“I was already accepted to Howard University right here in D.C.,” Grandison Hill said in recent interviews with two EMU writers. “But my father knew I was hanging with the party crowd, and I’d be doomed academically if I went with my friends across town to Howard.”

Hill’s parents had learned about EMC from relatives living in Luray, Va., “a hoot and a holler” from Harrisonburg. “My uncle was a master barber in Luray. He and my aunt knew black folks in Harrisonburg, who knew what kind of folks they [the Mennonites at EMC] were.” Bingo! The Hills were seeking “a Christian experience without social distractions.”

Jolting adjustment, but no quitting

The academic and socio-cultural scene Hill found when he arrived on the Harrisonburg campus was a jolting cross-cultural experience for a city-raised African-American teen. He had a girlfriend back home, a love of dance parties, and a repertoire of easy-flowing curse words from the usual trash-talking on D.C. basketball courts.

In 1962 at EMC, the percentage of white Mennonite students easily ran into the 90s, typically from rural backgrounds. Hill was one of four U.S.-born black students enrolled in EMC, based on photos in that year’s Shenandoah yearbook. All faculty men were required to wear plain coats; all faculty women, the prayer covering and very modest dresses. Males and females did not publicly hold hands. Chapel attendance was mandatory every school day.

Now a successful trial lawyer in D.C., Hill stayed at EMC only one year. “My pillow was wet many a night,” Hill recalls, loath to disappoint his parents who had made huge financial sacrifices to put him at EMC. “My mother’s theme song was, “We don’t quit.”

Hill was the first-born of three sons, raised in a home headed by education-oriented parents who brought home middle-class salaries for those times. Howard University was six blocks from his home. “I walked through campus when going to junior high and to my favorite public swimming pool.” Next door was Arthur Paul Davis, a famed literary figure who taught at Howard and had earned his PhD in English from Columbia University. As a boy, Hill saw luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance – James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks – relaxing on Davis’ front porch. Another neighbor was Thomas H. Countee Sr., the first African-American to get a PhD in physics (earned at a Dutch university, as Hill recalls).

Preparing for success

In short, Hill was surrounded by upwardly climbing folks who were preparing their children to continue to challenge racial barriers. Hill’s father was a businessman and employee of the U.S. department of defense; his mother managed a D.C. playground. When Hill said he hoped to become a basketball coach, his father angrily made it clear that Mom and Dad weren’t working themselves to death for such an aspiration. The Hill boys had just three options – to be a physician, dentist or lawyer. (Two ended up as attorneys, the other a dentist.)

The summer before Hill arrived at EMC, his father had scraped together the money to send him for six weeks to one of the best private schools in D.C., St. Albans, an Episcopal school that catered to well-to-do boys from (almost always) white families.

Hill took calculus and made friends with the son of a Swedish embassy official. “The academic experience at St. Albans was so tremendous. It was a great experience – the guys at St. Albans accepted me. It was so relaxed and so much fun – they didn’t have that religious thing on them.” St. Albans offered Hill the option of enrolling in a post-secondary school year, which he desperately wanted to do. But it was beyond the financial means of his family; EMC was viewed as his next-best option.

Among Mennonite boys in Brunk

Hill dormed in the Brunk House adjacent to campus with a six Mennonite guys from various class years, with last names of Good, Driver, Ranck, Clymer, Reed. “We all had separate rooms and studied a lot. Many had part-time jobs. One guy would return from his job around sun-up and wake the whole house with a booming, ‘Good morning, world!’” By mid-fall, Hill was on the varsity basketball team.

Hill recalls “many impressive speakers” at daily chapels, which were different in style from his family’s Methodist church. “The first time I heard a cappella singing, tears literally rolled down my face. I had to pinch my eyes to keep from making a scene. I was stunned how beautiful it was.”

After chapel, came the highlight of Hill’s day: a cafeteria meal served family-style, three girls, three guys to a table, assigned randomly by number. “There was a rhythm and ritual to it, standing until all arrived, the saying of grace, the singing of a song, the passing of the bread to the right, the filling of water glasses. And then the pleasant conversation, getting acquainted around the table, each day learning to know a new set of students. By the end of the year, everyone on campus knew each other. And the food, like my parents promised, was always excellent.”

Encountering racism

Dean of men Alphie Zook had counseled Hill when he arrived on campus, “Not everyone here will welcome you. Unfortunately, you may encounter some racism.”

One racist encounter happened on a Saturday, when meals were not served family-style. After a morning studying in his room, Hill went to the cafeteria for lunch. He sat down with his tray at a convenient table where several other students had gathered. Conversation at that end of the table stopped when a guy diagonally across from Hill interjected, “You should be eating that meal on the back porch.”

Hill felt his anger rise to within a scintilla of striking back. “I thought how disappointed my parents would be if I was kicked out for fighting. I calmly laid my fork on the tray. I locked gazes with the guy, neither of us said a word. Eventually he looked away. I picked up my fork and continued eating.”

Other painful memories: The time a student got up and left when Hill came to a non-assigned table. Overhearing someone say, “What the h..l is he doing here?” when he walked by. Being called a “n….r” by a child in the presence of his Mennonite parents, who said nothing. A female student who met his eyes as they passed on campus, but seemed fearful of saying “hi.”

Getting support too

Yet Hill also experienced inter-racial solidarity. He described a time when he and a few schoolmates went downtown to see a movie, an activity that was then against school rules for everyone. “After we’d bought our tickets, the manager told the rest of the group, ‘You can sit in the regular seats, but he has to sit in the balcony.’ They all decided to join me in the balcony. About ten minutes later, the manager appeared upstairs, saying there’s an official from EMC downstairs looking for us. And he showed us a side door to exit. I knew he was lying, but we all left on the slim chance we’d be caught.”

The one place Hill could relax was playing sports, especially basketball on a team that traveled to play games at Goshen College in Indiana and Messiah College in Pennsylvania. He recalls two Yoder brothers, Paul R. Jr. ’63 (now a local eye surgeon) and N. Wayne ’66 (now a psychotherapist based in Florida), as tough competitors with serious talent.

One time in chapel, Paul helped Hill to navigate a cross-cultural snafu. “I was sitting at the back and someone up front said something that caused everyone to stand, look straight back at me, and kneel down with their elbows on their seats. This caught me totally by surprise. They’re all looking at me. Paul locked his eyes with mine and let me know I needed to do what he was doing.” (This method of praying is no longer practiced in modern Mennonite churches.)

EMC had a handful of students from Kenya and Tanganyika in 1963. “The international students from Africa didn’t know what to think of me; I was so different from them. And the average Mennonite kid had never been around a black guy on a daily basis. Should I act friendly or keep him at arm’s length? Or just treat him as a human being? For my part, I tried to never offend, to keep a smile on my face and be open to conversation.”

At first the coursework was tough for him. “Most of the Mennonite students were well prepared for the seriousness of the studies. I had to really buckle down and study hard. But I moved fast on an upward learning curve.”

Meeting the Lord

Hill’s biggest take-away, however, wasn’t in the academic realm. “It was here that I met the Lord. It was a combination of things that got me thinking. Everywhere I turned I’d find more evidence of the resurrection. The guys had an early morning prayer group. It wasn’t a devotional thing as much as learning from scripture, reading the stories in a deeper way. And coming to my own conclusion – He’s real!”

Before Christmas break 1962, Grandison Hill returned from class to his room to discover a box on his desk. He opened it to find a King James Bible, and inside the simple inscription, “The Brunk House.”

Despite meeting “many genuinely good people who did a lot to make me feel comfortable,” Hill felt lonely away from “my own people.” Bringing along his new Bible in the fall of 1963, he transferred to Virginia Union University, whose roots go back to the end of the Civil War, when the American Baptist Home Mission Society started offering classes to African Americans emerging from slavery. At Virginia Union, with a Baptist seminary at the heart of its campus, Hill got much of what his family liked about EMC, without the racial and cultural issues – “Virginia Union was small and everybody knew you and nurtured you – there was no foolishness or you would be sent home.” He majored in biology and minored in chemistry, then taught middle-school math for three years in his home city before going to Howard University’s School of Law on a full scholarship.

For more than half of his life, Hill has practiced as a civil and criminal defense trial lawyer, admitting he is addicted to the drama of jury trials. His home way from home is D.C. Superior Court. At 69, he is tempted to “reduce the case load a bit. But a serious jury trial is thrilling. You just never know the outcome; it’s so much fun with so many surprises.”

He has these lingering questions from his year at EMC: “Did anybody get anything from me? From their experience meeting me? Did it open anybody’s mind?

For more information about the history of African Americans at EMU, see these stories and podcast:

“Take the First Step in Faith: A History of Inclusion at EMU” – podcast featuring Mark Metzler Sawin

The language and literature department at ��ݮ���� is sponsoring a presentation on race relations by award-winning author .

Dr. Jordan-Lake will speak 7 p.m. Thursday, Mar. 17, in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU, drawing from her award-winning book, “Blue Hole Back Home: A Novel.”

Jordan-Lake is a professor at Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn. Her book won the 2009 national Christy Award for first novel and was selected as the 2009 Common Book for Baylor University, Waco, Tex. Inspired by actual events from her own teenage years, Jordan-Lake explores the tensions and eventual violence that erupt in a small, all-white Appalachian town when a Sri Lankan family moves in.

Ultimately, “Blue Hole Back Home” is a story not only of the devastating effects of racial hatred and cowardice, but more centrally, a celebration of courage, confrontation and healing. The book is increasingly being chosen as classroom and summer reading at various public and private high school, middle schools, colleges and universities.

After earning a bachelors degree from Furman University and a masters from a theological seminary, Jordan-Lake earned a masters and a PhD in English Literature from Tufts University, specializing in the role of race and religion in 19th century American fiction.

Her other writings include “Grit and Grace: Portraits of a Woman’s Life,” “Whitewashing Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Nineteenth-Century Women Novelists Respond to Stowe” and “Why Jesus Makes Me Nervous: Ten Alarming Words of Faith.”

Admission to the presentation is free.  For more information, contact Dr. Vi Dutcher, language and literature
department, at 540-432-4316.

Works, who is white, learned that he has black cousins, and he wanted to meet them.

That sent him and his family on a years-long journey of mending race relations.

Learn more about

Samuel L. Horst, professor emeritus of history, has been invited to speak on his research of a white educator who taught blacks in Lynchburg, Va., following the Civil War as part of the John D. Owen, Jr. Lynchburg History Series.

Dr. Horst will address the topic, “Learning How: The Odyssey of a Lynchburg Freedmen Educator,” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12 at the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg. Horst, who taught at EMU for 28 years until his retirement in 1984, wrote “The Fire of Liberty in Their Hearts: The Diary of Jacob E. Yoder,” published in 1997 by the Virginia State Library.

Horst edited the diaries of Jacob Eschbach Yoder, an idealistic young Mennonite from the Boyertown, Pa., area who came to Virginia after the Civil War to help educate freed slaves.

Yoder taught freedmen in Lynchburg in 1866 and from 1868 to 1871 supervised black schools over a six-county region as well as in Lynchburg. From 1871 until his death in 1905 he taught blacks in the newly-opened public schools.

Lynchburg’s black population had mushroomed after the war as ex-slaves moved in to take advantage of government rations from the Freedmen’s Bureau and to capitalize on their new freedom.

Jacob E. Yoder (back row, at right) at a Freedman’s Bureau School in Lynchburg, circa 1876-77.

“Yoder eventually became generally well-accepted by both blacks and whites in Lynchburg because of his low-key style and his patient efforts,” Horst noted.

Horst, who earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia, is also the author of “Conscience in Crisis: Mennonites and Other Peace Churches, 1739-1789 (Herald Press, 1979), “Mennonites in the Confederacy: A Study in Civil War Pacifism (1967), “Education for Manhood: Education of Blacks in Virginia During the Civil War” (University Press of America, 1987) and most recently researched and co-authored with Edsel Burdge, Jr., a former student of Horsts’, “The Mennonites of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and Washington County, Maryland, 1730-1970” (Herald Press, 2004).

The lecture is open to the public free of charge. For more information, call 846-0501.

Carlos Romero, executive director of this churchwide ministry, says, "The church’s commitment to racial/ethnic education remains strong. And young people want to learn and to prepare to serve the church. That’s the good news. The bad news is that a giving deficit continues. We are unable to take on new students. We must turn people away from programs that have the potential to change lives."

MEA administers Racial/Ethnic Leadership Education (RELE) programs on behalf of the church. These programs — operated in partnership with African-American Mennonite Association, Iglesia Menonita Hispana, Native Mennonite Ministries, ��ݮ����, Goshen College and Hesston College — have struggled with funding deficits in recent years.

This story from , who was supported in her education through RELE’s LARK (Leaders Aspiring to Receive Knowledge) Scholarship Program, illustrates how RELE and the church’s congregations and educational institutions work together to build leaders:

"I remember the article that I wrote for LARK News after I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in social work from ��ݮ���� in 1997. It was titled, ‘God Has a Plan!’ I quoted my favorite scripture from Jeremiah 29:11, ‘For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’

"Today I say these words again with even more confidence, trust and unwavering faith … God has a plan!

"After graduating from EMU, I continued to serve as a resident director and graduate assistant in the office. I implemented and facilitated programs for the campus community that addressed the importance of diversity, racial understanding and reconciliation. I also led the peer mentoring program and a support group for women of color.

"In 1998 I returned to New York and served as the worship leader and cabinet chairperson at my church, Seventh Avenue Mennonite. I was accepted into the Advance Standing Program at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work, and also began working full time at Marymount College, an all-women’s college in Tarrytown, New York. This experience was a true blessing.

"In 2000, I graduated from Fordham with a master’s in social work. I then started work at Edwin Gould Academy in Chestnut Ridge, New York, a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed adolescents from New York City.

"This experience was my biggest challenge and my greatest reward. The Lord strengthened my ministry and used me to lead each and every one of the girls in my house to accept Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. The painful stories of their lives and families that I heard over and over again during our group counseling sessions was sometimes horrific, overwhelming and too much to bear.

"Through the difficult times I remembered that God said in Isaiah 61, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to comfort all that mourn, to give unto them the beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.’

"God had a plan for these girls!

"In 2002, I served at New York Foundling Hospital in the South Bronx as a social work supervisor for special needs children and youth in foster care. I strove to make a positive difference and show the love of Christ in a system that sometimes seemed uncaring and cruel.

"In July of 2003, God brought me full circle; back to serve at EMU as director of Multicultural Services. Through this position, I have the opportunity to assist and empower AHANA (African, Hispanic, Asian and Native American) students to succeed at EMU academically, socially and spiritually and to make a positive difference as student leaders. I also am blessed to continue the mission to encourage diversity on campus and provide a bridge of reconciliation, faith, truth and hope.

"As I reflect on my many experiences since 1997, I give thanks to my home congregation, Seventh Avenue Mennonite Church, and to LARK Scholarship Program for all of the support throughout my undergraduate and graduate education. I was able to be well equipped and empowered to step out on faith, reach my goals and fulfill the vision that God has for my life.

"I pray that through your continued support, many others like me will be given the chance to make a difference in their communities, become equipped to fulfill their purpose and show the light and love of God wherever they go. May the plan of the Lord prevail as we believe in faith for his provisions!"

Romero said this is a moment of great promise and opportunity for racial/ethnic education in the church. "But even as we prepare for the future, we face today’s funding needs."

If you wish to give to racial/ethnic education in Mennonite Church USA, please contact MEA at 63846 County Road 35, Suite 1, Goshen, IN 46528-9621; info@MennoniteEducation.org; 866-866-2872 (toll free).

Patchwork Pantry, an ecumenical, volunteer-run food ministry based at Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va., is bridging language and ethnic barriers of its clientele with the help of area college students.

Again this fall, students from ��ݮ���� and neighboring James Madison University are filling most of the volunteer spots on Wednesday evenings. Each week, 18 volunteers work to interview, weigh and bag food for clients.

Twelve EMU and eight JMU students signed up through their respective campus service learning organizations or directly from social work class, committing to work each week during the semester.

The pantry, which opened May 27, 1992, serves Harrisonburg and Rockingham County area residents with staple foods. The pantry is operated by a 14-member board of directors, representing seven denominations: Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Unitarian Universalists, Mennonite and non-denominational.

EMU students Nathan J. Harder, a senior environmental science major from Mountain Lake, Minn., and Aura “Pancha” Moreno, a junior justice, peace and conflict studies major from Bogota, Columbia – both fluent in Spanish – work at the interview tables each week.

Harder needed to fulfill a class requirement of volunteering in the community, but also wanted to get more involved personally. He says his favorite part of the job is “interacting with the clients who come and taking time to learn more about them.

“There truly is a great diversity of people living in this community and a great need for sharing and interaction to extend beyond the bounds of formal institutions, into the realities of our everyday lives,” Harder notes.

“My biggest surprise in this work has been people’s openness to talking about their lives during the interview process,” he states. “I was expecting a pretty strict and formal procedure, but a lot of mutual learning occurs during the process.”

Moreno volunteered because of the need for Spanish-speaking interviewers. She has learned a bit more about the immigrant population in Harrisonburg and says she has been “impressed with the courage it takes for people to recognize and admit that they’re in need.”

She is also struck by the variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds seen at the Pantry, reaffirming for her that “necessity,” or the lack of economic resources, is everywhere, even in the most powerful country on Earth, the United States.

Moreno was surprised one night to see one of her neighbors at the Pantry, and, another night, a member of her church. She realized how seldom one knows the circumstances of another person’s life. In Spanish, the saying is: “nadie sabe con la sed que otro vive.” She was also surprised to know that at least one of the JMU student volunters came out of his own motivation, not because it was a class requirement.

Moreno expressed gratitude for the opportunity to work at Patchwork Pantry, noting: “It has allowed me to see first-hand the significant need locally in the midst of so much abundance.”

Sheri Hartzler, Patchwork Pantry director, said that more volunteers are needed when college in not in session and that more workers are needed especially during the Christmas season and in January, 2005.

To volunteer, call (540) 421-6315.

The record total enrollment of 1,513 students – undergraduate, seminary and graduate – compares to 1,436 last fall, according to the university registrar’s office.

Total undergraduate enrollment numbers 933 students, compared to 922 a year ago. Of that total, 228 are first-year students, up 18 over last fall.

“The new first-year class has more racial/ethnic diversity than any previous class,” said Shirley B. Yoder, vice president for enrollment and marketing at EMU. “U.S. minorities make up 21 percent of this class, doubling the composition of the previous class.

“Until this year, we weren’t particularly successful in attracting local Spanish-speaking students,” Yoder said. “But this year, we are pleased to welcome a significant number to campus.”

The number of international students is down this fall, “due primarily to visa difficulties,” she added.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary, a graduate program of theological studies on the EMU campus, has 134 students enrolled this fall compared to 131 last fall. There are 74 students enrolled full time at EMS, two more than the same time last year.

Students in the university’s graduate programs continued modest growth, with 239 enrolled this fall over 229 last fall. The largest increase came in the M.A. in education program at EMU’s Lancaster, Pa., location, up 35 students, from 16 to 51 this fall.

The Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP), an accelerated, non-traditional baccalaureate degree program, has 94 students enrolled this fall on the Harrisonburg campus, down five from last fall, while the Lancaster campus’ ADCP program climbed from 27 to 40 students.

The Intensive English Program (IEP), which prepares international students for undergraduate collegiate work, has 38 full- and part-time students this fall, up eight over a year ago.