James Robinson @00072504 omooluiwabi@gmail.com 786.302.

5496 College of Arts and Sciences African-American Studies & Biology Word Count 1561 Page # 6

2 Howard University was founded with the purpose of educating African-Americans in every field of academic and professional life. Even so there still exists a way to differentiate a Howard graduate from any other college graduate. While there is a Howard experience, it is atypical and a varying effect depending on how involved you are with on campus organizations and events. It can vary from undergraduate to graduate experiences, and whether you live on campus, near campus, or commute. As I finish my matriculation, I am beginning to understand that was a mode created to produce a certain type of Howard alumni. Im taking African-American Literature since 1940 with Dr. Eleanor Traylor. This semester, we are studying the social responsibility of the scholar/activist and artist. When you think of the rich legacy of Howard alum making a difference, it seems so imposing but then you remember they were all students. While the Howard experience varies, Howard is the place where ordinary people come to do extraordinary things. This essay will discuss the social responsibility of the Howard University alumnus because our legacy is not dead nor does it need to be renewed. Howard has been great because exemplary professors instilled intellectual confidence in their students. As a veteran of innumerable on-campus events and organizations, I will discuss how I plan to translate my Howard experience into activism. In the spring of 2011, I joined Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, Alpha chapter and Phi Beta Kappa National Society. Alain Leroy Locke was a member of both organizations. His cultural pluralist philosophy and activism in the New Harlem Renaissance provided tutelage for a generation of African-Americans. In terms of social and political rights, the turn of last century is not so different from 2012.

3 Disenfranchisement and socioeconomic equality remain hot button issues as the wealth gap between the elite and the proletariat has reached even higher than that of Ancient Rome. Now more than ever, we need to be using our culture to define our social and political movements. That starts with the cultural competence to understand ones own history and where it fits relative to the world, which leads me to Phi Beta Sigma. All of my most honorable founders were alum of Howard University. The ideals and philosophy of Phi Beta Sigma owes a great debt to Howard for providing a nurturing place for these ideas to be allowed expressed and bore into fruition. Our motto is Culture for Service, Service for Humanity. Leonard Francis Morse wanted our brotherhood to perpetuate a spirit of service grounded in the culture of our people. Out of Abram Langston Taylor, Morse and Charles Ignatius Brown, I am most fond of Founder Morse not only because he articulated the reason for our fraternitys existence but because he was the first male to graduate Howard University in three years with two Bachelors degrees. With my two degrees, the second being in Biology, I plan to go into traditional African medicine and open community healthcare centers that teach and employ the history and culture of African people. As a brother of Phi Beta Sigma thats how I intersect my motto with passion. As a member of Phi Beta Kappa, I look to expand my practice to other people who specialize in alternative medicine. Now the reader must be saying to him or herself how does this differentiate Morse as a Howard graduate? Morse used his experience as a Howard University student to articulate something that deeply resonates in our culture. In his articulation of the motto, he would pave the way for future brothers to further articulate their understanding of this motto in their own social and political context. The tutelage provided by Locke is also

4 worth examining. Howard students have always been involved with different social movements and some faculty members have always provided a nurturing environment for those students to grow. Whether it was in the Harlem Renaissance under the tutelage of Sterling Brown, Locke and others or now, Howard students have always used their organizational networks to take part of the social movements of the day. Five out of the nine historically African-American fraternities and sororities were founded on Howards campus. That speaks to the fact that Howard students get involved in social movements. This social action isnt confined to Greek life but it is evidence of it. There are a ton of social organizations on Howards campus, some of them founded and are unique to Howards campus, that have produced famous artists, scholars and activists. Whenever you see somebody with a Howard sweatshirt on something in the back of your mind clicks. You think back and wonder what that person does or who they might have met in their time here, but, above all else you have an inkling thought that they are down for the cause, whatever said cause is at the moment. You never know when you will have dinner with Amiri Baraka or if you will get the chance to meet the ever so elegant Phylicia Rashad, but when you hear Howard you think of Black professionals being involved in the forefront of social movements. If you look at their experiences and careers, Howard alum have always taken a piece of that nurturing Howard spirit and reproduce it into everything they do. Sterling Brown was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Traylor assigned The Negro Caravan as one of main texts for our class. Dr. Browns tenure as a professor for forty years (1929 1969) produced the type of stellar scholar/activists and artists our community needed since the Harlem Renaissance. Students such as Kwame Ture, Toni

5 Morrison, and Dr. Traylor would continue the legacy of Sterling Brown in ways that will never truly be documented. Howard has always had a global impact on the African Diaspora because of its international student body. A friend of mine told me he wanted to run for Prime Minister of the Bahamas. His name is Omar McKenzie, he graduated last year and is in Florida training with a professional swim team. He swam for Howard and is attempting to become a professional swimmer. The fact he was inspired by the Premier of Bermuda Ewart Brown at Convocation 2009 where Brown was the keynote speaker is very unique to the Howard experience. Both Omar and I are going to medical school and the fact that we want to have such different careers outside of our medical practice is evidence of this atypical Howard experience that I mentioned earlier. The fact that Stokely Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture borrowing from Kwame from Ghanian President Kwame Nkrumah, another one of Browns students, and Ture from Ahmed Toure of Guinea shows another atypical way that Howard alumni use their Howard experience to get involved in the social and political movements of the time. While Ture was a student at the Mecca, he got involved in the Howard chapter of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Brown was the faculty advisor and continued to mentor Ture after he graduated. Needless to say how well that worked out for him. His life ended in Guinea but his impact on this country and the world is the great company of other Howard graduates. Howard, despite all of its shortcomings, stands on a firm legacy that cannot be renewed because it has never stopped. It is does what all-great African traditions do, it improvises on its self to fit the context of the time. Students still come to Howard and go on to do great things. Kamala Harris is the first female and first African-American

6 Attorney General of the State of California. Victoria Kirby, recent alum of 2010, is currently working with the Democratic Party to get President Obama re-elected. Dean Schmoke of Howard School of Law sent a letter to the family of Trayvon Martin offering the services of our Law school in any way possible. The law students came up with a 6-part initiative that includes a trip to Florida. Undergraduates are organizing to spread the word via social networks and visits to other campuses. Things move so fast if you blink, you might miss it but there it is again, Black professionals and students getting involved in social movements. The one thing thats changed is the availability of information. Most of the information I got for this essay had been because of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Marcus Ware, former HUSA President and Graduate Trustee, tweeted that Dean Schmoke was helping the Martins family. Today, the Howard chapter of the NAACP will be holding an event to raise awareness about Trayvon and Reggie Clemons. Clemons will be brought up in remembrance of Troy Davis, a man who was recently killed by the state of Georgia when seven of the nine witnesses recanted their testimonies. Clemons stands the death penalty after having given a shaky confession after being beaten by the police. Witnesses are documented saying they would taken have taken a plea to get off. No matter what the cause is, Howard students are continuously getting involved. If one is take anything from this essay is that the faculty now more than ever need to institutionalize the professional development and tutelage that has always existed.