Bradley, Ed

English

Howard University: Digital Howard

New DirectionsVolume 9 | Issue 4 Article 37-1-1982Ed Bradley's Message To the '82 GraduatesEd BradleyFollow this and additional works at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirectionsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Directions byan authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact lopez.matthews@howard.edu.Recommended CitationBradley, Ed (1982) "Ed Bradley's Message To the '82 Graduates," New Directions: Vol. 9: Iss. 4, Article 3.Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol9/iss4/38 EdBradley'sMessage toThe 1982GraduatesFor all of you-the graduates-this is aday that marks another rite of passage inyour lives ... a day on which you shouldjustifiably be proud ... whether you fin-ished at the top of the academic rolls orat the bottom ... you did finish.Some of you made better use of theseyears than others and for that you are tobe commended. For those who didn't putthem to best use, one can only hope theprice you pay down the line isn't too dear.This day puts a period at the end of achapter in your lives ... and it marks thestart of a new beginning.These years at Howard have been re-markably carefree. Now, I know that manyof you have had to wor-k- and work hard-to get through college, but you havebeen working to-earn a degree that hope-fully will serve you well in this new chap-ter you are about to begin. Your nextphase of work is for survival in a worldthat is not as comfortable as that youhave known in these years at Howard.So, as you sit here today, you mightlook to the past and count your blessingsfor having reached this point. At the sametime, you might be happy that you arefinishing your Howard years and not be-ginning them because for those who fol-low in your footsteps-the future is bleak.Almost 90 percent of all Blacks pur-suing post-secondary education receiveNEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1982some form of government-sponsored fi-nancial aid. But now the [Reagan] ad-ministration has proposed the eliminationof three major financial aid programswhich, at present, benefit well over a mil-lion students with 633-million dollars inassistance. There are other programswhich currently provide over five-billiondollars. For those, the administration isseeking to restrict eligibility. That, ofcourse, would reduce the dollar amountof aid and the number of students receiv-ing that aid.In late March, President [Ronald]Reagan said, "There is some concern" inthe Black community about his programs.He added: "If I believed some of thethings I've heard and read about this ad-ministration's programs, I'd be con-cerned, too."Well, there are concerns. Legitimateconcerns. There is one estimate that halfthe private Black colleges in this countrywill have to close, if all of the proposalsmade by the President are effected.So, there are legitimate concernsamong Blacks and not just you collegegraduates ....And when you consider the all too oftendesperate condition of life for many peo-ple-and the projections for the future-it's easy to understand why.Back in 1961, in a speech here atHoward, then Vice-President LyndonJohnson promised a federal commitmentto the fundamental belief that before thelaw all stand equal and are entitled totheir full constitutional rights regardlessof race, creed, color or section of birth.Johnson told the 1961 graduates thatthey were not entering a nation of perfec-tion, but a nation that is striving for pro-tection and a nation in which the nationalconscience' is on the side of morality,justice and right.He went on to say that what reallycounts is whether we live in a system thatseeks to perpetuate injustice and unfair-ness or a systemwhich seeks to eliminatethese evil sores from the body politic.Ed BradleySome years ago, classroom civicsbooks taught us that this great countrywas a melting pot; that it was a nation 0<people from many parts of the globe whocame together as one. We all know bet-ter. If anything, ours is a collection 0stereotypes-or more accurately- peo-ple trying to overcome stereotypes.Lyndon Johnson came back to Howarcas President of the United States. He tolethe 1965 graduates that in too manywaysBlacks in America have been another na-tion: deprived of freedom, crippled byhatred, the doors of opportunity closed tohope.Remarking on the Voting Rights Billwhich he would soon sign, PresidentJohnson quoted Winston Churchill's com-ments on another freedom - " ... it is nothe end. It is not even the beginning of theend. But, it is, perhaps, the end of thebeginning." Watching the current debateon an extension of the Voting Rights Bill-apparently-the end of the beginningcontinues ....You are leaving Howard to join what-the last 20 years has been a great andgrowing minority, the Black middle class.~e statistics are impressive. The income;Jap between white and Black has nar-'owed significantly. But keep in mindese figures:In 1930, the unemployment rate for31acks and whites was about the same."oday, the unemployment rate for Blacks_ twice that of whites. In 1965, Blackzenaqe unemployment was 23 percent."oday, 45 percent of Black teenagers areemployed.So, for the large majority of Black Amer-:cans, the picture is sti II grim. They are_ ill the poor, still the unemployed, stille dispossessed. Despite the court- ders, the laws, the victories and thesoeeches, for them the gulf is widening_ .and the doors of opportunity are still:Iosed to hope.Keep in mind that you, too, are but a-ep away. And, that small step is in part::~ovidoo by the degree you have earnedthese difficult times.Dr. WEB. Du Bois noted your problem~ his commencement address in 1930.- .e times have changed, but the problemsme same.Looking back at the turn of the century,-8 immediate and pressing question2S the education of a vast group of chi 1-- 3fl of former slaves. There had arisen in-'" South a Joseph, who knew not Pharoh-3. Black man who was not born inery.at was he to become?is fathers were slaves, for the most- ignorant and poverty-stricken; eman-ted in the main without land, tools, orita I ... The sport of war, the despair ofornists."ioday, we are generations removedthose times, but the problems re-- . Too many are undereducated, mis-- cated, or not educated at all ... slavesin a system based on knowledge and::::..;cation. And then it is their responsi-to raise their own families withoutthe understanding that each of you shouldhave.The problem as Du Bois saw it then wasthis: The Black is mainly the unskilledlaborer; the man hired last and fired first;the man who must subsist upon the low-est wage and, consequently, share an un-due burden of poverty, crime, insanityand ignorance.It has been more than 50 years sinceDr. Du Bois said that to Howard gradu-ates. It was the same when the KernerCommission issued its landmark reportin 1968. How much our times havechanged since then. And how remarkablethat the condition of life for many is stillthe same today as it was then IMy hope for you is that your life be bet-ter. That, through your efforts in this nextchapter of your life, you can make a dif-ference .. not just for yourselves, butfor those less fortunate as well. If I leaveyou with but one thought, let it be this:you control your life. You are the primefactor.There will be no Moses to lead you tothe promised land. At least not on thisearth. If you are to find your way there-to the promised land of equality of oppor-tunity, to the promised land that offersyour full constitutional rights-you mustchart your own course. You must fight andscratch every inch of the way.Today, we are fighting to hold on toguarantees forged on the anvi I of the civi Irights struggles of the '50s and '60s. Andyou should all know that that period wasnot the first struggle for civi I rights. Giventhe history of mankind and the history ofthis nation, it won't be the last great strug-gle, either.You leave Howard blessed with thefruits of your labor. Your years at Howardhave prepared you for the combat youwi II face for the rest of your Iife. And, be-lieve me, it is a combat. Sometines, eachday will seem like a war for survival. Butyou are well-equipped to carry the torchof this generation. You will be the newleaders. You are the future. You are thelatest edition of the last best hope. Don'tfail us.In closing, I would like to paraphrasesome of the words of Dr. Du Bois who, thenight before his speech, saw the zeppelinsailing silver across the new moon. It wasnew in those days-the zeppelin-youprobably know it as the Goodyear blimp.To Dr. Du Bois in 1930, it was brilliantand enormous. It symbolized the civiliza-tion over which it hung. It rode sereneabove miles of death; like a needle, itthreaded together clouds and seas, starsand continents. Within its womb werecaged eternal and palpitating forces ofthe universe, and yet, without quiver, itfaced the utter ends of space. Across theskies, it flew, mute-dominant-magnifi-cent- imponderable- it flew.And what it did, men and women ofHoward, you too may do-you must door die.It is neither miracle nor stroke of genius.It is unremittent toil-and experiment-and thought-and infinite adaptation inthe face of every discouragement andfai lure, in the face of death itself.Your life is yours. Don't fai I. 09NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1982

Ed Bradley\u27s Message
To the \u2782 Graduates

https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1315&amp;context=newdirections

Ed Bradley\u27s Message To the \u2782 Graduates

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Howard University: Digital Howard