Dr. Sharon Malone Lecture Cancelled
Dr. Sharon Malone
THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
On June 11, 1963, Vivian Malone Jones became one of two African-American students to enroll at the University of Alabama after first being barred at the door by the defiant governor, George Wallace.
Five days later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the baccalaureate address and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at Keuka College.
The College will mark the 50th anniversary of those two events with a lecture by Dr. Sharon Malone, the younger sister of Vivian, Monday, April 22.
Malone will discuss “From Emancipation to Obama: An American Family” at 7 p.m. in Norton Chapel. Sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and the political science and history program, it is free and open to the public.
“The courageous action of Vivian Malone and James Hood was a seminal moment in the civil right movement,” said Chris Leahy, associate professor of history. “Alabama was the last southern state to comply with the Warren Court’s instruction to integrate public schools ‘with all deliberate speed.’ Gov. Wallace, determined to take a stand against the federal government, defied a court order allowing Malone and Hood to register for classes at the state’s flagship university in Tuscaloosa. His ‘stand in the schoolhouse door’ and televised exchanged with Nicholas Katzenbach, President Kennedy’s deputy attorney general, not only made national news but remains one of the most remembered events in American history.”
In 1965, Vivian Malone became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Alabama. She died in 2005.
Sharon Malone regularly gives public lectures on her sister, the civil rights movement, and African American history. She was featured on the 2012 PBS documentary “Slavery by Another Name” and is the wife of Eric Holder, attorney general of the United States.
Malone is a partner with Foxhall Ob/Gyn and is consistently recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of “Washington’s Best Doctors.”
She serves on the boards of the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and historic Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. She also serves on the regional panel for the selection of White House Fellows Program and was recently appointed to the selection committee for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction awarded by the University of Alabama School of Law.
Malone graduated cum laude with a degree in psychology and social relations from Harvard University in 1981 and received her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1988.
Keuka College Faculty Member to Appear on C-SPAN Program
A national television show will have a local flavor as Associate Professor of History Chris Leahy is slated to appear on C-SPAN’s “First Ladies: Influence and Image Series” Monday, April 1.
The show, which airs live at 9 p.m., highlights one first lady each week, in order, from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. Leahy is scheduled to discuss Julia Gardiner Tyler, the second wife of 10th President John Tyler, via telephone.
“At first, I was asked to be a consultant, with the show putting some of Julia’s letters on the screen,” said Leahy. “But as I was talking with the producers, they asked me to call in and talk more about her letters. I will provide clarification of some quotations from the letters and describe the context about what was happening in her life at the time.”
Leahy and his wife, Sharon, have edited Julia Gardiner Tyler’s letters and plan to publish 
them in a book, tentatively titled From Yankee Heiress to Southern Matriarch: The Letters of Julia Gardiner Tyler. A friend of Leahy’s is an editor of Eleanor Roosevelt’s papers and he mentioned Leahy’s work to the producers at C-SPAN. A producer at C-SPAN then contacted the Leahys.
“The producer told me that if they get squeezed for time they may have to cut my segment, since I will not be in the C-SPAN studio,” said Leahy. “But I am excited about the prospect. Even if I am not on the show, I will be in its credits as a consultant, and my affiliation with Keuka College will be in there as well.”
College Pays Tribute to Veterans
Associate Professor of History Chris Leahy.
Keuka College marked Veterans Day with a presentation by Chris Leahy, associate professor of history and a prayer of remembrance by Rev. Eric Detar, College chaplain.
Members of the Penn Yan VFW sounded a 21-gun salute and played Taps at the end of the service held Nov. 9 at the World War II memorial.
Leahy’s remarks follow:
“Sixteen million men and women served for the United States in some military capacity in World War II; 10 million men served in combat. These men are dying at a rate of nearly 1,000 per day.
“1, 789,000 served in combat during the Korean War; these men are also dying at a rapid rate.
“8,744,000 served in combat in Vietnam; 698,000 men and women served during the first Persian Gulf War.
“1,048,844 troops have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. One-third of them served more than one tour. Of course, men and women are combat veterans now.
“Our veterans hold a special place in the hearts of many Americans—indeed, should hold a special place in the hearts of all Americans.
“When Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in World War II, addressed the troops on June 6, 1944, as he launched Operation Overload, the Normandy invasion of D-Day, he spoke simply.
“’Full victory—nothing else,’ he said.
“The brave men who stormed the beaches that day and made their way to the cliffs overlooking those beaches, took those words to heart. Forty years later, on the anniversary of that day, President Ronald Reagan was in Normandy. He honored these men with an eloquent and moving speech.
Members of the Penn Yan VFW helped mark Veterans Day on campus.
“’These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc,’” he said. ‘These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.’”
“He told them: ‘Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.
“’The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge—and pray God we have not lost it—that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.’
From left: students Phillip Longyear and John B. Miller, as well as College staff members John Locke, Dale Mosher, and Jim Blackburn were honored for their service to our country. They each received a red carnation.
“President Reagan spoke these words to the World War II veterans who fought so valiantly on D-Day. But he could well have spoken them to veterans of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, or the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“As could these words, again, forcefully spoken by President Reagan:
The College's World War II memorial.
“’You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.’
“Reagan concluded his speech with words that could and should inspire us, as Americans, as we honor our veterans:
“’Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.’
“Veterans of foreign wars, thank you for your service to our country.”
I Want to be Elected!
Rocker Alice Cooper proclaimed those words in his 1970s hit Elected.
Some 40 years later, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are saying the same thing–in many ways to many people because the 2012 presidential election is shaping up to be one of the closest in history.
Given the expected razor-thin margin of victory that Obama or Romney will come away with Nov. 6, a lot of attention has been focused on 270: the number of electoral votes needed to win the White House.
Some people have called for abolishing the Electoral College and having the popular vote determine the election. Other contend it is the fairest way to elect the president.
Chris Leahy, associate professor of history, has been tracking the swing states, electoral votes, and other issues surrounding the Obama vs. Romney race. In this interview with Executive Director of Communications Doug Lippincott, aired recently on WFLR in Dundee, Leahy discusses the history of the Electoral College, previous close races, the possibility of an electoral vote tie, the chances of the popular vote winner losing the electoral vote, and more.
Listen to the Show
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About Keuka College Today
Keuka College Today airs the fourth Thursday of every month from 8:30 – 9 a.m. on WFLR (1570 AM and 96.9 FM).
McFetridge Pursues Master’s At Top Chinese University
What’s it like to take graduate courses at the “Harvard” of China?
Just ask Matt McFetridge ’12, who is settling into his second month of graduate studies in the international relations program at Tsinghua University (pronounced “Ching-wah”) in Beijing, China.
“I’m studying with some of the foremost scholars on U.S.-China relations,” said the Penn Yan native in a recent email interview.
McFetridge on a recent trip with classmates at Tsinghua University to the Great Wall of China.
In 2010, McFetridge spent the fall semester as an exchange student at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics (YUFE) in Kunming, one of Keuka’s partner universities.
That experience set him on a new course: to incorporate connections to China into his political science and history degree, and future career. Exposure to the Chinese language and the city that serves as hub of China’s foreign relations could give him an edge if he pursues a doctoral program in history or works as an analyst, perhaps with the government or a think tank.
“I love the program, I love the school, and the intellectual community here is equally impressive,” he wrote. “It’s such a difference between Keuka where I was one of 1,000. Here, I am one of 31 in my cohort surrounded by 30,000 of the best minds from China and abroad.”
College to Celebrate Constitution Day
On Sept. 17, 1787, 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to sign the document they had created, the United States Constitution.
We commemorate this historic moment annually on Sept. 17, designated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. The website below provides the full text of the U.S. Constitution as well as a discussion of its history and significance:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html
At Keuka College, Assistant Professor of Political Science Julie Van Dusky-Allen will discuss the Constitution in her World Politics class. In particular, she will focus on how Article I of the Constitution affects how members of Congress are elected.
Chris Leahy, associate professor of history, will also discuss the Constitution in his Monday classes.
College Honors Veterans, Those Serving Now
Keuka College honored current military servicemen and women and those who served in past wars and foreign conflicts Friday in a ceremony marking Veterans Day.
Members of the Yates County VFW perform a Presentation of Arms during the Veteran's Day service Nov. 11.
“Today, we pay tribute to the veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, including those nurses who were trained at Keuka College. The College’s nursing program was created in response to the need for nurses in World War II,” said President Jorge L. Díaz-Herrera in a welcome at Norton Chapel.
First known as Armistice Day, the nation marked the laying down of arms that took place on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, following the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. President Woodrow Wilson, feeling the weight of his decision to send American “doughboys” into battle in Europe, asked citizens a year later to honor the sacrifice of their fellow countrymen with solemn pride, said Chris Leahy, associate professor of history.
“Wilson envisioned that every Nov. 11 from that point forward would see parades throughout the small towns and big cities of the United States, and a brief suspension of business at 11 a.m.,” Leahy said.
In 1938, it became a federal holiday, but not until 1953 was a name change proposed, Leahy said. After Kansas shoe store owner Al King began a campaign to recognize all veterans, not just those from World War I, a Kansas Congressman introduced a federal bill, which was signed into law in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower. Thus, it officially became known as Veterans Day.
Professor of History Sander Diamond described the stately precision with which the 22 domestic and 24 overseas cemetery battlefields or memorials are kept in tribute of those who gave their lives. In 1921, one more tradition, that of placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, was begun when Sgt. Edward Younger first placed a spray of white roses on the third of four caskets of unidentified American soldiers placed in a row at a city hall not far from the Meuse-Argonne cemetery in France. The casket Younger chose was taken by ship for burial at Washington’s Arlington National Cemetery, where other unknown soldiers have been buried alongside it, he said.
Diamond noted that the last two World War I veterans, American Frank Buckles and England’s Harry Patch, both died at age 110 this year. Since America’s first war, the War for Independence, some 2,489,335 men and women have given their lives for their country, including 3,542 in Iraq and 1,425 in Afghanistan, where military conflicts are not yet resolved. And many who serve come back home with horrific wounds, both physical and psychological, from disfigurement to mental problems once called “shell-shock” but known today as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), he added.
“It is now up to us and our government to see to it that our most recent veterans have their needs met, no matter what the cost, even in this era of cost-cutting,” Diamond said, drawing parallels between the Keuka mission, which stresses “service above self,” and the mindset of many veterans and family members who wait for their return home.
“We are mindful that American service men and women are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan. This gives Veterans Day more immediacy, more poignancy,” said Leahy, adding that it was important to honor and remember the brave women, as well as men, who have served.
The event closed with a prayer of remembrance, led by College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar and a Presentation of Arms by an honor guard from the Yates County VFW, Post 745, at Keuka’s World War II monument, which stands near Lightner Library.
“We cannot fully repay those who gave up two lives, the life they were living and the life they would have lived,” said Detar.
Check out more photos from the service.
College will Mark Veteran’s Day with Presentations, Prayer of Remembrance
College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar leads a prayer of remembrance at the World War II Monument during 2010's Veteran's Day commemorative service.
Keuka College will mark Veteran’s Day Friday, Nov. 11, with presentations by two faculty members and a prayer of remembrance by the College chaplain.
Beginning at noon in Norton Chapel, Professor of History Sander Diamond will discuss how our veterans have been memorialized at home and on former battlefields overseas while Chris Leahy, associate professor of history, “will provide an overview of this important and memorable day,” said Diamond.
After the chapel presentations, College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar will offer a prayer of remembrance at the World War II memorial located near Lightner Library. Erected by members of the Political Science and History Club in 2005, the memorial commemorates the 60th anniversary of VE-Day and recognizes the College’s nursing program “that was created during the war years as our College’s major contribution to the war effort,” said Diamond.
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