Highlights

Campus News

Wildcat Weekly Minute for Nov. 17, 2011

A look at what's happening on campus this week.

Faith

Cleansed through the Cross

Dr. Quarles speaks on the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice at weekly chapel

Sports

LC hoops teams wrap up homestand with pair of wins

Off to Ozarks, UT-Dallas next

Organizations

LC media student give to Toys for Tots

More than 100 toys will help local charity

Campus Life

February is Heart Health Awareness Month

Stay healthy and 'God Red'

Culture

All the Shakespeare you could laugh at… and more!

tlc's adaptation of 'Shakespeare Abridged' pulls out all the stops

Special Coverage

LC brings another successful ‘Follow the Star’

'Christmas on the Hill' and 'Gala' add to festive weekend

Hearts are open at LC’s first-ever Black History Month program

by Al Quartemont

Speakers share their life experiences in a moving discussion

Louisiana College had never had a Black History Month program.

Based on the response to the first one, it appears that will no longer be the case.

In what was at times a moving and emotional experience, a strong turnout of LC students at the Granberry Conference Center Thursday night listened attentively as a panel of speakers, four African American men, each with his own, unique experience shared from their hearts what it has been like to be black in America.

Not that they were bemoaning the fact. Not in the least. From long-time Rapides Parish educator, Thomas Ellis, to current Pineville Mayor Clarence Fields, to former LC student Kris Lee, to current LC student Ron Lindo, the symposium had a common theme - despite challenges brought on by racism, a black man or woman can succeed in America through the blessings of God and through the work of many who have come before them.

The symposium was a first-time event sponsored by LC’s History Department along with the Office of Student Development. Dr. Peggy Pack said this kind of symposium had been a dream of hers as she has sought to teach students that "there are no barriers to what God has called you to do."

Clarence Fields

Perhaps nobody has embodied that fact more than Clarence Fields. As the mayor related his life story, with tears he recounted how he and his twin sister had been born at Huey P. Long Hospital in 1955 as premature babies, weighing less than three pounds combined. Fields, himself, weighed less than one pound when he was born. Yet, despite a lack of technology in that day, both survived and were adopted at birth by a Pineville couple who became loving parents.

But overcoming odds only started at birth for Fields. Despite not going to college, Fields had a successful 22-year career at Central Louisiana Electric Company (Cleco). In 1998, he was elected to the Pineville City Council. Despite being the only black member of the council, Fields became the Mayor Pro-tem and eventually, by a vote his peers, was appointed as Mayor on December 14, 1999. But being a black mayor in a mostly white Southern town would not be without its challenges.

Fields recalled the night of his appointment. As he, his wife and daughter walked down the hall to his new office, two white men were waiting. Fields stuck out his hand in an effort to shake but was refused.

"He said, it's a damn shame that we have to put up with your kind for the next few months.'" Fields recalled.

The man couldn't have been more wrong. Despite demographics that would indicate otherwise, Fields has served the citizens of Pineville for more than ten years. His popularity has been so high, Fields was re-elected without opposition in 2006.

"We've had to prove ourselves, but that's not how I do my job," Fields said. "I take care of my responsibilities and hope that will speak for itself."

Thomas Ellis

Fields was also quick to give credit to those who had gone before him, men like Thomas Ellis.

Born and raised in Pineville's Wardville Community, Ellis grew up long before the Civil Rights movement had begun. The only high school he was allowed to go to was Peabody in Alexandria. And the only way to get there was to walk. A long walk.

But Ellis said that he always valued a good education. He went on to Grambling State University after serving in Korea. His degree in elementary education brought him home where he worked for 32 years in the Rapides Parish School System, retiring as principal of Cherokee Elementary in 1987.

In what was another poignant moment of the night, Ellis held in his hand a copy of a booklet the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had sent to Alexandria in the 1960s. It was a document that outlined how the black citizens were to conduct themselves in that day's struggle for racial equality.

Ellis's message to the LC students on this night was simply and direct.

"You are beautiful," he said. "You have to keep our America strong. You don't have to look around and see what color someone is. Just work hard and finish school."

Kris Lee

If Fields and Ellis have succeeded despite the struggle, the night's other two speakers seem poised to succeed in the wake of what others have done before them.

That fact was not lost on Kris Lee. A 2009 graduate of LC, Lee made an impact on the campus. As the captain of the debate team, Lee showed the oratory skills that many of his instructors feel will take him a long way in the world of politics. Currently, Lee works in the Baton Rouge office for U.S. Senator David Vitter.

Lee talked to LC's current students about their need to have perspective - how a night like the one they were at could not have happened 50 years ago.

Lee also credited his mother for raising him in a way that fought against racism. Not that this was easy. Lee recounted the story of walking down the street with his mother when he was young. A car with two white people drove by. They yelled a racial slur at his mother.

"One thing that I appreciate about my mom, she did not teach me to be angry," Lee said. "She said you have to work hard. I did not let any circumstances dictate what my future would be."

"Racism is nothing but a trick of the enemy. He's used it to separate God's people. When you understand that, you will be compelled to stand up for what white and black abolitionists stood for."

Ron Lindo, Jr.

Both Lee and LC senior Ron Lindo, Jr. mentioned the fact that there was a time in the world and in America where blacks were considered to be less than human.

Like Lee, Lindo sees that as much as anything as a spiritual problem. Using the Bible, Lindo traced the Fall of Man and the dispersing of the races after the Tower of Babel. He also traced the history of slavery and the events that led to the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.

But like Lee and Fields and Ellis, Lindo has not let the prejudices of others dictate his success or failure. A member of the United States Marine Reserves, Lindo plans to get his Ph. D. in Math at LSU. His goal is to return to LC to teach Math.

His final words during the symposium perhaps best summed the night.

""God is not in the business of saving black people or white people but Christian people," Lindo said. "God worked through my people so that someone like me could be here and go to college here and to learn that through Christ that the world can be a better place."

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