Thursday, March 26th – 10 a.m.
Bobby G. Cooper Fine Arts Center
Welcome………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Donny Epting
Dean of Students
Invocation………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Jakayla Diamond
Cosmetology Major
Music……………………………………………………………………………………,,,,,,,………………..Utica Concert Choir
Harry Watson, Director
Opening Remarks………………………………………………………………………………………..Dr. Stephen Vacik
President, Hinds Community College
Research Moment……………………………………………………………………………………..Harmony Hawthorn
Student Intern, Utica Institute Museum
Presentation of the William H. Holtzclaw Award……………………………………..Jonathan Townes
Vice President for Career & Technical Education and HBCU Initiatives
William H. Holtzclaw Award Recipient…………………………………………………………Dr. Timothy Rush
Dean of Students, Retired
Fashion Showcase………………………………………….,…………………………….Hinds Utica Fashion Design
Jontea Luckett Davis, Instructor
Introduction of Keynote Speaker……………………………………………………………………………Jean Greene
Co-Director, Utica Institute Museum
Keynote Speaker……………………………………………………………………………….Dr. Daphne Chamberlain
Chief Program Officer, Emmett Till Interpretative Center
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………….Matysha Miller & Christopher Davis
Miss & Mr. Utica
Closing Remarks……………………………………………………………………………………..VP Jonathan Townes
Utica Ode……………………………………………………The Utica Jubilee Singers & Utica Concert Choir
Benediction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………Dino Pickett
Entertainment Media Technology Student
Join us following the program in the cafeteria (J. Louis Stokes Student Union) for our special Founder’s Day lunch for only $5 with your meal coupon available at the door! Also, be sure to tour the fashion design department after lunch for their open house in the Ples McCadney Building (first floor).
About our Keynote
Dr. Daphne Chamberlain is the guest speaker for the 123rd Annual Founder’s Day.
In many ways, Dr. Chamberlain is returning home to Utica with today’s presentation. Her mother’s side of the family is from Utica and many of her relatives attended Utica Junior College. Her family taught her much about the Black experience in Mississippi under Jim Crow. Learning about the 1955 murder of Emmett Till as a child was one of the formative experiences that has shaped her passion for history and her desire to change the world.
A native of Columbus, Mississippi, Dr. Chamberlain graduated from Tougaloo College with her B.A. in History, and her Masters and Doctorate in History from the University of Mississippi. Before returning to Tougaloo as a faculty member and administrator where she worked for ten years, Dr. Chamberlain taught History and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi and was also the founding Director of the COFO Civil Rights Education Center at Jackson State University.
Dr. Chamberlain now serves as Chief Program Officer at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center.
About the Founder
William H. Holtzclaw (1870-1943) was born into a sharecropping family in Alabama. Trained under famed educator, Booker T. Washington, Holtzclaw made it his mission to start a “little Tuskegee” in the Black Belt of Mississippi. Arriving in Utica in 1902 with his wife’s bicycle, which he sold for $2 and a pocket watch, Holtzclaw rallied the community to start the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute in 1903. The school quickly grew from a log cabin next to St. Peter Missionary Baptist Church in Utica, to a 500 acre plot just west of Utica, before he raised funds to purchase the 2,000 acres on which the campus sits today. Carefully numbering each board, students disassembled all the buildings, loaded them onto wagons, transported them to our current location, and rebuilt the physical plant. Holtzclaw quickly added substantial buildings with the help of Northern friends, including several dormitories, classroom buildings, a printing press, farm buildings, an electric power plant, and a Rosenwald school on campus, among others. Spending up to 8 months a year fundraising up North on behalf of the students, Holtzclaw’s tireless commitment to educating all students earned him accolades across the South. In fact, Booker T. Washington regarded Holtzclaw and Utica as the best example of the Tuskegee model in the country. To learn more about Holtzclaw’s impact on Southern Black education, tour the Utica Institute Museum this afternoon!