo

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Historically Black Colleges and Universities play important roles in nurturing dreams, shaping futures and transforming lives.

Norfolk State University, an HBCU for the Modern World, is grounded by our heritage, focused on the future and deeply committed to our students.

Learn more at nsu.edu.

Norfolk State University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the associate, baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia HBCU Times Summer 2019 15 30033-4097, telephone (404) 679-4500, http://www.sacscoc.org, for questions about the accreditation of Norfolk State University.

Rise, Shine: Bragging Rights and Best-Kept Secrets of HBCUs by kyra m. robinson A beacon of academic hope, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been a part of the American higher educational system for over 180 years. The oldest HBCU, Pennsylvania’s Cheyney University opened in 1837, twenty-four years prior to the start of the Civil War. The University of the District of Columbia (1851), Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University (1854), Ohio’s Wilberforce University (1856), the oldest private HBCU, and Missouri’s Harris-Stowe State University (1857) were established a few years later.

After the Civil War, additional institutions were founded to provide a formal education for exslaves and free blacks. Often times, HBCUs began as elementary and secondary schools, and later evolved into universities and colleges.

According to the Higher Education Act of 1965, HBCUs are defined as “...any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary of [Education].”

Congressman John Lewis and others once graced, I learned more about these institutions and their iconic place in African-American and U.S. history on that trek than I ever could have imagined. Visiting Booker T. Washington’s house across from Tuskegee University’s campus and learning about Alabama A&M University’s storied heritage in being founded by an ex-slave gave me a sense of connectedness to the past, present and future.

While I can’t take you on a physical tour -though I’d highly encourage you to do at least one if ever given the opportunity -- I can do my part to “rise, shine,” as the spiritual states (nod to the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who introduced this genre of music to the world), and share the story of these best-kept secrets. HBCUs have had a profound and multifaceted impact on the American educational, economic, political and cultural landscape.

Educational Impact - Cultivating Minds Before MLK or Malcolm X, there was Booker T. Washington (Hampton alumnus and Tuskegee founder) and W.E.B. DuBois (Fisk alumnus).

These men had differing ideologies about whether or not African Americans should seek an industrial/vocational education or a liberal arts education. Washington believed the former was the way to economic empowerment; whereas, DuBois advocated for the latter, arguing that the “Talented Tenth,” those who received degrees in the classics and history, would lift the race up.

This “great debate” was immortalized in Dudley Randall’s poem, “Booker T. and W.E.B.” Their philosophies had an impact on the formation of liberal arts HBCUs and land grant HBCUs, which focused more on the agricultural, industrial and mechanical trades.

Today, there are approximately 100 HBCUs in existence, and they are diverse institutions, as seen in their student bodies, administrators, faculty, and staff members. They educate and invest in students academically, socially, culturally and politically, and engender a spirit of self-confidence and self-worth. HBCUs have a track record of educating those who may not receive a degree otherwise, and consistently contribute thousands of productive, professional citizens to society.

In their early days as well as in present-day, HBCUs continue contributing to the U.S. educated populace. Per the National Center for Education Statistics, here are some more facts on HBCUs:

Often described as nurturing, uplifting and inspiring, these treasures have been a mainstay for almost two centuries and have empowered a people to move forward. Though their educational merit and value have been documented, it can escape many -- including African Americans -- that these institutions are interwoven into the American fabric. At times, HBCUs’ contributions are undersold.

• HBCUs conferred approximately 49,000 associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees (combined) in the 2015-2016 academic year. And, of this total, African-American students earned 81 percent of the bachelor’s degrees, 70% of the master’s degrees, and 61% of the doctoral degrees.

This was made clearer to me when I chaperoned 40 middle and high school students on a HBCU tour many years ago. Although I’m a proud HBCU alumna and had the distinct honor to walk across the same campus that sociologist W.E.B. DuBois, poet Nikki Giovanni, 16 HBCU Times Summer 2019

•

Both private and public HBCUs make up a little over two percent of all U.S. degree-granting institutions. They are located in 19 states (predominantly in the South), Washington D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

•

Approximately 300,000 students were enrolled nationwide in 2016; almost a quarter were non-African-American students.

•

They granted 22, nine and 17 percent of all bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, respectively, earned by African Americans in 201516 (see the National Center for Education Statistics’ Digest of Education Statistics Tables 313.30, 322.20, 323.20, and 324.20 for more details).

•

According to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), about nine percent of all African Americans enrolled in U.S. colleges attend HBCUs.

Economic Impact - It’s All in the Numbers HBCUs have been credited with the rise of the African-American middle class, and continue to help sustain it. In fact, the recent UNCF (United Negro College Fund) report, HBCUs Make America Strong: The Positive Economic Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, states that these institutions “generate $14.8 billion in economic impact annually, 134,090 jobs for their local and regional economies, and the 50,000 plus HBCU graduates in 2014 can expect total earnings of $130 billion over their lifetimes.”

This impact is further manifested in the professions of many HBCU graduates.

According to the UNCF, not only do 50% of HBCU alumni later matriculate at graduate and professional institutions, but HBCUs also award 25% of STEM bachelor’s degrees granted to African Americans. HBCU alumni make up: 70% of African-American doctors and dentists, 50% of African-American engineers, 35% of African-American lawyers, 50% of AfricanAmerican public school educators, 40% of African-American Congressional members, 12.5% of African-American CEO’s, 50% of African-American professors at non-HBCUs, 75% of African-American veterinarians, 80% of African-American judges, 75% of AfricanAmerican military officers, and 44% of AfricanAmerican journalists. (Sources: UNCF’s “The Audacity to Lead,” TMCF, Janelle Williams’ “Dear Black People: Respect HBCUs,” and Ernie Suggs’ “HBCUs: Born in the North but most needed in the South”)

Political Impact - An Engine of Social Justice and Policymaking

Cultural Impact - The HBCU Presence is Everywhere You Look

The Civil Rights Movement was made possible by many participants, including the African-American church and HBCU student activists, who were among the driving forces.

The Greensboro Four (Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil), students at North Carolina A&T University, started a revolution in 1960 with the lunch counter sit-in movement in Greensboro.

And the 1965 Selma March, organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse alumnus) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), included SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) student leaders John Lewis (Fisk alumnus) and Diane Nash (Fisk alumna), SCLC leader Rev. Hosea Williams (Morris Brown and Clark Atlanta alumnus), Rev. C.T. Vivian and Rev. James Bevel (both American Baptist College alumni), and Andrew Young (Morehouse alumnus).

Beyonce’s spotlight on HBCUs during her 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival performance has been widely praised and wonderful publicity for these storied institutions.

Yet, this HBCU tribute wasn’t the first time these institutions have been featured on the big -- or small -- screen.

Even in modern-day, HBCU students continue the legacy of protest -- whether it is against societal ills and injustices or their own institutions. Additionally, HBCU advocacy organizations stay at the forefront of policies and legislation that can help these institutions continue thriving and positively influencing the lives of the students they serve. Some of these organizations and programs include the Title III Part B, Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), UNCF, and TMCF.

On TV One’s Unsung Hollywood: A Different World, Debbie Allen (Howard University alumna), producer and director of the television series, states that A Different World helped to increase enrollment at HBCUs during its run on NBC from 1987-1993. To date, the show has been one of the most accurate portrayals of modernday HBCU life. Other films and programs set on or revolving around HBCU campuses include: School Daze (1988), Drumline (2002), Train Ride (2005), The Great Debaters (2007), Stomp the Yard (2007), From the Rough (2013), and The Quad (2017).

The HBCU presence has permeated many aspects of both the African-American and American story. HBCUs remain educationally, economically, politically and culturally relevant.

There is nothing like the HBCU experience. It is truly one of a kind. Indeed, HBCUs have earned their fair share of bragging rights.

The unabridged version of this article was originally published May 19, 2018 on LinkedIn.

KYRA M. ROBINSON has built her career in higher

Public Schools. In her spare time, Kyra utilizes her

and secondary education. Currently, she is the

communications skills and career experiences to

Educational Leadership program coordinator in the

write about HBCUs and related academic matters.

Department of Leadership Studies in Education and

She also composes articles and posts content on her

Organizations at Wright State University. Prior to this

social media platforms. A fierce advocate of HBCUs,

most recent position, she was employed as an Upward

she is also the author of No Ways Tired: The Public

Bound program assistant at the University of Dayton,

Historically Black College Dilemma. A proud alumna of

an academic advisor at Wright State University, and

Fisk University, Kyra graduated in 1993 with a bachelor’s

held comparable positions at two historically black

degree in English. She received a master’s degree in

institutions, Ohio’s Wilberforce University and Harris-

journalism from Ohio University. She and her husband

Stowe State University in St. Louis. Additionally, she

Chet are natives of Dayton, Ohio and are the parents

served as a communication specialist with Dayton

of two children.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

17

HBCUs: National Treasures by dr. belle wheelan

T

he older I get, the more evident it is that people today have less appreciation for things (or people) as they mature and age. Once something is broken, it is replaced with a shiny new one rather that repaired and cherished. People. Buildings. Things. It doesn’t matter. Once it begins to crumble, we throw it out.

The 101 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, known as HBCUs, were founded in order to provide higher educational opportunities to African-American students because predominately white colleges would not admit them or they placed quotas on the number of African-American students they would accept. The majority of these institutions were founded in the Southern region of the country and I have the pleasure of working with them as their regional accreditor. Their history is long, spanning in some cases, more than 150 years. In other words, they are old. I prefer to think of them as NATIONAL TREASURES. These institutions have provided educational opportunities for many generations of AfricanAmerican students who would not have succeeded without them. Their legacy lives on in the successes of their graduates who excel in every area of today’s society. The majority of African-American doctors, nurses, teachers, scientists, lawyers, engineers, etc. who earned college degrees prior to the beginning of the 21st Century, graduated from an HBCU and many are still choosing them as their institutions of choice.

18 HBCU Times Summer 2019

So, why are so many of them struggling today?

I believe there are several reasons for their struggle. First, many of them have quietly existed and thrived in their local community and not engaged in a major recruitment campaign of students from outside of the South. While there are indeed students from across the country who enroll in HBCUs, many of them come from states that are nearer the institution. Since many of these institutions are small and private, they often don’t have money to send a team across the country to recruit students. They often depend upon ‘word of mouth’ from their alumni to generate interest in them. If you don’t know about something, it’s difficult to gravitate toward it. Many HBCUs are beginning to form articulation agreements with community colleges since many more students are choosing to begin their academic careers within this more affordable option.

Another reason for the struggle is that many continue to recruit the traditional 18-21 year old, recent high school graduate of whom there are not as many today. And those who have attended high schools that make Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs available are recruited by institutions that have more variety in their academic offerings, facilities and student support programs.

In order to boost their enrollment, many of the HBCUs have begun to recruit non-African American students. According to a federal

report in the Digest of Education Statistics (2016), students who were either white, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Native American made up 22% of total enrollment at HBCUs, compared with 15% in 1976. Three HBCU institutions, Bluefield State University, West Virginia State University and Kentucky State University, each has a student body with a majority of non-African Americans. Obviously, there is something about the value of these treasures that is being recognized by ‘others’ or they would not be gravitating to them.

In a 2015 report produced by the Pew Foundation , “the share of black students attending HBCUs had dropped to 8.5% of the total amount of black students enrolled in degree granting institutions nationwide.” This figure is a decline from the 13% of black students who enrolled in an HBCU in 2000 and the 17% that enrolled in 1980. What is happening?

More predominately white institutions have desegregated and are actively recruiting African-American students in order to fill seats due to the declining 18-21 year old market.

Additionally, greater access to financial aid has made it possible for African-Americans to have choices as to where they will spend their time and money for higher education opportunities.

Lastly, more and more adult students are choosing to enroll in institutions that have online programs, an alternative that most HBCUs do not have. With the largest percentage of students in higher education being over 25 years of age and the fewer 18-21 year olds available, in

order to keep enrollments up, HBCUs need to consider ways to attract students who can’t get to campus.

The major challenge that impacts many HBCUs is that they often struggle financially. They are heavily dependent on federal financial aid to pay the bills and don’t have substantial dollars in their endowments on which to fall back when that aid is not enough. Additionally, many of these institutions have high tuition discount rates (the total of tuition and fees given to students as grants) which cuts into the bottom line of their actual tuition revenues.

Alumni of HBCUs don’t give back to their institutions financially in large enough numbers, consistently, or with enough dollars to keep their alma maters afloat. Foundations and local businesses don’t contribute in large enough amounts. In the case of state funded institutions, funding inequities over the years from state legislatures has created a need for ‘catch up’ funding for these Treasures. You can’t keep up National Treasures without adequate funding.

In addition to having to employ qualified faculty and staff, buildings must be maintained, support services must be provided, equipment must be purchased, and the heat, electricity, phone and computers must stay on. You can’t do that without an adequate financial base.

A group of significant and important supporters of any institution is the Alumni. Unfortunately, many alums, some of whom are even members of the institution’s governing board, are skeptical

about changes that are being made to their alma mater. Often, that translates into a lack of financial giving because they don’t support the changes. We have to learn how to support the institution even when we’re not supportive of the change. We can do that by making financial contributions to restricted scholarships or specific academic departmental programs rather than to the institution’s general fund.

We often evaluate the quality of an institution by the bricks and mortar we see when we visit.

Since many HBCUs are old, they often don’t make the same impression on today’s students who gravitate to BLING---that shiny object I mentioned earlier---especially in residence halls, weight rooms, etc. Too often, we don’t take the time to examine the substance of the institution. We should be asking, ‘what programs they are providing that will ensure a successful future for its students. How many of their students are successfully completing their academic programs and going on to make a decent living and a difference in the world?’

And most importantly, ‘what can I do, whether I attended an HBCU or not, to ensure the future of these National Treasurers?’

You don’t have to be an HBCU graduate to contribute to their success. Give money. Recruit students. Attend activities at the Institution.

Recommend qualified personnel to share their skills and expertise to the students. Just as people mature and need assistance, so do our National Treasures. Help lift up our HBCUs. They deserve our support.

“These institutions have provided educational opportunities for many generations of AfricanAmerican students who would not have succeeded without them.”

DR.

BELLE

WHEELAN currently serves as

President of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and is the first African American and the first woman to serve in this capacity. Her career spans over 40 years and includes the roles of faculty member, chief student services officer, campus provost, college president and Secretary of Education.

In several of those roles she was the first African American and/or woman to serve in those capacities. Dr. Wheelan received her Bachelor’s degree from Trinity University in Texas (1972) with a double major in Psychology and Sociology; her Master’s from Louisiana State University (1974) in Developmental Educational Psychology; and her Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin (1984) in Educational Administration with a special concentration in community college leadership.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

19

FAMU: The Kendra Foster Story by keith harriston Long before vocalist and songwriter Kendra Foster joined George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, before she collaborated with D’Angelo to help create the critically acclaimed album “Black Messiah,” before she earned two Grammys for her work on that project, a path was in place that would lead her to success in the music industry.

That path went through Florida A & M University.

Foster, now 41, was born and raised in Tallahassee, the state capitol of Florida and home to FAMU. Her father became a math professor at FAMU right before her birth. Her mother was an English professor there. Her other mom was a career counselor at the university. She had to be destined to attend FAMU, right?

“Not at all. I never dreamed I would go there,” Foster said in recent interview with HBCU Times.

But in her senior year of high school, when she already had been taking dance classes for years, Foster went to see a performance of FAMU’s Orchesis Contemporary Dance Theatre at Lee Hall Auditorium. “I was a ballet dancer then,” Foster recalled. “I watched them perform, everything from African dance to modern jazz dance. That’s when I first knew. I remember thinking ‘that’s it. I’m going to FAMU.’” She applied, was accepted and awarded a full academic scholarship. She majored in math and chemistry.

Image by: Clever Agency

20 HBCU Times Summer 2019

“I need black people around me, I need my people around me,” Foster says. “It was like A Different World,” she says, referring to the late 1980s/early 1990s television show set on the campus of a fictitious HBCU.

Image by: Gordy Cox

Before long, that passion for the arts— especially music—consumed much of her time. She changed her major to jazz studies and commercial music. “I had a good GPA,” Foster says. “I was always an overachiever in the classroom. But I loved the arts. That’s what resonated with me.”

Foster cites many faculty members at FAMU as influences, including Beverly Barber, who directed Orchesis, Geoffrey Horn, who taught her music theory, Marty Robinson, who taught the business of music, and Lindsey Sarjeant, who was head of jazz studies. Sarjeant, now chair of FAMU’s Music Department, remembers Foster well.

“Hard not to remember Kendra,” Sarjeant says.

“She was the first female jazz studies major here.”

Says Foster: “First thing they told me was ‘we haven’t developed a program for vocalists in jazz studies.” But any hesitance disappeared quickly as faculty and the musicians in the program witnessed Foster’s talents.

“We would pass out an arrangement. She would read the music. She would go through it once singing it as written. Then all of a sudden, she would take it and make it her own. She had that voice. She would vocally improvise, change the melody. Her style, her vocal style, reminded me a lot of Billie Holiday,” Sarjeant says.

“We knew when she got out there that she would be successful. There are some people that you can just tell they will be successful. She has the personality, the looks and the talent.”

And Foster “got out there” during her senior year at FAMU. She had been singing with bands at venues around Tallahassee, where Clinton makes his home and has a recording studio.

A mutual friend introduced the two. Shortly afterward, Clinton signed her to a production contract.

“It took me to 41 years old to know who I am...”

“I’d be in the studio doing my homework from classes at FAMU,” Foster remembers. That led to Foster joining Clinton’s touring band, a grind that she embraced from 2001 until about 2013.

“About 85 percent of the time from when I was 22 until my late thirties, I was on tour with George Clinton,” she says. “That was my life.”

She learned from Clinton his use of characters in his music, his stylization and his acceptance that it was okay to have “something other than a pretty voice.”

“Baba George has a naturally theoretical mind,” she says. “He’ll give you a note, but he keeps your vision. A lot of musicians don’t listen to ideas from singers. But he can get high-level musicians to listen to him.”

Foster met D’Angelo through her work with Clinton. She let him know she was interested in collaborating with him. He asked for samples of her writing. A year later, around 2009, they got together to work on several tracks that ended up on “Black Messiah.”

“At first, he was like ‘let’s see if you can come up with the perfection to complete this,’” she recalls D’Angelo saying. “’Can’t wait to see what you’re gonna do with it.’” Initially, she says, she “filled in spaces on tracks including “Charade,” “Sugah Daddy” and “Really Love.” When the album was released in December 2014, Foster had co-writing credits on eight of the 12 songs.

“D is a perfect lyricist,” she says of D’Angelo.

“He wasn’t going to let anyone touch what he was doing in the wrong way.”

Image by: Clever Agency

In 2016, Foster won Grammy awards for her contributions to “Black Messiah” for best R&B album and for best R&B song for “Really Love.”

FAMU’s influence on Foster still reveals itself in ways big and small. In early 2015, Foster appeared with D’Angelo and the Vanguard on Saturday Night Live. During a performance of “Really Love,” Foster dominates the stage with simple but eye-catching movements. “Orchesis had a lot to do with moments like that,” Foster said. “It’s an institution within the institution. It wasn’t for dance divas.

The one stipulation, the thing they insisted on, was that you had to always be professional. Even when you are doing it as an extracurricular.”

Other universities might have had better facilities, Foster says, but “their teachers could not touch our teachers in terms of commitment to students and showing us what we needed to do to be successful in the industry.”

Foster is finishing her third solo album, “Here.” It follows “Myriadmorphonicbiocorpomelodicrealityshapeshifter,” with Clinton as executive producer, and the self-titled “Kendra Foster” released in 2016.

“It took me to 41 years old to know who I am,” Foster says. “I know that I’m in a far different place than when I started in the music game. I’m happier than I’ve ever been, and I want to help everybody feel that way.”

Does that good feeling mean Foster has made it?

She laughs heartily seemingly from deep inside her, a place that now and then reminds her that she is 13 credit hours short of earning her bachelor’s degree. “I’ll know I’ve made it,” she says, “when my parents stop asking me when I’m going back to school and when they stop asking me when I’m going to get a real job.”

KEITH HARRISTON is freelance writer who lives

He earned a B.A. in communications from Morehouse

outside of Washington, D.C. He worked for 23 years at

College, an M.S. in journalism from the University of

The Washington Post as a beat reporter, investigative

Kansas and a certificate in news management from

reporter, editor and senior manager in the newsroom.

the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern

He was twice a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. He has taught

University and the Maynard Institute for Journalism

journalism at Howard University, American University

Education.

and George Washington University. He continues to write for The Washington Post. He also has written for

www.theroot.com,theundefeated.com,

Ebony

Magazine and other publications.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

21

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22 HBCU Times Summer 2019

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For more information about all of our services, visit www.trmchealth.org.

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HBCU Times Summer 2019

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24 HBCU Times Summer 2019

LEADING CHANGE Congressman James E. Clyburn’s Journey From Civil Rights Activist to Congress Leader by ashley elliott

D

uring a sunny morning in the winter of 2019, Congressman James E. Clyburn took those seated around him on a nostalgic journey, reflecting back to his childhood. He recalled riding to Orangeburg on numerous occasions with his father, Reverend E. L. Clyburn and his mother, Almeta Dizzley Clyburn, who owned a beauty salon in his hometown of Sumter, South Carolina. They would frequently drive over Lake Marion, often referred to as the Santee River during that time. His mom wasn’t fond of the bridge made of cross tiles that connected their journey. Clyburn wasn’t distracted by the bridge however, but rather stared down at the sparkling water from the back seat. Many times, while in Orangeburg, a young Clyburn would play in an open field not quite the size of a football field at the top of South Carolina State University’s campus. “My father pastored here when I was a kid in grade school,” he recalled. “We used to spend a lot of time here and I just fell in love with this campus.” Clyburn would also spend time at the homes of his father’s church members, one of whom directly across from where the Donma Administration building and the Martin Luther King, Jr. auditorium now sit. He had no doubt the place he spent memorable childhood days would become his college home. “This school was just ingrained in me,” he explained. “I didn’t apply to any other school. My mom tried to get me to go to college up north, but I wouldn’t do it.

That may have been the only argument with her I ever won,” he said laughing at the notion. “SC State was just a part of me.”

Clyburn’s vivid memories of college included cultivating friendships that proved to be lifelong bonds, and marrying his college sweetheart Emily England, whom he met in jail during one of the many marches and demonstrations they participated in. Fifteen months later, they got married. “My wife and I, along with several friends from college, still spend every Christmas together and some have been doing so since

1972. We go down to Hilton Head Island on the Friday before Christmas every year and stay through New Year.”

Aside from the fond memories he has of his friends and family, Clyburn says he often reflects on another memory that greatly impacted his life while attending his alma mater. Staring over to his right, he remembers sitting in White Hall, where Nance Hall currently sits, and listening to lessons from another profound SC State alumnus. “Freshmen and sophomores were not allowed to go home for Easter, but had to stay on campus and listen to sermons preached by Benjamin Mays,” he says. “I always marveled at his skills and I learned a lot from him.”

Clyburn tapped into what he’d seen and heard growing up from his father and Benjamin Mays, utilizing those skills to lead prayers and organize rally’s during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. “We attempted our first campus sit-in on February 15, 1960, ” he recalled. “But they removed all of the stool tops from the lunch counter so we couldn’t sit on them.” He joined the NAACP chapter at Claflin University because the state prohibited SC State from having a chapter, but the attempt to keep students divided failed. “They built a fence between this campus and Claflin’s campus to keep us separated,” notes Clyburn, who majored in history at SC State. The fence still stands and many of the injustices faced by Clyburn and his friends are still a lingering memory. “When I saw the play, “Fences” on Broadway, James Earl Jones who played the lead role asked about the purpose of building a fence. Is it to keep intruders out or to keep someone in? I’ve never forgotten that. Every time I think about that fence, I think about that play. I would say it was about control.”

Life after SC State took Clyburn and his wife to Charleston, S.C., where he taught history at C.A. Brown High School and went on to serve

as an employment counselor and director of two youth and community development programs.

All the while he had a passion for political service that wouldn’t leave his mind. Preparing for his upcoming career proved to be an exciting process. It also taught him some valuable lessons that would ultimately shape his success in politics.

During his first electoral run for the South Carolina House of Representatives, he describes how his greatest inspiration came from a tiny object with monumental meaning. In August 1970, he had just won the Democratic Primary in Charleston. No blacks held positions in the state legislature at the time. He found himself celebrating with a room packed full of people at the Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Charleston. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, except for one person. “I noticed that Emily was standing off to the side, not participating in the celebration and I took note of it,” he expressed. “The next morning when I walked into the bathroom, there was a little sticker on my mirror and it read, ‘when you win, brag gently, when you lose, weep softly.’

She didn’t say anything to me about it; and I didn’t say anything to her and for some reason I left it there.” Three months later, around 10:00 pm on General Election night Clyburn was declared the winner and immediately began celebrating. There was another huge party at the same location. The victory felt great, but unfortunately was short lived. “About 3 o’ clock in the morning, the doorbell rang, and it was Tom Netting, a television reporter, who had been covering the election campaign. He said to me, ‘I just left the courthouse – you better get down there; something has gone wrong.’ ” Clyburn learned that instead of having won by five hundred votes, the count was off and he actually lost by five hundred votes. “That’s a tough way to lose,” he said in a moment of reflection. “I got back home at around 4 o’clock in the morning. I walked into that bathroom HBCU Times Summer 2019

25

and that little sticker was still up on that mirror.

I read it, and wept softly.”

Shortly thereafter Clyburn received a call from newly-elected South Carolina Governor John Carl West who invited Clyburn to serve on his executive staff. Clyburn became the first person of color to serve in this capacity. It began a chain of record breaking events for Clyburn. A few months later, Clyburn was invited to speak in Charleston at the same location he celebrated his prior victories – the Francis Marion Hotel. This time, he discussed housing policies, a subject outside of his usual scope of political preference. After the speech he received a standing ovation from four-hundred plus participants, a moment he was indeed proud of, but once again he noticed that his wife in her quiet wisdom had not said a word. Rather, she just stared down at the newspaper on their ride back to Columbia. He finally broke the silence and asked, “So, what did you think of the speech?” Never looking up from the newspaper she answered with a question that would forever change Clyburn’s scope and span of service to the citizens of South Carolina. “Clyburn, when you are going to stop talking about what’s wrong with South Carolina and start doing something about it?” This ignited something within him and the next day he went to his office and began educating himself on everything he could about his home state.

“I decided at that moment, that I was going to learn my state and equip myself to help improve it. I learned who did what and why certain things happened. I didn’t give any speeches for weeks. I just studied the system. That car ride and that note taught me that it was best to work on making headway rather than making headlines.”

Clyburn’s motivation and refocus helped him to accomplish all that he has for the state of South Carolina and beyond. In 1993, he became the U.S. Representative for South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District, becoming the state’s first African American to serve in Congress since 1897. Currently in his 14th term, he continues to serve SC’s 6th Congressional District, representing a vast array of counties to include Allendale, Bamberg, Calhoun, Clarendon, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper, and Williamsburg.

He also represents parts of Beaufort, Berkeley,

Charleston, Dorchester, Orangeburg, Richland, and Sumter counties. As Congressman, he was elected co-president of his freshman class, and was unanimously elected chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. He was later elected as vice-chair and chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

In 2006, Clyburn made history once again

becoming the first South Carolinian and second African-American to be elected to serve as House Majority Whip, the thirdranking position in the United States House of Representatives. After serving as the Assistant House Democratic Leader for 8 years, he regained his Majority Whip position in January 2019. “The whip position is basically the vote counter,” he explained. “In the House of Representatives if you’ve got a fully constituted house, you’ll have 435 members; so, in the house for any issue that pass you need 218 votes. The Whip’s job is to keep up with the votes to make sure when an issue comes to the floor, you get 218 votes for it. In order to do that, you’ve got to

be an integral part of helping decide what comes to the floor, and when it comes to the floor. You have to keep a finger on the pulse of the caucus in order to know what could possibly keep you from getting 218 votes.”

Just as listening and having a pulse on the leaders in Congress is vital to the whip’s position, Clyburn’s ability to assess the needs of his constituents helps him to understand what and how he can make a difference in their communities. This is why he frequently goes on listening sessions, as he describes them. He takes their feedback, couples it with steadfast activism, and pushes for his legislation to be enacted into law.

A champion of rural and economic development, Clyburn has legislatively created the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor and the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. His legislation elevated the Congaree National Monument to a National Park, and establish the Reconstruction Era National Monument.

Just recently, his legislation was included in the 2019 Lands Bill that now gives South Carolina two new national parks, Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historic Park. The legislation elevates the Reconstruction Era National Monument to a National Park. This park will serve as a hub, connecting other historic sites around the country while preserving and commemorating Civil War activities and sites. “Most of these Reconstruction Era sites are in rural communities and this legislation allows them to be integrally involved in South Carolina’s number one industry, tourism,” exclaims Clyburn. “I’m really proud of that because it has tremendous impacts on South Carolina.”

Another important component of the bill is the reauthorization of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) historic preservation program. Under this program, $10 million is authorized annually for 7 years to preserve and restore historic buildings on HBCU campuses. Since its inception in 1998, more than 60 HBCU buildings in 20 states have been renovated including South Carolina’s own Chappelle Auditorium and Arnett Hall at Allen University, Ministers and Tingley Halls at Claflin University, Massachusetts Hall at Voorhees

“Diamonds are not worth much until they are dug out, cut, and polished, and then they become very valuable.

I see HBCUs as being just that kind of instrument.”

26 HBCU Times Summer 2019

advocate for change, and consistently work hard to make a difference for others. He emulates his dad’s unique ability to focus and his mom’s unwavering demonstration of faith. “My dad was good at focusing and not getting distracted.

He spent his Saturdays reading and writing. He wouldn’t even eat a meal after 6pm on Friday.

He would spend Saturday preparing for Sunday service and his next meal would be after church on Sunday.”

Clyburn’s mom would often encourage him not to wait until he saw his way clear to attempt anything, because if he did, he would never get anything done. “I grew up with those precepts and examples. My parents were always there for me, challenging me.”

College and Lowman Hall at SC State. In 2018, three South Carolina HBCUs received $500,000 awards for the renovation of their historic buildings; Wilkinson Hall at SC State University, Booker T. Washington Hall at Voorhees College, and Morgan Hall at Benedict College.

Creating change for HBCUs, which Clyburn refers to as diamonds, has been an initiative he has championed for his entire career in Congress. “If you think in terms of what you value as a treasure, you think of diamonds,” he says. “We often hear the term, a diamond in the rough. Diamonds are not worth much until they are dug out, cut, and polished, and then they become very valuable. I see HBCUs as being just that kind of instrument.”

As a graduate of an HBCU he’s fundamentally grounded in giving back, but it was a conversation he had many years ago with his close friend, Ronald McNair, one of the first African-American astronauts to travel into space that made him really understand the impact and meaning that HBCUs have on their graduates.

“Ron was from Lake City, South Carolina, and he attended segregated Carver High School and wasn’t allowed to use the local library because of the color of his skin,” notes Clyburn.

“Here’s a guy who is inquisitive, curious, all of the makings of a jewel but nothing around

him allowed that jewel to be cut, polished, and turned into something valuable. We’re sitting and talking, and he said to me on that occasion, you know when people introduce me they always talk about my Ph.D. from MIT, nobody talks about what really launched me. If I had not gone to North Carolina A &T, where I received personal attention and had the benefit of small classes in a nurturing environment, I wouldn’t have been prepared to succeed at MIT. Clyburn said another one of his close friends, Dr. David Downey, also attended North Carolina A&T and was required to take remedial courses.

Downey told him, “I thought I was a student because I was a star at Webber High School but I had to take remedial everything when I got to college.’ “Those two experiences really just elevated everything I thought about HBCUs.” Throughout his extensive career in Congress, Clyburn has been responsible for many pieces of legislation. He’ll admit that not all of them passed the first time around. In fact, sometimes he’s had to make several modifications and reintroduce a bill three or four times before having success.

But he doesn’t quit. Despite challenges and setbacks, he remains steadfast. How does he do this? Having faced many obstacles of oppression growing up in the segregated south, he knows what it means to face adversity, constantly

Another motivational factor comes from his favorite childhood fable, the Tortoise and The Hare. His love for turtles is no secret as several of them adorn his Columbia and Washington offices. “Turtles have a hard, protective shell that provides shelter and the comfort of home. When it moves, it is focused and steady. But the turtle only makes progress when it sticks its neck out.

Without reaching out and extending yourself to the world around you, you will never see beyond yourself.”

This message echoes the epilogue to his book, Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black, where Clyburn writes an open letter to his daughters, Mignon, Jennifer, and Angela and his four grandchildren. He reminds them that whatever they seek to do in life to not focus on themselves but seek to learn how they can support those around them, something he’s dedicated his entire life to fulfilling. “You’ve got to decide what you want out of life and once you make that decision, then you have to set yourself on a course of understanding all the people and the entities in which you will have to operate.

If you go into business, find out what your customers’ or clients’ needs are. If you plan to go into politics get to know the people you want to vote for you. You’ve got to know the people that you want to represent, because you can’t effectively serve the people if you don’t know what their dreams and aspirations are.”

ASHLEY ELLIOTT is a Marketing and Public Relations

the Northeastern Corridor of Orangeburg Community

professional who has spent more than 12 years

Development Commission and is a member of

developing Integrated Marketing Communications

the American Marketing Association, the National

campaigns for three institutions of higher learning

Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the

across the state of South Carolina. She currently serves

Council for Advancement and Support of Education

as the Assistant Director of Marketing and Information

(CASE) and South Carolina Women in Higher Education.

Technology for the University of South Carolina Career Center, as well as a University 101 instructor.

A native of Orangeburg, S.C., Ashley earned her Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from

Ashley is a member of Andrew Chapel Baptist Church in

Claflin University and a Master’s degree in Integrated

Orangeburg, S.C., where she has helped organize the

Marketing Communications from Eastern Michigan

Community Church Growth Conference for more than

University. She is a graduate of Leadership Orangeburg

10 years. She also serves on the Board of Directors for

and is a Licensed Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Columbia.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

27

HBCUs: A Proven Vehicle for Repairing Faults by congressman james e. clyburn

I often share the conversation I had with Challenger astronaut the late Ronald McNair shortly before his fateful final flight. We chatted about our childhood experiences growing up 40 miles apart in segregated, mostly rural South Carolina. The one thing about that conversation that still resonates with me is our discussion about what North Carolina A&T State University (“A&T”) meant to him and South Carolina State University (“SCSU”) meant to me.

Ron stated that although his doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was what most people tended to highlight about his resume, it was the empathetic nurturing and remediation he received at A&T that provided him the tools to overcome the state imposed suppression and neglect that had been visited upon him at Carver High School in Lake City, South Carolina where he was not allowed to use the public library. As we reminisced about our similar experiences, I shared with him how my on and off-campus experiences at SCSU honed my relationship and leadership skills. I have been thinking about that conversation a lot during the current debate on reparations.

Reparation is by definition “the act of making amends,” and how to make amends for the ravages of slavery is a debate whose time has come. Consequently, I have signed on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 40, a bill “to establish a Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans” from 1619 to 1865. Beginning in 1865, however, and continuing for over 100 years, many states 28 HBCU Times Summer 2019

reacted to the ending of slavery by enacting Black Codes, Pig Laws and sundry creative devices to constrict and deny the social mobility of the newly freed blacks and other people of color. These laws and policies are commonly called “Jim Crow.”

I have some concerns because various iterations of H.R. 40 have languished in Congress since 1989, that’s more than a generation. Also, if we are successful in getting it passed in the House, what are its prospects in the Senate? And if that hurdle is cleared, what is the chance that the current occupant of the White House would sign it? In the meantime, what should we be doing?

I am a believer in Alexis de Tocqueville’s notion that America’s genius “is not that she is more enlightened than any other nation, but rather that she has always been able to repair her faults.” The root word for reparations is “repair.”

Is it possible to summon America’s genius to repair some faults? We should, because while we are debating H.R. 40 and working for its passage, the gaps in education and other social determinants are widening.

When Jim Crow policies denied educational opportunities to blacks, Congress responded with a second Morrill Act establishing landgrant colleges in the original slave states. But in all too many instances these institutions were underfunded and neglected, and such continues to be the case today. There are over 100 HBCUs, 51 of them public and many of them continue

to be underfunded. We should take immediate steps to repair this fault.

Student loan debt disproportionately impacts students who are descendants of Jim Crow.

Nearly 80 percent of black students have student loans which adversely impact the ability to build wealth. This widens the gap between white households who hold a net worth 13 times that of black households. Also, Pell Grants once covered half the cost of college tuition, but only cover 30 percent today leading to more borrowing by students who can least afford it. Pell grants need to be revisited with an eye towards making post-secondary education debt free. There are a plethora of legislative proposals that could repair this fault and Congress needs to give then serious consideration.

The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 made some headway, but not enough, toward repairing inequities in higher education for blacks. The Elementary Secondary Education Acts and the Higher Education Act were noble efforts but hardly enough. It is time to summon America’s genius to repairing some egregious faults.

It would be a horrible mistake to allow attempts to repair these faults be dismissed as quotas and preferences - as was done to Affirmative Action - rather than what they are, efforts to repair some egregious faults. It would also be a mistake to allow the reparations debate to be framed as cash-only subsidies rather than studied efforts to make amends for the sordid legacy of slavery and its vestiges.

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HBCUs and Prison Education: The New Frontier by gerard robinson, executive director of the center for advancing opportunity at the thurgood marshall college fund

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are pioneers in American higher education. They graduated black, white, and Native American women in the arts, sciences and law during the 1880s when many colleges refused to do so. They invented the “movable school” at Tuskegee University to educate rural farmers, which became a model for postsecondary institutions before World War I, and supported intellectuals such as Alain Locke, the first black Rhodes Scholar, as he published foundational thoughts about adult education before World War II. HBCUs also graduate award-winning K-12 educators.

Today, HBCUs are embarking on another pioneering endeavor in higher education: providing a college education to a segment of the 2.3 million adults incarcerated in 50 states and the District of Columbia through use of a Pell Grant.

The Christian Monitor

Image by: Melanie Stetson Freeman

HBCUs are not the first to offer a college-inprison program. Postsecondary institutions offered courses to incarcerated men and women as early as the 1940s. Malcolm X, for instance, took college courses while at the Norfolk Penal Colony in Massachusetts. Preparing incarcerated adults to reenter society through rehabilitation work is a pursuit predating the twentieth century. Benjamin Franklin and a group of reformers organized the “Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons” to do so in the 1780s.

30 HBCU Times Summer 2019

DR. TRACEY ANDRUS, Director, Lee

STORMY CUBB, Director

P. Brown Criminal Justice Institute and

Projects and Sponsored Programs at

of

Special

Executive Director of Second Chance Pell

Director of Second Chance Pell Program at Shorter College

The idea of using government money to finance college-in-prison is not new, be it for an HBCU or otherwise. President Lyndon Johnson authorized support of Title IV grant use by prisoners under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA). By the early 1990s, the U.S. had more than 700 college-in-prison programs in operation in 1,287 correctional facilities.

Before the enactment of the Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 signed into law

by President Bill Clinton, 23,000 incarcerated adults in federal and state prisons used a Pell Grant to pay for an education. The federal government spent $35 million out of a $6 billion Pell Grant budget on inmates. The majority of college programs closed after the 1994 crime legislation.

HBCUs are, however, among the original group of 67 colleges and universities selected from over 200 applicants by the U.S. Department of Education to participate in the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative. In 2016, President Barack Obama supported this experiment to expand the reach of higher education inside prisons with an investment of $30 million. The goal is for 60-plus colleges in 27 states to work with upwards of 100 correctional facilities to allow approximately 12,000 incarcerated men and women to use a Pell Grant to pay for courses that could result in a certificate, associate’s or bachelor’s degree.

Three of the 60-plus colleges in the program are HBCUs: Langston University, a four-year HBCU in Oklahoma, is one of three Oklahoma institutions participating in this initiative. Langston works with the Dick Conner Correctional Facility and is serving over 54 incarcerated students.

Langston offers courses in business, liberal arts, and rehabilitative services. Students can earn a B.A. degree in these areas. Tulsa Community College, a partner in this project, offers certificates and an A.A. degree to incarcerated students.

Shorter College, a private two-year HBCU, is one of two Arkansas institutions participating in the Second Chance Pell Pilot. Shorter College is serving 418 incarcerated students at eight Arkansas Correctional facilities. Shorter offers an Associate’s Degree in Entrepreneurial Studies.

Wiley College, a private, four-year HBCU, is one of several institutions in Texas that provide postsecondary classes to incarcerated students.

One of the great assets to this Pell Program at Wiley is the Director of the Lee P. Brown Criminal Justice Institute, Dr. Tracy Andrus. He is a formally incarcerated man who today is a professor, pastor and entrepreneur.

Allowing prisoners access to a Pell Grant to pay for a college education is not without criticism.

“Rewarding criminals with a free college education while parents take out loans for their law-abiding son or daughter to attend college is not fair” is one criticism. “Giving a Pell Grant to a prisoner takes away a grant from a law-abiding college student” is another. Other criticisms

exist, and they deserve consideration.

For HBCUs working in this space, they entered to provide a college education to incarcerated adults – not to reward criminal behavior. In fact, the Pell Initiative affords three opportunities to HBCUs to reach students. First is an extension of its mission beyond the borders of the campus. Second is that many HBCUs are located in cities where many former inmates will return home, so one way to address reentry is to help them prepare before the end of their sentence.

Third is that technology and hand-held devices make the delivery of a college education accessible to thousands of new students, which can be a revenue generating proposition if structured properly.

HBCUs are innovators in American higher education. College-in-prison is a topic that “surfaced within” our national policy conversation about second chances at a time of political consensus, technological innovation, and advances in social and natural sciences that make the delivery of higher education more affordable and accessible to more people coalesced. Education inside prison will remain a policy topic for years to come. This is another lane for HBCUs to employ their creativity.

GERARD ROBINSON is executive director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity (CAO). He is the former commissioner of education for the state of Florida and secretary of education for the commonwealth of Virginia.

Follow him on Twitter at @gerard_924

HBCU Times Summer 2019

31

TMCF, ALLY AND BIG SEAN TEAM UP TO FIND AMERICA’S NEXT TOP ENTREPRENEUR THROUGH “MOGULS IN THE MAKING” by dr. harry williams

America is in the midst of an entrepreneurial renaissance that is sweeping the nation like wildfire. From coding, to STEM focused majors and students wanting to work for themselves as innovators, job creators and big thinkers, this new economy will be driven by the talented minds willing to think outside the box and create innovative products and services to transform the world.

People look to Silicon Valley as the hub for this excitement but there is another place experiencing a revolution, a rebirth - and that is Detroit. Detroit is known as the “Motor City” and it has birthed iconic brands and industries we all know and love. It’s the home of America’s automotive industry, the smooth sounds of Motown, and famous brands like Little Caesars Pizza and Shinola – it’s clear this is a city that fosters imagination, hard work, stick-to-itiveness and creativity. This is exactly why Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc. teamed up with Motor City native, entertainer and entrepreneur Sean ‘Big Sean’ Anderson and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) to create an innovative program aimed at preparing students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to become future entrepreneurs and

32 HBCU Times Summer 2019

members of the business community called Moguls in the Making.

Out of over 500 applicants, TMCF selected 50 of the best and brightest students from 10 HBCUs to fly to Detroit to compete in the weekendlong challenge because the future leaders of this country have to be cultivated, supported and nurtured so they can have the opportunities to thrive and succeed. The ten publiclysupported HBCUs represented by student teams included Alabama A&M University, Elizabeth City State University, Florida A&M University, Howard University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, Tennessee State University and North Carolina A&T State University.

The students came to Detroit to be inspired by the transformative entrepreneurial ecosystem developing in the city. The number of Detroitbased start-ups have doubled over the last few years, and this new generation of entrepreneurs are learning how to make it from the ground up. Yet, despite how our world has grown to value entrepreneurship, wealth creation and innovation, there is still the looming problem

of generational poverty we cannot ignore, that is persistent not just in Detroit but across the nation in many urban centers across the country.

With crippling student loan debt plaguing the country to the tune of $1.5 trillion, many millennials are looking for ways to create wealth, and programs that promote economic opportunities and mobility. Ally and the Sean Anderson Foundation teamed up with TMCF because there was a desire to tap into these HBCU students who have the talent and ideas but don’t always have the opportunities like those individuals at other colleges and universities.

Competitions like Moguls in the Making help develop what TMCF calls the entrepreneurial mindset focusing on the 3 C’s –Curiosity, Connections and Creating Value. Moguls in the Making has identified entrepreneurially minded students who are curious about our changing world and identifying challenges and creating solutions through innovation. The scholars habitually connect information from many sources to gain insight and manage risk and lastly, they are leaders who create value for others from unexpected opportunities; learn from failure and persist.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

33

Moguls in the Making was created to give young entrepreneurs from HBCUs a platform, a springboard to the next level as well as encouragement to develop much-needed business skills, through the important mentoring sessions and fireside chats to ensure they also learn the soft-skills, those unwritten rules that will help them succeed not just in Detroit, but around the world. In addition to key learnings from the program, the winning team from Florida A&M University walked away with Ally internships, a $5,000 scholarship for each team member, Macbook Air computers, and a host of priceless advice, mentoring and coaching.

Together, Ally Financial, The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and The Sean Anderson Foundation, which aims to improve the lives

of young people in underserved communities - developed an exciting entrepreneurship competition that made a true investment into these innovative students. We want them to go back to their HBCUs and become disruptive changemakers, and moguls in their own right modeled only after their inner drive and creativity.

It’s my hope that the programs like Moguls in the Making inspired all 50 students to have what people in business call more “BHAGs,” Big Hairy Audacious Goals, that birth something new that can change the world just through their collaborative work as a team of innovators.

Moguls in the Making can’t find every talented HBCU student from the nearly 300,000 that make up the black college community. This

can and should be the catalyst for more publicprivate partnerships, and collaborations creating a small spark in one city that can create an idea in one of these HBCU students that could revolutionize the entire world.

There are countless examples from HBCU graduates who were inventors, pioneers of industry and modern-day leaders. We all know this from their products we use today. Moguls in the Making is one example of how we can all put our resources together and equip young people with the confidence and tangible resources to inspire them to reach their highest potential and achieve economic success in the future – either in entrepreneurship or Corporate America.

DR. HARRY L. WILLIAMS is the president & CEO of Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), the largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. Prior to joining TMCF, he spent eight years as president of Delaware State University. Follow him on Twitter at @DrHLWilliams.

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HBCU Times Summer 2019

35

HBCU Students and the STEM Workforce by dr. lawrence o. flowers

F

rom a historical perspective, HBCUs have provided educational opportunities to millions of students regardless of racial or ethnic disposition for more than a century. Despite political unrest and the nation’s economic circumstances, HBCUs have persisted for many decades and have prepared countless students for professional success both nationally and internationally.

Federal publications continue to forecast positive job availability data for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Moreover, it’s no secret that on average STEM jobs pay more than non-STEM jobs. Unfortunately, employment diversity data confirms that African Americans are not benefiting from the tremendous job potential that currently exists. To ensure that future graduating classes of HBCU STEM students are ready to take advantage of the immense earning potential linked to STEM jobs, it is imperative that HBCUs collaborate with employers and implement workforce-related course activities and career-specific extracurricular research projects that produce students who are prepared to compete in the global labor market.

Examination of student outcome data suggests

36 HBCU Times Summer 2019

that the STEM pipeline is leaky at many levels for underrepresented minorities. A particularly troublesome transition to navigate is the move into the workforce. The literature also indicates that HBCU graduates have difficulty targeting entry-level positions aligned with their academic training. Mitigation on the part of HBCU STEM faculty and career services before graduation and after graduation will prevent problems and improve job prospects. During his tenure, President Obama delineated a comprehensive plan to strengthen STEM education and STEM employment outcomes for all students. One of the tenets of President Obama’s STEM-based initiative focused on increasing student interest and preparation for STEM careers. While many evidence-based propositions explicate student persistence in STEM education, this article explores several of President Obama’s recommendations to broaden HBCU student participation in the STEM workforce.

Early career exploration activities in STEM courses, particularly in the freshman year, have been shown to enhance career interest and motivation. Students who are engaged in authentic career-targeted projects are in a better position to make the paramount connections between coursework and careers and develop

meaningful career aspirations. Implementation of inductive pedagogical methods such as inquiry-based, project-based, and case-based teaching strategies are the preferred instructional approaches for improving STEM student retention and students’ ability to apply scientific principles in the real world. Furthermore, empirical investigation into the impact of coursebased undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) on college student development offers hope that course-based undergraduate research activities may be advantageous for HBCU faculty. Additionally, the injection of careerrelated advising into classroom procedures will improve student understanding of different vocational opportunities and expand students’ career development skills.

There are several models and implementation programs around the country that endeavor to decrease underrepresentation in the STEM workforce. A thorough review of the science education literature may expedite development of appropriate teaching techniques to increase HBCU students’ career readiness.

To address the issue of employment preparedness at HBCUs, I co-designed a STEM career development initiative titled, Advancing

Interest and Motivation (AIM) for STEM Careers. AIM for STEM Careers is a National Science Foundation-funded career development program designed to prepare HBCU students to enter the STEM workforce after graduation.

AIM for STEM Careers is a theory-driven and research-based broadening participation program that incorporates the Social Cognitive Career Theory as an underlying framework to guide programmatic interventions. AIM for STEM Careers participants explore career options, develop resume and cover letter writing skills, master job interview skills, refine job search skills, and become proficient in the use of social media self-marketing strategies.

The economic standing of the United States significantly depends on the nation’s ability to recruit and retain a culturally diverse STEM workforce, programs like AIM for STEM Careers promote these goals by positively influencing STEM career self-efficacy and motivation.

Furthermore, incorporating campus-wide scientific communication events such as poster presentations and research symposia during the academic year will provide opportunities for students to engage in information dissemination experiences that will benefit students

professionally and thus represent constructive educational gambits to improve employment outcomes for minority students. Additionally, the increased use of journal clubs and encouraging students to publish experimental data in scholarly journals will vastly enhance problem-solving skills, communication skills, and critical thinking skills. Moreover, empirical research suggests that HBCU student exposure to culturally relevant instructional content promotes academic success and career selfefficacy. Research data from correlational studies show that ethnic identity is positively correlated with student retention.

To create a sustainable environment to improve HBCU undergraduate STEM employment outcomes, faculty must continually engage in workforce-related social science research projects. The instrumentality of flipped classrooms, distance education, scientific reasoning, work-based learning, and service learning should be given a top priority as the educational research on HBCU students in these areas is sparse or nonexistent. Intra- and interdepartmental collaborations are indispensable to generate empirical evidence that measures the

efficacy of academic programs to meet desired goals. Moreover, it is essential that HBCUs train the next generation of social scientists and STEM educators who will be responsible for producing statistically valid research findings that demonstrate the success of HBCUs. Funding mechanisms such as the National Science Foundation’s Broadening Participation Research in STEM Education and EHR Core Research (ECR) programs can provide capital for these essential scholarly endeavors. Implementation of national dissemination campaigns employing conference presentations, social media, and journal articles will effectively share best practices with the entire HBCU community.

The longstanding narrative behind HBCUs is that they provide a supportive and nurturing academic environment for students regardless of background, economic position, or racial classification.

HBCUs continue to shape the economic mobility of historically disenfranchised American citizens. The need for HBCUs to produce students prepared for the STEM workforce is clear and present.

LAWRENCE O. FLOWERS, PhD is the Chair of the Biology Department and Associate Professor of Biology at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. His science education research

focuses

participation groups

in

of STEM

on

broadening

underrepresented education

and

careers.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

37

HBCU IMPACT by ericka blount danois

I climbed into the back of the taxi cab, rushing, as I usually am when traveling, to get to LaGuardia Airport to catch a flight. The driver assured me that we would get there on time. He asked where I was traveling to.

forming relationships in a place where you can be authentically and unapologetically yourself, to seeking an Afrocentric curriculum or some just want to be in an intellectually stimulating environment.

“D.C.,” I said.

“Oh, where Howard University is!” he said excitedly in his Nigerian accent.

The list goes on author Alice Walker (Spelman), activist Marian Wright Edelman (Spelman), filmmaker Spike Lee (Morehouse), rappers Mase (Clark University) and Rick Ross and 2 Chainz (both went to Albany State University), NFL player and media host Michael Strahan (Texas Southern University) and a vast number of historical figures from Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and singer Cab Calloway (Morehouse), mathematician Katherine Johnson (West Virginia State University) and activist Stokely Carmichael (Howard University).

“Yes,” I laughed. It wasn’t the first time that I had spoken to someone of African descent whose point of reference for Washington, D.C. wasn’t the White House, but was Howard University, better known by people of color around the world as The Mecca.

“Everybody in Nigeria dreams of going there,” he says after I tell him my aunt and father graduated from there. I can’t help but to beam with pride.

There are so many intangible ways to measure the ways in which HBCU’s have made an impact around the world. A recent story on Morehouse professor Nathan Alexander holding a student’s baby as a he gave a lecture, in order for the student to be able to take notes without distractions is a prime example of an intangible way that going to an HBCU can have an impact on students. Most students choose to go for various reasons, ranging from wanting a nurturing environment, to desiring an environment where your race won’t negatively impact you, to

38 HBCU Times Summer 2019

Brewer, a Spelman graduate who majored in Chemistry and now is the COO of Starbucks.

Politicians like Andrew Gillum, a graduate of Florida A&M University, prosecutors like Marilyn Mosby, the youngest chief prosecutor of any major city in Baltimore who brought the death of Baltimore citizen Freddie Gray in police custody to the national forefront. Mosby graduated from Tuskegee University.

The statistics prove the impact: 25 percent of black Americans earning STEM degrees do so at HBCU’s. HBCU’s produce 85 percent of black doctors, 80 percent of black federal judges, 75 percent of black veterinarians, 70 percent of black Ph.D’s, 70 percent of black dentists, and 50 percent of black engineers, teachers and attorneys, among other professions.

But what have HBCU’s given to the world? Why are the104 HBCUs indispensable?

According to UNCF, HBCU’s generate 14.8 billion in economic impact annually.

HBCU’s generate 134,090 jobs for their local and regional economies. Every dollar spent

by HBCUs and their students generates $1.44 for the local and regional economies.

HBCU’s have graduated alumna like Rosalind

Since their inception, HBCUs have been devoted

to serving the community. During segregation, universities like North Carolina A&T and Shaw University protested against segregated policies.

HBCUs like Fayetteville State University in North Carolina have continued that tradition.

Fayetteville students work with Campus Kitchen to help low-income families receive meals in an effort to close health disparities in the area.

Paul Quinn College in Dallas developed their own farm to help local community members to be able to purchase organically grown food at a low cost. Howard University students gathered in front of the White House to protest the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case.

Morgan State University works closely with community partners to invest in neighborhoods in Baltimore City with untapped potential.

Morehouse created a Rugari scholarship that ended in 2018, where the school funded five scholarship students from the African Great Lakes region.

There are many other examples of community service from 104 HBCUs and their students.

Community service has been an integral part of the curriculum of HBCUs since their founding. My daughter just returned from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she performed community service for her spring break from Howard University. Howard students performed community service during spring break, in a program called Alternative Spring Break, in various locations around the world, including Baltimore, Maryland, Ghana, Haiti, Memphis, TN, Puerto Rico and New Orleans, LA. While there are many ways to measure the impact of HBCUs with statistics that prove why they are not just necessary to black students, but necessary for the health and well-being, and intellectual, cultural and scientific advancement of the world, there is no way to measure the intangible ways that HBCUs have improved the world since their founding.

ERICKA BLOUNT DANOIS, an award-winning journalist, writer, editor, and professor began her career as a stringer at the Philadelphia Tribune with a cover story on the king of Philadelphia International Records, Kenny Gamble.

Ericka graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and has worked as a staff writer, editor, freelancer, and stringer for a number of publications including: Spin, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated, The Root and Playboy, among others.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

39

Building Legacies One Alumni Chapter at a Time by ebony hillsman

Finding a fellow alum at your workplace is always a fun disruption from the workday. This is especially true for an HBCU grad, no matter your major or age, you can always connect on those common experiences that make the HBCU experience so memorable and impactful.

When a group of eight teachers at South Cobb High School (Metro Atlanta)in Austell, Georgia learned that they were all graduates of Florida A&M University, a collective effort was born to meet and fellowship to offer support and celebrate future generations of fellow Rattlers for their students.

President of the newly chartered Northwest Georgia Alumni of Florida A&M University, Kaisha Alexander-Johnson wanted to give students at South Cobb role models and support. “The decision to begin an alumni group was led by a need to help students at South Cobb High School who had already been accepted to Florida A&M University (FAMU) and planned to begin school there in the fall. We realized that there was nothing in place in our community to celebrate their achievement, so we decided to do something special for them.”

After the successful distribution of gift baskets for freshman entering FAMU in the fall of 2018, the teachers of South Cobb knew there was a purpose bigger than just their high school at hand. Johnson says they decided to take action, “When we met again, we realized that there were many Rattlers residing in the northwestern region of Georgia. We thought that it would be a good idea to create a chapter within the area so that we could reach more alumni members and so that we could create activities to help kids

prepare for college. At that point, we decided to inquire about beginning our own chapter.”

Johnson says relationships with the National Alumni Association supported the groups’ progress from the very beginning with best practices and guidelines for recruitment, by-law creation and executive board development. “I contacted the president of the FAMU National Alumni Association, President, Colonel Gregory Clark, who was very supportive of the idea. He recommended that I contact Regional Vice President Yolanda Pinkard. She provided additional support for our chapter. During the process of organizing the chapter, additional FAMU alumni joined our chapter and were also very instrumental with the completion of the charter. The FAMU NAA Executive Board approved our charter on December 18, 2018.”

As with most alumni groups, the Northwest Georgia chapter serves as a central point for several Georgia counties and school districts.

Cobb County is suburban but is surrounded by more than 15 rural Georgia counties. FAMU alumni, families and educators from all of these counties are encouraged to join and support the chapters program goals of scholarship, support, and fellowship.

Future Progress For some students, many of the challenges of college are presented before they step foot on campus. Having family and financial support is critical to helping a student compete for scholarships and adapt to managing everything college life will throw at you. “We also discussed the issue of a few of the students having financial needs to attend FAMU. The teachers agreed that we should try to provide all of our students

with opportunities to obtain more scholarship information earlier in the application process and brainstormed ways of doing so.”

The Northwest Georgia Alumni chapter is working to develop a positive and realistic approach for students in need. A committee has been created to support students’ educational paths earlier- identifying 9th and 10th graders to ensure their interests or academics line up with available scholarships, the application process and preparing for deadlines for college award packages. #FAMUForever Moving forward, the Northwest Georgia chapter looks forward to supporting FAMU and the community of alumni excited to give back.

President Kaisha Johnson says love and pride of our HBCU, continues to motivate members and supporters, “Our chapter’s goals are to enhance and support the continued existence of FAMU. We support its programs, recruit students and alumni, and perpetuate a positive image of the NAA and FAMU. Our chapter serves our alumni and FAMU. We strive to support cultural diversity and equal access to quality education, as well as focus on the educational needs of high school students and the students at FAMU. Lastly, we enhance our (geographical) area’s knowledge of FAMU’s official programs and activities and the accomplishments of its students, faculty, and alumni.”

If you would like to support your HBCU from afar or even close by, look into your local alumni chapter and if there isn’t one, the best way to give back is to be present.

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40 HBCU Times Summer 2019

Charles D. King At Howard University Charter Day: ‘The Fight Continues To Have Our Stories Told Authentically’ by staff writer WASHINGTON (March 1, 2019) - Charles D. King, a Howard University School of Law alumnus who has risen to prominence in Hollywood, told the story of his journey from talent agency mailroom to entertainment company CEO, at this year’s Charter Day Convocation.

“Upon graduation, I had a ten-year plan: One day be at the helm of an integrated media company that would lift our culture up and move it forward,” King said. “When I graduated, I journeyed to Hollywood without a car, a job, and without a computer, and six figures in student loans.”

He landed in the mailroom of William Morris Endeavor talent agency. In a short period, King rose to senior agent in the motion picture department. He went on to become the first African-American partner in the company’s hundred-plus year history and the first ever African-American partner at a major Hollywood talent agency. MACRO, the company he founded in 2015, is today a leading media Hollywood firm representing the voice and perspectives of people of color.

“In four short years, we have nine academy award nominations,” King said. “When we launched we knew there was a market in Hollywood for a new paradigm of ownership and how we are portrayed on screens large and small. The fight continues to have our stories told authentically.”

King credited his activist and educated family, including his father and uncle. The two men

were classmates and 1969 graduates of the Howard University College of Medicine. King urged students to follow their dreams and to remain true to their backgrounds.

He added, “At the moment of opportunity, you better bust through the door. And when you succeed, make sure you pay it forward, and continue to add to the legacy of Howard University.”

Howard University’s Charter Day Convocation commemorates the special charter enacted by the United States Congress and approved by U.S. President Andrew Johnson that established Howard University on March 2, 1867.

In convocation remarks, Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick acknowledged Howard University as “The Howard University” in reference to the actual language found in the historic federal charter document.

At the convocation ceremony, Dr. Frederick and Stacey J. Mobley, chairman of the Board of Trustees, reiterated the planks of Howard University’s recently announced “Howard Forward” strategic plan: Enhance academic excellence, Inspire new knowledge, Serve the community, Improve efficiency and effectiveness, and Achieve financial stability.

“Howard University has a powerful legacy that is built upon rather than rested upon,” Dr. Frederick said. “We have reached a pivotal point in the University’s history where we must invest in ourselves and plan for the future.”

The March 1 Charter Day Convocation sets the stage for the following evening’s highlyanticipated Charter Day Dinner. The annual black-tie gala is Howard’s premiere fundraising event. This year, the proceeds from the dinner will support the Student Aid Campaign and its efforts to directly address the gaps that exist in financial aid for Howard students.

During the event, the Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement will be presented to Rosie Allen-Herring in the field of business and public service; Lori George Billingsley in the field of communications; and Lt. Governor Boyd K. Rutherford in the field of public service. The Capstone Distinguished Service Award will be presented to LaRue V. Barkwell.

ABOUT HOWARD UNIVERSITY Founded in 1867, Howard University is a private, research university that is comprised of 13 schools and colleges. Students pursue studies in more than 120 areas leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University operates with a commitment to Excellence in Truth and Service and has produced four Rhodes Scholars, nine Truman Scholars, two Marshall Scholars, one Schwarzman Scholar, over 60 Fulbright Scholars and 22 Pickering Fellows.

Howard also produces more on-campus African-American Ph.D. recipients than any other university in the United States. For more information on Howard University visitwww.howard.edu.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

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POWER ALUM

Dr. Wes Bellamy

d!

Dr. Wesley “Wes” J. Bellamy, an Atlanta, Georgia native, received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with a concentration in management from South Carolina State University in December 2009. In 2014 he received the Master of Arts degree and the Ed. D. degree in December 2017, both in education administration and supervision from Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia.

He is known as an excellent problem-solver, a team-player who is able to establish positive rapport with others, a creative, energetic selfstarter motivated to succeed, and a skilled strategist who transforms strategic plans into workable solutions and benchmark performance for key operational targets and goals. His profile is evident in all facets of work in academia and the community.

Dr. Bellamy is the Department Chair for the Political Science Department at Virginia State University. He also recently served as the Vice Mayor of the Charlottesville Virginia City Council and is the youngest individual ever elected to the post. He came into the national spotlight after leading the effort to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from city parks. He developed a comprehensive plan, the “Equity Package,” which included nearly $4 million in aid for marginalized communities and pushed it through city council.

Dr. Bellamy’s primary focus is on improving the lives of those who lack resources and positive role models in their lives. He serves as a nonprofit founder and executive, local activist, organizer, and civic leader. While looking to connect African American Millennials throughout the country, he spearheaded the inaugural Black Millennial Political Convention

in Washington D.C. This event featured more than 200 Black Millennials from across the country with different political backgrounds and expertise, different upbringings, and different philosophies, but shared one common goal: Empowering and Connecting African American Millennials. He is also the founder and executive director of “We Code, Too,” a computer programming and coding non-profit focused on building a pipeline for Black and Latinx youth in the tech industry Dr. Bellamy is also president of the awardwinning mentoring organization 100 Black Men of Central Virginia; a member of the Charlottesville Housing and Redevelopment Board; co-chair of the Gang Reduction through Active Community Engagement (GRACE) task force; and a member on the Charlottesville/ Albemarle Jail Authority Board.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

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POWER ALUM

Jennifer Bishop

As an entrepreneur, community leader, philanthropist and political activist, Jennifer D. Bishop has dedicated her life to confronting societal disparities and injustices as well advocating for causes and initiatives that develop and empower women and youth.

Committed to the betterment of our society, Jennifer is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Jack and Jill of America, Inc., Emerge South Carolina, the International Association of Professional Women, the National Association for Female Executives and Women Impacting Public Policy, Richland Democratic Women’s Caucus to name a few. Jennifer has also served on the Richland County Penny Sales Tax Advisory Board and is the current Chairwoman of the City of Columbia Commercial Revolving Loan Committee.

With a passion for education, Jennifer received a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Public Policy and Administration from Savannah State University. She is currently completing the final requirements for a Doctoral Degree in Public Policy and Administration.

Professionally, for over 20 years, she has worked in the private-sector with a focus on publicsector business within the top Fortune 300 companies as a Regional Vice President. In 2009, she realigned her career plans and dedicated her acquired business acumen into the non-profit sector and assumed leadership as the Executive Director of Greater Columbia CDC. As an entrepreneur, Jennifer is owner of Savannah Communications Group, Grace Academy Child Development Center and President of Bishop Speaks, LLC. In 2010, Jennifer became licensed as an ordained Elder and continues to fulfill her passion to mentor and minister to women.

Jennifer is married to Aaron R. E. Bishop, and they are the proud parents of one son, Peyton.

44 HBCU Times Summer 2019

POWER ALUM

Ala’Torya Cranford

Ala’Torya V. Cranford, is a native of Hartsville, South Carolina and a graduate of Mayo High School for Math, Science and Technology in Darlington, South Carolina. Ala’Torya attended Paine College and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology. She holds a Master’s degree in Higher Education with a concentration in College Teaching and Learning and plans to pursue a doctoral degree Higher Education Leadership.

With over eight years of experience in higher education in a variety of areas; she has served as an Admissions Recruiter, Director of Alumni Relations, Director of Student Activities and Assistant Softball Coach; with each developing her professionally and personally to better serve today’s student. She currently serves as the Assistant Director of First and Second-Year Programs at Fort Valley State University.

Her ability to lead and develop future leaders is reflective in her creation of a professional mentoring and college preparation program for high school students and through a nonprofit community based organization she founded called TranspireOne. It was created with the dedicated purpose of mentoring and assisting individuals with self-discovery through exposure to positivity, possibility and purpose; that leads to personal, professional and leadership growth.

Ms. Cranford received the honor of being listed as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Top 30 Under 30 by HBCU Buzz for

her impact and achievements in life thus far. She has also been acknowledged as an Outstanding Young Alumnus by United Negro College Fund (UNCF) National Alumni Council (NAC) for her commitment and support of her Alma Mater, Paine College, where she continues to serve and had recently been acknowledged her for her time as the Director of Alumni Relations. She is an Augusta New Leaders Council (NLC) Fellow, a Higher Education Leadership Foundation (HELF) Fellow. She is also a recipient of the CSRA Shero Late Quincy Murphy Vision Award and a member of the gospel group, Trey McLaughlin and the Sounds of Zamar.

She has had many opportunities through TranspireOne, Inc. to share in motivational and public speaking alongside best-selling author, Stephan Labossier and television personality, Toya Wright. She was also invited to give her first ever commencement address at MillerMotte Technical College of Augusta Georgia and has had the ability to share along with several leadership and women’s groups for several colleges, high schools and organizations.

A young lady of many accolades: academically, athletically, within the community and church.

She enjoys music, laughter, family, motivating young people and traveling. She strongly believes, she may not have gone where she intended to go, but she thinks she has ended up where she intended to be with her faith and trust in GOD.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

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POWER ALUM

L. Kobie Wilkerson

L. Kobie Wilkerson a.k.a L. Kobie Da Wiz is an award-winning author, poet, speaker, presenter, storyteller, edutainer, master teacher, and powerful transformer of schools and organizations. He ingeniously converts resistance to change into receptiveness for growth. He is a leading authority on helping schools and organizations cultivate relationships that support a healthy culture and climate. Kobie works with schools and organizations where it is his goal to see them systematically operate at their best, so they can effectively impact those they serve. Passionate about continuous growth, he decided to pursue education to shape and mold the values of children by inspiring them to love knowledge and to be life long learners.

Mr. Wilkerson has a B.A. in Education and a B.S. in Sociology from Kentucky State University.

He obtained his Masters in Education Administration from Kansas State University.

Kobie is a graduate of the Les Brown speaker training program and was also selected as a South Carolina Educational Policy Fellow, a program of the Institute for Educational Leadership out of Washington, D.C. 46 HBCU Times Summer 2019

Kobie has taught in Topeka, Kansas and Cincinnati, Ohio (where he was born and raised).

During his time in Cincinnati he founded Camp Gye Nyame, a summer camp that focuses on reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.

He has presented in South Africa, and most recently participated in a Kenyan delegation put together by Utengo, whose goal is strengthening impoverished Christian churches and schools so that they become places of healing and restoration for Kenyan youth.Currently Kobie serves as chief consultant of the Love II Learn Educational Group and Love II Learn Music where they work to empower teachers to engage students to transform our world through literacy and music. He is also President of Love II Learn Books and CEO/President of the newly founded Love II Learn Foundation. Kobie has a passion for relationships and personal development, and a sincere desire to see all who he comes in contact with become their very best.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Markayla Brooks

Markayla Brooks is a current graduating senior Mass Media Arts Major at Clark Atlanta University. She is from Columbus, Ohio. Markayla is entering her last semester of undergraduate studies in the fall. During high school, she was dual enrolled and was able to transfer nearly a semester worth of credits to Clark Atlanta University.

During her time at CAU, she has been a very active student. Since her freshman year, she has been a very active member of the Isabella T. Jenkins Honors and Scholars Program. She has also served two years as a resident assistant, public relations committee chair for the Honors Program, participating in two internships, and now representative for the CAU chapter of National Association of Black Journalists.

While being active on campus and throughout

the community with various community service efforts Markayla has also maintained a high cumulative grade point average of 3.81. Her academic excellence has opened many doors, including being inducted into three national honor societies during the 2018- 2019 academic school year.

Following completion of her undergraduate experience, Markayla plans to break into the media industry. Her ultimate career goal is to be a sideline sports reporter. Markayla loves to meet new people and is always willing to lend a helping hand. Most importantly, she believes what God has for her is for her and she wants to always be a role model for younger girls who look up to her. And most importantly she wants to walk in her purpose to fulfill her destiny.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

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HBCUs: National Treasures by dale glenwood green, professor, morgan state university

The historic buildings of Historically Black College and University (HBCU) campuses inform a story that no other setting can tell. The HBCU story, in its breadth of nearly 200 years and across 20 states, celebrates the contributions of the generations of African American architects, scholars, humanitarians, and innovators who walked the hallowed grounds. Yet too often the spaces that contribute depth and meaning to these campus landscapes are neglected, altered, or demolished at the hands of competing institutional priorities and inequitable funding patterns. HBCUs face the same challenges as any institution of higher learning, but their mission calls them to a greater social purpose. On top of this charge, HBCUs also steward a heritage that is irreplaceable and vital to a truer telling of Americas collective history.

The year 2017 marked the 150th anniversary of nine HBCUs founded in America (the largest concentration of HBCUs founded in any single year, 1867), which included Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2016, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated Morgan State University a National Treasure, the only entire campus in the nation with such designation. Through this partnership with the National Trust, Morgan State began the effort to develop a campus heritage stewardship plan that will guide the responsible management

48 HBCU Times Summer 2019

of the campus’s invaluable historic resources.

In this effort, Morgan State University leads the nation by envisioning a forward-thinking preservation plan that will serve as a model for HBCUs and campuses nationally. There are hundreds--as many as 700 in 1998--of historic structures across the nation’s 105 HBCUs that collectively weave a fuller American story, yet only nine preservation plans have been completed at HBCUs. The effort at Morgan is both timely and necessary; it will shape the future of the preservation of HBCUs. The year 1867 was a significant year in the history of African Americans. It witnessed many significant advances in civil rights, it was just four years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. That year also was a banner year for advancements in higher education for African Americans, as well.

It witnessed the founding of more Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) than in any other year, before or after, in United States history. Prior to the Civil War, there was no structured higher education system for African American students. Public policy and certain statutory provisions prohibited the education of African Americans in various parts of the nation.

The Institute for Colored Youth, the first higher education institution for African Americans, was founded in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, in 1837.

It was followed by two other African American institutions--Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania (1854), and Wilberforce University, in Ohio (1856).

In 1867, nine HBCUs were founded, including Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, Howard University in Washington, D.C., Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, Barber-Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina, Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama, Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2017, these nine HBCUs celebrated their Sesquicentennial, 150th Anniversary, since their founding, with a unified and collaborative observance aimed at focusing the nation’s attention sharply and effectively on the remarkable record of HBCUs, both historically and presently, and their tremendous value as some of the nation’s hidden treasures.

In addition, a national conversation was generated on the critical role that HBCUs must play in 21st-century American education and what the nation must do, in its own best interest, to preserve and enhance them.

In 1965, Title III of the Higher Education Act, as amended, formally recognized 105 HBCUs and defined them as any Historically Black College or University that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of Black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary of Education to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation.�

HBCUs offer all students, regardless of race, an opportunity to develop their skills and talents. This was because the overwhelming majority of predominantly white institutions of higher-learning disqualified African Americans from enrollment during the Jim Crow era of segregation.

Morgan State University was founded in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute through the providential collaboration of Black church activist and White religious leaders, humanitarians and philanthropist who made the founding and development possible.

Morgan State University’s journey is a story of triumph over adversity and began with five former enslaved African Americans of

Maryland, Reverends Benjamin Brown, Samuel Green, Sr., Elijah Grissem, James Harper and James Peck. These ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church envisioned and planted the seeds for the founding of what is now Morgan State University.

HBCUs campuses inform a story that no other setting can tell. The HBCU story in its breadth, stewards a heritage that is irreplaceable and vital to a truer telling of these unique and significant sites of Achievements, Activism and Architecture.

From the inaugural class of students convening at African American churches across the nation, a remarkable journey began with African American students achieving college degrees and contributing in society. The schools offered college preparation, industrial education, and teacher training to African American students.

Activism has long been a central part of the DNA of the HBCUs, the visionary African American founders successfully petitioned the white power structures, which had the resources and the authority, to assist them in their efforts. The result of this seminal vision and activism was the establishment of HBCUs across the nation.

In 1998, 10 years into the Endangered Places program, the National Trust for Historic Preservation grouped every single HBCU into one endangered national treasure. In 2002, the Getty Foundation launched the Campus Heritage Initiative to preserve and conserve architecture, 86 campuses had received grants to assist with managing and preserving the integrity of their significant historic buildings, sites, and landscapes (only 9 of the 86 campuses were HBCUs). Over the years, a number of HBCUs have closed their doors and no longer exist. Unfortunately, their campuses and buildings were then left in limbo along with the overhanging debt and hurt feelings of alumni and friends. Only in a few cases, new owners have stepped forward to repurpose the campuses and buildings.

The early buildings, open spaces and landscapes that date back to the period of segregation when the majority of HBCUs were founded warrant historic preservation and ongoing public support. HBCUs tell the broader history of the United States and reflect the growing cultural pluralism of the country and its rich tapestry of ethnic and geographic diversity.

HBCU Times Summer 2019

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PROFESSOR DALE GREEN

valued subject matter expert who has served and

Morgan State University Professor Dale Glenwood

led several prestigious boards, commissions and

Green joined the faculty in the School of Architecture

committees at the local, state and national level. He

and Planning in 2008. He has amassed numerous

has lectured widely at conferences and various forums

accomplishments

restoration

and is a frequent guest of the national media including

architecture. Among his distinguished works include

CSPAN, NPR and the Washington Post. His acumen

restoring the award-winning Ridgeley Rosenwald

extends beyond U.S. borders, marked by international

School,

travel to restore damaged historic sites in Haiti post-

in

expansive

preservation

research

on

and

Historic

African

American Churches, discovering The Hill (an early Free

earthquake.

Black community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore), plans for Challenged Communities of Color, preservation of

Through his role as a Morgan professor and architect,

HBCUs legacy and the study of Early Black Architects

Professor Green has spearheaded an appreciation of

(just to name a few).

Black Heritage and Preservation and has impacted students, communities and various organizations while

An Historical Architect, in accordance with the Secretary

actively shaping significant preservation agendas that

of Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards (36

extol African American history and culture.

CFR 61), LEED Accredited Professional, Professor Green is acknowledged for his professional work in

The recipient of two 2012 Maryland Preservation

historic preservation, and has dedicated his career to

Awards (the Education and Community Engagement

preserving and reinvigorating historic places, through

award and the Preservation Partnerships for Project

rigorous research and creative design, while showing

Excellence award), he is a committed champion for the

great respect for the original architects’ and builders’

preservation of African American Heritage and Places. It

intentions.

was through Professor Green’s work and his reputation that Morgan State University was named a National

Professor

Green’s invaluable

compelling discoveries

have

knowledge positioned

and

him as a

Treasure, the only entire campus in the nation to hold such designation.

F

50 HBCU Times Summer 2019

DREAM IT • LEARN IT • ACHIEVE IT

Find Your Future at Morgan State University.

morgan.edu

College of Liberal Arts • School of Architecture & Planning School of Business & Management • School of Community Health & Policy School of Computer, Mathematical & Natural Sciences • School of Education & Urban Studies • School of Engineering • School of Global Journalism & Times Summer Communication • School of Graduate Studies • SchoolHBCU of Social Work2019

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