The 119th Annual Founder's Day of Hampton University
Ogden Hall, January 29, 2012
Keynote Address by Ms. Joan M. Wickham
President, National Hampton Alumni Association, Incorporated

In Whose Footsteps Are You Walking?

Dr. Harvey, platform participants, guest, faculty, staff, students, fellow alumni and friends of Hampton University, I bring you greetings this morning as I stand before you today and ask the question, “In whose footsteps are you walking?” As you sit in this hallowed place on these hallowed grounds, ask yourself the question, “In whose footsteps am I walking?” First, let me define the word “footstep.” Webster defines the word “footstep” as “the mark of the foot, the distance covered by a step, a way of life, conduct, or action.” But, let me break it down a little further for you. The word “way” means” a road, a path, a course or something having direction.” Now that we fully understand what the words “footstep” and “way” mean, let’s examine the word “direction” a little further. “Direction” means “the course or line along which something moves, lies, or points.” In the words of R&B singer Minnie Ripperton, “let me take you back down memory lane,” to see if I can help you determine in whose footsteps and directions you are walking.

Are you walking in the footsteps of slaves from the plantation “Little Scotland” in Elizabeth County now known as Hampton University, where in spite of the risks, the American Missionary Society in 1861responded to the needs of slaves to learn how to read and write? Although it was illegal, they hired their first Black teacher, Mary Smith Peake who had been secretly teaching slaves how to read and write in this area under a large oak tree, which is now known as the Emancipation Oak on this great campus we call Hampton University. Are you walking in the footsteps of those who sat under that great oak tree, in the cold of 1863, and heard the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in the south, officially granting them their freedom, and which after the reading, that great oak tree was named the Emancipation Tree? Are you walking in the footsteps of the contraband slaves who were fugitives and considered contraband of the war who came over from Fortress Monroe, later called Fort Monroe, and today is a National Park to the Emancipation Oak Tree, to be taught by Mary Peake? Can you picture those days of African Americans thirsting for knowledge, knowing they could be killed if caught, but yet they came to learn and be educated right here at our beloved Hampton University without fear of capture or some type of retaliation? They paved the way and started the quest for knowledge on these hallowed grounds and initiated what Hampton has become today—a Mecca, a fortress, a castle, our “Home by the Sea.”

I ask, “Are you walking in the footsteps of the biracial leadership of the American Missionary Association who were chiefly Congregation and Presbyterian ministers who had the vision and the thought in 1868 to found the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute to establish standards or norms while educating teachers?” Are you walking in the footsteps of our first leader and principal, former Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong who was the Superintendent of the Freedmen's Bureau of the Ninth District of Virginia and On April 1, 1868, opened Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute with a simple declared purpose? Are you walking in the footsteps of General William Jackson Palmer, a Union Calvary Commander who because of his Quaker upbringing despised violence, and whose passion to see the slaves freed compelled him to join the war, and who after the war gave substantial amounts of money to Hampton and later built the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and founded Colorado Springs, Colorado, and who has the administration building on this campus named after him—Palmer Hall? Are you walking in General Armstrong’s footsteps ,where he patterned his new school Hampton after the model of his father, who had overseen the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic to Polynesians, and where he taught the skills necessary for blacks to be self-supporting in the impoverished South and where under his guidance, a Hampton-style education became well-known as an education that combined cultural uplift with moral and manual training, and where General Armstrong said it was an education that encompassed "the head, the heart, and the hands?" What a strong foundation he has given us! As our alma mater says, “thy foundation firm and thy roof tree outspread.”

But, I digress and ask, “Are you walking in the footsteps of Booker T. Washington, one of Hampton’s most famous graduates who in 1872 gained entry into Hampton by cleaning a room in Virginia Cleveland Hall?” An educator, orator, author, political leader, fund raiser, the dominant figure in the African American community from 1890 to 1915 and the first leader of Tuskegee Institute, he gave back to Hampton in 1878 by being the head of the Government Indian Program at our beloved Home by the Sea and he said, and I quote, “Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” Think about it! Are you walking in the footsteps of the first seventeen Native American men, mainly Kiowa and Cheyenne, who were brought to Hampton in 1878 to receive an education and live with Booker T. Washington in our very own Wigwam building, where they began the journey that over 1,388 other Native Americans from 64 different tribes traveled to receive an education here at Hampton? Are you walking in the footsteps of those two hundred and seventy seven graduates from Hampton during the first decade who went on to teach others, and who had the foresight to purchase land, build homes and establish their own businesses? They understood that it was important to let their lives do the singing and give back. I urge you to think! Are you walking in the footsteps of those graduates who came behind the first graduates of Hampton and saw the need to educate over 15, 000 children in the community? Our alma mater says, “O, Hampton, a thought sent from heaven above, to be a great soul’s inspiration.” What an inspiration they must have been to those children who were given an opportunity to learn. And yet, I must ask, “Are you walking in the footsteps of those students who sang to help raise money to build Virginia Cleveland Hall, or the students who built the Memorial Chapel, the Academy building or the Wigwam building?” What great and impressive structures they are, that still stand today as a part of our rich heritage.

Once more I ask, “Are you walking in the footsteps of leadership that came before you such as Dr. Hollis P. Frisell, the second principal of Hampton, James E. Gregg, the third principal of Hampton, George P. Phenix, the fourth principal of Hampton and the first person to use the term president, Dr. Arthur Howe, the fifth president of Hampton, Dr. Malcolm Maclean, the sixth president of Hampton, Dr. Ralph P. Bridgman, the seventh president of Hampton, or the footsteps of Dr. Alonzo G. Maron ,who was not only the eighth president of Hampton, but the first African American President and the first Hampton graduate to be president of our beloved institution? ” I ask you, “Are you walking in the footsteps of what I call the Hampton Four H Club—Holland, Hudson, Hill and Harvey?” Dr. Jerome H. Holland, the ninth president of Hampton constructed Holland Hall, Moton Hall, Twitchell Hall, Buckman Hall, Martin Luther King Hall, the Nursing building, the Human Ecology building and then went on to become a United States Ambassador to Sweden, who then invited the Hampton Institute Choir to sing in Sweden, and who we have named the light colored brick on campus after. Think about the legacy of Dr. Roy D. Hudson, the tenth president of Hampton, who went on to pursue a great career in pharmaceuticals or that of Dr. Carl M. Hill, the eleventh president of Hampton who was the second alumnus to become president. An organic chemistry major, and a man noted for his scientific research and outstanding contributions to higher education, Dr. Hill played the game of football for his alma mater and was an outstanding athlete right here in Armstrong Stadium. The former president of Kentucky State University, he was a man who, when his alma mater needed him, answered the call to become the president.

And, last but not least, are you walking in the footsteps of Dr. William R. Harvey, the twelfth and current president of Hampton? When I think of Dr. Harvey, I am so often reminded of the poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. It reads:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Dr. Harvey chose the road less traveled when he became president of Hampton University. He has taken a 29 million dollar endowment and turned it into a 225 million dollar plus endowment and increased enrollment here at Hampton from 2,700 to over 6,000 students today. His commitment to expansion and innovation in academic programs has resulted in 76 new academic programs being instituted under his watch. He’s a visionary and a leader in the community who has built 18 new buildings in the “Harvey Brick,” and who has transformed Hampton University into a world class institution. The list goes on and on, but when I think of Robert Frost’s poem, I can’t help but think about the biggest road not taken by others that Dr. Harvey has fearlessly traveled—the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute, where because of his vision, Hampton University is Fighting Cancer and Saving Lives as home to the largest proton therapy institute in the world. Dr. Harvey stepped out on faith and hope, but look where that less traveled road has taken both he and Hampton University.

I want you to continue thinking for a moment. I have talked about the many footsteps you are walking in. Now, my question to you is “what legacy, thought, road less traveled and footstep will you leave for those who will come after you here on these hallowed and beloved grounds of Hampton University?” Whether you are a student, faculty member, staff person, a friend of Hampton, alumnus, or a member of the surrounding communities, we have all cherished the dear happy days that we have spent here in life’s preparation. As we go with brave hearts upon our chosen ways, with service to God and our nation, as we wear the colors blue and white, and as we pledge that our fond hearts will cherish a love for Hampton that shines true and bright, and a loyalty that will never perish, all of us in this great Ogden Hall today have an obligation to let our lives do the singing, in service that will our great spirits prolong and send it through centuries ringing.

And, as I close, I challenge you to make your first step today if you have not already started making the initial footprint to develop your path, your imprint, and your footsteps for others to follow at our “Home by the Sea.” Now, I leave you with this—in whose footsteps are you walking, and what footsteps will you leave for others to follow?