nd
MlLWAUKEE- aryFraD
ces Berry as 16 hen e
Supreme Court <WertutDed the
par te but equal doctriDe in
American educaaoa. ·ymany, .
integration ha come," ahe
remembers sayiDg to be tcacber
y walked tOgether down
the school . dewalk. Little did
he kno that more t aD 30
years later, she still uld be
eng ed in the civil rights trug
gle.
Berry i .a le der nd a
trailblazer. A. commjuio r on
t e U.S. Commission on Civil
Righ ince 1982 d former
U.S. As i t nt Secretary of
Education and UDiversity clWl
cell or, she has played an impor
tant role in in . cduca:'
tional opportunities for B
Born in 1938, Berry grew up
in poor ction of viDe.
But e h d aD advu (WCJ'
many of the other children 0
trended the two-room country
schoolhouse: . p r t 0 lo�
to teach and ho under ood the
v lue of educatio . ·Mother al-
a told me to be overedu
cated: If someone else had a
ter's degree, I uId a
doctor teo If somebody had that,
then I should get a law �,
too," BerrY ys.
She needed her motlter' d
vice and sought the best educa
tion available. S enrolled as a
full-time tudent at Ho ard
Univer 'ty in WasbiDgtOD, D.C.,
hile orkinl full t.ime in a
hospital I bor tory.
During the early 196Oa,
civil right movement hirled
through the Howard campu
gaining momentu and sup
port. Berry excited by t
she d co . deled lea .
school to devote all her ene,1Y to
the movement. 8 a proli r
who a impre d ·th her
great cholarly potential per
suaded her to continue her
du tion. "T e move�nt will
need more educated people like
yourself,· he said.
Berry earned a b cbelor's
a d master' degree at
H d UnMnity, a doctor te
in American CODStitutional his
tory from the University of
Michipn d a juris doctor e
degree &0 the Unive 'ty of
Michipn.
But it not only Berry's
educational credentials th t led
to her positio of le dership
and respon ibility. he
demonstrated an bility to ab-
orb information readily nd
gr p compl�x i . She att ek
ed problems ith a do ed
dcterminatioo. Mary Berry had
a great deal of ten city and once
she got onto omet . g, she
. 't going 0 op until e
finished it," ay a Ho ard
University historiaD.
After several years of teach- :
ing rCentrai Michipn Univer
.'ty in Mt. Pleasant and Eastern
MidUpn Univer 'ty in Ypsilan-
ti, Berry named pro of,
the division of be vioral and
social sciences at the University
of MaryIaDd. She celebrated the
nation's bicentennial with an ap
pointment chaocellor of the
University of Colorado. -It
marked the fars time a Blac
woman w named head of a
major university.
CI
D
She ran the
eady and effi
- always .. to become in-
volved in student neems. Yale
historian John BI . ame said
of her: ., don't ow anybody
who can do m y things at the
sam time and all of them
. well."
Berry's leader hip in educa
tion was recog . zed in 1917
when President immy Carter
asked her to j in the U.S.
Department of alth, Educa
tion and Welfar as assistant
ecretary of ed cation. She
coordinated an ual budget of
nearlyS13 billion d supervised
the National Insti ute of Educa
tion, the Office f Education
and the Nation I Center for
Education Statisti . .
As a civil ri hts commis
sioner, Berry wo to ensure
that the federal government
does not abando its commit
ment to minorit rights and
quality educatio . She dvo
cates federal educ lion
program to pro e equal op
portunity to all A ericans,
But her commi ment to civil
rights extends beyond her roles
in government and education.
NAACP -to
. .
Me.dgal
ER
She joined several colleagues in
1984 to develop a str tegy: to
change. the administration's
policy toward South Africa. The
plaa included regular
demonstrations in front of the
South African embas y in
Washington, D.C. Often the
mission seemed hopeless, and
five times, Berry ws jailed. But
her enthusia m neve" dam
pened. "Basically I'm an op-
timist, he says. .
Struggles take a long time. I
don't expect instant results. It is
the same attitude she displayed
when confronted at the Univer
sity of Colorado by a cro d of
angry Mexican-American tu
dents demanding their rights.
Berry empathized with their
situation. I feel quite at home
wit� this rally. I know that if you.
den't agitate, you don't get any
thing done," she said.
In adddition to her po ition
on the Civil Rights Commission,
Berry h been teaching hi tory
and law at Howard Univer ity.
She also is currently the Geral
dine R. Segal profes or of
American social thought a the
University of ennsylvania.
honor
Evers
of martyred civil r9t leaders
I. . th pur ui of,iustn. A
h ite man, Byron de La
Beck ith, a arre ted but
eventually (reed after' tri
in M' . ippi en d i hu
juri .
To mark 25th IIUllNersaJrv�
of Eve ' death, the AA P
sene led a . rvice t
Arlington Cemetery on Sunday,
J DIy 9th, of the major c
tiviti of i 1988 Annual Con
ve tion to be held July 10th
through July 14th in
Washington, D.C. Ever, a
veteran of World W Two,·
buried in Ar . .
The 1988 CoD�tion mar
the return of the NAACP to the
nation's capitol after an �Dce
of 12 year • The Convention
theme, ·Vote!, Be Heard,·
reflects the importanCC1 the
NAACP - a . as
�on - places on th na
tional election thi fall. t
The n rica's olde I and
largest civil ri ts organizatio
- . th over 1,ID> branch and
half a members -. ex
pects i excess fX 16,000 per
to attend the Convention.
The official ope of the
Convent· '11 take p
SWlday C'YeniDg at 7 p.
Dr. Benjamin L. Hook ,
NAACP Executive Director,
will deliver . keyDote ddr
a pub. IIM"#ling Dr.
William F. Gibson, NAACP
CWrman of the Board, . give
. opeaiDg addr fo
. n4ht at �:30 p.m.
/'