Remarks of Secretary Dan Glickman Langston University's Centennial Convocation Release No. 0333.97 Remarks of Secretary Dan Glickman Langston University's Centennial Convocation Langston, OK -- September 29, 1997 Thank you, Dr. [Eddie] Moore [President, Virginia State University] for that kind introduction and for the recent invitation to visit Virginia State for your Ag Field Day. I enjoyed my time there. I'd like to thank everyone here for inviting me to join in this celebration. I met this morning with many of the 1890s presidents and other leaders, including folks from Tuskeegee University. It was a very productive, educational meeting for me. USDA has a long history with historically black colleges and universities. You know, whenever I'm asked to talk about education, I can't help but think of a story I read about Wynton Marsalis, a great musician and devoted educator of young people. This year, he won jazz its first Pulitzer Prize for his work, Blood on the Fields.' Of course, the good ones make it look so easy, but Mr. Marsalis is quick to admit: It wasn't always that way for him. Turns out, he had his first trumpet lesson at age 6 ... his second at age 10 ... and his third at age 12. His explanation? I would always ask my teachers how I could get better without practicing. If they couldn't tell me, I wouldn't come back.' All that changed when Wynton auditioned for his high school band. His father, of course, was also a great musician, so the band director was very excited to see the young Marsalis ... until he played. All the director could find to ask was: Are you sure your Ellis' son?' Of course, no one could wonder that today. But it does go to show that an education -- whether it's in music, in agriculture, in history, in any field -- is hard work. It is a lifetime's work. But above all, it is uplifting work. Jesse Jackson says, God made oranges, not orange juice. That's for us to do.' That's why we have education. This is a big time for education. Today, we celebrate Langston's centennial. Just last week, the nation reflected on that fateful day some 40 years ago when 9 young students in Arkansas took a very long walk down a short block to integrate Central High, compelling all of America to take a hard look in the mirror. Last Thursday, President Clinton welcomed the Little Rock Nine' back through that schoolhouse door. Standing there, he told America; all of us should embrace the vision of a color blind society, but recognize the fact that we are not there yet, and we cannot slam shut the doors of education and economic opportunity.' Education -- especially higher education -- cannot simply take place in the ivory tower. If we are to keep the American dream alive -- if we are to ensure that it is more than a dream -- if we are to keep the doors of opportunity open -- then we must open the doors of our colleges and universities to every willing mind. Why? For a simple reason: Knowledge is power. That's something that all the folks here at Langston and in all our historically black colleges and universities have understood for a century or more. Born in the era of separate and unequal, some of the schools started out with classes of students sitting on logs in a field. All started out at a time when only 1/3 of black children were in school, when 60% could not read or write. How from such humble beginning are great universities born? Langston held it's first classes in the local church and community school ... 10 years before Oklahoma was even a state ... getting along on bake sales, picnic auctions and private generosity ... on land offered by the people of this community. The first year, there were 41 students and 4 teachers ... The annual university budget? $9,000 ... The first president? The son of a former slave who purchased his freedom and that of his family. What was wanting in material wealth was more than made up for in the spirit and drive of the educators, the educated and the people of Langston who pitched in to help build the university's first permanent building. 100 years later, we are welcoming a freshman class of more than 700 students. We are sitting on a vast campus with 2 urban sites as well ... with a university president who attended this school and has since served nearly 20 years at its head. Later today, federal, state and local folks will together break ground on a new building at a university that does the world's leading goat research ... that has helped build a multi-million-dollar catfish industry here in Oklahoma ... and, that is now a center of excellence for grasslands, doing work that will help all of the central United States. It is said that from the tiniest acorn grows the mightiest oak.' Let me just say: Standing here at Langston today, there seems to be a whole lot of shade. By rising through adversity, by giving so many young people equality of opportunity, by freeing minds, you have lifted up a community. And, there can be no mistake about it: In doing so, you have helped lift up America. I am here today on behalf of the President to thank you and to ask that you not let us down. As much as Langston and all the 1890s schools have contributed in the past 100 years, I believe America needs your leadership in the next 100 years even more. There remains so much unfinished business. It is the kind of business that government and the people can only finish together, and it's the kind of business in which USDA and the 1890s schools can play critical roles: In the 1890s, nearly 9 out of 10 African Americans lived in the South, most working the land. In the 1920s, 1 in 7 U.S. farmers were African American. Today, it's .1%. Some say it's too late to do anything about that. They say, agriculture's getting so big, the little guy -- black or white -- just isn't going to make it. Are we OK with that? Should America accept the extinction of the small farm, the snuffing out of the rural American dream? I say no. I say we as a nation must find a way for big and little to coexist. I think we can. I've asked a commission to talk to folks across the countryside and come up with a national strategy to save the family farm. Together, through research, through extension, through outreach to the relatively unreached, I think we can empower family farmers to compete in this new economy. I look at the young, beginning farmer today, the smaller farmer, the minority farmer, and I know that we must rise to this task. In the coming century, our world will be much more technologically advanced, giving so many of us conveniences that could not be imagined by the original occupants of this campus. Yet in rural America today, on the eve of the Information Age, there are still many communities without safe, running water, adequate health care and a quality education to open university doors. In our America in the next century, progress cannot mean leaving some of our own behind. USDA is using information technology to link students and teachers, doctors and patients across geographic boundaries, and we're bringing safe, running water to rural homes and businesses. Together, with your rural development efforts, we can help ensure that all Americans step into a new century ready to succeed. For rural America, too, we must rise to the task. I look at all of our nation's agricultural abundance. I read all the newspaper accounts of how rich our nation is today, and it is simply unacceptable to me that people in this country go hungry. More than 12 million American families will face some degree of food insecurity this year -- whether it's skipped meals the last few days before a paycheck or missed medical exams in favor of putting food on the table. No family should have to make that choice. Through strong federal anti-hunger programs, through efforts to train people for jobs with a future, and through community service, we can beat hunger, and give people real opportunities to regain their independence. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, I, too, have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have 3 meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.' We are not there yet. We must still rise to the task. I look at all the progress that has been made in our country on civil rights -- through the 1890s schools, through the civil rights movement and the laws it created and the minds it changed -- and I am proud of my country. But I look at my own Department of Agriculture. I look at how people still today too often treat one another, and I know that we have not yet finished the job. `I make no excuses for USDA's past. But I've promised President Clinton, and I promise all of you today: Civil rights will be my legacy at USDA. I'd like to personally thank the 1890s community for stepping forward and offering your assistance in this effort. We will have a new day. I've made it a condition of employment that every employee -- from the highest manager to the person who answers the phones -- every employee must treat every customer and co-worker fairly and equitably with dignity and respect. I've written strong civil rights protections into our farm loan and foreclosure policies. This is 1997. I simply will not tolerate people losing their land to discrimination. We are settling past cases of discrimination and attempting to make amends. And, we are building a workforce that reflects and respects the diversity of our nation -- up and down our ranks. In recent months, we've made tremendous progress in diversifying state committees to ensure that the local leadership is best serving all the people of each state. We've also established an office of outreach for underserved communities to better ensure that USDA programs and services reach those who need them most, those who have too often been overlooked in the past. By now, you may be thinking: What does all this have to do with education? The answer is: Everything. The end goal of a quality education is not simply a mind chock full of dates, names and theories. It is a mind capable of constructively contributing to a society that ultimately fails or succeeds together. That is a quality education. I know you will receive it here at Langston. It is one of the great gifts of the 1890s schools -- an education deeply rooted in community service and empowerment. It's important. The history of our world has given us far too many examples of the destructiveness of mindless divisions. For more than 2 centuries, the world has looked to us -- the relative newcomers -- to forge a new path -- one that seeks out and finds the unity, pride and strength that so many of us truly believe can come of all our differences. Our success in this quest will largely determine the success of our nation in the 21st century. By lifting up our rural communities, by strengthening agriculture, by giving our people a well-rounded education, we can help our nation better live its ideals and emerge a more United States. You know, the world lost a very unifying figure with the death of Mother Theresa. At an anti-hunger gathering not too long ago, I spoke with Congressman Tony Hall who had met her. He asked Mother Theresa what I think many of us might want to ask: How did you start? How did you begin all of this?' She replied, very simply, I did the thing that was in front of me.' I look back to the humble beginnings of this great university, and I think that is how every great endeavor begins. You take a public-spirited attitude toward your place in the world, and you do the thing that is in front of you. Langston has given America so much. But as long and proud a history as you have here, it is my hope -- for agriculture and for America -- that your greatest chapters have yet to be written. Thank you all for inviting me today, and on behalf of President Clinton and a grateful nation, congratulations on your centennial year. Thank you. # NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov