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.
/'