Markeshia Ricks Photo
Nation Drill and Drum Team provide the HBCU sound.
With drums, high kicks and alumni, the Black and Hispanic Caucus saluted historically black colleges and universities at its annual Black History Month program.
More than 60 people packed the Hall of Records at 200 Orange St. Friday evening for a taste of the sights and sounds of HBCU life while learning about the history and present day work of schools that were founded, starting in the late 1830s, to educate free and recently-free black men and women so that they would be prepared to teach and lead their people.
Mother-son duo Pamela and Avery Washington talk Tuskeegee.
There was the mother and son duo, and Tuskeegee University alums, Pamela Washington and her son Avery, who regaled the crowd with trivia about their alma mater including the fact that it was founded by Booker T. Washington, a Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) graduate.
The university, which is located in Tuskeegee, Ala., also was home to the famed Tuskegee Airmen and produced the first African-American to become a four star general in the Air Force, Daniel “Chappie” James Jr.
“When you hear the name Tuskeegee, the name speaks volumes,” Thompson-Washington said.
Spelmanite Maya Welfare with mom Harriet, an Elizabeth City State University alumna.
Tthat could be said as well for the many other HBCUs represented at the event, including Bennett College, Elizabeth City State University, Hampton University, Howard University, North Carolina Central University, Morgan State University, Spelman College, Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Johnson C. Smith University.
Morrison, Morgan State grad.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, a Morgan State grad, said when she graduated from Hillhouse High and went off to college in Baltimore she thought she could get by with some of the lax study habits that got her through high school. A professor disabused her of that belief quickly when he handed her back an assignment with an “F” on it. She said it was the first failing grade she’d ever received.
Bennett College Belles Lensley Gay and Danielle Williams.
That’s the moment she said she realized that it might not have been that hard to get into Morgan State, but she was going to have to work hard if she wanted to get out. Morrison not only graduated; that work ethic prepared her to get in and out of graduate school at Boston University.
Husband and wife team Sharpe and Phoenix represented for FAMU.
City Deputy Corporation Counsel Cherie Phoenix said she was attracted to FAMU because of its well-respected, five-year MBA program. The rigors of that program prepared her for law school, she said.
Her husband, Shadeed Sharpe, completed his degree at FAMU in broadcast journalism and now works at ESPN. He let the crowd know that a degree from an HBCU would hold up wherever it takes them. And as evidenced by the many professionals in the room which included educators, social workers, attorneys, and journalists, many of whom had gone on to obtain advanced degrees too, such a degree could take them far.
“Your education is not second rate,” he told the crowd.
Hamden Academy of Dance and Music’s Brown Sugar dance line channeled Morris Brown’s Bubblin Brown Sugar dance line.
Harp, mom to three HBCU graduates.
Mayor Toni Harp said the television show “A Different World,” which ran on NBC from 1987 to 1993, influenced her eldest daughter’s decision to attend Spelman College, even though she got into a number of the Ivies including Yale University.
The series was filmed on that school’s campus in Atlanta. Harp, a then nervous mom preparing to send her first born thousands of miles away for school, would find out that her daughter was going to be prepared for a bright future.
She remembered Spelman President Johnnetta Cole saying, “Your daughter is bad. Every girl who attends this school is bad.”
“And what she meant by that is that every girl at Spelman was a high functioning young woman,” Harp told the crowd. Her second daughter followed in her big sister’s footsteps, and they both went on to become obstetrician/gynecologists. Harp’s son would go on to complete law school at Howard University and graduate fifth in his class, which made him sought after when he was applying for jobs.
Members of the Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. demonstrated a “party-stroll/hop” for the crowd.
Harp said she knows that the peers of her children who took the Ivy League route found that they didn’t get the kind of supports for success that her daughters and son got.
“HBCUs prepare young people to take the next step,” Harp said. “And they support you all the way. At an HBCU you’ll get a fantastic education and you’ll have the time of your life.”
The HBCU's also have give us the Black Boule. (AKA) call the Black skull and Bones.The objective of the Black Boule is to maintain political and economic control over Blacks.The Black Boule will destroy a Black independent who wants to use his brain for African Liberation. At every HBCU there are Black Boule gatekeepers to make sure African people lean either Democrat or Republic. If a Black college professor is too African-centered he or she will not be retained.The Black Boule have been manipulating the minds of black people for many years.