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Dallas (ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ) – Black Alumni of ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ will celebrate 13 of the organization’s history makers and introduce the inaugural Black Alumni Scholarship at an evening reception from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, in Centennial Hall at the Hughes-Trigg Student ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ.

The honorees at the reception will include some of the first African-American athletes to play at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ, alumni who championed civil rights on campus and leaders such as the former student who established the annual ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Civil Rights Pilgrimage.  A slideshow of historic photographs, press clippings and other documents from the ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Archives will help tell the stories of the honorees.

The program is open to the public. For more information, contact Mary Jo Dancer at 214-768-1303 or mjdancer@smu.edu.

Honorees include:

ATHLETICS

• Jerry LeVias

  Jerry LeVias ’69 – the first African-American player in the Southwest Conference to receive an athletic scholarship.
• Mike Rideau ’76 and twins Joe and Gene Pouncy ’74 – members of the 400-meter relay team that won the Southwest Conference championship for three consecutive years.

LEADERSHIP

• Bernard Jones ’01 – the first write-in candidate elected to the ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Student Senate and, in 2002, the first person elected student body president without a runoff in a multi-candidate race.
• Michael Waters ’02 – the former student body vice president who, while serving as a chaplain’s assistant in 2004, founded the ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Civil Rights Pilgrimage to the “shrines of freedom” throughout the South.

CIVIL RIGHTS

• The “ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ 33” – a group of students, including Rufus Cormier ’70, Charles Howard ’72, Charles Mitchell ’71, Michael Morris ’72, Anga Sanders ’70 and Detra Taylor, whose activism in 1969 drew attention to the need for more diverse faculty and curriculum.

• Zan Holmes

  Rev. Zan Holmes ’59 – a Perkins School of Theology graduate who, as pastor of Hamilton Park United Methodist Church and a Texas legislator in 1969, helped successfully resolve the standoff between the “ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ 33” and the university administration.

More about Black History Month at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ.

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