By George E. Curry
SPECIAL TO SACOBSERVER.COM

Tom Joyner and Barbara Hatton, president of Knoxville College in Tennessee, mark a successful gala to raise money for the historically Black institution.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Radio personality Tom Joyner says that if Black colleges are to be saved, it will be because African Americans take it upon themselves to preserve such valuable institutions.

Joyner made his comments at a benefit recently for Knoxville College, a historically Black college founded in 1875.

“Along with providing money to help kids who have run out of it at HBCUs, the Tom Joyner Foundation has done something for which I am very proud,” Joyner told the black-tie audience. “It’s made millions of Black people aware of the existence of schools like Johnson C. Smith and Edward Waters and Benedict.

“And it’s done something else, too. It’s taken us back to our roots of advocacy and activism. Sure the foundation receives lots of ‘big-A’ checks from major corporations. But it also gets hundreds of smaller checks from people who just want to help because they realize it’s the right thing to do, that no one is going to save HBCUs for us but us.”

On that note, the “hardest working man in radio,” who has given more than $9 million to Black students through his foundation, challenged the nation’s foremost African American educators to shift their base of operation from Ivy League universities to historically Black colleges and universities.

“I have the utmost respect for my friends and brothers, Harvard professors Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Henry ‘Skip’ Gates, but I’ve got to call them out,” Joyner said. “Both are upset about their situations at Harvard. So where is Dr. Gates thinking of taking his Black Studies program and the $40 million - yes, I said $40 million - that goes wherever the program goes? To Princeton. Not Howard University, not Hampton, not Knoxville College. Why not? These are two of the most gifted, knowledgeable, outspoken men in America. Imagine what a statement that would make if these two professors brought their talent to an HBCU.”

Joyner praised Knoxville College’s work program, which assures each graduate that he or she will graduate from college debt free. Knoxville is the only HBCU officially recognized as a work college.

“Knoxville College is the hardest working HBCU in the system,” Joyner said. “And I applaud you Dr. Barbara Hatton [president of Knoxville College] for your efforts in making this program so successful and continuing the college’s rich legacy.”

Joyner noted that many prominent African Americans have graduated from Knoxville College. They include former Florida A&M University football coaching legend “Jake” Gaither, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields; Dr. Edith Irby Jones, former president of the National Medical Association; Dr. Joseph S. Gay, former president of the National Dental Association; Rev. Joseph Roberts, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta; Alabama state representative and former Tuskegee, Ala., Mayor Johnny Ford, syndicated columnist Vernon Jarrett, San Francisco television anchorwoman Barbara Rodgers and former Sports Illustrated writer Ralph Wiley.

“I am proud to say I am part of the legacy,” Joyner said. “My maternal grandfather, Isaac Dumas, was an alumnus. He graduated from Knoxville College in the 1920s. And my mother, Frances Dumas, worked at Knoxville College as secretary to the president until she moved to Tuskegee, where she met my daddy.”

The special fundraiser for Knoxville College is the first in a series of galas Joyner plans to hold for HBCUs. The new events are in addition to the monthly radio campaigns in which he spotlights and raises funds for a specific Black college. Joyner plans to continue those fundraisers while holding new, upscale events for other colleges, which can net the colleges in one night as much as Joyner’s month-long drives collect for targeted colleges.

Although final figures have not been compiled, the gala for Knoxville College is expected to net at least $100,000, according to foundation officials.

Joyner, a graduate of what is now Tuskegee University, said Black colleges serve a unique role in our community.

“HBCUs can and do produce the best and the brightest this country has to offer,” he said. “Not just academically but socially … Why does a Black child do better at an HBCU? Because he or she is expected to succeed. That’s not usually the case at mainstream universities and colleges. If no one expects you to do well, you probably won’t do well. But when you’re surrounded by people who look like you, and act like you, have been where you’ve been and have gone where you’re going, you’ll do better.”

Joyner said most of his relatives attended college with people who looked like them.

“Both sets of grandparents, my mother and father, several of my aunts and uncles, my brother and I, and my two sons are all graduates of HBCUs,” Joyner said. “Right now, two of my brother’s children are attending Black colleges. When my boys, Killer and Thriller, began considering what colleges or universities they would attend, I told them they could go anywhere they wanted - as long as it was an HBCU.”