Dr. Eleanor W.Traylor's Lecture- Jasmine Rice

In Dr. Eleanor W. Traylor's lecture that was held on September 16th 2010, she spoke about a group of revolutionary thinkers called the Hissaid. The Hissaid is believed to be a fellowship of great scholars that came out of Howard University (and black thought) to impact the world for the better. She began by describing Howard as the most diverse campus, historically, in this area and in the world (according to U.S. News Week). She spoke on some members of the Hissaid and described each example’s talent as a “power” given to them to be used out in the world to effect change. She noted in her lecture one of my favorite writers, Langston Hughes, and recited passages from his poem I have known rivers. As she recited the poem I could understand her theory that these thinkers have/had special “powers”, because specifically in Hughes poem his uses the power of memory of his ancestors to tap into his purpose for writing (which he used as a means to affect his change). She continued by introducing us to more recent members of the Hissaid; she noted that 1) open heart surgery was started here on Howard’s campus by Dr. Williams, 2) Ernest Everest Just (after which the science building on Howard’s campus is so named) was one of the first scientist to successfully split the cell and 3) Dr. Ronald W. Walters was one of the first people to predict a black president in one his published works. She named more prominent writers like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison to begin her transition into how appreciative we should be of the history we see around us everyday and the education we stand to receive as a graduate of Howard University in the coming years.