This donation to the United Negro College Fund may have been B.Michael’s earliest charitable contribution.
1981A13-united-negro-college-fundTag: 1980s
Mike Sleeping
B.Michael’s mom, Sheila, embraced the arts. She and husband, Bert, B.Michael’s father, had a radio program where he sang and she recited poetry. Here she tries her hand at illustration.
In January 1981, B.Michael would have been home in Spanish Harlem, catching up on sleep before returning for his final undergraduate semester at Adelphi University.
African-American Studies
As an undergraduate at Adelphi University, B.Michael availed himself of some of these courses and connected with the program’s faculty.
1980I-adelphi-undergraduate-bulletinKenya
Early in 1980, while still a student at Adelphi University, Bert applied to volunteer with Operation Crossroads Africa, a US-based, non-governmental agency that, “sponsors cross-cultural exchanges and small-scale service projects in Africa.” His first time out of the U.S. and the personal significance as as a Black American to travel to Africa specifically, as well as an opportunity to earn academic credit for an independent study, the trip would serve multiple purposes. It would be a life-altering sojourn that expanded his vision of the world and his place in it. He wrote about his experience here, which also foreshadows his aspirations of becoming a teacher.
Receiving his acceptance letter in March set in motion a robust checklist of must-do’s related to Adelphi coursework, medical requirements, and an ambitious goal to raise $2,000 toward his trip.
1980C06-acceptance-letter-participant-payment-agreement-form
Originally destined for Tanzania, at the last minute he was reassigned and spent six weeks on a community development/construction project in Kapsara, Kenya.
Tucked away in one of his storage boxes were a couple dozen negatives, (6 cm x 6 cm, shot in 120 film or “medium format”), together with three faded printed photos, one of which, fortunately, bore the Kodak logo and the date-stamp of August 1980, confirming that these uncaptioned images were taken by Bert on this, his first trip to Africa.
Bert wrote that he was one of ten participants — “3 black American women, 2 white American women, 2 black American men and 3 white American men.” This crew is most likely interspersed with native Kenyans in the images below. If you, or someone you know, joined Bert in Kapsara, we’d love to hear your stories and/or photos of Bert to include here.
“Your African Spirit”
Whenever B.Michael traveled, he would drop himself a line, which he received when he got home. At the conclusion of his first trip to Africa, where he spent six weeks in Kenya through Operation Crossroads, he sent himself the following postcard.
1980G29-BMH-postcard-fr-kenya-to-himselfNotary Public + Note from Mommy
While still in college, B.Michael became a notary, most likely as a result of a summer job or internship. His mom Sheila took a message (see page 2) in a 20th century, non-electronic way. She alludes to B.Michael’s jet lag: he was returning from a summer program in Kenya.
1980G28-notary-noteTanzania (Almost)
Bert was set to visit Tanzania on a study-abroad experience via Operation Crossroads. But due to “political complications” in that country, he was reassigned to Kenya. Always flexible, Bert pivoted and embraced the change in plans. His final paper on his Kenyan experience can be found here.
1980F25-paper-on-tanzania-GRADEDThe reassignment occurred some time between May 16th and June 20th, as indicated by the faded red postmarks on these envelopes from Operation Crossroads.
1980E16-F20-envelopes-indicating-assignment-changeHere is a fact sheet Bert would have received from Operation Crossroads to help orient him to his destination country.
1980-tanzania-fact-sheetAnd here is how the sausage was made — the pre-trip application forms, the university approvals and, of course, the mad dash to raise funds!
1980E-F-adelphi-summer-in-kenya-indie-study-paperwork-MEBBE-ADD-TO-CURRENT-ENTRYLetter To The Editor
Delphian Vol. XXX, No. 15 — Wednesday, February 20, 1980
“Racial Injustice in Oracle”
Dear Editor,
It is with grave disgust in which I write this letter. Each year that I have been here, the Oracle has come out and each year I search for some remnant of the “Black Experience” at Adelphi; this can be broadened, no doubt, to include Hispanics and other Third World People.
This year, with exception, it appears as if more candid shots are present; and an earnest effort went into showing some of the major activities which would be of particular interest to Blacks in these pages so luxuriously bound. However, the Oracle staff, in their moments of creativity, disregarded the feelings of the members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, Theta Epsilon Chapter, when they listed amongst its members Stymie Beard and Buckwheat Thomas. I would only hope that no negative connotations were intended in listing, among Beard and Thomas activities, Alpha Phi Alpha.
What brings us to this frontier? One in which we must ask the Oracle staff, WHY? Why, with a tradition of poor coverage of Blacks in the Oracle, discredit a Black Fraternity which has consistently proven itself a respectable institution on an international level? A fraternity whose members include: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Paul Robeson, Andrew Young, Jesse Owens and Thurgood Marshall? Why, with the pervasive need for the media, in all its art forms, to help rectify the ills they have created by constantly portraying poor images of Black people? Has not the Oracle staff, in printing the student yearbook, a responsibility towards printing a publication in which, not only its staff members can be proud, but one in which each and every student who has passed through these halls can be proud?
To what end are we, as Black people, to be bombarded with the improper recording of history? For the Oracle, however short it may fall of being a historical document in anyone’s eyes, is surely such (a historical document). Will my children, when looking through the materials I have kept of my college days, ask: “Daddy, you were president of an organization which allowed its members to walk around like that? What type of Fraternity was it? Didn’t you care about each other? Didn’t you tell them of the greatness of our people?” And what will be my reply? Will I tell them the University I attended was a classic case of institutional racism? Or shall I say that in the efforts of art, jestingly, the Oracle staff abandoned all of its responsibility to record history? What road must be traveled to erase the ever present stereotypical attitudes-images of Black Americans in the eyes of the world, and perhaps the eyes of the Oracle staff?
I applaud and humble myself with great ease in thanking the staff for documenting, through pictures and copy, the existence of Blacks at Adelphi. But, I am OUTRAGED at the decision of the staff to not only publish both pictures of Beard and Thomas but, in addition to this, to list their participation in an organization such as Alpha.
Who’s to say the damage this has done? Who will console the men, all united by a common bond of Brotherhood, of Alpha Phi Alpha?
Sincerely yours,
Bert Hunter
President, A-A Theta Epsilon
Former UBC President
Former SPA Treasurer
Writing Fragment
Wonderment. You, out of a star. Straight focus clear, unpretending, asked me. Hidden behind my wall, waiting, willingly to bloom. Thank you but.
Symptoms. Alone, pretending you don’t care. Knowing your heart could pour and nourish any womb, satisfy any hunger. Tremble, silently, nightly, seemly invisible. Every so afraid ever so afraid.
1980-poem-fragment