As the president of Howard University, I am often called on to
reflect upon Howard’s unique legacy. Recently, I was privileged to
address this legacy anew as we celebrated the life of Dr. James Madison
Nabrit Jr., Howard’s second African American president who passed at
the age of ninety-seven on December 27, 1997.
As I sat in Rankin Chapel beside great civil rights advocates —
Vernon Jordan and Jack Greenberg — and higher education leaders —
Walter Massey, president of Morehouse College, President Nabrit’s alma
mater: Dr. James Cheek, president emeritus of Howard, and Dr. Michael
Winston, president of the Alfred Harcourt Foundation — I once again
realized that perhaps my most important role is to bear witness, to
make real the legacy of civil rights warriors like President Nabrit and
those who served with him in the struggle — Charles Houston, William
H. Hastie, justice Thurgood Marshall, and George E.C. Hayes.
I welcome this responsibility as I am a beneficiary of the Nabrit
Legacy. I characterize myself as such because I attended undergraduate
school and law school at Howard under President Nabrit. Therefore, I am
doubly thankful for his leadership. It seems as if it was only a few
years ago when I attended my first freshman convocation. In those days,
the entire first-year class assembled every Wednesday for programs
sponsored by the president.
The first convocation featured remarks by President Nabrit. This
was just our third day on campus and we were all assembled in Cramton
Auditorium. I was seated in the upper reaches of the auditorium, as
became my custom, with my roommate. And, as is often the case with
first-year students, we were busily engaged in conversation about what
we were going to be doing that afternoon, that evening, and the next
day — hardly paying attention to the proceedings that were taking
place on stage. As a voice announced, “First-year students, the
president of Howard University, James Madison Nabrit Jr.” And we said,
“The president is here!”
President Nabrit strode to the microphone and said, “Ladies and
gentlemen, I want to welcome you to the capstone of Negro education.”
I said, “Hallelujah!” and we, the Nabrit freshmen, were off and running for the next four years.
That was in 1961, only seven years after President Nabrit’s success
in Brown v. Board of Education. Many more battles were still to be
fought in courtrooms all over America and in the Supreme Court and
Congress. But a great victory had been won and here we were, just
first-year undergraduate students, in the presence of one of this
nation’s history makers.
