Page Six
THE GOLDEN ECHO
January, 1960
The Significance Of Our 50th
Anniversary Celebration
By ALFONSO ELDER
On June 30, 1959 the Board of Trustees of the North Caro
lina College at Durham set November 9-12, 1960 as the time
for celebrating the 50th birthday of the college. The officers
of the College were authorized on behalf of the Board to ex
tend an invitation to graduates and former students of the
college and to friends of the institution to join with the Board,
the faculty, and students in the Joys and benefits of this oc
casion.
As President of the College, 1 should like to add my per
sonal sentiments to those of the Board and to say that within
the limits of the intellectual and physical resources of the
College we shall do everything possible to make this cele
bration a memorable one for all who participate.
But why make so much ado over a mere 50 years? A
school that has reached only its 50th birthday is in one sense
still in its infancy and from the point of view of time has very
little of which it can boast. This would be true if time and
events changed at the same rate, but they do not. Since 1900,
the increase in the quantity and application of knowledge has
been so rapid that it is appropriate to refer to the increase as
an explosion. To have lived 50 years during the present cen
tury is to have witnessed a greater increase in knowledge,
more technological and economic advances, and greater
changes in cultural patterns than could have been witnessed
a thousand years previously. Indeed it seems appropriate to
repeat these words:
We live in deeds, not years;
in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not figures on a dial.
We should count time by
heart-throbs when they
beat For God, for man, for duty.
Our 50th anniversary, therefore, is from one point of
view an occasion for rejoicing in the privilege which has
been ours to witness, and to some extent to have participated
in, the marvelous changes which have occurred during the 20th
Century. Further, it is an occasion for expressing gratitude
for the rich intellectual heritage which we share with other
institutions of learning; it is an occasion for reaffirming with
other colleges our willingness and determination to accept
with them the challenges which the present and the future
impose upon educational institutions.
We are celebrating our coming of age as an institution
with full status among institutions devoted to the pursuit of
excellence in academic achievement.
We are rejoicing over the growing consciousness of people
throughout America of the value of intellectual inquiry and
of the growing dependence upon education as a force for pro
moting the peace and security of the world. We are taking
time now with the aid of friends to plan ways in which we
can measure up to the trust that has been placed in us.
These are the reasons why our 50th birthday is significant
to us and why we think that it is appropriate at this time to
consider with the aid of others the theme which we have
adopted for the occasion:
Appropriate Directions for the Liberal Arts College.
Dr. James E. Shepard, the former president and founder
of North Carolina College, often closed a letter to a new stu
dent or to a new faculty member by a statement which was
characteristic of him as well as of the institution. As I extend
a personal invitation to friends of the institution, to graduates
and former students to join with us in celebrating our 50th
birthday, I close as Dr. Shepard often did by saying:
“A cordial welcome awaits you.”
Chemical Grads Become Researchers
Emphasis on research in the
chemical, physical and biologi
cal sciences at North Carolina
College has paved the way for
the entry of its graduate in nu
merous science-related fields.
An increasing number of NCC
graduates are engaged in re
search as college teachers and in
scientific laboratories connected
with hospitals and other such
institutions.
Although teaching, medicine,
and dentistry traditionally claim
the largest proportion of NCC
science majors who pursue
higher degrees, departmental
guidance into non-traditional
areas is bringing results.
Within the past few years,
four NCC graduates have earned
doctorate degrees in science
areas and several others are at
present pursuing that degree.
Two 1950 graduates, Robert
C. Freeman and William Ran
dolph Johnson, recently earned
doctorate degrees in chemistry
from two leading universities.
Both chemistry majors at NCC,
Johnson earned his degree in
organic chemistry at Notre
Dame, and Freeman in the same
field at Wayne University.
Freeman is a research chemist
at the Montasanta Chemical
Company of St. Louis, and John
son is professor of chemistry at
Florida A&M University.
Catherine Caldwell, a 1954
graduate, recently earned a
Ph.D. in bio-chemistry at the
University of Wisconsin. She is
professor of chemistry at
Tennessee A&I University.
Two recent graduates with
majors in chemistry are work
ing on doctorate degrees in that
field. They are Harold Powell,
who is doing his work in organic
chemistry at Michigan State
University and Wade Kornegay
in physical chemistry at the
University of California at
Berkeley. Physics graduate Na
poleon Jones is working toward
the doctorate in physics at How
ard University.
A number of graduates have
used their college training in
chemistry as a basis for employ
ment as laboratory technicians.
Some of these include MiBS
Tishler Thomas, at Freedman’s
Hospital in Washington, D. C.;
Harold Russell, at the Gyne-
Dr. Helen Edmonds, historian, left, and Dr.
Marjorie Browne, mathematician, are pictured
here with U. S. Vice President Richard M.
Nixon at a reception given in Washington by
some newspaper correspondents who accompa
nied Mr. Nixon on a tour of the Near East.
Samuel W. Hill and NCC’s 75 voice mixed chorus have become an integral part of the college’s
cultural program. In addition to their annual concerts at Christmas and during the spring, the singers
also travel throughout the East. They have been acclaimed by some of the leading music critics in the
eastern part of the United States.
Noted Prof. Directs Celebration
In seeking a person of distinction and ability to
organize the fiftieth anniversary celebration, the
North Carolina College Board of Trustees reached in
to its own faculty and chose Dr. Helen G. Edmonds,
graduate professor of history and one of America’s
best known women.
Renowned as professor, author and lecturer, Dr.
Edmonds is in constant demand throughout the United
States and Europe for appearances before college as
semblies, educational meetings, business and pro
fessional groups, and fraternal and church organiza
tions.
She holds the distinction of being the first woman
ever to second the nomination of a candidate for presi
dent of the United States. The NCC professor made a
speech on behalf of the second term candidacy of
Dwight D. Eisenhower at the Republican National
Convention in San Francisco on August 22, 1956, be
fore a nationwide television audience of fifty million
people.
Time and again, the United States government
has called for her services in behalf of the Cultural
Program of the Department of State. In 1954-55, she
represented the government as a Specialist-Consul-
tant in Germany, lecturing in the language of that
country before audiences in all
major West-German cities. She
performed in a similar capacity
in 1957 for the U. S. Department
of State in Sweden, Germany,
Austria and Denmark, upon
special request of the French
government in France.
In October of 1957, Professor
Edmonds was President Eisen
hower’s Special Representative
to the dedication ceremonies of
the Liberian Capitol Building in
Monrovia, Liberia. While in that
country, she addressed the as
sembled Liberian Government
and delivered six additional lec
tures in Monrovia and Kakata.
The NCC educator-historian
has authored one book, The
Negro and Fusion Politics in
North Carolina, two mono
graphs, four historical pageants,
and numerous articles for lead
ing scholarly journals. Her book
was listed among the One Hun
dred Outstanding Books about
North Carolina in a compilation
by Professors Richard Walser
and Hugh T. Lefler of the Uni
versity of North Carolina in
1956.
One of her monographs, “A
Syllabus for the Study of Negro
History in the High Schools of
Virginia,” was issued for use in
St. Paul Normal School in 1939
cological Laboratory at the Uni
versity of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill; Inez Jones, at the
Duke University Hospital; and
Peggy Y. Jackson, a laboratory
technician at the Youngstown
Hospital of Youngstown, Ohio.
and was used as resource ma
terial by the Core Planning
Committee of the Virginia State
Department of Education
Williamsburg, in 1940.
A native of Lawrenceville,
Virginia, Professor Edmonds
was trained in the St. Paul Nor
mal School of that city and re
ceived her Bachelor of Arts de
gree at Morgan State College in
1933. She later earned the de
grees of Master of Arts (1938)
and Doctor of Philosophy (1946)
in history at the Ohio State
University. The distinguished
scholar did post-doctoral re
search in 1954 at the Unviersity
of Heidelberg in Germany as
a Ford Foundation Fellow.
In addition to the Ford Foun
dation Fellowship, she has been
awarded research-study grants
by the General Education Board
(2), and by the Carnegie Foun
dation.
Dr. Edmonds was honored by
her alma mater, Morgan State
College of Baltimore, Mary
land, with the degree of Doctor
of Laws in 1958. In that same
year, the Bachelors-Benedict
Club of Norfolk, Virginia, desig
nated her “Woman of the Year.”
Prior to assuming her present
role as Graduate Professor of
History at North Carolina in
1941, Dr. Edmonds was dean of
women and professor of Greek,
Latin and history at Virginia
Seminary, Lynchburg, Virginia
(1933-35); instructor in history
at St. Paul Normal School, Law
renceville, Virginia (1935-40);
and consultant in the Virginia
State Department of Education,
Social Sciences Division (Sum
mer, 1940).
She holds membership in the
American Historical Associ
ation, the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and His
tory, American Teachers Associ
ation, Association of Social Sci
ence Teachers, and the Virginia
Society for Research.
The following honorary so
cieties have elected Dr. Ed
monds to membership: Phi'
Alpha Theta National Historical
Honorary Society, Zeta Chapter,
Ohio State University (1938);
Alpha Kappa Delta Honorary
Sociology Fraternity, Ohio State
University (1941); Pi Gamma
Mu National Social Science
Honorary Society, North Caro
lina College (1956); The Vir
ginia Society of Research
(1958); and the International
Mark Twain Society (1951).
The Elders, NCC’s first family