Strengthening the legacy

Friday, Feb. 18, 2005 | 3:49 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

February 19 - 20, 2005

Slaves, many of whom could neither read nor write, found at the end of the Ohio underground railroad in the mid-1850s a light not only to freedom but also to intellectual enlightenment.

For at that location at Tawawa Springs in southern Ohio was a school, Wilberforce University, the nation's first black college that continues to turn out educators and community leaders.

Last March, Las Vegans who graduated from Wilberforce -- named for abolitionist William Wilberforce -- received authorization to start the school's 28th alumni group, the Dynamic Las Vegas Alumni Chapter.

Organizers of the group say their goals are to encourage black history education, step up recruitment efforts for Wilberforce in this region, increase local alumni membership from its current 14 members and help the national effort to raise $1.5 million for the school's 150th birthday next year.

National Wilberforce alumni board member Flora Shaffer, co-chairwoman of the association's fundraising committee and a Las Vegas resident of five years, said increasing awareness of Wilberforce will help shed light on the importance of historically black colleges and universities in America today.

"On a nationwide basis, black history is not being taught properly in our schools," said Shaffer, 62, a member of the Wilberforce Class of 1965, who grew up in North Carolina and vividly remembers a time when there were separate white and black drinking fountains in the town square.

"Black history should not be taught just during Black History Month (February) and should not be focused solely on black students. Black history should be taught the same as any other history because it is part of everyone's history. The more we know about each other's cultures the more we will get along."

Black colleges, especially during the early to mid-20th century, provided educational opportunities that otherwise were denied to blacks in a country where racism was not confined to below the Mason-Dixon line.

Wilberforce Las Vegas Alumni President Robert Ridenour, who was born and raised in Cleveland, recalled a subtle example of that when, at age 6, he attended a parade there for Jesse Owens after the black track star won four gold medals and deflated Adolf Hitler's theory of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Olympics.

"When Jesse went through the white sections of town, there was polite applause, but when he went through the black section he was cheered wildly," said Ridenour, 74, a counseling psychologist and member of the Class of 1962. "You could definitely see the difference in the reactions by the races."

Ridenour graduated from Cleveland's East Technical High School, which had produced the late Owens and late high jump champion and U.S. Rep. Dave Albritton, who also was a Wilberforce University alumnus.

Ridenour, a Las Vegas resident of 12 years, also recalled going to a pizza restaurant in a town a few miles from Wilberforce where the proprietors encouraged him and his friends to go elsewhere, not wanting their business despite a potential strong customer base from the nearby black college.

Tom Leigh, 85, secretary-treasurer of the local alumni group and a member of the Class of 1943, said he faced that type of prejudice, and a lot more, as a black man in the early 20th century.

"I do not think the dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (for racial equality) has diminished any over the years, but it definitely has not yet been fulfilled," said Leigh, a retired Army colonel and Las Vegas resident of 20 years who grew up in a community 18 miles from Wilberforce University.

"I believe, however, that 25 years from now things will be better than they are now, just as things now are better than they were 25 years ago."

That reason for optimism, local Wilberforce alumni say, can be attributed in part to the values-centered education they received at Wilberforce that encouraged not only book learning but also instilled in them the self-respect and confidence they needed to navigate through hatred and ignorance.

Wilberforce alumni say that because of the school's close-knit atmosphere today's students also can benefit greatly from going to a small black college.

"Students who are not at the top of the class and have only the barest of essentials find support from Wilberforce faculty and others to stay with the program," Ridenour said. "That is not always so at larger universities."

Still, when they do their recruiting duties for Wilberforce, alumni admit they have trouble convincing promising students to go to a black institution when most schools today offer similar educational opportunities for everyone.

"We take a beating because there are so many other schools going after promising young black students," Ridenour said. "It is a tough fight against schools such as UCLA and UNLV."

However, he said, with Wilberforce now having a local chapter, the university has a much stronger presence at college fairs at local high schools.

Also, to reach a more diversified market, Wilberforce and other black schools are actively tapping a much larger group of potential students -- whites.

Shaffer, a retired information technology director for the federal government, said one such area is Wilberforce's adult education program aimed at those in the workforce who are just a few credits shy of getting their degrees.

"Most of the students in those classes are white and don't care that their diplomas will come from an HBCU (historically black college and university)," she said. "They just want a convenient program and a good education."

Today 30 percent of Wilberforce's 1,250 student enrollment is described in a school brochure as "nontraditional."

Wilberforce offers a liberal arts education in the areas of business, sciences, engineering, financing, health, fine arts, literature, communications, computers, mathematics, philosophy, sociology, religion and other studies.

Wilberforce was founded in 1856. Its first students included slaves that had escaped the plantations of neighboring Kentucky and other Southern states.

After closing for one year during the Civil War because of dwindling enrollment, the school was reopened in March 1863 by Bishop Daniel Payne of the African Methodist Church. Payne became the nation's first black college president.

In 1887 Ohio began providing financial assistance to the school. That support ended in 1947 when the state established Central State University next door to Wilberforce.

Other noted Wilberforce alumni include former U.S. Rep. Floyd Flake, the school's current president; Harvard social policy professor William Julius Wilson, one of the nation's leading authorities on race relations and welfare reform; late composer William Grant Still; late jazz musicians Benny Carter and Horace Henderson; and late Maj. Charity Adams-Early, the first black woman commissioned as an officer in the Women's Army Corps during World War II.

Local alumni said they got the idea for a Las Vegas chapter after running into each other for years at annual Wilberforce reunions in cities nationwide, including Las Vegas in 1999, the last time the reunion was held here.

Alumni officials believe there may be a dozen or more other Wilberforce University former students or graduates residing in Southern Nevada, providing the potential for the organization to double its membership.

"With so many people moving here so fast, there may be a number of Wilberforce alumni who do not even know our chapter exists," Shaffer said. "We want them to know we are here and that we need them."

Getting across their message will not come cheap. Treasurer Leigh said the alumni chapter can only go so far on $50-a-year dues from its members.

"I can tell you the coffers are empty," he said. "We have to come up with new members and find other ways to raise funds."

The local Wilberforce chapter will hold its first key fundraiser, the Challenge Fundraiser Tea and Fashion Show, 1 p.m. Feb. 27 at Mariposa restaurant on the second floor of Neiman Marcus in the Fashion Show mall. Tickets are $50.

Shaffer, who is co-hosting the event with Las Vegan Nancy Justice, said it will not only help fund the group's education and recruiting efforts but also will support the nationwide fundraising effort.

Comedian Bill Cosby, a supporter of higher education and a longtime Las Vegas headliner, has announced he will match up to $1.5 million all donations to Wilberforce this year.

For information about joining the Dynamic Las Vegas Alumni Chapter of Wilberforce University or for information about obtaining tickets for the fashion show, call (702) 452-4620.

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