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job
ee out of all thr i
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Comm ncernen
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What a great time in hi tory t be African. The cotlective graduation
of education' tin t tuden - the muiti-cultural collc e and high
school eniorcl e of 1 3-
represen our very b t na
tionally and wo-ldwid .
Along with the thousands
of tudent also receivm
graduate d re • It IS af to
say' that when it rom to
intellectual and academic de
velopment, the contemporary
African world commuruty no
longer tak a b ck at to
nyone.
Be It the 'Umted State s,
Canada. MeXICO, Puerto
Rico, Martinique. France, Sweden. Rus ia, India Tazrnarua, Tanzania,
Azarua or any oth r pls e on the planet, people of -African descent
continue to po Ilion thcrru elve lo� elve for the twenty irst century.
Be It the Claremont Coil t the University 0 . Chrca 0, ew York
Uruv rsny, Saint Au usnn ' Colleg . B nnett Colle , Br n Univcr
ity, Virgirua W tern Community Colle e. Austin East High Scho lor
Ox ord Urnve iry, the for I WIth you - and you are the force.
.6 •
KEITH
HILTON
HIGHER
EDUCATION
IIlLT ; HI ;UER ED now alute ho you' you
pursu the puons of Immediate career gratification and/or advanced .
tudy. What a great time 10 hi tory to be Afncan.
Commen ement means a new beginning. Commencement i also
tha time wh n \ e reload the movement. Thi year' commencement
cercrnorue: \ 'Ill pcrhap have a pecial mearung for many tudents of
, Af an descent, pr vided tha you are culturally linked we hope
that y( u arc to the greater Afncan community.
However, mce January, we have 10 t several gian ; Chancellor
William (rustonan), Thurg od Marshall (Suprem Court J tice),
Thomas Dorsey (g pel m IC 'compos er), Wilmer. Am (publi her),
Re inald Lewi (entrepreneur, Arthur h (a rivi t and athl te) •
DIZZY Gillespie (jazz rnusi Ian). Manan Andc n (opera In er • Carl
Ston (political joumah t). Oltver Tambi (ANC leader). And to many
of you tuden • ther I er known Ian and laved on have also
phy really p' ed,
Their u e and ailur have erved window to look through
Just your pnn raduau ns arc. erving the arne purpo e for count
le numb 0 people wh you may never know or meet. It goes almo t
without ayin that th many pecial people who are till around you
n d to thanked Inc rely for In WIth you throu h much.
o I THE. .. that we onnnue '0 return to 10 our annual
commen ement m . a e I . on ot eing "culturally rounded (and
also culturally rai d)" 0 that you rna some day"ri e and Oy . All the
education and degre 10 th world are meaningl I you d n't
trengthen or marntain e enual cultural connectio .
Tht d not mean that you have t prove that you are "Bla k.er han
Black", nor do it mean makm the tatern nt "I now who I am.
Anyon can that I am BI k."
And nor d It mean that being ucce ful a bUSIO person,
engi ncer math tea .h r or attorney means that you will have to downplay
your cultural trengths. Take it from Keith O. Hilton, a pretty ood
educator, journalist, counselor and co ultant "What a great time 10
hi tory to Afncan."
HILTO. : .HIGHER EDUCATIO is on oing and certainl not
limited to ci sro In tud '. L ('5 tal (909) 99-06 O.
HA�RIS'
or
By JAftES E. ALSBROO
If ever a Blac man had good
. reason to regret being born too soon.
that man i the ensational and pio
neering asketball tar Don
Bar dale. who died at 69, on Mon
day larch 8 at his home in Oak
land, California
B rn in. 1923, Barksdale w at
hi t from 1943 to 1953. Hi total
aiinual alary was 2, - really
"hi money" at that Orne - and
omewhat higher than that of fu
white p including "Big George"
. ikan, Dolph Schayes, Bob Co y.
and Harry Gallatin.
Barksdale was quic mooth and
graceful He commanded big mon
because everal nationally known
ket all clubs, including the Har
lem Globetrotters were rompeting
. for tu ervices.·
But Barksdale missed the really
br m ney of today because of two
facto : first, mainstream America.
and especially the South bad not ac
cep d imegrated prof ional bas
ketball before the 1954 Supreme
Court Decision; and econd, sports
-television with sa Hit had not de-
v loped I nt the billion-dollar na
tional craze that I t IS today.
Suburban by I tion, m n . ty
and t geted clientele, n i r
Denny' or Sboney' ve 0 in
inn r-city . In order to be -d'
ed" by Denny' or Sboney',
BI have to 0 to ubwbia to g
their feelin burt.
And go to wb'
ag IDS to be
drov
T ence of leadership, and
good ense on our part, to ard build
ing up our own communiti bas
caused too many of om people to
have 0 to the outskirts of town for
and to be -dissed."
REED
THE UlT � tbat Denny'
bad discouraged Bl patronage
and required BI to pay for tbeir
m in advance. The company till
BED
Kenny Wasbington, the baseball and
football star, am Woodrow Strode,
championship trac and field athlete .
As time for the 1948 Olympics.
approached Bardsdale was urged to
compete for a position on the U.S.
team. His experience a tarter on
the UCLA cage quintet had been so
good am his ability as a basketeer
was so widely known that the pre
dominantly Southern white team
violated its traditional oppo ilion to
Blae and invited him to play with
them.
At the 1948 Olympics in London,
England, Bar dale became the fi t
Black to win a Gold Medal as a mem
ber of a champiorship U.S. b ket
ball team. But Ba dale achieved
olherdistinctions. Among them were
his being first Blac man to be a tar
in an Amateur Athletic' Union
(AAU) basketban team, and first to
play In an interraci official colle
gia game in Oklahoma and other
SOuthern tat .
HE 28 years old in
1951, be joined the old Baltimore
Bullets and became th third BlaC
player in the anonal B k.etball
Lea e. The first two were Chuc
Co per who igned ith the 80 ton
Cel ncs and Earl Lloyd who igned
With the Weshington, D.C. profes-
ronal team. .
He played ou tanding b ketball
wi th the Bulle for two years and •
(hen went to the Bo ton Celti in
1953.
Bar dale was the first Bla k to
P lay an AlJ-S tar Eas t- W t game in
January 1953 wh n the West team
won 79-75, d pite Bar dale' n-
ational performance.
Bar d eta high tandard of
pro� ional hievement and per-
a
sona! conduct for those Bla leaders
whO foUo ed him -l:. high quality
I' e Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robin
son, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Jab
bar, Julius Erving and many others.
If the peak of hi career had oc
curred within.the last ten years Don
Bar dale would have been paid mil
lions of dollars, (or his professional
talent was in the same category wi th
1 t of today' NBA performers uch
as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson,
and other uperstars.
TID F MED TIll.. E of
yes teryear was a good role model. He
neither moked nor drank.
He ettled in OaJdand, California
aod reared a family, caring for his
urviving wife and two sons. He was
a good peaker wi th a good person
ali ty ard worked as a television show
ho l He owned a beer distributorship
in Oakland and friends say was a
model citizen.
The world needs more men like
him.
READERS WRITE
I
o
I
or
ac
Last Th day, I received th Michigan Citizen With the poem "Let
U Stop Thi Mad " on page lOA (April 18-241). Thank you for
publi hing it. I am saddened that the thi poem which I wrote in 1
for the children in Detroit, who had een killed by handguns I till
applicable and relevant in 1993.
Thi poem has become an important piece of wnting which I mcor
porate in all of my p entations and lectur in an Antionio and around
the country. The li t of names of tho e children killed and kilhn each
other is as long the h t of Detroit ard other cit! in tlu country.
There' n que tion t proliferation of guns 10 the country m t
top!
Equally important we m t understand the oth r Ide of this' ue.
We have become a ciety unable to deal withouran erma non-violent
way.
Our children need to e taught. need 0 unde tand an er i an
emotion and can be lthily e pr ed 10 non-violent way allowin
for othe to respond ith equally appropnate behavior,
Congratulations at your dauntl forts in add ing th prohfera-
tion UrIS in thi country, AU of to eth r we can ave th
lives of our ctuldren,
(
•
Trlnld d S nehez, Jr.
Poet·S n Antonio, T x