Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
Bennett College celebrated its Centennial as the nation’s oldest historic academic institutions for African American women founded in 1873. The college honored distinguished community and alumnae and concluded with the annual Founders Day Convocation.
From Oct. 9-11, the East Greensboro campus buzzed with alumnae and friends, praising the college’s “purpose” and responsibility as one of the bastions of women’s rights, civil rights and academic excellence.
The Centennial Celebration’s theme of “Grace, Grit and Growth” dominated, opening the festive three-day weekend with the Distinguished Leadership Awards luncheon entitled Beyond Bearden, which refers to the historic Bearden Gates at Bennett. The gates represent the symbolic boundary of a Bennett College student’s transformative journey at the college. As students enter Bennett College as freshwomen, they dress in white and walk through the Bearden Gates during the “Convocatum Est” ceremony, whereby they “officially become Bennett Belles”. Belles traditionally exit the Bearden Gates “only during milestone events—such as Senior Day, the Baccalaureate Service and ultimately, Commencement.”
During the Distinguished Leadership Awards luncheon, the college’s Board of Trustees recognized businessman Robert “Bob” Brown for his decades of community and international service. Brown’s longtime support of the college extends via his late wife, Sallie Walker Brown, who was a Bennett alumna.
During the luncheon, the college conferred an Honorary Doctorate degree to Tammi McCall ’94, a Los Angeles-based award-winning broadcaster, actress, playwright, producer, and media personality, recognized for her professional achievements and continued commitment to her alma mater.
As part of the Centennial celebration, trustees and alumnae unveiled a plaque and wall installation in the college’s Global Learning Center, honoring its pathfinding Civil Rights Sit-In Belles. The installation serves as a permanent tribute to the women whose “courage, leadership, and commitment to justice helped transform Greensboro and the nation.”
The Centennial Celebration weekend concluded with the Founders Day Convocation, where former Bennett College professor and sitting North Carolina U.S. Congresswoman Dr. Alma Adams echoed the academic institution’s ethos of “lead classrooms, hospitals, laboratories, courtrooms, boardrooms, churches, businesses, communities, and a nation.”
Throughout Adams’ remarks, the Charlotte area congresswoman reminded current students and alumnae to acknowledge their power and responsibility that “Bennett Belles are Voting Belles,” a credo she coined.
A recurring theme and charge of Adams’ remarks focused on self-awareness and responsibility to the communities where Belles of all ages reside, serve and work. During Adams’ 40-minute address, she honored and invoked the memory of Bennett’s first president, Dr. David Dallas Jones, with frequent references to his “habit” as “he would walk across this campus, stop a young woman, look at her, and ask: ‘Young lady, what is your purpose?’ … and you had better have an answer!”
Near the end of her remarks, Adams rhetorically asked those in attendance, “What’s your purpose?”
Adams emphatically stated as she received a standing ovation, “Do not leave that question in this building. Take it with you. Ask it again tomorrow morning. Ask it when you are offered an opportunity. Ask it when you face an injustice. Ask it when someone needs your help. And when you find your answer, do not keep it to yourself. Put it to work. Serve somebody. Open a door. Reach back. Bring somebody through. That is how purpose becomes legacy,”
Bennett College was founded in 1873 as a coeducational institution through the inspiration of newly emancipated slaves. Its first sessions were held in the basement of Warnersville Methodist Episcopal Church (now known as St. Matthews United Methodist Church) in Greensboro. In 1926, the college was reorganized and solely became a college for women.
