Dr. Lomax On Black Men In The Age of Obama

For those of us who have devoted our careers to improving education for all Americans, one of the year's high points came just a month after the new president was sworn in. In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama told Congress and the nation that education would be one of his top three priorities. "It will be the goal of this administration," he said, "to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education--from the day they are born to the day they begin a career."

President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have moved quickly to implement the president's pledge. Other pieces of the administration's education agenda are under active consideration by Congress.

But the president achieved one critical part of his commitment just by being elected.  He provided a model of rectitude and leadership that our Black boys and young men need but, all too often, must do without.

One of my most vivid memories from my days as a student at Morehouse College is the daily sight of Morehouse's president, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, elegantly dressed and with a bearing that befitted his position, leave his official residence and walk across campus. Sometimes he might be headed to his office in Harkness Hall. Other times his destination would be the chapel in Sale Hall where college-wide gatherings took place. These convocations were as essential a part of our education as our academic classes.  Because it was at them that Dr. Mays instructed us on what it meant to be men--the importance of responsibility, of pubic service, of leadership--what it meant, in other words, to be a Morehouse man.

It is not only President Mays' deliberate and determined gait that I remember, or the messages he conveyed to us, or even the authority with which he spoke or the rapt attention his words commanded. What I remember most vividly is the impression all of this made on me, as I negotiated the transition from boy to man. It was not a common sight in the South of the '60s: a president, a black man of authority, instructing, both in word and example, young Black men how to live up to the responsibility of becoming Morehouse men. I remember how he looked and what he said as I began my career in public service.

I thought of Dr. Mays on President Obama's election night and throughout this past year. Once again, I saw a president in command of himself and of his responsibilities. Like President Mays so many years before, he conveyed, in word and by example, an unmistakable message to all of us, but especially to the Black boys and men who saw and heard him, and most especially to those for whom other examples were not close at hand. This, the president seemed to be saying, is what it means to be a Black man.


Dr. Michael L. Lomax is president and CEO of UNCF. He previously served
 as president of of Dillard University in New Orleans and Chairman of the 
Fulton County (Atlanta) Board of Commissioners, the only African-
American ever to hold that office.