TUSKEGEE, Ala. -- He is president of arguably one of the most historically important universities in America. Dr. Benjamin F. Payton has carried the banner for quality education that produces what he calls "globally competent" graduates. He has announced his retirement as June 30, 2010, after 28 years at the helm of Alabama's Tuskegee University.

Payton holds advanced degrees from a trio of Ivy League universities. His list of accomplishments is numerous, including appointments by three United States presidents. A speaker in strong demand across the country, Payton gave the principal address at the Lincoln Memorial rededication on May 30.

But the 76-year-old Orangeburg native says it was his parents' values and the instruction he received at South Carolina State University that laid the foundation for his success.

"SCSU was more important than Harvard, Columbia or Yale because that's where I learned to use my mind," Payton said. "The school was small, but those who taught there gave guidance and took their jobs with special zeal. They saw themselves charged with responsibility."

S.C. State also honored Payton as its first Benjamin E. Mays Award recipient, named after the former Morehouse College president and fellow S.C. State alumnus who Payton says has been "a lifelong friend to me."

In a recent telephone interview with The Times and Democrat, Payton shared his thoughts about his early life in the Garden City, education and the closeness he feels to Lincoln's legacy.

Growing up in Orangeburg

"I was fortunate to have been one of nine children born to Roy and Sarah Payton because my parents, like Lincoln, were deeply religious people," Payton said. "They believed in integrity and helping other people more than anything else. Although we didn't have much, we didn't think of ourselves as poor. My father was a farmer, and he was also a minister of rural Baptist churches in lower South Carolina."

Payton says his parents raised their family in Orangeburg to further their education.

"My father moved from Hampton County for one single reason. As he told us often, it was because there are two black colleges in Orangeburg," Payton said. "He was determined that all his kids would graduate from college. He didn't have a lot of formal education, but he taught at elementary schools in parts of Orangeburg and Hampton counties. My father also made contacts and became regular acquaintances of people on college campuses like State, Morris, Benedict and Claflin.

"In a number of ways, my father was similar to Lincoln, in that he believed you are a child of God and don't go around thinking of yourself as a victim," he said. "You hold you head high and treat all people with respect, even if they don't do the same, do your best and keep the faith. My father also believed strongly in family. He not only provided for us but also reached out to other components of his family in Hampton County."

Attending S.C. State

Payton graduated with honors from S.C. State in 1955. He says his professors were examples of people who did well "despite the inhuman system under which blacks were forced to live" at that time.

"These people encouraged me to live up to higher expectations," Payton said. "I also remember the opportunities I received, and not just in the classroom. I liked my college president (Dr. Benner C. Turner) in large measure because he was a well-organized man who cared about people who worked and were serious about their studies. I was determined to go to Harvard not only because he went there but for what he did to help me to get there, identifying the kinds of scholarships that would accept blacks.

"I found a cadre of extraordinarily brilliant people at SCSU who would push you, particularly if you showed talent," he said. "I am grateful for that."

Guiding Tuskegee

Tuskegee made the transition from institute to university status under Payton's leadership. The university's first doctorate programs were created in materials science and engineering, and integrative biosciences. Aerospace science engineering and health education curriculum have also been added during his administration.

"I saw the need to deepen and expand instruction in areas run by technology and related fields," Payton said. "I also believe something deeper is the intersection of science and technology with morals and religion. This is consistent with our search for areas of strength, such as material sciences, engineering and integrated biosciences."

Payton says his driving passion at Tuskegee is to make clear that there is only one kind of education anyone should pay for: the kind that makes graduates truly competitive.

"It is possible to push a system towards excellence despite the difficulties," Payton said. "The quest for excellence needs to be the goal of every institution, from pre-K to Ph.D. If we don't inspire out school systems and universities and fund them with that goal in mind, America will find itself in far worse condition than now as long as mediocrity is viewed as good enough."

Speaking at the Lincoln Memorial rededication

Occurring during the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, Payton's speech at the rededication of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was the second given by a Tuskegee president. The principal address of the inaugural dedication of the memorial was given by Dr. Robert Russa Moton on May 30, 1922.

"I was delighted and felt deeply honored by the invitation to speak," Payton said. "Abraham Lincoln has long been a major figure in shaping my own ability to be a free human being as well as for other African-Americans.

"I didn't know a lot about Abraham Lincoln until later in my life," he said. "We were not taught about him in school. Teaching about Lincoln was kept away from those who represented the subordinate classes when I was in school. School leaders didn't want his powerful views on all humans as children of God widely known.

"In the course of my education, I had the opportunity to read deeply about him and interact with Lincoln scholars. I found it to be the most satisfying part of my intellectual journey. Lincoln is an extraordinarily powerful role model for people of any color in the world. How he managed to become an accomplished writer, thinker and political leader is just nothing short of amazing to me."

For more on Payton's speech, visit tuskegee.edu.

S.C. State's future

Payton says that the challenge facing his alma mater today is the same one it has always faced.

"I remember Dr. Turner telling me that he had never been able to get the governor and the legislature to allow the university to develop a clear mission statement," Payton said. "He told me, 'How are you going to develop any direction if you don't know what you are about?' The state did not want S.C. State to have a clear sense of who and what they were.

"I want to commend the board of trustees for selecting Dr. (George) Cooper as president. He was on my faculty here, and I promoted him to dean," he said. "He is an able man and hard-driving. But S.C. State has always been outrageously underfunded by the state. It has been done with the deliberate intent of keeping the institution of as little importance in higher education as possible. The miracle is that it has done so much with so little."

Facing racism

Payton says he felt many disparities as a black youth, although there were differences between North and South.

"When I rode the train from Orangeburg to Cambridge to attend Harvard, all blacks had to ride in a special black car to Washington," Payton said. "But when you got there, what a joy it was to ride in any car you could pay for. That always freed my spirit, and the return trip was always exactly the opposite.

"The racial hierarchies in the North were still there to prevent resources from flowing to black communities, and that is no different from the South," he said. "But it was still better than down South.

"I feel I have been deeply blessed by my heritage in Orangeburg and the interest people showed in me and the schools I went to where they challenged me to do my best. It was there I experienced a community that was dynamic in its quest to earn dignity and equality."

T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

You must be logged in to comment.