In his latest column, on the cusp of Black History Month, John Cross ’76 reflects on two alumni from the 1920s who, “each in his own way, put a shoulder to the wheel to advance human dignity and ensure social justice.”

In looking through a bound copy of The Quill (Bowdoin’s literary magazine) for 1924 that had once belonged to President Kenneth C. M. Sills, Class of 1901, I came across a three-page essay on “Prejudices”  by future Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist W. Hodding Carter, Jr., of the Class of 1927. After declaring that his initial impulse was to write a defense of the Ku Klux Klan, Carter proceeded to vent his anger at French Canadians, “Sons of Erin,” African Americans, and New Englanders whose ancestors had profited from the slave trade. By any standard, it was strong stuff to read in a College publication, especially coming, as it did, from a seventeen-year-old from Louisiana. It was with deep regret and no small measure of shame that Carter would later recall that for his first year at Bowdoin he refused to talk to (or even remain in the same room with) the College’s only African-American student at that time, who lived in an adjacent room in Winthrop Hall.

Carter’s attitudes and actions were not met with indifference on campus. Mary Ham (the wife of Professor of German Roscoe Ham) encouraged literary creativity by Bowdoin students at meetings in her home, and offered her assessment of Carter’s essay in a Bowdoin Orient review: “(It) is delightful in style, outrageous in spirit. Let us hope the style is the man.” Carter encountered students who challenged his assumptions and opinions, and faculty and administrators who understood that first-year students had a great deal to learn about the people with whom they would share life’s journey. Years later, Carter attributed a transformation in his attitudes on race relations to the gentle, but persistent, efforts of the Bowdoin community: “…looking back on those four years, I am convinced that the most important gift I received from Bowdoin was not what I learned here, but what I unlearned here.” When Carter returned to Louisiana after his graduation, he held new convictions about social justice that, in his own words, “rendered me more than a little suspect” in the deep South of the late 1920s.

Hodding Carter and his wife, Betty, established a newspaper in his home town of Hammond, and his editorials quickly established him at the top of Louisiana Governor Huey Long’s list of enemies. In 1936 he and Betty founded The Delta Star newspaper in Greenville, Mississippi, and together they took on the issue of deep-seated racism in the Depression-era South. Never one to adjust his editorial opinions to curry favor, Carter used to say that “We are so busy trying to make friends that we don’t take time to make the right kind of enemies.” World War II took Carter to the Middle East and North Africa as a journalist, where he witnessed first-hand the consequences of prejudices and poverty. In 1946 he received a Pulitzer Prize for an editorial on the discrimination faced by Japanese-American servicemen of the Nisei 442^nd Regimental Combat Team returning to civilian life. Bowdoin awarded him an honorary degree in 1947.

Throughout the 1950s and ’60s Carter continued to stir up controversy. His denunciation of white violence prompted death threats, he was burned in effigy, and he was censured by the Mississippi legislature for supporting President Kennedy’s decision to send federal troops to safeguard the integration of the University of Mississippi. For taking these and other principled editorial stands he received the Bowdoin Prize in 1963. To current sensibilities his writings may seem paternalistic. Historians have pointed out that Carter took pride in what he saw as the best elements of Southern society, and that his views on integration were nuanced in ways that defy easy characterization here, but that kept him out of the mainstream of the civil rights movement.

…looking back on those four years, I am convinced that the most important gift I received from Bowdoin was not what I learned here, but what I unlearned here.

By all accounts, the story of Hodding Carter’s transformation at Bowdoin is compelling, and the story of his career is inspirational. But I also wondered what had happened to the single African-American student at Bowdoin who experienced the contempt of an unreconstructed Hodding Carter in 1923-24. Finding the identity of Henry Lincoln Johnson, Jr. ’27 (“Linc”) proved to be a great deal easier than finding out about his life after Bowdoin. Johnson grew up in Washington, DC, where his father – a lawyer active in Republican Party politics – had been appointed as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia by President Taft. His mother was poet, playwright, and musician Georgia Douglas Johnson. Georgia held a regular literary salon in the Johnson home, which attracted the leading African-American intellectuals and artists of the day, including W. E. B. DuBois, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Langston Hughes, and Anne Spencer.

After his graduation in 1926, Linc earned a law degree from Howard University and opened a practice in Washington. He was active in the NAACP, and worked as an attorney for Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. of New York to advance the cause of civil rights. There are no letters from Henry in his alumni file, but there are several from his mother. In a 1963 letter she wrote, “He came [to Bowdoin] with a patch on the seat of his trousers and a little steamer trunk and I said: ‘Go my son and stay as long as you can’…While my son was there, he was allowed to help one of his teachers who was kind enough to allow him to help with his expenses … he played the viola with his classmates and traveled with them for certain appearances. I believe those years at Bowdoin were among the pleasantest in his life. The atmosphere, the teacher and school-mates made school days delightful and unforgettable.”

Two young men, initially separated by Carter’s bigotry, would, each in his own way, put a shoulder to the wheel to advance human dignity and ensure social justice. Hodding Carter passed away in 1972 and Henry Lincoln Johnson, Jr. died in 1992. I wish that I could turn back time to seek answers that might fill in the gaps in the story created by Hodding’s bare bones account and by Henry’s unspoken words and unwritten lines about the 1923-24 year that they shared in Winthrop Hall.

With Best Wishes,

John R. Cross ’76
Secretary of Development and College Relations

Longfellow around 1850, daguerrotype, Southworth & Hawes, Boston

Nearly two centuries after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow introduced students to the “soaring” poetry of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, two recent Bowdoin grads have published new findings about the Longfellow-Dante connection in the prestigious journal Dante Studies.

Both alumnae worked with primary documents in Bowdoin’s Special Collections and Archives to aid in their research.

“I was looking at marginalia, Longfellow’s handwritten notes,” says Kelsey Abbruzzese ’07.

“It was so amazing to think that Longfellow held this, he wrote on it, and here it is at the College where I can hold it and incorporate it into my essay.”

Read the story.

During the fall of 2010, seven students participated in an independent study with Environmental Studies Director Phil Camill  and Program Manager Eileen Johnson in response to a request for a municipal-scale sea level rise impact analysis framework for coastal Maine. The project focused on the communities of Brunswick and Harpswell and involved community presentations and feedback throughout the process.

Building upon the fall independent study, Maryellen Hearn ’11 and Krista Bahm ’11 worked with Camill and Johnson to refine the analysis, and their study, “Using a Boundary Organization Approach to Develop a Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Impact Analysis Framework for Coastal Communities in Maine,” was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. (The study is available to Bowdoin students, faculty and staff through the Bowdoin Library subscription to JESS.)

“Most people think that the rocky, steep coast line of New England is less susceptible to sea level rise,” say Camill. “But, we found that there can be substantial potential impacts to transportation networks, property and intertidal ecosystems.”

“The independent study was a great learning opportunity for the students and a valuable service to community, state and local partners” says Johnson.

In addition to presenting findings, this work provides a template for other coastal communities in New England and is an example of the kinds of community based scholarship happening at Bowdoin.

More than 50 middle schoolers from Lincoln Middle School’s English Language Learners program in Portland visited Bowdoin last Friday to learn about college and what it takes to get there.

Their visit was organized by Mike Hendrickson ’13 and Robbie Harrison ’14 as part of the Bowdoin Alternative Winter Break program that focused on immigrant and resettlement issues. During the last week of winter break, a small group of students led by Hendrickson and Harrison spent time with the middle schoolers, talking to them about setting goals and the importance of education.

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“Today was one of our ways of focusing them on college and future opportunities,” Hendrickson said.

Harrison added,”It was a way for us to give them an idea of what they could set as a goal.”

On campus, the seventh- and eighth-graders listened to a panel of deans and professors from the college, and then broke into teams of four or five to go on a scavenger hunt to locate such things as a stuffed polar bear, a glass cube, a rock-climbing wall, etc. The students seemed game to explore despite the rain, and even more game for the Thorne Dining Hall lunch offerings and soft-serve ice cream that followed.

The panelists answered questions from students on why they chose their career paths and what obstacles they had overcome. The deans and faculty members also spoke about their middle school experiences — and for many, these were hard years of grappling with their differences from other students.

The winter break program and the day spent on campus weren’t just instructive for the middle schoolers. Harrison said the time he spent with the seventh- and eighth-graders had given him a “new understanding of what it’s like to not have English as a native language. … It’s humbling. It makes you aware of your privilege.”

Echoing Harrison, Hendrickson said, “In my household, going to college was a given, it was just how it was going to be. That’s not the case for so many of these kids.”

As part of the redevelopment of the decommissioned Brunswick Naval Air Station, the Town of Brunswick will receive more than 1,000 acres designated for conservation and recreational purposes. In anticipation of this transition, Brunswick is developing an Open Space Management Plan for the area.

Environmental studies majors Michael Lachance ’13, Christopher “Woody” Mawhinney ’12 and Francis Joyce ’12 had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this experience by working with staff from both the town and the National Park Service.

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The partnership provided a chance for students to be learn more about the redevelopment of the site while bringing valuable resources to the town’s planning process.

In the summer of 2011, Lachance, a Community Matters in Maine/Psi Upsilon Fellow, conducted an extensive inventory of the existing trails and roads throughout the portion of the former base that will be conveyed to the town.

Using GIS and GPS technology, Lachance was able to provide a map and a series of detailed reports on site conditions. At the end of the summer, he presented his work to the town council and made recommendations on future development of the property.

“My fellowship with the Town of Brunswick gave me an exciting opportunity to combine my interests in economics and the environment,” says Lachance.

“I was able to work independently on the redevelopment of the Brunswick Naval Air Base, a significant and meaningful project that will be a tremendous asset to the community in the future.”

Building upon Lachance’s work, Mawhinney and Joyce conducted an analysis that considered constraints to trail development to determine whether to redevelop some or all of the pre-existing trails.

The students produced materials that will be used as part of the public participation process by the town’s planning committees. The students presented their results to a community forum held at the end of the spring semester.

”I really enjoyed working with staff from the Town of Brunswick on the project to help build an understanding about the former NASB parcel development that I have heard so much about,” says Mawhinney.

“Working with the Bowdoin students is a wonderful example of the collaboration between young leaders and community professionals on projects of significance,” says Denise Clavette, a special projects assistant for the town who worked with all three students throughout the planning process. “Thank you to Bowdoin for providing the Town of Brunswick with this opportunity.”

The development of the plan will be carried out over the course of the next several months, and next summer’s Psi Upsilon fellow will get the opportunity to become part of this process as well.

The Psi Upsilon Environmental Fellowship program is a component the Community Matters in Maine Summer Fellowship program managed jointly by the Environmental Studies Program and the McKeen Center for the Common Good.

The program places students with environmental and social service organizations, providing students with the opportunity to link work and community-based service and research to their academic experience, while strengthening the college’s community partnerships. Click here for more information about the program.

In addition to the Community Matters in Maine Fellowship Program, Bowdoin College offers many research and stipended summer fellowship opportunities for students through the Office of Student Fellowships and Research, McKeen Center, and Bowdoin Career Planning.

Christian Potholm

Christian Potholm, Bowdoin’s DeAlva Stanwood Alexander Professor of Government, weighs in on both the “bipartisan seating” plan for President Obama’s upcoming State of the Union, and on Maine Governor Paul LePage’s upcoming State of the State address in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

In a Friday morning speech to members of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, Karen Mills—the Administrator of the Small Business Adminisration and wife of Bowdoin President Barry Mills—said the SBA is working to open access to new and different lenders for America’s small businesses.

A selection of gorgeous campus shots—all thanks to the noisy snowplow that roused photographer Michele Stapleton early Friday morning.

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Southwest Airlines announced Friday that its familiar blue, red, and orange jets will soon be landing at Portland’s recently expanded Jetport. Last year’s purchase of AirTran by the Dallas-based Southwest is leading to a consolidation of the two carriers, with 15 cities losing service. Twenty-two others (including PWM) remain on the list.

Frosty’s Donuts, a Maine Street institution for 50 years, closed its doors last June in what appeared to be the end of a delicious era in Brunswick.

The Brunswick Times Record and Bangor Daily News set mouths watering this week when the publications announced that Frosty’s has been purchased and will reopen soon, using Bob and June Frost’s original signature recipes.

The College is among the top ten largest taxpayers in Brunswick and is the 22nd-largest private employer in the state. These are among the economic impact indicators newly updated on the Treasurer’s website.

The compilation also includes the fact that Bowdoin purchased $16.3 million dollars worth of goods and services from Maine vendors, including $2.79 million from Brunswick vendors, and that Bowdoin students provided 38,248 volunteer hours to Maine organizations (of which 7,389 hours were spent tutoring local students).

Photo by Jon Cole.

Over L.L. Bean’s 100-year history, the Maine Hunting Shoe has become a larger-than-life symbol of the famous outdoor outfitter.

To celebrate the company’s centennial in 2012, L.L. Bean has matched that scale with the Bean Boot Mobile, which a passing motorist recently spotted tromping down Interstate 295.

Abelardo Morell '71

In a new book, Penelope’s Hungry Eyes: Portraits of Photographers, photographer Abe Frajndlich focuses his lens on fellow celebrated photographers, including renowned camera obscura artist Abelardo Morell ’71 (image #10 of the slideshow). The Bowdoin College Museum of Art will feature an exhibition this summer by another of the distinguished subjects from Frajndlich’s book, part-time Maine resident William Wegman (slide #15).

Joan Benoit '79 was a senior at the College when, wearing a Bowdoin singlet and a Red Sox cap, she crossed the finish line, winning the 1979 Boston Marathon in what was then a women's course-record of 2:35:15.

Running is on many minds and much in the news with yesterday’s U.S. Olympic Marathon trials in Houston.

“Picking the top U.S. women’s marathoner of all time is as easy as it was to pick the top man,” writes the Chicago Tribune‘s Olympic sports columnist Philip Hersh. “It’s Joan Benoit Samuelson, of course.”

Otter Cliff in Maine's Acadia National Park.

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, all 397 National Parks are offering free admission this holiday weekend.

The late John Gould ’31, H’68, novelist and long-time columnist for The Christian Science Monitor, mentor to Stephen King, and widely considered the dean of Maine writers, lived for decades on a farm in Lisbon Falls, Maine, where he wrote much of his work in a small log cabin just a short drive up Route 196 from Brunswick. The current owner of the property recently listed Gould’s original cabin on Craigslist. In true Maine fashion, the crumbling building is “free for the taking,” ostensibly for salvage purposes, though the “person removing cabin must provide excavation work and fill.”