Morehouse college proves diversity works

For the first time in its 141-year history, Morehouse College, a Historically Black College known for educating some of the world’s most talented Black men, has a white valedictorian. Earlier this week, Joshua Packwood became the first white valedictorian in the college’s storied history .

His story is rather atypical for a Morehouse grad, considering the fact that the Morehouse has never counted more than a handful of white students among its annual enrollment of roughly 3,000. It also defies convention because Packwood, who excelled academically in high school, was being courted by Ivy League schools, among them Columbia University, which also offered him a scholarship.

Though Packwood had always wanted to go to New York, he curiously chose the road less traveled and decided to attend Morehouse instead of Columbia. And the choice has paid off, as the newly minted valedictorian grad landed a job with banking and securities giant Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, fulfilling his dream of going to New York. But this story is much more about Morehouse College than it is about Joshua Packwood.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t discount the fact that Packwood had to work very hard to achieve what he did. I’m sure there was a tremendous amount of competition and that Packwood is a hardworking and very intelligent individual. However, the story here is about diversity working in a much different way than is traditionally thought.

Morehouse College was born shortly after the end of the Civil War for the education of black men (likely freed slaves) in the fields of religious ministry and education. Its history of educating black men to become the best in their fields is evidenced by such pronounced alumni as the late Maynard Jackson (former mayor of Atlanta), Walter Eugene Massey (educator, physicist, and business leader), and of course the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

But here’s what makes this unique HBC special. Despite the fact that there have only been a handful of white students among the 3,000 or so students each year, the fact that there were any white students at all indicates that Morehouse College was at least trying to accomplish some level of diversity over the years.

Most of us associate diversity with race, or to put it simple, color. The more colorful the people in an organization are, the more diversity it is assumed to have. In Morehouse’s case, diversity defies traditional assumption and is achieved by adding less color, and a little more white.

I praise Morehouse College for allowing white students into an institution that many whites thought (and still believe) was reserved exclusively for Black men. I’ll bet when the first white student walked into the gates of Morehouse College, he needed no National Guard or local police escort to ensure that no unruly Black students would carry out any acts of violence against him. But throughout the beginning of desegregation of state schools in the 1960s South, National Guard, police, and even the US Army were called in to protect the one or two Black students (in states with very large Black populations, I might add) who only wanted to get just as good of an education as their white counterparts.

And now in 2008, as a result of Morehouse College’s exemplary choice to embrace diversity and allow students of other races to attend their school comes this proud anomaly of a white valedictorian. What does this mean? It means that even the smallest attempt at achieving some sort of diversity in an organization can have tremendous results and create new opportunities.

Morehouse College was not asked to integrate their institution, they volunteered. If more companies put this sort of voluntary effort, rather than what sometimes seems like resentful reaction to legal mandates, into fostering diversity in their workplaces, the strength, the success, and the face of American businesses would change. Joshua Packwood becoming the valedictorian at the only all-male, historically black college in the country proves that when diversity is attempted correctly, it truly works.