Remember Dolores E. Cross? During her more than 30-year academic career, she advocated for multicultural education, championed equal education access for all students, and blazed trails as the first African-American female president of Chicago State University and the first female president of Morris Brown College.
“Today, I’m considered a felon,” says Cross, 73.
That daunting reality is still raw, sometimes festers and bars her from her life’s work as an educator and advocate for disadvantaged students. For Cross, the college president, life as she knew it ended four years ago. In a “cold Atlanta courtroom,” Cross listened in dismay as she was fined and sentenced to a year of house arrest, 500 hours of community service, and five years of probation on charges related to financial irregularities at Morris Brown. As Cross would come to realize, that life began its ebb in 1998, when she said “yes” to leading the historically Black college.
“I came to assume the position of leadership at Morris Brown College not knowing that my journey there, after being a professor, department head, administrator, and a university president was leading me to what would become my crucible,” writes Cross in a thoughtful and sometimes haunting new memoir, Beyond the Wall.
As Cross tells the tale of her impoverished youth in Newark, N.J., the unrelenting pursuit to educate herself, her ascent to university administration and eventual descent, the veteran marathoner takes refuge in a runner’s vocabulary. “Marathons” serve as metaphors for Cross’ constant race against the clock to fix Morris Brown, but she would eventually “hit the wall” — the place she says runners never want to find themselves — when she was indicted on 27 counts of fraud.
Beyond the Wall is Cross’ side of the story and her attempt to quell the rumors and dismantle “media misinformation … that would suggest I lost my way and dishonored my roots.” In a telephone interview from her Chicago condo, frustration still fills Cross’ voice as she recounts the myriad news stories and outlets that “wrongly reported” that she embezzled student financial aid funds and conspired to commit fraud while at Morris Brown.
Still, in “Beyond the Wall” most of the finger pointing about Cross’ tenure and downfall at Morris Brown is at herself.
