Dispelling myths about America's HBCU's
The Friday Flashpoints!
Nobody asked me but...
***Earlier this week, Lorye Truesdale, a friend of mine ever since I was a student at FAMU High and she was a young Army ROTC cadet at FAMU, sent me a collection of pictures featuring her first grade students in Japan displaying pennants from one of America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities!
Judging from the smiles, it is clear that each child was very proud to learn all about the rich legacies of schools that were founded in the years after slavery to "lift the veil of ignorance" from Blacks that had been forbidden, by law, from learning to read or write during 256 years of enslavement.
Kudos to Sister Lorye for all that she is doing to spread wisdom among the next generation of leaders that will hail from HBCU's!
***Late yesterday evening, I noticed that I was tagged by my friend El Walker into a post on the HBCU Alumni page on Facebook that featured a Tik Tok video. The short clip features Deb Moore, a white woman who is a graduate of Tennessee State University, the largest HBCU in Tennessee (and one with a storied academic and athletic legacy).
In the video, Ms. Moore remembers the time when she and her TSU Honda Campus All-Star Challenge teammates played my Morehouse team in the HCASC South Sectional tournament—and how our playing style left an indelible mark on her mind. While she says 1995 or '96, Hobbs the historian reminds that our match actually was in 1994, during a run when Morehouse's overall record was 37-2 during my junior and senior years.
Without adieu, Ms. Moore:
***What disturbs me greatly in an era in which ignorant men like Florida Gov. Ron Desantis are attacking Critical Race Theory in schools as a way to stoke the racial biases of an equally ignorant Republican base, one that has little appreciation for general American history—let alone a narrow focus on Blacks and other racial minorities within that history—is the arrogance that these ones display while comprising what I often call the modern day "Know Nothings."
Yesterday, I had the privilege of analyzing these Know Nothings while participating on a panel sponsored by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority as part of their AKA Day at Florida's Capitol events. I was joined on the panel by veteran media consultant/lobbyist Gayle Andrews, Tallahassee City Commissioner Diane Williams-Cox, and Florida Senate candidate Dr. Rosalind Osgood, the former chair of the Broward County School Board, each an AKA who is passionate about pushing back against the lies and misperceptions that are bandied about by Critical Race Theory critics.
The consensus among the panel was that we all bear the burden of addressing these lies and misperceptions, whether it be teachers displaying civil disobedience by teaching the truth within their lesson plans, op/ed pieces being submitted to local newspapers and shared online, or educators and former educators taking the initiative to run for local school board positions!
Lest we forget…
***Speaking of ignorance, arguably the worst example relative to today's theme is that there are a vast number of whites in America who are utterly clueless about how HBCU's were founded; why they remained segregated for decades; how public HBCU's have been underfunded by state legislatures for decades, and how the "H" for "Historically" does not mean that these hallowed institutions do not have faculty, staff, and students from all races.
Just this month, there have been a number of irate white parents who have called their local school boards crying that the Black History Month lessons, programs, and even the HBCU paraphernalia day celebrations "discriminate against white people.”
Yep, juxtaposed to Lorye Truesdale's diverse class that displayed HBCU Love above are little white kids whose trifling parents are either keeping them at home, or sending them to school wearing paraphernalia from PWI's like the University of Georgia, Florida, or Alabama. Trolls of this ilk would be comical if they were not so pitiful and dangerous as they sow the seeds of hatred within their children—while reinforcing the notion that “what's white must always be right,” without giving any credence at all to other people, cultures, or traditions.
The optimist compels me to teach the truth within my own platforms in hopes that deliberately closed white (and even some confused Black) eyes will open, but the realist realizes that kids typically grow up to become what they see in the home, and if the mom and dad are racist, uneducated fools, the kids will uphold the idiotic family line well when they become adults.
***Kudos to Morehouse College President David Thomas following his formal announcement that the College is embarking upon a $1.5 Billion capital campaign entitled “Making Men of Consequence.”
Per the school’s press release: “Morehouse already has raised $200 million in contributions for the campaign during its quiet phase, which began three years ago. Gifts were donated by generous alumni, loyal benefactors, and new friends of Morehouse. As the College enters the public phase of the campaign, Morehouse will make broader appeals to increase alumni giving and focus on growing more philanthropic support from corporations, foundations, and friends.”
As a proud member of the Morehouse Class of ‘94 (and an annual contributor), I ask all who are so willing to become “Friends of Morehouse” and donate whatever amount that’s feasible to ensure the next 155 years of a school that has played such a significant role in producing Black male leaders since 1867.
Black History Hobbservation
Reginald F. Lewis, Finance Mogul
Reginald F. Lewis was born on December 7, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. Upon graduating high school as a celebrated student-athlete, in 1961, Lewis accepted a football scholarship to attend Virginia State University, a storied HBCU in Petersburg, Virginia.
A quarterback, after an injury cut his football career short during his sophomore year, Lewis threw his energy into his studies and being a campus leader, which included his pledging Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity via the Alpha Phi Chapter.
In 1965, Lewis accepted a Rockefeller Fellowship to attend a summer program at Harvard Law School; Lewis later enrolled as a full-time student, and his third year thesis on mergers and acquisitions received an honors grade—and was a harbinger of things to come!
Two years after finishing Harvard Law, Lewis joined several other Blacks in establishing the first Black owned law firm on Wall Street, and his primary focus was structuring investments in minority owned businesses. During this same early period, Lewis also served as counsel for the New York based Commission for Racial Justice.
In 1983, Lewis created the TLC Group and his first major acquisition was the $22.5 million leveraged buyout of McCall Pattern Company. In 1987, Lewis sold McCall for $65 million—a 90-to-1 return on his investment.
Undaunted, later that year, Lewis leveraged the buyout of Beatrice Foods, one that at $985 million, was the largest leveraged buyout of overseas assets by an American company.
Lewis was then installed as Chairman and CEO of the new "TLC Beatrice International," and after paying down debt and restructuring the company, led the concern to over $1.8 billion in annual sales by 1992.
Tragically, after a brief illness, Lewis died in January of 1993 at the age of 50. In his brief life, however, he was a trailblazer for Blacks in the highly exclusive and de facto segregated world of finance.
Black College Feature
Each day during Black History Month the Hobbservation Point will feature one of America's storied HBCU's
Next up: Virginia Union University
History: After the end of the Civil War in 1865, leaders from the American Baptist Home Mission Society, including 11 teachers, began holding classes for the formerly enslaved, thus the beginning of the Richmond Theological School for Freedmen. The school took its present name in 1899 upon the merger of Richmond Theological with Wayland Seminary. In 1932, Hartshorn Memorial College, a women's college, merged with VUU. VUU's 84-acre (34 ha) campus is located at 1500 North Lombardy Street in Richmond's North Side. In 1964, Storer College, an HBCU in West Virginia, merged its endowment with Virginia Union.
Academics: Virginia Union is consistently ranked among the top 50 HBCUs by US News & World Report. The University offers degrees through four main schools: Evelyn Reid Syphax School of Education and Interdisciplinary Studies, School of Arts and Sciences,Sydney Lewis School of Business, and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union.
Mascot: Panthers
Colors: Maroon and Steele
Athletics: Virginia Union fields men's and women's teams in varsity sports as a member of the Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association (CIAA), an HBCU NCAA Division II conference. The University has won two Black College National Championships in football (1932, 1981).
Famous Alumni/Figures: Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, Civil Rights legend Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, Civil Rights legend Samuel DeWitt Proctor, ground-breaking ABC news journalist Max Robinson, Trans-Africa Founder Randall Robinson, legendary Civil Rights Attorney and Federal Judge Spottswood Robinson; writer/historian Chandler Owen, writer Bessye Bearden, Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.; self-help guru Iyanla Vanzant, Civil Rights leader Roslyn Brock, former NBA star Charles Oakley, former NBA star Ben Wallace, former NFL star Herbert Scott, R&B singer Will Downing, Simeon Booker, former Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy (D- Washington DC), US Navy Admiral Samuel Gravely, Chandler Owen, former Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones.
Remembering the HBCU ancestors
Today’s cover picture is the famous statue of Booker T. Washington, a Hampton University graduate who founded Tuskegee University in 1881, that’s called “Lifting the veil of ignorance.” Said Washington: “A race, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up.”
Indeed!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful weekend!
Loved these FLASHPOINTS!!!