Written by Blake Mathews; Sarah Kyle; Samantha Holschbach
From Humble Beginnings to Leadership
A good success story often starts with humble origins. For Charles Dupre, now the superintendent of the Pflugerville Independent School District in Texas, it would have been difficult to start any more humbly.
Dupre grew up an orphan in Springfield, Mo. His orphanage was affiliated with the Church of Christ, and through the workers there and friends at his church, he was first introduced to Harding.
In the seventh grade, Dupre traveled to the Searcy campus to watch Spring Sing, a ritual he would repeat every year. The orphanage dropped him off before the first show, leaving him with nothing but money for food and a promise that they would come back for him on Monday. Dupre said he watched every Spring Sing performance each year, even if it meant sneaking into the show.a
Dupre excelled as a student and graduated at the top of his class, so when it came time to choose where he would go to college, some high profile options were available to him. The University of Missouri at Columbia offered him a spot in their prestigious school of journalism, but Dupre, then a journalism student, turned them down to attend Harding in the fall of 1980.
“[My teacher] thought I was crazy,” Dupre said. “She said, ‘You are giving up the opportunity of a lifetime to go to the University of Missouri School of Journalism’ … and I said ‘It’s what I need to do.'”
But Harding’s journalism program was too weak at the time, Dupre said, so he looked for another field in which to apply himself. After declaring roughly six majors in two years, he settled into the idea of becoming a teacher, but switched to accounting his junior year for the higher salary it promised. A herculean effort and two semesters of summer school allowed Dupre to graduate with a degree in accounting after only two years in the school of business.
Though academically gifted and motivated, Dupre’s orphan status put him at a disadvantage financially. He relied on scholarships, grants and a slew of work study programs to pay for his time at Harding, but Dupre said the average Harding student was still noticeably more affluent. Eager to fit in, he joined TNT, did his best to dress like everyone else and ran for officer positions in several organizations. Successes were rare.
“Especially for my first two years, there were lots of doors that were closed for me,” Dupre said. “I attribute a lot of it to the fact that I was just in a different class.”
But Dupre was also a black student on an overwhelmingly white campus, which he said “absolutely” played a role in his marginalization. Specifically, he said, finding dates was frustrating. In one case, a girl said she could not go to a function with him because she was going home that weekend. Dupre said he saw her at the function later that evening, as someone else’s date.
A lot of the racism Dupre experienced on campus was subtle and “more the sin of omission rather than the sin of commission,” he said. Off-campus, the town of Searcy was not always so subtle in pointing out his differences, but Dupre said he holds no ill will toward anyone from his college days.
These days, Dupre is more concerned with managing the 54th largest school district in Texas. As superintendent, he oversees the operation of 26 campuses serving over 20,000 students in central Texas. Both Dupre and Harding have changed since they parted ways in 1984, but some connections are still going strong: Dupre eventually got a date at Harding, and he never let her go. He and his wife Seeju have been married for almost 25 years.
Finding His Niche In Living History
Noah Lewis graduated from Harding in 1980 with a degree in biology, but now has an active career as a living historian. Lewis uses this career to enlighten others on the unknown history of people of color in the American Revolution.
Lewis was first introduced to living history when he was asked to speak at his daughter’s elementary school. Lewis had previously spoken to the class regarding electricity and biology, but a teacher asked him to present on colonial America.
In researching for the presentation, Lewis said that his eyes were opened to the deeper history of people of color in America’s early history, a history of which he was previously unaware.
“My impression of the African contribution was that all the Africans were enslaved, or they all were poor, and if they were in the military, they weren’t really soldiers; all they did was manual labor,” Lewis said.
However, as Lewis began to research his own ancestors during the American Revolution, he came across the story of a man named Edward “Ned” Hector, who fought at Brandywine and Germantown, and was known for his courage and skill in battle, even having a street named after him in Conshohocken, Penn.
It was Hector’s persona that Lewis would later take on as he entered his career in living history, but it was through researching other African Americans during the colonial time period that he began to realize the contributions they made to society.
“One of the first women to publish her works in the colonies was a black woman named Phillis Wheatley. One of the richest men in Philadelphia after the American Revolution was a gentleman named James Forten. It would be a black man that would be called on to design the streets of Washington, D.C.: Benjamin Banneker,” Lewis said. “It was about a 180 degree difference from what my preset thought about blacks was. It really surprised me.”
Lewis learned that there were multiple black majority regiments that fought during the American Revolution and made drastic contributions in several milestones.
In the Battle of Yorktown, a black spy in the British camp named James Armistead Lafayette informed American forces that the British army would be in Yorktown, enabling the American army to win one of the biggest turning points of the war.
“During the Battle of Yorktown, one of those black regiments, the Rhode Island Regiment, was called to take down and punch a hole in the defenses that were in the outskirts of the city,” Lewis said. “They went in, guns unloaded and bayonets fixed and took their position in 10 minutes… and you know the rest of the story.”
Lewis said that he began to realize that the history of blacks in America was not merely defined by slavery and affliction, but by heroism.
“You have the right to worship in whatever way you see fit. You have the right to freedom of speech,” Lewis said. “These are American freedoms that were won in part because of black people that were willing to fight and die for this country’s freedom.”
Lewis said that he hopes his presentations will help others realize the diversity of American history, a realization that made a hobby become his lifetime.
“One of the revelations that has come out of this has been the meaning behind our nation’s motto ‘e pluribus unum,’ which in Latin roughly translated means ‘the many that become one,'” Lewis said. “If you think about it, that’s always been the strength of our country […] all different types of nationalities, all different types of people combining to make one people: American.”
More information on Lewis and his work as a living historian can be found at nedhector.com
Sending Sorrow Away Through Songs
Harding alumnus Sylvia Rose of Southfield, Mich., knows what it means to blaze a trail in unknown territory. During her time at Harding College between 1973 and 1975, she became the college’s first African American host of Spring Sing and the first female African American to earn a music degree.
“Shortly after integration we [African Americans] were in a pioneering role,” Rose said. “Often times as pioneers, you recognize you’re doing something important. But that doesn’t make it easy.”
Indeed, amid Rose’s ardent participation in musical activities — not only Spring Sing, but also a cappella chorus, marching band and coffee shop stints — she faced oppression because of her race. She especially ran into trouble when traveling with an a cappella chorus.
“I remember how difficult it was when traveling with the chorus and having people who would even be disagreeable to keep me in their home — primarily, too, because I was spending the night,” Rose said. “I remember hearing the discussion about me actually being allowed to sleep in a room with a white female while at this [one] home. It wasn’t always pretty.”
On campaus, too, Rose encountered a sense of isolation because the vast majority of Harding students were white, which contrasted with the predominantly African-American college she attended prior to Harding, Southwestern Christian College. This caused her to tightly embrace her friendships with her four roommates and other African American students.
“We did cling to one another,” Rose said. “I remember being questioned by some of the white students, ‘Why do we come and sit together in the cafeteria?’ But we needed that; we needed to be able to commune.”
Nevertheless, despite her struggles of acceptance, Rose persisted in pursuing her musical passions, blossoming into a distinguished songwriter and owner of a publishing house. Rose has written more than 220 songs over a 30-year period, five of which have appeared in various hymnals.
“I didn’t do that well in my songwriting classes [at Harding], but really emerged out of there and began to write music that is sung all over the country and in several other countries as well,” Rose said.
Because Rose wanted to own her music, she formed her own publishing companies, Srose Publishing Company, Inc. and Great Heritage Company, both of which manage the licensing and copyrights of 350 songs. Rose has even written her own hymnal, “Songs of Faith,” an internationally recognized production.
“I was among very few African Americans who have written an entire hymnal,” Rose said. “As a result of that, I was invited to tour Cuba in 1996 for 17 days with other African American scholars. I’ve loved writing music.”
Rose’s songwriting success has even transformed her into a voting member of the Grammy Academy, which oversees the Grammy Awards. However, her passion for music has gradually waxed into ministry. She now assists women who have been recently released from prison or are homeless, addicted to drugs or abused.
All her life, Rose has transcended imposing barriers to lead a life of greatness, blessing others through her musical talents and empathy.
