Dr. Benjamin's Lecture

The importance of scribes is seen throughout history. With Dr. Benjamin’s lecture, she has introduced us to the many scribes that have graced the Howard campus. Of course before Dr. Benjamin began to talk about the many faces of Howard’s scribes, she started with the very person who opened the school, Oliver Otis Howard. From there she introduced the class to Mordecai Wyatt Johnson and Inabel Burns Lindsay. Both Johnson and Lindsay had many accomplishments, but the most notable accomplishments were Johnson becoming the 36th president of Howard University and Lindsay becoming the first dean of School of Social Work. Also, the Founder’s Library is dedicated to the 17 founders that helped to fund the library. Founder’s Library is where two men named Arthur Spingarn, a collector of African American literature and newspaper, and Jesse Moorland, a collector of African American books and pamphlets sold their whole collection to Howard University. Other women such as Alain Locke, Zora Neele Hurston and Lulu Veere Childers have also played a great role in Howard University’s history which has led to the naming of several buildings on the Howard University’s campus. What caught my attention the most was when she spoke about the Harriet Tubman quadrangle. Although I knew about most of the women whom were represented in the quadrangle such as Sojourner Truth, Phillis Wheatley, and Julia Frazier, I did not know who Louise Baldwin and Prudence Crandall were. I learned that Baldwin was the first to hold a high position in education in Cambridge and Crandall was the first person to open a school for African American girls in Connecticut. Dr. Benjamin’s lecture was truly an eye opener. I had never understood how much history each building held.