Keith Chandler, dean of admissions, visits with students Michael Ewing, a sophomore English major, left, and Valexia Edwards, a junior biology major.
Fisk University develops students as critical thinkers amid an enduring historical legacy
By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place
NASHVILLE, Tennessee — American history is all over the place here. The enormity of it rolls and rolls like the confluence of a great river, from the rededicated Jubilee Bridge, leading onto campus to the “frozen Music” of Jubilee Hall at the beginning of campus.
Every moment here is punctuated with another encounter with history. Beginning with the Freedman’s Bureau, Clinton B. Fisk and the American Missionary Association, establishing schools following the Civil War; then the world-famous Jubilee Singers, among them former slaves, singing spirituals all over the world. It continues with the legacy of alumni Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, pre-eminent American scholar and co-founder of the NAACP, James Weldon Johnson, librettist of the Negro National Anthem; and Harlem Renaissance contributor Arna Bontemps, who shaped research here and directed the library.
Historical happenings continue with the Carl Van Vechten Gallery — permanents works of artists Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, among others — the Nashville Student Movement and sit-ins at lunch counters downtown and other tributaries that contribute to the enormous confluence of this campus, too many to be mentioned here.
At once, admissions dean Keith Chandler’s task is evident. His mission is executed from historic Cravath Hall, named for the Rev. Erastus Milo Cravath, field secretary for the American Missionary Association and one of Fisk’s founders.
Focus on “excellence, history and tradition” are among persuasions employed by Fisk admissions staff to recruit students.
“We are a small college,” said Chandler, mentioning a student body of 850. “Students who chose Fisk made clear they favored a small school coupled with the other things they were looking for.
“At Fisk, students will be exposed to a rigorous study in liberal arts that is interdisciplinary and critical thinking,” he said. “Critical thinking is important to any person’s ability to function as a good citizen and is needed in any career choice. Students here are exposed to a variety of curriculum outside of their major. It is important for them to understand different points of view and it is just as important for students to be able to voice informed opinions.”
Developing critical thinking in students is the cornerstone of a Fisk liberal arts academic experience. Michael Ewing, a sophomore English major, picked Fisk for that reason. He plans to become a teacher. Valexia Edwards, junior biology major from Mississippi, plans to go on to dental school.
“We challenge our students to seek out other points of view,” Chandler said, “especially those students who want to effect change, lasting change. We inform them that critical thinking is crucial to your future.”
History meets the present, combined with an enduring list of firsts, plays actively in why students pick Fisk.
“Our history has a significant role in attracting students,” Chandler said. “When a student begins to do their homework, they will discover the first African American awarded a doctorate from Harvard was a Fisk graduate, W.E.B. Du Bois. Our president, Hazel O’Leary, was the first African American energy secretary. Fisk was the first black college with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Of the 280 Phi Beta Kappa chapters, three are at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).
“We have our own unique history that has a thread running through when African Americans were first free to learn to read and write,” he said. “Students today are living out that history. Our role is to provide educational opportunities for all interested students regardless of race. Fisk offers a quality education with a unique sensitivity to people of color. As we go beyond where we have been historically, Latino, Asian and Native American students are more represented in our student body. That is something, if I can say, we do unequivocally well.”
In 1954, Fisk became the first, private, black college accredited for its music programs by the National Association of Schools of Music. Fisk also holds memberships in the American Association of Schools of Music. Given the rich history with the Jubilee Singers, performing before royalty of Europe and U.S. Presidents, music continues to have a major part of the academic experience.
“Music, in terms of its presence, we have signature academic programs,” Chandler said. “What music does is it allows an individual exposure to other cultures, other points of view. We have students who sing recitals in German, French and Italian. Music here allows us windows into other cultures and provides pure, teachable moments.”
What role does reciprocity play in the experience of inspiring Fisk students to roles as community servants and the importance of giving back? Chandler had already broached the subject with “effect change, lasting change.”
Fisk students went to New Orleans to help after Hurricane Katrina. The campus responded after the earthquake in Haiti. Students help out at the Boys & Girls Club near the campus. They serve as peer tutors. Students have gone to Philadelphia to for the summer to serve as public policy interns.
“Students come to Fisk with service engrained in their minds,” Chandler said. “We look for that in their experiences. Someone had to be of service for them to get here.”
In April 2010, Fisk’s Women of Perfection finished as finalists in the 24th annual Mary Catherine Strobel Awards sponsored by Hands on Nashville. From a pool of more than 100 nominees in the civic volunteer group category, Women of Perfection were a top-three finalist alongside HelpLine Volunteers and Maury Regional Medical Center.
“It was recognition of their work outside of our community by the greater Nashville community,” Chandler said.
Women of Perfection are tutors and mentors to Nashville-area students through Fisk’s comprehensive after-school and summer programs known as THRUST (To Harness, Retain, Understand, Sustain and Teach). The Women of Perfection started in 2005 and have donated more than 1,000 volunteer hours to the community.
Fisk students come from 42 states and ten countries. Within six months of graduation, 40 percent of Fisk graduates head to graduate school to acquire professional degrees. Sixty percent begin permanent employment.
“They go out there from here understanding the importance of varied points of view,” Chandler said. “This is a global world. It’s very likely that a Fisk graduate will spend part of their career in another country. As we look at our ever-changing world, we can say some things don’t change.
“HBCUs seem to be the opposite of diversity. The history of HBCUs understands diversity on a different level,” he said. “Even within groups of African Americans, there are many differences. Some students are from the city, rural areas, rich or poor. Some are the first in their family to go to college. We have fifth generation, second and third generations to attend Fisk. Ten to 15 percent are legacy students.
“Many here come from different backgrounds and they share those backgrounds with the community,” Chandler said. “We realize we are not all alike. People who look the same way don’t always share the same values. You pick that up on an HBCU campus. It used to be music from Chicago was music from Chicago. Now music is all the same.”
With all the confluences, Fisk University is dotted with historical markers.
Hours before the interview in Cravath Hall with the dean of admissions, time was set aside to pay homage to the above-mentioned tributaries. Prelude to the interview, with camera in hand, flowing from here to there, touchstones aplenty, redbrick buildings and historical markers — silver, scripted with black lettering — places and people worthy of acknowledgment.
The houses in which James Weldon Johnson and Arna Bontemps lived are next door to each other. Tennessee Historical Commission markers posted in front, is a short walk from the rededicated Jubilee Bridge, on Dr. D. B. Todd Jr. Boulevard.
Before he became Fisk’s librarian, Bontemps was a Harlem Renaissance writer best known for the novel “God Sends Sunday,” published in 1931. He endeavored to transform the Fisk University Library into a repository for the study of African-American culture and history.
At Fisk, Johnson was Adam K. Spence Chair of Creative Literature and taught creative writing from 1931 until his death in 1938. Before coming to Nashville, according to the historical marker in the front of his house, Johnson served as U.S. Consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua, editor of New York Age and field secretary of the NAACP.
Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was given a rhetorical send up at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, during the benediction delivered by the Rev. Joseph Lowery. He sent up text taken from the third stanza: “God of our weary years. God of our silent tears. Thou who has brought us thus far on the way . . . .”
There is a statue of Du Bois, undoubtedly the most prominent of Fisk’s alumni, positioned with a straight-line view of the comings and goings of Cravath Hall. The statue, the way bronze is affected by air, has formed a green patina; it is the work of sculptor James Miles.
The corpus of DuBois is canon and protracted study is required. No intellectual in the history of our experience explains as well “The Souls of Black Folks,” seeing into the future and knowing the past, than Du Bois. He never turned his back on the slaves. Instead, Du Bois knew the survival mechanism of our ancestors and explained it thoroughly.
Enough cannot be said about Du Bois’ seminal work, “The Souls of Black Folks,” published in 1903. It is a cornerstone of social science, literature, history and commentary on the experience of being who we are in America. The statue and W.E.B. Du Bois Hall confirm his continuing legacy.
Dean of Admissions Keith Chandler takes a picture at the statue of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois who is an iconic figure in the academic history of Fisk University.