Historically black colleges and universities create moments that change lives, and the AJC is telling those stories with its “HBCU Journeys” podcast.
In Episode 5, Carlton Riddick talks about the close attention he received at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.
“My teachers really really got on me,” Riddick recalled. “It was like I had a second mother and father. They were on me. And Mrs. Ledbetter…she was my English lit teacher. In every class we had to write a paper…. and she would give it back to me red as I don’t know what. I had been used to that because I would hate to give my papers to my mother because my mother would do the same. So it was like I had my mother again in a class.”
In Episode 6, meet Wayne Haydin, the white kid from New Orleans who went to Southern University in Baton Rouge.
“Yes, I am a Caucasian European American, whatever the descriptor we’re going to use today,” Haydin said. “But I grew up in an African-American part of New Orleans. When I was in the marching band in high school, I was the only white kid in the band until my little brother got in. So a lot of people ask how did you end up at Southern? It was a natural progression.”
As it turned out, Haydin made history at Southern.
Watch for all 10 of our HBCU Journeys on Apple Podcasts, or stream them directly from our website.
