SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1972 THE BENNETT BANNER PAGE 3
FOUNDERS' DAY KICKS-OFF CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
On October 15, 1972 Ben
nett College officially began
its celebration of its lOOtb
Anniversary. Founders’ Day
was held in the Annie Mer-
ner Pfeiffer Chapel to recog
nize the purposes of the ex
slaves who were responsible
for the establishment of the
institution. After words of
appreciation from the alum
nae, the faculty-staff, and the
student-body, the assembly
was addressed by Dr. Isaac
H. Miller, president of the
college. His text follows:
“It is said of Fredrick
Douglas, the great abolition
ist, that when he was a young
slave boy, his mistress set
about teaching him to read.
These lessons were a daily
practice. One day the mas
ter, discovering what had
been going on behind his
back, finally reprimanded his
wife saying, “Don’t you know
what will happen if you teach
this boy to read. If he learns
to read he will no longer be
a slave.”
Young Fred overheard this.
As might be expected the
lessons stopped. But you know
what happened. Young Fred
did learn to read and the rest
of the story is history. People
throughout the world,
throughout the years know of
Fred Douglas. Scores of
chapters have been written
about his life. But all we
know of the slaveholder,
however, is that he lived and
died.
One thing he did acknow
ledge, most certainly, is that
nothing can enslave, nothing
can tame, nothing can con
tain, nothing can destroy the
trained intellect.
We assemble here this
lovely October morning to
speak to the founding of a
college — of the cause and
circumstance which led to its
founding and the concerns
which we wrestle today as
the context of what its people
must face today.
Many members of the now
generation think that words
like freedom, overcome, lib
eration, and power were coin
ed first by Martin Luther
King. Many of you think that
there was no revolutionist be
fore Rap Brown and Stokely
Carmicheal. Many of you do
not know that Sojourner
Truth, Mary McCloud Beth-
une, Harriet Tubman, and
Phyllis Wheatley were really
the first women libbers.
The hard truth is that there
has been no event of libera
tion and empowerment in the
history of mankind to equal
the movement to educate
freedmen and ex-slaves dur
ing the early post-Civil War
days of the 1860’s and 1870’s.
Bennett College came into
being for just an occasion and
duty as this — the freeing of
the intellect of women and
men just a few days removed
from slavery.
This college was established
and grew here in the hostile
southeast where it was near
treason to even teach a black
to read, to say nothing of
building schools and colleges
for the purpose. So those were
the times — when the freed
men were legally free —
through a bloody Civil War.
The act of freeing his in
tellect is still being waged,
and full freedom must await
the outcome of a war. as it
were, which is still in pro
gress. The battle offers full
educational opportunity. . . .
I think it is appropriate
here to cite a brief rundown
on our history. Bennett Col
lege had its humble begin
nings in 1873 in the unplas
tered basement of St. Mat
thews Methodist Episcopal
Church, through the inspira
tion of blacks, newly emanci
pated 'from slavery. Mr. W. J.
Parkinson, called a principal,
was in charge. In 1874, the
school came under the au
spices of the Freemen’s Aid
Society and r'emained so
sponsored for more than a
half century.
Rev. Edward_ O. Thayer
became the second principal.
The school, in its first years,
enrolled on the average .75
students who ranged from the
ages fourteen to thirty-five.
There was an urgent need for
land and a school building.
Rev. Thayer reported: “A
collection was taken by the
colored people of Greensboro
which amounted to $105.00.
That amount was made up
of small contributions that
the Sabbath school children
had been saving at the sug
gestions of their parents and
pastor for this purpose.”
Lyman Bennett of Troy,
New York donated $10,000 for
the school. The name Ben
nett Seminary was given in
his honor. The North Caro
lina Conference of the Meth
odist Episcopal Church gave
help in purchasing 20 acres
of land. Within the year, the
first building, Bennett Hall
was constructed. From this
beginning to 1883, the insti
tution was known as Bennett
Seminary, but after that date
became known as Bennett
College.
By 1879, the little school
had grown to the point of
having full Normal, College
Preparatory, and Theological
courses.
In 1891 President Thayer
moved to Clark University
a^d was succeeded by Rev.
Wilbur Fletcher Steele who
remained in the presidency
until 1889.
In 1886, Industrial Work for
young women began on the
Bennett campus under the au
spices of the Women’s Home
Missionary Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church.
They established the "mag
nificent Kent Hall” for the.
purpose of instructing women
in the “womanly arts.” It was
built at a cost of $4500.
In 1889, the first black
president, Rev. Charles N.
Grandison, was installed. He
was the first black president
of any of the institutions
founded by the Freedmen’s
Aid Society. That same year
saw the appointment of the
first black teacher, John P.
Morris, who taught Greek and
Mathematics.
In 1891, the coUegiate di
vision listed an enrollment of
222 students and a faculty of
seven.
Professor Jordan D. Chavis
became the president. Under
his administration, a men’s
dormitory was built in 1893
called Carolina Hall. It was
built by student carpenters,
masons, and tinners.
In 1905, Rev. Silas A. Peel
er served as president until
1913. Between 1911 -1912
eleven teachers and 237 stu
dents were on the campus
which property was valued
at $36,000.
1913, Professor J. E. Wal
lace became president and
served until 1915.
In 1915, President Frank
Triggs became president dur
ing a time when Bennett was
heavily in debt even though
the enrollment was around
300. The plant value in 1924
was $200,000. Carolina Hall
had burned in January of
1921, losing housing, an audi
torium, and classrooms. Un
der Dr. Trigg, the academic
program was expanded. A
new girls’ dormitory, refec
tory^ and classroom building
was constructed.
By act of the Board of
Education for Negroes of the
Methodist Episcopal Church
and the Woman’s Home Mis
sionary Society, Bennett Col
lege at Greensboro, N. C., in
February 1926, formally be
came a woman’s college.
To give administrative
leadership to the new Ben
nett College for Women, Mt.
David Dallas Jones was elect
ed President by the Board of
Trustees. Mr. Jones, a natiye
of Greensboro, N. C., was a
Methodist of long standing.
Mr. Jones brought to the
presidency an excellent back
ground of education and ex
perience. He held the B.A,
degree from Wesleyan Uni
versity, Middletown, Con
necticut, and in 1930 earned
the M.A. degree from Colum
bia University. He was a
member of Phi Beta Kappa.
From 1911 to 1914, Mr. Jones
was a member of the Interna
tional Committee of the
Y.M.C.A., and from 1914 to
1923 he was Executive Secre
tary of the Pine Street
Y.M.C.A., St. Louis, Missouri.
Mr. Jones, and Bennett
College also, was fortunate
in his having a wife, Mrs.
Susie Williams Jones, who
complemented so well his
qualities and efforts.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones made
a great team in initiating and
carrying forward the pro
gram of Bennett College. For
thirty years Dr. and Mrs.
Jones were the central and
directing force of the col
lege, and a strong influence
upon the lives of thousands
of young women whose good
fortune it was to be students
whom they touched.
In 1926 Bennett College be
gan with an academic pro
gram ranging from the
seventh grade through the
first year of college. By the
end of 1931-32 all high school
work had been discontinued,
and the four-year college pro
gram engaged full attention.
The college started in 1926
with ten students. Fourteen
years later the student body
numbered 356, drawn from
twenty-seven states and the
District of Columbia.
At the end of the 30-year
period of Dr. Jones’s admini
stration, the physical plant
consisted of 42 acres of land,
33 buildings, and an endow
ment which amounted to $1,-
500.00.
Let me shift to another
theme. It would be very easy
for us to take such an oc
casion as this to eulogize our
Founders and those who car
ried the dreams of the Foun
ders down through years of
anguish and anxiety. It would
be easy for us to feel that
the task is complete — That
there are no new frontiers.
It would be easy for us to
ignore their contribution
through irrevant disregard of
the facts. But clearly it must
be a source of great pride and
challenge to acknowledge
that we assemble as the bene
ficiaries of that heritage and
even more significantly that
we assemble as the potential
instrumentality of that herit
age for generations yet un
born. It is in this spirit of
looking back and looking for
ward that these words are
spoken this morning. Grati
tude for the past — Concern
for the present — challenge
for the future.
What does starting a new
century mean? New occasions
and new duties for us indi-
vidyally and as an education
al community? We must
think clearly of the quality
and character of the world
we inherit. Surely me have
the human material resources
to do almost anything we
choose. We have all the cap
ability in the world to use
our God-given talent in up
lifting ways. Yet poverty,
hunger, disease, war continue
to rampart.
The old occasions exist
viith some new variations on
the theme. As we look at
these, however, one need not
look very far to acknowledge
man’s responsibility for his
own plight. For greed,
avarice, selfishness, indiffer
ence and racism continue to
prevent man from being his
best self. ^
Each man, each woman
must think introspectively of
how he fits into the scheme
of things. What personal con
tribution does he make? Does
he in the day-to-day relations
contribute to the disquiet and
randonxness in society? What
reorientation, what new and
re-directed application of
energies was required of me
as an individual in order to
turn things around — to bring
fruition, true community?
The answer is up to YOU.
At the same time, what vari
able clearly and distinctly
impinges on me as an individ
ual trying to make it.
It takes each of us being
willing to subordinate one’s
ego, one’s personal selfishness
in the interest of the institu
tion and the society. The col
lege as an organism must be
an organism of change. We
are supposed to produce dis
satisfied people.
The college must have as
its purpose expanding of
black competence and at the
same time expanding value
and priority orientation. We
must ask ourselves such ques
tions as these r Is it wise to
educate a person to pilot
spacecrafts to a distant planet
without having given him
that which is needed to help
him live with people right
here at home? Does learning
to perform a heart transplant
not carry with it some need
to care for the moral and
spiritual implications of the
technical capabilities? Does
not learning carry with it the
mandate of learning how to,
as well as what to?
The decision that will turn
this world around and turn
it on for man must be made
in the hearts and minds of
men. And the college — any
college — Bennett College —
must be in the business of
producing a new kind of per
son for a new kind of society.
So indeed, there are new oc
casions and new duties.
The founders saw their new
occasions and their new du
ties. They saw them as they
comprehended them in that
day. We, too, must see our
new occasions and address
curselves to the situations.
A college is its people; who
they are; who they think
themselves to be; what they
believe; what they believe in;
what they are committed to;
and what thy address them
selves to.
Many of us gag on words
like CHURCH - RELATED
and SPIRIT. Now if these
words trouble you, try these:
All education should be con
cerned with the influencing
of sensitive, thoughtful men
and women. It is not enough
to be technically competent.
. . . In his autobiography,
EXPERIENCE, Arnold Toyn
bee has expressed something
worth hearing.
“The more potent science
and technology become, the
greater man’s potentiality for
evil as well as good. If tech
nology continues to advance
while man’s moral standards
remain static or decline, the
science and technology will
become more of a curse than
a blessing. Man’s last enemy
is not death, but man him
self. Man is his last enemy
and his worst one — worse
than death, worse than vir
uses, worse than bacteria,
worse than sabre-toothed
tigers.”
These words are anything
but anti-science. They are
prohuman. As our second
century of service commences,
we have truly an inspiring
opportunity. An opportunity
to become a community turn
ed on for scholarship and
academic excellence—a com
munity turned on for man.
We must be about transform
ing and not about conform
ing. We must be about trend-
setting, not about following
the lead. We must be about
great ideas, not stumbling
over minutine. We must be
about openess to intellectual
growth, not about slavish-
pattern-oriented lock-step.
I see a great need for sound
assessment of the future po
litical, social, and economic
world in which our graduates
m/ust function. And the de
velopment of comprehensive
goal oriented education where
the emiphasis continues per
sistently on the interruption
of ignorance and individually
engineered person develop
ment. We must not be tied
to rigid form and lockstep
pattern^s of advancement. We
must assemble here a clearly
distinctive consortium of edu
cational experiences both in
terms of goals and philosophy,
as well as in terms of tech
nology. We must provide new
configurations, fresh oppor
tunities for the creative ten
sion of ideas in confrontation.
We must state and reaffirm
what we are about as ah in
strumentality for the great
society. We must seek to en
list all members of the col
lege commi^nity in the single
task of achieving that new
society by what we do and
by what we engage in here
together. We are concerned
with birth and re-generation
and if we ae not, then what
is the college about? New oc
casions bring new duties says
the hymn.
The old man, the consum
ing, indifferent, self-serving
man, must die and give place
to a new creative force, -a new
man in our society. As an
institution we must go for
ward resolutely and with
steadfast hope, strong in the
conviction that only in pro
found education is there true
freedom. That is what those
ex-slaves who founded the
college had in mind, as the
song writter had in mind:
“God of our weary years,
God of our silent fears. Thou
who has brought us thus far
on our way. Thou who has
by thy might. Led us into
the light. Keep us forever in
the path we pray.”
I think on this Founders’
Day as we approach this
100th year of the college, this
ought to be our abiding
thought: “If indeed a man’s
reach should exceed his grasp
or what’s a heaven for; like
wise if an institution should
exceed its grasps or what’s a
heaven for.”