Newspapers / Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.) / June 8, 1933, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Africo-American Presbyterian “AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.”—J< .hn viii. 32. V OL. LIV. CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1933. JOHNSON C. SMITH UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT By Prof. R. L. Douglass Fifty-three diplomas were giv en to as many graduates by Dr. H. L. McCrorey, President of Johnson C. Smith University, at its commencement, Monday, June fifth. Of this number for ty-eight were from the School jf Liberal Arts and five from the School of Theology. Many of those receiving diplomas are planning to pursue their studies further in graduate schools, and others, having ob tained positions, will enter im mediately upon the active work of life. For the first time in the history of the institution the^e were women to graduate, the number being five. The main feature of the day’s program was the annual address by Dr. Howard W. Oaum, direc tor of the Institute for Research in Social Science at the Univer sity of North Carolina. The speaker took as his subject, “Old Standards in a New World. A brief synopsis of his address appears elsewhere in this article. The day was ideal for the occasion, the date having been moved forward on account of the President’s having to sail for Europe on the seventh. The exercises were held in the audi torium of the University church, and there were many visitors from afar, including menus anu an unusual number of former graduates. The general belief is that, considered from the view point of enthusiasm and the ex cellency of the various public ex ercises,. this was the best com mencement the institution has held during the entire sixty six years of its existence. Following is a list of the grad uates and degrees conferred: Bachelor of Arts The graduates are: Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude, Herman Lacoste Counts of Rowland; Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawfajo ' Gold Coast, West Africa; Rob ert Perry, Jr., of Thomasville, Ga.; Paul Lawrence Taylor of Darien, Ga.; Bachelor of Arts, Mrs. Dorothy Eaton Atkins of Charlotte; Corrie Wilson Boyce of Byhalia, Miss.; Helen Elaine Brodie of Charlotte; Joseph Lee Brown of Edisto Island, S. C.; Henry Clyde Christian of Albe marle; Harry Denny, Jr., of Norfolk, Va.; Eugene Dunn of Wake Forest; Leonard Allen El lis of Due West, S. C.; Julius Wanser Hill of Atlanta; Robert Lee Jeanes of Memphis, Tenn.; Joseph James Jordan of Rock Hill, S. C.; Vonner Dupre Jor dan, of Brunswick, Ga.; Charles Leroy Lowery, of Cheraw, S. C.; Claude McAdams of Anderson, S. C.; Bessie lone Newsome of Fremont; Walter Spurgeon Roberts of Winston-Salem; James Lessley Smith of States v ville; Robert St. Clair Turner of Winston-Salem; Samuel Rich ard Williams of Phoebus, Va.; Malbel Alberta Wyche of Wash ington, D. C. Bacneior oi science Bachelor of Science, Sum ma Cum Laude, Ladonia Dare Carr of Christians* burg, Va.; Bachelor of Science, Cum Laude, Moses Belton of Columbia, S. C.; Caldwell El wood Boulware, of Fort Mill, S. C.; William Archie Samuel of Rome, Ga.; Bachelor of Sci ence, William Samuel Ba ker of Bassett, Va.; George Ar thur Bartlett of Americus, Ga.; Nowaird Stocking Biggins of Daytona Beach, Fla; Alexander Hamilton Bryant of Rocky Mount; Wilfred Lorraine By num of Kinston; Roland King Fortune of Durham; George Henry Greene of Delray Beach, Florida; Royal Hahn, of cf New Bern; Nicholas Hairs ton of Pittsburgh, Pa.; George Samuel Hall of Charlotte; How ard Walters Hill of Lancaster, S. C.; Walter Reid Howze of Wadesboro; Eugene Samuel Potts of Charlotte; Eugene Le non Rhoden of Clinton, S. C.; Carl Hairston Russell of Win ston-Salem ; Israel Harold Pinck ney Stanlback of Chester, S. C.; Hyland Garnett Sullivan of Lexington. Bachelor of Theology Bachelor of Theology, Da vid Cecil Blue of Newark, N. J.; Paul Edward Davis of Charlotte; Ferdinand Kwasi Fi awoo of Gold Coast, West Afri ca: Timothy Thryus Foulks of Greensboro; and Joseph Otis Stinson, of Chester, S. C. Rev. R. E. Foster, of Chester field, S. C., was granted the doc tor of divinity degree; Howard Givens, of Keysville, Ga., won both the prizes offered to the student who attained the high est average in the study of Bi ble History and Hebrew, re spectively ; Harold Beecher Jackson, of Dalzell, S. G., won the Junior prize medal given by the Alumni Association for the test oration delivered by a mem ber of the Junior class in a pub lie contest. The State Department of Ed ucation awarded 19 class A cer tificates to teach in the high schools of North Carolina. All graduates received Bilbles pro vided for by Mrs. Johnson C. Smith in her will, and this year for the first time the trustees of the Duke Fund gave to the graduates a copy of the indent ure of James B. Duke, establish - ing the Duke Endowment. Baccalaureate Services It was in a beautiful church, made more beautiful by the flo ral decorations of magnolias and palms at eleven o’clock, Sunday morning, that the baccalaureate services were held. The school was especially fortunate this year in securnig for this occa sion the services of one of the most outstanding ministers in the Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Joseph Anderson Vance, D. D., pastor of the First Pres byterian church of Detroit, Mich., and President of the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, under whose auspices this school operates. Taking for his text the 17th chapter and 19th verse of the Acts the speaker contended that there are four basic factors of the Christian religion: (1) Christianity is a revela tion of God to man. Christiani ty, he said, is given to one in terms of human life. It is not iust a philosophy or theology, but a picture of human life. Christian religion is not static. It is progressive and subject to expansion and the same religion of 2,000 years ago is appropri ate today, he said. (2) Christianity is a hie. That life, he added, is the power that has transformed the world and produced a Christian civiliza tion. (3) Christianity is also an experience, he listed as his third basic fact. Explaining, he said because it is a life and a revela tion of God to man it is also an experience. Man passes through the ‘tbirth throes of pain.” A Christian goes through agony because it rrteans throwing off all the evil’s of one’s life. (4) Christianity is a hope. It is a hope for the individual and consequently for the human race. Just a this religion is a hope for this world it is a hope A CR.OUP OP TV/e MCMBErnS OF T-H£ 1933 G&ADu&T/Kkf C'AiPSS' President M- A. M<CRORE'l f t-Fe first iaJomfn to <iradofte From qJqFfroR 0. SmitW UHI\JEZSITY jtxas S OF 1933 I flaNOfZ STODENTSlN T4lE tjRQOUCfTlHQQ.OS S OF /933 for the world to come, he con cluded. The Sermon a High Spot Dr. Vance, having been born and reared in the South, and, therefore, being familiar with its history and traditions, must have been agreeably surprised at the cultured and refined au dience that greeted him when he arose to preach the annual sermon in the University church. The audience was com posed of men and women from the various walks of life—edu cators, physicians, business men -in fact, men and women repre senting all professions and yet themselves being descendants of a people who just a few dec ades ago were in human bond age. The Presbyterian Church and the grace of God have worked wonders in the span of a few brief years, and the good doctor no doubt, remembering the past and toeing inspired by the present, “walked about,” as our foreparents would say, to the spiritual joy of all whose good fortune it was to be pres ent. Junior Prize Contest The commencement finals did not swing into full stride until Friday evening when six Jun iors chosen from a class of some fifty odd met in old Biddle Me morial Hall, the scene of many an oratorical battle in days gone by, to compete for the gold medal given by the University Alumni each year to that mem ber of the Junior class that ex cels in oratory in a public con test. From the earliest days this contest has been one of the most interesting features of the commencement week; and this year more than ever, due, per haps, to the presence of women on the program, the interest was unusually heightened. All of the speeches were well prepared and well delivered, there being but little difference between the efforts of the participants. The decision could have gone to any one of two or three of the con testants and the audience would have had no complaint. The six contestants were Evelyn Hill, of Charlotte; Harold B. Jack son, Dalzell, S. C.; Elliott L. McAdams. Anderson, S. C.; Thos. S. Martin, Columbia, S. 0.; Esther V. Rann, Charlotte; and James H. Rawlins, Rocky Mount. The President’s Reception and Prof. Jones’ Speech The annual reception to the Alumni and members of the graduating class was held in the University dining hall at 6 o’clock Friday evening. The menu wflfc-ia keeping with the occasion, and the program brief. The President acted as master of ceremonies. Messrs. J. 0. otinson and J. Leslie Hollowell made short but appropriate talks representing the School of Theology and the School of Liberal Arts, respectively. Cap tain J. E. Smith spoke for the trustees. The set speech for the occasion was made by Prof. T. B. Jones whom the Alumni had selected to represent them at that time. Back in his old college days Mr. Jones, in addition to making Ibig marks in the lan guages and mathematics, was noted for two things especially: he was a good singer and a tracker jack ball carrier, being on the college quintet, and al ways could foe relied upon to gain ground when the quarterback passed mm the spheroid, ihere rore it was with some degree of curiosity that we wanted to see how “T. B.” would perform in a purely academic environment. His speech was in dead agree ment with the Herbert Spencer school of thinkers who decry the ornamental and exalt the practical as the chief function of education. He seemed to have forgotten that it is written somewhere that man shall not live by bread alone and we presume he would deny that he ever translated a line of Horace or differentiated as much as an algebraic function. But he has had consid erable experience as an educat or and lacks but little of wear ing his doctor’s degree, and, therefore, what he says should be given serious consideration. Professor Odum’s Address The annual commencement address was delivered by Dr. Howard W. Odum, Director of the Institute for Research ir Social Science at the University of North Carolina. One would leed to hear the address in its entirety to realize its fall value and to come into a full appreci ation of its meaning. What America needs for its future development is a plan (Continued on page 2) COMMENCEMENT AT BOWLING GREEN ACADEMY The .Annual - Commencement of the Bowling Green Academy, May 14th, was pronounced by the public as the best in the his tory of the school. There were only four graduates this year, the smallest for many years. The depression kept three Sen iors from returning. The com mencement exercises were as follows: Baccalaureate Services Sunday, May 14, 2:45 P. M. Processional. Chorus—“On Life’s Highway” Bertrand Brown. Scripture reading and prayer. Response: “Lord, I Seek Thee” Sermon-^Rev. Abel N. Hew itt, B. D. Solo—“My Desire”—Ethellbert Nevin. Beatrice Sarden. Remarks. Collection. Chorus—“Psalm of Labor”— F. Mendelssohn. Announcements. Benediction. Commencement Exercises Thursday, May 18, 8:16 Processional. Invocation. Chorus—“Calm as the Night” --Carl Bohm. Oration—“Lqoking |Forward” —Mareeth Kuykendall (Saluta tory) Solo, “Two Roses,” Hallette Gilberte. Christine Loving Oration—“There Must Be Mountains”—Frank Crabtree. Chorus—“The Old Refrain”— Fritz Kreisler. Oration —“Higher Education,” Rachel Clark. Trio—“By the Waters of Min netonka,”—Lieurance. Alma Wolfe, Beatrice Sarden and Rachel Clark. Oration, “Mile Posts,” Paralee Gilliam (Valedictory). Presentation of Diplomas. Class, Song. Remarks and Announcements. This was the close of twenty four years of arduous labor in this institution of Dr. Wm. Wolfe and his wife in the liter ary work, and the close made a grand total of 169 graduates scattered all over the South. There are 68 teachers, 11 min isters, 8 principals of high schools, 3 mail carriers, 6 county supervisors, 11 undertakers, b physicians, 4 dentists, 6 boys and 3 girls in college at present, 1 missionary to Africa under the auspices of the Meth odist Church, 2 boys in th i Con servatory of Music of Chicago, 3 trained nurses, 4 dress mak ers, 1 time keeper at the mines in Kentucky, 3 prominent men in the grocery business, and the very outstanding feature is that not one is identified in any penal institution anywhere. The importance of real leader ship was the slogan of the insti tution and we are proud of our record. It is to be regretted that the literary work had to be dis continued because of the shortage in the Board’s incomlt which places the school i§ work of another type. While the change is to carry on a very im portant phase of work that will greatly benefit the commun ity in which it is placed, yet the formation of real Christian char acter as conducted daily in the school will be greatly missed. The public schools do not have the time to teach the Bible in all its grades, and thereby Jpave the right sort of impres sions that count for the best in the civic life of the nation. Ours is a peculiar group, and in the midst of a prejudiced nation, with so few advantages extend ed to our race, it is very neces sary for our group to have the Bible taught them, that they may not mix customs with reli gion and consequently give birth to atheism. It is alarming to know that the Negro is fast becoming dis couraged and discontented be cause of the injustices that must ibe his daily menu. He i. losing faith in our Protestant religion and joining other faiths that offer a better chance and a fairer deal. The organization! that are hostile to the peace and security of our nation have a tremendous following of Negro membership. In one month’s time five hundred Negroes be came members of the Catholic Church in the city of Chicago. The Catholic Churcn ^s building schools to train the Negro in its rites and polity, while our own Presbyterian Church must cut off many of the pioneer schools, and trust the public schools to do the work, and these public schools do not find time to teach the Bible scarcely once a week. The very foundation stone of our country s religion is being rapidly torn down, and our be loved America will some day find itself in the same attitude that Russia is today. What would it mean to this nation for ten millions of its constituency to become Catholics? We have the greater per cent of illiteracy to mix up with these changes, and if those who are in position to give to the mission work only knew the undercurrent influenc es that are being brought to bear upon the Negro, they would re vive the Church schools into an increased activity that our vouth must have for the safety of our country. America is rap idly losing its greatness as a liberty loving nation, in its sin ri omission by not allowing her citizens a square deal regardless of race or color. The yard stick of justice does not measure 36 inches to the black man of this country and the youth of the group is losing faith in his fel low man and in God. The text books bearing upon racial groups do not give justice in racial discussions; so it takes much of the time of mission teachers to make amends and allay the creeping spirit of in (Continued on page 4)~
Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 8, 1933, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75