Lifting the Veil of Ignorance Monument: Tribute to Booker T Washington

Lifting the Veil of Ignorance Monument: Tribute to Booker T Washington

Great HBCUs in Georgia

African American high school seniors in metro Atlanta will decide which college or university to attend in the Spring, beginning a new chapter in their lives. Many will stay in the state, while others will go elsewhere.  While narrowing their choices, they might consider one of the state's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

They could start with the three state-supported historically black institutions of higher learning, which have made a name for themselves.  For example, Albany State University, which played a central role during the Civil Rights era, has supplied area hospitals with hundreds of nurses for decades, as one of the oldest nursing programs in Southwest Georgia. During Jim Crow, the school also educated many of the black teachers in the region and is reportedly responsible for the lion's share of master's and education specialist Degrees awarded to teachers in nearby school systems.

Meanwhile, Fort Valley State University and Savannah State University, Georgia's other state-run HBCUs, have carved their own niches.  Fort Valley State's College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, for instance, is recognized as one of the best in the country as part of a 1,365-acre land-grant campus in the heart of Georgia that includes a working dairy farm. Moreover, Savannah State is known for its Journalism and Mass Communication Department and award-winning student newspaper. It is also one of the few schools in the State to offer a degree in social work.

Aside from the state's public HBCUs, Georgia's private historically black colleges and universities, most of which comprise the Atlanta University Center, have excelled nationally since their founding.  Morehouse College, a nationally known institution dedicated to the education of black men, has produced high-profile figures in business, civil rights, and government, including a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a United States Senator.  Today, the Morehouse School of Medicine provides much-needed doctors to hospitals and clinics in Atlanta and across the country. 

Across the way is Spelman College, a highly ranked institution, created for African American women. It has produced prominent scholars and leaders, like Marian Wright Edelman and Bernice Johnson Reagon, and continues to educate sought-after graduates today.

Morris Brown College, another AU Center member school, has existed as a beacon of higher education since Reconstruction. It recently fell on hard times and had to close much of its historic campus. Efforts are underway to restore it to its original glory and mission of educating young black minds, as it has regained its accreditation.

Noted writer and historian W.E.B. Dubois inspired young minds at nearby Atlanta University at the turn of the twentieth century, before its consolidation with neighboring Clark College nearly a century later to become Clark Atlanta University.  He laid the foundation for quality education with groundbreaking research and steadfast devotion to students.

Paine College is a private HBCU in Augusta, Georgia. Like its counterparts in Atlanta, it has produced respected figures in literature, government, journalism, and science.  Sadly, it has endured financial challenges that have impaired its ability to function as it has for nearly 130 years.

HBCUs in Georgia not only offer a quality education but also the latest in student amenities.  Fort Valley State boasts a new state-of-the-art basketball arena, while Albany State recently constructed an on-campus football stadium to welcome home alumni.  Other HBCU institutions have broken ground on modern dormitories, student centers, dining halls, fraternity housing, laboratories, and classroom buildings.  And the marching bands still mesmerize crowds during sporting events and homecoming parades.

Historically black colleges and universities in Georgia provide students with a quality education and a jump start in life.  Many are first-generation college freshmen from challenging backgrounds, who become equipped with the tools to survive in the outside world. They also benefit from small class size and a caring faculty.  The majority graduate, with many furthering their education at larger institutions.



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Who Gets the Jobs?

A recent T.V. ad suggests that all the jobs created in this country since 2004 have gone to undocumented workers.  That's not the case.  Millions of Americans have been hired by corporations and other businesses over the past ten years,  which continues today. Immigrants are willing to take on tasks many of us born and raised in the U.S. won't do, such as opening convenience stores or starting landscaping companies, which employ millions.  Yes,  the nation's economic comeback has a ways to go, but citizens shouldn't blame outsiders for the problem.

A Poem

I'm in love with a place I've never been New York City.
The subway and tough boroughs turn me on.
It represents the world over.
It's the genesis of Rap and House that changed music forever.
I get a rush when they talk,  dance, or put people in check from an NYC perspective.
Anything goes as long as all are included and treated like humans.
They don't care.
It's the most diverse place on Earth to be from.
New York City.

A Poem

To be a black man means I have a platform to speak
about the inequities of society cast upon me or those like me in color or status.
It means a chance to speak out on unemployment or crime, whether it impacts the sister or brother next door,
mistreated by the mean patrolmen who don't care about me,
black or white.
This opportunity challenges me, a boy from the rural,  restricted South,
told to say yes, sir, or no, sir to many who don't deserve it, of any race, but required by the elderly to see God.
I love sticking up for young black men as no one else will.
They have been deemed criminals,  a misfit of a prosperous society, who the world molests in one way or another.
I think it's wise to voice an opinion or make my side of the story known, even if I get laughed at or told to shut up or sit down.
I'm a man,
always a man first.
I'll die if necessary, like Jimmy Lee Jackson, for a cause.
Love me or hate me, I'll do right by you.

Building The Great Society

While president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson pursued the Great Society. He pushed for civil rights, voting rights, fair housing, and other landmark laws and legislation that improved life for all.

 Fifty years later,  the debate continues over what constitutes a great society or world that is inviting to all its inhabitants.  Some say universal healthcare or full employment is the key, but the search for utopia far outweighs such lofty goals.

To begin with,  any hope or talk of paradise in the Twenty-First Century must call for an end to the ethnic or class divide in America today.  It means ending racial profiling, which prompted the violence in Ferguson,  Missouri, or overall urban strife that tears our cities apart.

One way to heal America or strive toward greatness would be to confront the high school dropout crisis and the lack of jobs in the inner city and remote areas of the country.  Urban and rural youth must be pressured by family and the community to earn a high school diploma, and be required to gain a marketable skill or develop other talents after graduation.  Likewise,  the economy must expand to make higher education worthwhile, as it did generations ago.  In addition, mechanisms such as tax breaks and job training should be implemented by governing bodies to assist the hardcore unemployed and older workers in a tough job market.

The closest we have come to a great society in this country was in the 1990s.  The U.S. economy grew, unlike any other time in history.  For instance, the unemployment rate dropped to an all-time low for all ethnic groups.  Welfare rolls were also reduced, and other federal programs were scaled back.  Finally,  the federal government ended the decade with a surplus, which hasn't occurred since then in the United States.

In a country as great as the U.S.,  no citizen should be denied access to a quality education or a job to call his or her own.  It makes for a better world or a life worth living.

The Rural South

The problems of the rural South need to be addressed.  They range from housing to healthcare.  Many communities have ceased to exist or combined, including schools to stay afloat.  We need forward-thinking governors and a president who can put isolated towns and cities first.  They represent the backbone of America.