Fruit of Yette honor late professor
"He showed us what a man of principle talks like; what a man of principle must do," said poet E. Ethelbert Miller, director of Howard University's African-American Resource Center.
Journalism professor Lawrence Kaggwa spoke on behalf of the late Professor Samuel F. Yette's fellow faculty in the Howard School of Communications as he looked out on the constellation of media stars gathered Friday to launch a scholarship fund in Yette's name.
"This is the fruit of Yette," said Kaggwa. "He was absolutely fearless. His students are completely fearless."
The event marked the 40th anniversary of the first mass communications school at an historically black college and university. Yette began teaching journalism in 1972 after filing a civil rights suit against Newsweek magazine where he was the first black correspondent.
Charles Barber, a 1976 graduate now deputy general counsel of George Washington University, said, "He gave us what we needed."
Shirley Carswell, a 1982 graduate now deputy managing editor of the Washington Post, recalled his penchant for punctuality. "He would lock the door and if you were late, you had to wait outside. If he chose to come over, you basically had to beg to enter the class. Usually the answer was no."
Penelope Owens-Socks, a 1978 graduate now marketing director for D.C. Minority Business, remembered, "He always said carry a pen and pad in case you run across breaking news," at which 200 persons spontaneously all lifted their pens and pads.
The teaching continued after graduation. Roy Betts, a 1977 graduate now community affairs manager for the U.S. Postal Service, said Yette asked him to help place a commentary in the Washington Post, when Betts was White House reporter for Jet, a job once held by Yette. It gave him a sense of the responsibility for service.
Brigette Rouson, a 1979 grad said Yette congratulated her for contacting the other side, when doing a story about the appeal of Yette's own civil rights suit. She listed an eclectic array of books she first read while in his class.
Kaggwa said other faculty were baffled that Yette could get students to take in such a wide array of literature when they struggled to get students to read the assigned texts. As one faculty member wrote, "He made Howard the place to be."
Yette's own book, The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America, was first published in 1971 and continues to presage the chilling statistics which haunt African-Americans paradoxically at a time of greatest wealth and political accomplishment. Yette's son Michael told of how his father was admitted to college despite having no funds, because his older brother promised that young Samuel would clean the bathrooms every day. Eventually, Yette received a degree from Tennessee State University where he founded the student newspaper, The Meter. Yette got a masters degree in journalism and government from Indiana University in 1959.
In 1956, he joined Gordon Parks as a special correspondent for a four-part civil rights series in Life Magazine. Next he covered civil rights marches for the African-American newspapers and was associate editor of Ebony from 1957 to 1959.
In 1963, he was executive secretary for the new U.S. Peace Corps. serving under director Sargent Shriver and was special assistant for civil rights for the Office of Economic Opportunty through 1967. In 1968, he became the first black Washington correspondent for Newsweek.
Yette taught at Howard from 1972 to 1986 as part of a cadre of black communications pioneers who had honed their craft in the civil rights movement. Under founding dean Tony Brown, host of PBS' Black Journal, they launched the first professional communications school at any historically black college and university with the motto "communicate to educate to liberate."
Older son Frederick, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his father, said the scholarship fund is a fitting tribute to someone who was able to experience education and personal advancement thanks to the generosity of others.
Both sons joined with Venola Rolle, Chair; Shirley Carswell, treasurer, Michelle LeSane, Brigette Rouson and Valeria Russ to form the scholarship committee.
