The year 1968 was a consequential time in American history, with the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy.
It was also the same year that Duke undergraduate Clarence (C.G.) Newsome was awarded an athletic scholarship, one of the first Black students to receive it for football.
“It was difficult. Those were challenging times for African American students,” Newsome said in 2007 about his freshman year. “I benefited from the academic support provided by the athletic department, but that support wasn’t available to everyone. It was very tough. Many professors assumed I was unprepared. One professor made a general statement in class that Blacks can’t write, especially Black males.”
Newsome, who lettered in football and was twice named to the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Academic Team, eventually became the president of Shaw University, considered the first historically Black college in the South.
While an undergraduate, Newsome became the first Black student to deliver Duke’s student commencement address. Newsome’s 1972 speech was titled “An African Concept of Time and a Theme of Liberation in the World Community.” He shared the podium with the legendary CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite.
After graduating he served as acting dean of Black Affairs at Duke, where he strengthened a Black Studies program that began in 1970, recruited more African American students and faculty, and improved a summer program that mentored and prepared Black first-year undergraduates in advance of the fall semester.
Newsome is a triple Duke alumnus, having also earned Master of Divinity and doctorate degrees. He taught for eight years at Duke’s Divinity School.
In 1986, Newsome became assistant dean of the Divinity School at Howard University and was named dean in 1992, where he remained until appointed to lead Shaw in 2003.
A past president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Newsome is an emeritus member of Duke’s Board of Trustees. He also currently serves on the Board of Trustees for The Duke Endowment.
