By: Cheryl Smith
This week I am returning to Florida A&M University for Homecoming, and it’s hard to believe that 50 years ago, in the fall of 1976, I first walked on the campus as an eager college freshman.
I had no clue what to expect or what my next step would be. I just knew I wanted to be a journalist, and I would get my degree from this great institution.
Although I was a long way from East Orange, New Jersey, I knew a few people from not only New Jersey, but also from my parents’ hometown of Plant City, Florida.
Granted, when I chose FAMU, little did I know that I was a four-hour drive from relatives and there wasn’t a beach for miles!
As a freshman, I had someone to show me around, and I had wonderful professors who seemed vested in my success.
Now 50 years later, I will be on campus to visit the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, attend Studio DST with my sorority sisters of the Beta Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., visit the new sites on campus, and hunt down some students that told their parents that I would visit; but I’ll also get to go to the homecoming game as we face the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Especially exciting for me, however, will be the presentation of close to $30,000 for – the Cheryl Smith Soldiers Without Swords Endowed Scholarship – namedin honor of the Black Press, which will be celebrating 200 years of existence in 2027.
Today, as I look back, I am so grateful for the FAMU experience because I know I’m a better person because of FAMU.
It is wonderful to know that some of my professors—Dr. Gladys Lang, Dr. Barbara Cotton, and Dean Bob Ruggles—are still around, and I hope to see them while on campus.
Also Atty. Williams, Dr. James Hawkins, Thelma T. Gorham, Dr. Eva C. Wanton, Ann Foster, Coach Ajac Triplett, James Eaton, Ted Hemingway, and President Walter Smith, were giants on campus and definitely left their marks on my life.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t recall sitting in the home of Coach and Mrs. A.S. “Jake” Gaither, the legend, for a story I was working on.
What a ride I had!
I learned and grew working for the FAMUAN newspaper and the yearbook staff, while also having work-study in the library.
Yes, I’m from the incoming class of 1976, and one thing that I know that made that HBCU experience so great is that unlike other schools where students are told to look to the left and look to the right because some of the people sitting in the room would not be there with them for graduation, at FAMU we were encouraged to look to the left and look to the right and do everything we could to not only get ourselves across that line but take our brothers and sisters with us.
That lift as we climb mentality is the HBCU way.
I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to witness first-hand and get to know members of the fabulous and incomparable Marching 100 Band, to meet some of the best teachers in the world, to interact with everyone from coaches to librarians, and staff who were remembered over the years as I watched Spike Lee’s School DAZE and the other movies Stomp the Yard, the Great Debaters, and the hit television shows, A Different World and All American: Homecoming.
Well, some people said you shouldn’t go to an HBCU because the real world isn’t all Black.
HBCUs aren’t all Black, but when you go there you get the undergirding and preparation you so desperately need.
I know I did!
Knowing the history of HBCUs, it is sad that they don’t receive more support- that they aren’t treated equally.
Lastly, I am grateful that my journey, the HBCU experience, included the countless young men and women I met and walked alongside, sat on the Set with, and attended classes, parties and programs with.
And today, when my loved ones visit the campus they can see that I had a significant impact, and they can take pictures alongside my picture that appears on the wall of my great alma mater!
