Full Text of the Excerpt

ANITA FOYE:

Could you say a sentence or two about your feelings about people attending historically Black colleges and universities?

HARVEY E. BEECH:

Like what?

ANITA FOYE:

For example, I have a lot of friends who are at Central law school. And they always feel competition because of the White colleges. And sometimes they feel upset or they don't feel like they have the competitive edge. Could you say a sentence or two, what you want them to remember, when they graduate?

HARVEY E. BEECH:

I don't understand. [rustling noise] I think the best thing we've got going now is the Negro College Fund. And Morehouse is a good example. One out of every ten graduates of Morehouse College has a professional degree, a medical degree, or a Ph.D. One out of every ten. So, they're competing all over. So we need historically black colleges today as, more, as much or more than we ever did. This thing is overbalancing itself about integration. But we need it with quality. And we got it with quality in a lot of places. A lot of Black institutions are first-rate. I have no kind of complex about inferiority about Black colleges. Excuse the expression: that's where it's at, today. So, Central has to be a good law school. Here's a boy who couldn't get into Duke or Carolina, graduated from Central. Now he's your Attorney General. White boy. So it has to be a good school, doesn't it? He couldn't get into Duke or Carolina cause if he could, he would have gone. But now he's the Attorney General, what's his name? Mike Easley. So it has to be a good law school. He just happened to be White, though. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing necessarily wrong with being White. [laughter]