In the late 1980s, when Spelman College established a prestigious endowed professorship named in honor of Bill Cosby and his wife, the goals were to bring positive attention to what was already considered one of the finest black colleges in the country, while attracting leading scholars in the fine arts, humanities and social sciences.
Two decades later, the only attention Cosby — once considered one of the most influential men in America through his exposure as a television mogul and philanthropist — is getting is from ongoing and relentless allegations that he has been drugging and raping women since at least the 1960s.
On Sunday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution exclusively learned that Spelman loosened its ties with Cosby by indefinitely suspending the William and Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Endowed Professorship, which was established after Cosby and his wife, Camille, gave the school $20 million in 1987.
“The William and Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Endowed Professorship was established to bring positive attention and accomplished visiting scholars to Spelman College in order to enhance our intellectual, cultural and creative life,” Spelman spokeswoman Audrey Arthur said in an email. “The current context prevents us from continuing to meet these objectives fully. Consequently, we will suspend the program until such time that the original goals can again be met.”
Arthur said the 133-year-old school would not make any more comments.
Her statement did not address if the college is considering changing the name of the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby, Ed.D. Academic Center, which houses the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the college archives and offices.
The $4 million earmarked to endow the chair brought in African American women who are leaders in their field including from former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Tananarive Due, a popular science fiction novelist.
It was during Due’s tenure that the college hosted a national fantasy/science fiction writing conference in 2013, significant for the fact that African American women writers are underrepresented in the genre.
Due said Monday that the college had been faced with a choice.
“As a recent Cosby Chair at Spelman, the mounting allegations against Bill Cosby have been particularly painful,” Due said in an email to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I understand the college’s difficult but necessary decision.”
While some Spelman students at the all-female school supported Cosby, there were some who protested the entertainer’s association with the college by using the Twitter hashtag #NotMyFather, referring to Cosby’s television persona.
Spelman College graduate Pearl Cleage, an award-winning novelist and playwright, as well as a former Cosby Chair, said the school made the right move to suspend the program.
“In light of the current accusations against Mr. Cosby, it’s appropriate to suspend the chair while the college reevaluates the relationship with Mr. Cosby, moving forward,” Cleage said.
Cosby — who in 2002 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor — has seen his legacy crumble under the weight of countless allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted several women.
In allegations that date as far back as the 1960s, more than two dozen women have claimed that Cosby drugged and raped them.
Last week, super model Beverly Johnson, became the most high-profile accuser, claiming Cosby drugged her in the 1980s during an audition for “The Cosby Show.” She said she was able to get away without being raped.
The Spelman decision follows Cosby’s resignation after 32 years as a member of the board of trustees at Temple University and his resignation as an honorary co-chair of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s capital campaign. High Point University in North Carolina also removed him from its national board of advisers, and the Berklee School of Music stopped granting a scholarship in his name.
Cosby, 77, had been mum on the allegations. But on Friday, he spoke briefly to the New York Post offering a lecture to the black media.
“I only expect the black media to uphold the standards of excellence in journalism and when you do that you have to go in with a neutral mind,” Cosby told the New York Post.
He also said that his wife was holding up through the controversy with, “Love and the strength of womanhood…And, you could reverse it, the strength of womanhood and love.”
In 1987, when the Cosbys gave the single largest donation ever awarded to an HBCU, the thought of any of this happening seemed impossible.
At the time, Cosby was at the height of his powers as an entertainer, philanthropist and trusted father figure. He was starring in the landmark “The Cosby Show,” which depicted a successful black family who appreciated jazz and black art.
He had also developed the groundbreaking, “A Different World,” which for the first time in television history, focused solely on a historically black college. The show was credited with increasing interest and enrollment at HBCUs, including Spelman, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University.
With their $20 million donation, the Cosbys, whose daughters attended Spelman, helped build Cosby Center on campus, as well as fund the endowed chair, which has also been held by author Tananarive Due.
Choreographer Aku Kadogo, is the current the Cosby Endowed Professor. But on the Spelman College website, she is now listed as “a Spelman College Distinguished Visiting Scholar for 2014-2015.”
The list of all of the former endowed chairs seems to have been removed.
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