Yale Medical students photographed in 1895. The photo includes Black students Arthur Leslie Howard and William Fletcher Penn, who would graduate in 1897.

(Source: Yale and Medicine, 1701 – 1901)

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Beatrice Coleman, Brown University class of 1925, at the piano in her nursing home, Providence Rhode Island.

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This current issue of the Brown Alumni Magazine (BAM) includes a tribute to its roughly 10 living alumni over the age of 100. Among that very select cadre of graduates is one African American. Her name is Beatrice Coleman, class of 1925, and she is 104 years old. A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Ms. Coleman remembers several other Black students from her years at Brown, including: Joseph Carter ’23, Thelma Garland ’24, Marguerite Lingham ’25, Charlotte West ’24, and Francis Waring, who died as an undergraduate. Coleman spent her career as a teacher, first in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and later in Rhode Island. 

BAM writer Lawrence Goodman describes one of his meetings with Ms. Coleman, who lives in a Providence nursing home:

In her voice, you can still hear the grit that must have gotten her, all those years ago, through Brown.

“I didn’t want to cook, wash, iron, and wait on white folks,” Beatrice Coleman ’25 says. Her voice rises to an angry pitch as she says this. With each word, she forcefully ticks off a finger—cook, wash, and wait. Why did her parents, the poor, uneducated children of slaves, want her to go to Brown? “They didn’t want me to cook, wash, iron, and wait on white folks,” she says again. She is a very frail woman, hunched over in the wheelchair someone else must push. But when she says this, her voice rises, and for a moment she sounds like someone much younger.

…

Testament to her pride in her Brown degree are the two photos above her bed in the room she shares with another elderly woman. One of these is of the insignia of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the African American sorority to which she belonged at Brown, and the other shows her at a Brown function in the 1950s. There are no other pictures, friends, or family. Coleman never married. “I didn’t want no man telling me what to do,” she explains. “It’s bad enough having a governor or president.”

Ms. Coleman enjoys card games and playing the piano. The year 2010 will mark her 85th college reunion. I hope she’s around to enjoy it. I know the graduating seniors and the other classes of alumni would give her a very warm welcome home.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

This ad for St. Ides malt liquor (featuring rapper Ice Cube) reflects the popular stereotype of Black youth as frequent abusers of alcohol and other intoxicants. The reality is, however, quite a different story.

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If the legal drinking age is eventually lowered, the impact on Black college students is likely to be negligible. Black student use of alcohol and drugs is lower than that of most other major ethnic groups.

It seems that African American students don’t need a temperance movement or federal prohibition legislation to exercise moderation or (in many cases) abstinence in alcohol consumption and drug use. Consider the following observations by researchers and journalists who have looked at the question of Black college students and alcohol consumption:

Ongoing studies confirm that students at HBCUs and African American students in general drink far less and suffer fewer consequences than do students at predominantly white institutions. This disparity in alcohol consumption appears to be strongly related to factors such as HBCUs’ emphasis on character development in their institutional goals and their enrollment of many students with strong religious values. As a result, the atmosphere at HBCUs mitigates against the “culture of drinking” found on so many other college and university campuses.

—U.S. Department of Higher Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention

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Alcohol rates are very high among college students, with use higher among males than females. White students are highest in heavy drinking, black students are lowest and Hispanics are intermediate.

–O’Malley, Patrick M. and Johnston, Lloyd D. “Epidemiology of Alcohol and Other Drug Use among American College Students.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol, suppl 14 p23-39 Mar 2002

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White students are more likely to use drugs and alcohol than minority students, and students at historically black colleges have much lower rates of substance abuse than other students, the study found.

— Donna Leinwand, “College Drug Use, Binge Drinking Rise,” USA Today, 3/15/2007

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People ask why black students in college stay amongst themselves. One reason is that we do not feel safe in environments where white students binge drink, because drinking leads to an open door for racial bigotry.

— Justin Davis, head of the Black Student Union at Cornell University, interviewed in 2007, after a white Cornell student Nathan Poffenbarger was sentenced to state prison for the hate-motivated stabbing of an African American student who was visiting from Union College. Poffenbarger was heavily intoxicated when he carried out the attack. Davis was quoted in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE).

Posted by Ajuan Mance

The 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition strikes me as a perfect time to examine the current state of alcohol consumption on college campuses. After all, on Friday and Saturday nights a college campus is  likely to feel a lot less like a center of higher learning and lot more like a postmodern speakeasy. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the prohibition stance taken by most U.S. college and university administrators.

In response to the failure of such policies to significantly limit the numbers of alcohol-related injuries and assaults among their students, a growing number of U.S. college presidents and other administrators have begun to advocate for a drop in the drinking age, back to 18. John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College, is the director of Choose Responsibility, an organization that advocates bringing the U.S. legal drinking age in line with the legal age of majority (18). More specifically, Choose Responsibility seeks to restore the right to drink alcohol legally to adults under the age of 21 through the implementation of a program of substance abuse education that would culminate in a license to purchase and consume alchohol (not unlike a driver’s license).

Though many are skeptical that such a move could create anything but chaos, I strongly support the push to bring college drinking up above the radar. The current prohibition policy for drinkers under the age of 21 encourages an illicit alcohol culture, and one that is characterized by the same excesses and extremes (and denial) that accompany any illicit activity.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Many thanks to Hagar’s Daughter for calling my attention to this disturbing case of racial harrassment, and for referring all of her concerned readers to the action alert at Black Women, Blow the Trumpet! This blog describes the issues raised by this case, and suggests some immediate steps we can take to support the woman at the center of this unwarranted attack, Dr. Yolanda Pierce. Dr. Pierce is the Elmer G. Homrighausen Associate Professor of African American Religion and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is also a Princeton alum.

From Black Women, Blow the Trumpet!:

Yesterday, I was outraged to learn that a respected scholar and clergywoman, Dr. Yolanda Pierce, was targeted by unnamed students at Princeton Theological Seminary with vile, vicious and demeaning “satire” in a newsletter titled The Foreskin several days ago. This newsletter was circulated all over campus. The distributors and authors were operating under the cloak of anonymity.
…

From what I have learned (so far), only two of the students came forward and apologized. I suspect that those two did not act alone.

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We will not permit black women to stand alone against racism, misogyny, sexism or classism in the Academy, while university officials coddle, protect and pat on the head the students (or faculty) who attempt to attack the credibility of black scholars who have spent decades earning national and international respect.

Hagar’s Daughter joins with Black Women, Blow the Trumpet! to ask that concerned and interested readers take the following action (excerpted from Hagar’s Daughter):

A call to action by Rev Lisa at Black Women, Blow The Trumpet! ask that we telephone and/or email these university administrators to demand that Princeton Theological Seminary follow its policy in dealing with this hate crime. It matters not if black students were involved, each of them must be held accountable. It matters not if we haven’t seen the flier personally. Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell discusses it with Dr. Yolanda Pierce on their blog.

Nancy Lammers Gross, Dean of Student Life

Princeton Theological Seminary

210 Templeton Hall

Princeton, NJ 08542

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 609-497-7880

Iain R. Torrance, President

Princeton Theological Seminary

132 Administration Building

Princeton, NJ 08542

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 609-497-7800

October 14, 1972: Linda Brown, first Black homecoming queen at Northeastern U, pictured with escort.

(Source: African American Activism & Experience at Northeastern University)

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Post

Xavier University President Norman Francis

(Source: IMDiversity.com)

On November 21,  New Orleans-based HBCU Xavier University celebrated Norman Francis and his 40 years as University president. The gala concert event featured Bill Cosby as master of ceremonies and special guest performer Gladys Night. The 77 year-old Francis is the longest serving college president in the United States.

To see photos of this event, go to THIS LINK and click on the photos at the bottom of the page.

Under the leadership of President Francis, Xavier University has gained a national reputation based on its success in training African American undergraduates for careers in medicine and the science.s Xavier ranks number one in the nation for the placement of African American students at U.S. medical schools. Xavier also ranks first for the number of African American undergraduates majoring in the sciences and the number of African Americans earning Doctor of Pharmacy degrees.

Perhaps his greatest achievement, though, is President Francis’ exceptional leadership in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Hurricane damage from the August 2005 storm forced Xavier to cancel its fall semester that year, and the University sustained over $50 million dollars in damage. Despite these setbacks, though, Francis managed to reopen the campus less than five months later.

Norman Francis Timeline

• 1931 — Francis is born in Lafayette Louisiana. His father was a barber and his mother was a homemaker.
• 1952 — Francis graduates from Xavier University with a Bachelor of Science degree.
• 1955 — Francis becomes the first African American to graduate from Loyola University Law School (juris doctor).
• 1957 — Francis completes military service in the U.S. Army’s Third Armored Division and is appointed Dean of Men at Xavier.
• 1963 — Francis becomes Xavier’s director of student personnel services.
• 1964 — Francis becomes assistant to the president.
• 1967 — Francis becomes executive vice president of the University.
• 1968 — Norman Francis becomes Xavier University’s first lay president (Xavier was founded by nuns), first male president, and first African American president.
• 1986 — Francis is named one of the United States’ 100 most effective college administrators.
• 2006 — Francis is awarded the presidential medal of freedom.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Mary Hopkins, FAU doctoral student in mathematics.

The Palm Beach Post recently reported that Florida Atlanta University doctoral student Mary Hopkins is set to become the University’s first African American woman to graduate with a PhD in mathematics.

The 36 year-old grad student attributes much of her success to having “very encouraging teachers,” andexperience which she acknowledges is not what she’d been told to expect. Says Hopkins, “I’ve heard of math teachers not encouraging females, especially minorities, but all of my professors are so great, and they’re all old white men.”

FAU is also drawing attention this year for the sheer number of women who are completing doctorates in math. Palm Beach Post reporter Kimberly Miller explains why at the end of this school year FAU will break all of the University’s previous records for graduating women with PhDs in mathematics:

FAU awarded its first doctorate in math in 1992. Since then it has given out 15 math doctorates – only three of them to women.

“In 2009, it’s going to be five female students to graduate, which is very good news, I think, for the department,” said Bashak Ay, a 29-year-old from Turkey who expects to be one of the graduates.

“Women are getting more involved in math. Times are changing.”

The other women slated to earn math Ph.D.s this school year from FAU are Marcela Chiorescu, Zhihua Liu and Viktoria Villanyi.

FAU math administrators said they didn’t do anything special to recruit more women into their doctoral program and believe there’s a natural increase of women studying math as traditional stereotypes fall away.

Like the other women in her cohort, Hopkins has always been good at math. When she was a child, she always believed that her talent in this area would lead her to a career in medicine. When, as a college student, she found herself taking advanced classes in mathematics she realized that this was her true calling. Says Hopkins, “Math is the right thing. It’s what I’m supposed to be studying […] I just found my niche.”

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History and Overview: Rutgers University is the 8th oldest college or university in the United States. First chartered in 1766 as Queens College, Rutgers began offering class in 1771, at its campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey. One of only 9 U.S. colleges and universities established before the American Revolution, Rutgers is one of only two of these institutions to eventually become public (the other is the College of William and Mary). Rutgers graduated its first African American student in 1892.

This fall, Rutgers enrolled 26,966 undergraduates at it’s flagship campus in New Brunswick. Of those students, 2,333 or 9% are African American (1,396 Black women and 937 Black men).

Black Milestones at Rutgers University:

• 1892 — James Dickson Carr becomes the first African American to graduate from Rutgers University. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, Carr would go on to complete his law degree at Columbia University in New York.
• 1919 — Paul Robeson, the first African American football player at Rutgers, becomes the third African American to graduate from the University. He is class valedictorian.
• 1938 — Julia Baxter Bates becomes the first African American to graduate from Douglass College, Rutgers University’s women-only residential campus.
• 1943 — Dr. Walter Gilbert Alexander, II becomes the first African American to graduate from the Rutgers University College of Engineering.
• 1968 — The Douglass College Black Students’ Congress is founded as the first African American women’s organization at Rutgers.
• 1969 — Black students at Rutgers-Newark take over and occupy  Conklin Hall, a key administration building, for three days. This is done to protest the low numbers of Black faculty and students.
• 1970 — The Africana Studies Department is founded at Rutgers-New Brunswick (the flagship campus).
• 1975 — Dr. Leonard Bethel graduates with an Ed.D. from the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. Dr. Bethel would go on to become the first African American faculty member to advance to tenure from the assistant professor level.
• 1985 — The James Dickson Carr Scholarship Program is established at Rutgers.
• 2000 — Rutger’s women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer becomes the first African American woman coach to achieve 600 career victories. Stringer is also the first coach in NCAA history to lead 4 different women’s teams to the NCAA Final Four. She is the third winningest coach in women’s basketball history.
• 2002 — Dr. Samuel Dewitt Proctor becomes the first African American faculty member at Rutgers to have an endowed professorship named for him.

James Dickson Carr, Rutgers class of 1892

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Mrs. M.E.C. Smith (? – 1920)

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This question is as grave as it is suggestive. There being a marked difference between character and reputation, its discussion naturally leads to a consideration of the Negro as he really is, and not as he is represented. The delineation of the Negro’s true character is one of the most effectual means of refuting the columnious epithets so constantly hurled at him—a veritable blasphemy against his higher and better nature.

–from “Is the Negro As Morally Depraved As He Is Reputed to Be?” in Twentieth Century Negro Literatue Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro (1902)

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Biographical Notes: Little is known about the life of Mrs. M.E.C. Smith, Principal of the Normal Department of Edward Waters College. The most detailed account of her life is found in Twentieth Century Negro Literature, a compendium of African American literature and political thought, edited by Dr. D.W. Culp:

Mrs. Mary E. C. Smith, daughter of Peter H. Day, was a native of New York city. Her education was provided for by her energetic widowed mother, to whom she ascribes the secret of her success. From early childhood she showed strong power of mind, and inherited from her mother that force and determination of purpose which prefigure success in whatever is undertaken. As a pupil, she was prompt and energetic, and never failed to win one of the Ridgeway prizes for good scholarship, which were given annually to successful contestants. She was an excellent Bible student, and when ten years old was elected a teacher in the Sunday-school. At this age she was impressed with the idea that it was her duty to go to the South to instruct her people, who were just emerging from bondage.

By a strange coincidence she was led to Florida, when she had finished her school course, the very place she had named when in an outburst of childish enthusiasm, while preparing a geography lesson, she had said: “O, mother, how I long to go there and teach my people!” The “land of flowers” has been the principal field of her labors as a teacher. Her ability as a teacher was soon discovered, and in 1890 she became principal of the Normal Department of the Edward Waters College, under the presidency of Prof. B. W. Arnett, Jr. Hundreds of students are better citizens because of her faithful teaching and Christian influence. As a church and Sunday-school worker she has few equals. The earnestness of purpose with which she performs the slightest duty is an example worthy of imitation.

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