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William Gray says racial prejudice is harmful to U.S.

William H. Gray III: “Prejudice is still real. It is still a part of our system and we’ve got to get rid of it because its damaging not only to the victim but it’s also damaging to the society.”
5:33 p.m., March 12, 2004--The U.S. will only remain a world power if it confronts racial discrimination and taps the potential of all its citizens, William H. Gray III, president and chief executive of the College Fund/United Negro College Fund, said.

“If we don’t, we will not be the global power that we want to be 50 years from now,” Gray said. “Prejudice is still real. It is still a part of our system and we’ve got to get rid of it because its damaging not only to the victim but it’s also damaging to the society.”

Gray made the remarks March 11, when he delivered UD’s annual Louis L. Redding Diversity Lecture at Trabant University Center. The event was sponsored by UD’s Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity and also included presentation of the University’s Louis L. Redding Diversity Award.

In his lecture, “Brown: 50 Years Later,” Gray said that while racial discrimination still exists, major gains have been made since Brown vs. Board of Education, the “amazing” U.S. Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools.

“I remember the decision. I remember my father coming home, all excited, crying out: ‘Glory be to God.’ Š And my mother all excited,” Gray said. “It was a revolution. It was the beginning of what I call the third revolution in America. The first one being the Revolutionary War, the war for independence, the second one being the Civil War and the third revolution in America was the civil rights movement.”

Gray, who served as majority whip, the highest-ranking African American ever to serve in Congress, spoke about prejudiced fear for his safety once when he got into an aircraft with a blond female pilot, an African-American man in the first officer’s seat and an Asian-American male engineer.

“We have got to get rid of the color problem in America, which still is a problem 50 years after Brown,” Gray said. “It was a color problem for me, so ingrained in me that I made these kinds of judgments.”

Gray lamented the limited exposure of students to the history of slavery, “except for a few places in a hot second,” and said young people are unable to fully appreciate the brutality of that era and the origin of many racial prejudices.

Gray has served as head of the College Fund/United Negro College Fund since 1991 and, during his 13-year tenure, has raised more than half of the $1.6 billion raised during the institution’s 56-year history.

Two faculty members honored

After the lecture, two UD faculty members were honored with the Louis L. Redding Diversity Award, named after the late distinguished Delaware civil rights lawyer who represented the plaintiff in two of the six cases that were consolidated and later led the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

The award recipients, James E. Newton, professor of black American studies, and Juan A. Villamarin, associate professor of anthropology, are “valiant champions in their quest to increase diversity at the University of Delaware,” Wunyabari Maloba, chairperson of the Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity and associate professor of history, said.

The award recognizes the promotion, enhancement and implementation of diversity at UD and acknowledges noteworthy contributions and initiatives that result in significant change in the campus climate and/or the composition of the University community.

Previous recipients include the Ronald E. McNair Achievement Program, the University Gallery, the Office of Residence Life, the College of Engineering’s RISE Program, the UD Library and the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy.

Article by Martin Mbugua
Photos by Greg Drew

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