Bishop and Mrs. Daniel Payne

(For larger image, click on photo above)

In 1863 Bishop Daniel Payne, Wilberforce benefactor and 7-year trustee, succeeded Richard Rust to become its second president, and the first African American college president in U.S. history. To read a short biography of this Black pioneer, click on THIS LINK.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Yesterday’s Yahoo! news features included an interesting article in the rise of environmental rankings for U.S. colleges and universities. Apparently, the Princeton Review has added a “green rating” to its annual college guide. The rating will appear in the 2009 edition and is meant to indicate how “environmentally friendly, responsible, and committed the institutions are.”

According to the Princeton Review Guide, the schools with the best green ratings are: Arizona State University (Tempe),  Bates College, Binghamton University, College of the Atlantic, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of New Hampshire, University of Oregon, University of Washington, Yale University.

In addition there are a number of other rankings, some more scientific than others, that indicate those schools most heavily committed to (and successful at) reducing their negative impact on the environment. Curiously, almost none of those institutions are HBCUs.

A handful of HBCUs have signed onto the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. They are: Coppin State, Xavier University, Dillard University, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science, and Norfolk State University. Though I am pleased that at least some HBCUs showed up on the list, many surprising names were missing from the list. I would, for example, have expected the presidents of Howard, Spelman, Morehouse, Hampton, and FAMU to have signed the Presidents Climate Commitment.

On those rare occasions when HBCUs showed up in the various green ratings and pledge lists, they were at the bottom of the rankings. The Sustainable Edowments Institute has developed one of the most thorough reviews of college environmental policies and sustainability. Howard and Spelman are the only HBCUs included on the Sustainable Edowments Institute 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, earning bottom marks for what the Institute describes as their failure to make significant movements on conservation, sustainability, and waste reduction. The Institute gave Spelman a grade of D-, which is at least higher than Howard’s F.

Black colleges should be spearheading the spread of environmental awareness and the adoption of sustainable living strategies throughout the African American community. Instead, it seems that those HBCUs best positioned to make an impact (due to their strong endowments and national reputations) have yet to take action on their own campuses.

I would have hoped for better.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

A report on the China View website brought to my attention the battle that is taking place at UCLA, between the undergraduate admissions committee and Political Science Professor Timothy Groseclose, a former committee member.

Apparently Prof. Groseclose has become convinced that the admissions committee is, to use his language, “cheating” in the admissions process. Since 1996, California’s Proposition 209 has effectively prohibited any form of identity based discrimination or preferential treatment by state institutions. The main point of this proposition is expressed in this excerpt from the text of Prop 209:

The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

On August 28, 2008, Professor Groseclose submitted his “Report on Suspected Malfeasance in UCLA Admissions and the Accompanying Cover-Up.” The report begins with this summary of his accusations against the admissions committee:

A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that UCLA is cheating on admissions. Specifically, applicants often reveal their own race on the essay part of their application. This allows admissions staff members to learn the race of applicants; then, in violation of Proposition 209, readers use such information to evaluate applicants. To the extent that this happens – an extent which can only be assessed with stematic data on admissions – such practices are de facto implementations of race preferences.

(To read the full text of Professor Groseclose’s report, click HERE.)

UCLA has consistently denied that it has violated Prop 209 in any of its policies or practices, and the University responded to Professor Groseclose’s accusations, issuing a statement that affirms, among other things, that,

“UCLA’s admissions policies and practices were developed to scrupulously adhere to state law and University of California regulations. The campus remains committed to the highest ethical standards and to openness and transparency in establishing and maintaining admissions policies in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.”

(To read the full text of UCLA’s Statement on Admissions Processes, click HERE.)

Groseclose emphasizes that he does, in fact, support the use of racial preferences in college admissions, but that he opposes what he perceives as the unlawful actions taken by UCLA. He describes his beliefs in the second appendix of his 89-page report:

Notwithstanding some accusations I may face, I strongly favor racial diversity.

Indeed, in university admissions I favor racial preferences – that is, to adopt policies that would aid racial groups who have faced greater challenges and suffered past discrimination – as long as the preferences are executed transparently and within the limits of the law.

Groseclose believes that there are a number of strategies that UCLA admissions could use to increase racial diversity in its undergraduate student body without violating the constraints imposed by Proposition 209, including the adoption of a policy that grants, “automatic admission to any student who graduated in the top 1% of his or her high school class.”

Groseclose’s statement of support for diversity aside, it troubles me that a sudden rise in the number of Black students admitted to UCLA seems to have launched his probe into the University’s admissions practices. I doubt that a sudden surge in the number of Arab American, Asian American, or Latin American students admitted would have been met with the same suspicions.

I wonder if it ever occurred to Groseclose and others who associate a rise in the number of Black on campus as evidence of unlawful activity that maybe UCLA, under pressure from concerned Black alumni, has actually became more fair to Black students, rather than less fair to white and Asian students. Is it possible that UCLA has simply gotten better at judging Black students fairly, rather than worse at adhering to state law?

When one considers the history of Black people in the U.S. (including recent history), the proponderance of the evidence indicates that large and powerful institutions are rarely biased toward Black people. Even in the case of affirmative action, the fact remains that, throughout the history of affirmative action, the greatest beneficiaries of its policies have been white women, whose sweeping and preference-based advances have largely been masked by the national obsession with the relatively small gains made by people of African descent.

I will watch this story with great interest, but little hope that it will result in any outcomes that are favorable for Black people. Throughout the blogosphere, many have already made up their minds that more Black folks at UCLA must mean less fairness toward other ethnic groups. This is a shadow that will follow the Black students on that campus throughout their undergraduate careers. The intimations — whispered, written, and spoken aloud — that they are somehow less deserving than students of any other ethnic heritage will mar their academic experience; and, in my experience, no level of performance, no matter how high, will convince the majority of students on campus that each Black student they encounter does not represent a white student’s displacement by a ”less qualified” person of African descent.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

We have to have zero tolerance. Any example of racism is one example too much, from the police or any other sector of Harvard University.

–Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as quoted in Friday’s Boston Globe

Last spring a group of Harvard’s Black student organizations held an end-of-year field day on Radcliffe Quad. Students picnicked, played capture the flag, and ran relay races. A good time was had by all…until two Harvard Police officers drove up on motorcycles and asked whether or not this group of Black men and women was actually authorized to be on the Harvard campus.

It turns out that a student in a nearby dorm had mistaken the Black students for tresspassers and contacted the campus police. This incident drew national publicity and strong criticism from Black  students and faculty.

Unfortunately, it seems that Harvard police did not learn from this mistake. On August 8th, a Black person  was seen using tools to remove a locked bicycle from a campus bike rack. Harvard Crimson reporter Jamison A. Hill describes the events that ensued:

According to the HUPD police log, the individual was found to be the owner of the bicycle and an affiliate of the university after questioning by officers. The person has since been identified as a black high school student from the Boston area working at Harvard for the summer. Faust wrote that an investigation into the interaction between the officers and the student has been launched.

One source with knowledge of the situation said that “the conversation between the individual and the officers was laced with obscenities” and that the officers have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into how they handled the incident.

Partly in response to this incident, and partly in response to the demands of Black faculty, students, and staff, University President Drew Gilpin Faust has announced the formation of a committee to review Harvard U police practices.

Jamison Hill of the Crimson explains:

An incident earlier this month has raised concerns about Harvard University Police Department’s treatment of racial minorities on campus, leading University President Drew G. Faust to announce the creation of a six-member committee to review HUPD’s practices.

“The review will include consideration of HUPD’s diversity training, community outreach, and recruitment efforts, as well as the ways in which Harvard’s past experience as well as best practices elsewhere can help inform our future practice,” Faust wrote in an e-mail to faculty and senior-level administration.

The committee will be led by Ralph C. Martin II, the former Suffolk County district attorney and currently a managing partner at the Boston law firm, Bingham McCutchen.

The first Black student graduated from Harvard in 1870. Apparently, though, 138 years of Black students at Harvard has not yet been enough time to change the campus community’s perception that student = white.

This problem is not unique to Harvard, but as the oldest university in the nation,  Harvard is uniquely poised to act as a model for other institutions. I will follow this story with great interest and guarded optimism.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Fannie Jackson Coppin (1837 - 1913)

We do not ask that anyone of our people shall be put into a position because he is a colored person, but we do most emphatically ask that he shall not be kept out of a position because he is a colored person.

– Fanny Jackson Coppin, in a speech delivered at a fair in Philadelphia. This speech was anthologized in Negro Eloquence: The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from teh Days of Slavery to the Present Time, edited by Alice Dunbar Nelson (1914).

***

Biographical Notes: Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837-1913) was born into slavery in Washington, DC. She was released from bondage when an aunt purchased her freedom. She had a lifelong thirst for learning, and as a young woman she worked as a domestic servant in Newport, Rhode Island, in order to pay for tutoring. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1865, becoming one of the first African American women to earn a degree from a U.S. college or university.

The America 1900 webpage at PBS.org describes her contributions to African American education:

As a student at Oberlin College in the 1860s, Coppin established an evening school for freed slaves, and was the second African American woman to graduate from the college. Coppin took a position as principal of the female department at the Institute for Colored Youth, a Quaker academy in Philadelphia, where she was later promoted to principal of the school–the highest educational appointment held by a black woman at that time. Coppin anticipated Booker T. Washington’s call for vocational training for African Americans, establishing an industrial department at the Institute in the 1880s. This first trade school for African Americans in Philadelphia was an immediate success and had a waiting list for admission throughout its existence.

The Institute for Colored Youth, eventually renamed Cheyney University, is the oldest Black college or university in the United States.

Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland is named in honor of Fanny Jackson Coppin and her contributions to African American education. The Coppin State website describes her later years as a wife and missionary:

In the fall of 1881, Fanny married the Rev. Levi Jenkins Coppin, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The marriage opened a wealth of missionary opportunities for Fanny. When her husband was made Bishop of Cape Town, South Africa, Fanny accompanied him and traveled thousands of miles organizing mission societies.

She returned to the United States after almost a decade of missionary work and died in Philadelphia in 1913.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

KAMERAD! KAMERAD!
Three colored Canadians imitating the Germans, whom they captured in this dugout near the Canal du Nord, as they put up their hands and shouted “Kamerad”!

(Photo and caption from Kelly Miller’s History of the World War for Human Rights [1919])*

Posted by Ajuan Mance

The 8/21/08  JBHE weekly bulletin describes a recent finding by the Schott Foundation for Public Education that there is, “a serious crisis in the secondary education of black males.” According to the Schott Foundation’s report, there is a 28 point difference between the high school graduation rate for white males and the high school graduation rate for black males: “Nationwide, only 47 percent of black males are completing high school. For whites, the rate is 75 percent.”

(Source: Journal of Blacks in Higher Education)

Considering the two charts above, one thing seems clear: there is an inverse relationship between the size of a state’s Black population and the proportion of Black males who graduate from high school. With few exceptions, those states with the lowest Black populations (less that 5 percent of the overall state population) have the highest Black male graduation rates. On the other hand, those states with disproportionately high Black populations (greater than the national average of 12 percent) have the lowest Black male graduation rates.

One possible explanation for this trend is that youth who live in areas with low Black populations experience less peer pressure to conform to any one particular idea of what it means to be Black. For young African American men and boys, this amounts to a freedom from (among other things) the pressure to conform to those prevailing images and stereotypes of Black maleness and masculinity that position Black manhood as violent, hyper-masculine, and anti-intellectual.

In the absence of these pressures, some young Black men are able to thrive without having to worry about whether or not their passion for oboe or Zora Neale Hurston or physics or pointilism (to give a few examples) measures up to the popular perceptions of the attributes of real Black men. This is not to say that young Black men cannot thrive in majority Black high schools, nor am I suggesting that the overwhelmingly white high school environment is a utopia for African American students . The question, though, of why and how some young Black men are able to thrive in those very environments that conventional wisdom would suggest are the least hospitable to them must be examined in greater depth.

Finally, I must underscore that the freedom from the narrowly drawn popular stereotypes about what it means to be Black and male is not about freedom from the notion that educational achievement is raced and/or constitutes “acting white.” On the contrary, freedom from popular stereotypes about Black manhood and masculinity is about the freedom from the oppressive fact that, in the United States, intellectual achievement and passion is gendered. Brainy guys — the guys who raise their hands in class to answer questions, who get involved in school activities beyond athletics, who play in the orchestra, who like to read for pleasure – are often labeled as sissies or wimps. In African American communities, in which access to traditional channels of male power (high earning power, authority over subordinates in the workplace, political influence, et cetera) is often limited, the investment in owning and projecting the strongest, most unequivocal vision of masculinity is even greater than it is for white, Latino, and Asian American youth.

I hope that the numbers reported in the Scott Foundation report will open up a larger discussion on which aspects of majority white high school  environment are somehow supporting achievment.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

1990s rapper Ahmad Ali Lewis at Compton’s Salvation Army Recreation Center.

(Source: The Los Angeles Times)

I came across this inspiring story in the LA Times. This fall, Ahmad Ali Lewis, whose single “Back in the Day” had heads bumping back in the mid-1990s, will be entering Stanford University. The valedictorian of his community college graduating class, his goal is to earn a Ph.D. in social work and become a university professor.

LA Times reporter Larry Gordon reports:

Ahmad Ali Lewis made a deal with his mother back when he was a high school student: He would go to college unless he got a recording contract for his upbeat rap music.

It was a big if. But Lewis, 17, an honors student and top football player, skipped the college entrance exams and signed with Giant Records. “I said S.A.T. - whatever. I want to R.A.P.,” he recalls.

His 1994 album, called “Ahmad,” included a hit single, “Back in the Day,” a nostalgic riff on his south Los Angeles childhood.

…

Looking back, Lewis said he does not regret his teenage decision, even though his early success was followed by struggles in a music industry he criticized as promoting violence in the black community. Now 32 and the father of a 4-year-old son, he is still recording songs but he is also finishing homework.

Ahmad the first-name-only rapper has become Ahmad Ali Lewis the Stanford-bound scholar.

Lewis enrolled two years ago at Long Beach City College and graduated in May as valedictorian, with a 4.0 grade point average. He was accepted as a transfer student by several universities for this fall and chose Stanford. “When I stepped on campus, something in my gut said, ‘Dude, this is where you belong,’ ” said Lewis, who plans to double major in sociology and African-American studies. He expects to get a doctorate in social work and become a professor.”I love teaching,” said Lewis, who tutored at an elementary school. “Rapping and teaching are not that far apart. You’re rapping, you’re talking. You’re a professor, you’re talking.”

…

He speaks of his Christian faith and academic ambitions with enthusiasm, humor and what he jokingly concedes is the “egomania” of a well-loved child. His mother, Paulette Holt, inspired him by starting college when she was a divorced mother of three and also “brainwashed me,” he said. “I always thought I was better than average, that I was handsome, smart and talented. It was a trick,” he said. “Being black in America, from the ghetto, you need that extra little bit of confidence. So that’s kind of my mission to give other kids that kind of confidence.”

The odds were against him at Stanford, which accepted just 20 of this year’s 1,200 transfer applicants. But Lewis was admitted and offered a financial aid package that will cover his tuition, room and board, which total more than $47,000 this school year. He’ll also receive funds for books and living costs each year through a highly competitive grant program the Virginia-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation offers community college students transferring to four-year schools.

“Ahmad was really a standout in all the areas,” said Vance Lancaster, a Cooke foundation spokesman. “He is truly a scholar and a humanitarian who just happens to be a chart-topping rapper.”

To read this entire article, click HERE.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Kelly Miller (1863 - 1939)

To expect the Negroes of Georgia to produce a great general like Napoleon when they are not even allowed to carry arms, or to deride them for not producing scholars like those of the Renaissance when a few years ago they were forbidden the use of letters, verges closely upon the outer rim of absurdity. Do you look for great Negro statesmen in States where black men are not allowed to vote?

–Kelly Miller in “As to the Leopard’s Spots; An Open Letter to Thomas Dixon, Jr.,” 1905.

Note: Thomas Dixon, Jr. (1864 - 1946) is best known as the author of The Clansman, the novel that became the inspiration for D.W. Griffith’s racist tour de force, Birth of a Nation.

***

Biographical Notes: Kelly Miller, the first African American to pursue graduate studies in mathematics, was born on July 18, 1863 in Winnsboro, South Carolina. The sixth of ten children born to a free Black man and a slave (Kelly MIller, Sr and Elizabeth Roberts Miller), he earned a scholarship to Howard University where he completed both preparatory and baccalaureate studies.

MIller began graduate studies at The John Hopkins University in 1887. According to SUNY Buffalo’s Mathematics in the African Diaspora website, “Johns Hopkins University had recently become the first American school to offer graduate work in mathematics. As Miller was to be the first African American student admitted to the university, the recommendation was decided by the Board of Trustees, who decided to admit Miller based on the university founder’s known Quaker beliefs.” Miller studied mathematics, physics, and astronomy at Hopkins, until a tuition increase (from $100 to $200) brought an end to his term there.

Later, Miller would earn two graduate degrees from Howard University, in mathematics (M.A., 1901) and law (L.L.D., 1903). He joined the Howard faculty in 1895, and remained there until his retirment in 1934. He is remembered his dedication to teaching, recruitment, and the growth of the University, particularly during his tenure as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1907 to 1919).

Professor Miller died on December 29, 1939, at his home on the campus of Howard University.

For a more detailed biography, click HERE.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Sincerest thanks to SjP at Sojourner’s Place for recognizing Black on Campus with the Brilliant Weblog Award. This blog is a labor of love for me, and I am humbled that such an outstanding blogger has found  this site worthy of mention.

I encourage you to drop by Sojourner’s Place, and make it a regular stop on your blog itinerary. Once again, my deepest thanks to SjP. I am honored just to be on your radar. I am humbled by your praise.

As a recipient of this award, I am aksed to nominate at least 7 brilliant blogs. In all honestly, I could probably name ten times that many, but that will be a task for another day. In today’s post I recognize 7 of the most outstanding blogs I’ve enocuntered. In turn, awardees, are encouraged to:

1. Add the logo of the award to your blog

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Add links to those blogs on your blog

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

The Brilliant Blogs I am nominating for this award are:

1. Stuff Black People Hate: The blogger on this site states that the Stuff Black People Hate will end on August 31st of this year. Check it out before it’s over! The irreverent and quirky perspectives expressed by blogger Chris will inspire, irritate, and enrage you, sometimes all at once; but you’ll never be bored by his passion, wit, and candor. Warning: Language is R-rated. To get a sense where this blogger is coming from, read his F.A.Q.

2. JMCCLURE2’s BLOG: Less than a year old, this blog seems to focus on African American men who are making a difference in the lives of Black youth. I would love to see this blog get more attention, because it documents a phenomenon who few seem to recognize — that there are scores of Black men and women involved in meaningful projects designed to improve the fortunes of our boys and girls.

3. What About Our Daughters: Will anyone speak up for Black women and girls? This blog answers that question with a resounding “yes!” What About Our Daughters brings up-to-the minute news, well-informed commentary, and bold advocacy to the blogosphere. Black women and girls are the focus, but the issues that aaddressed on this site effect us all.

4. Africa Is a Country: I believe that South Africa is to the world what California is to the United States; it provides a glimpse of the future of inter-group relations. What happens in South Africa may well signal what will happen in other similar nations (in which Europeans hold positions of power denied or inaccessible to less affluent people of color). What happens there should matter to all of us. Africa is a Country provides brilliant insights and wry commentary commentary on the western media’s engagement with South Africa and other nations on the African continent.

5. WOC PhD: WOC PhD presents honest, accountable, intelligent and sometimes raw reporting and commentary, from a feminist-of-color perspective. For no-frills intellect and down-to-earth insights on politics and culture, WOC PhD is a must-read.

6. Sisterdoc: If ever there was a blog that could ward off apathy and inspire political engagement, it’s Sisterdoc. This blog offers hard-hitting commentary on both mainstream and underreported news stories race and identity in the U.S. and beyond.

7. Sojourner’s Place: Personal, political, relevant, and responsible, this is a blog that does it right. Every time I visit I learn something new — about blogging, about current events, and about issues and ideas that impact our lives and our world.

To all awardees, heartfelt congratulations, and many thanks for your outstanding controbutions to the blogosphere.

Posted by Ajuan Mance