Black President Stands Out At Mostly White College [audio 9 min 31 sec]
More than 230 years since Hampden-Sydney's founding, tradition is very much alive at the Virginia college.
The students, all men, wear bow ties and jackets to football games. On arriving for the school year, students are handed an etiquette guide. The college slogan is simple. It reads: "Forming Good Men and Good Citizens Since 1776."
It's a school steeped in the traditions of the Old South — a place that educated the leaders and the children of the Confederate aristocracy. In 1861, Hampden-Sydney's president even raised a company of men to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
"We have a history in the South," Howard says. "Black people have been a part of it; white people have been a part of it. What do you take from that? How do you grow from there? That's what I'm fully aware of and have been my whole life. I want to be a person that symbolizes discourse, conversation, reconciliation and paying it forward."
Read entire article at NPR All Things Considered
The students, all men, wear bow ties and jackets to football games. On arriving for the school year, students are handed an etiquette guide. The college slogan is simple. It reads: "Forming Good Men and Good Citizens Since 1776."
It's a school steeped in the traditions of the Old South — a place that educated the leaders and the children of the Confederate aristocracy. In 1861, Hampden-Sydney's president even raised a company of men to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
"We have a history in the South," Howard says. "Black people have been a part of it; white people have been a part of it. What do you take from that? How do you grow from there? That's what I'm fully aware of and have been my whole life. I want to be a person that symbolizes discourse, conversation, reconciliation and paying it forward."