elsie lewis with the chair of the history department at howard university at the time. grace still wanted me to be something other than ethnically black and refused to use the term black in my thesis, wouldn't let me. nonetheless he allowed me to take dr. lewis' history course at howard university. she became my first black professor. but louis thought it howard and i returned to gw. fortunately i had a taste of vets in the one course that i had had with louis. she encouraged me to work on my term papers so that i could submitted for publication. dr. lewis was the first person who even suggested that my work was worthy of publication. earning my m.a. degree did not lend me a job in the profession. gray white would not write recommendations for me to teach at any college in the dc area. finally, i heard an opening at morgan state, which is a historically black college, hbcu, as we call that in baltimore. i applied and began my over 30 year college teaching career in the fall of 1969. the year 1978 was a transitional one to me. i had graduated from howard university with

elsie louis s.a. posted into with him at the department of history and university of chicago, but he still had a difficult time seeing black people. eschewing historian. llc lewisas the chair at howard university at the time. in greece still wanted me to be something other than the ethnically black and refuse to use the term live in my thesis in. nevertheless he allowed me to take out to louis negro history course and howard university. she became an first by professor. but lewis taught at howard and i returned to chee debbie. and grey agreed to be my thesis adviser. but provided little mentoring. unfortunately i had a taste of it in the one course that i had handed with lewis. she encouraged me to work on my term paper so that i could submit it for publication. and dr. louis was the first person who even suggested that my work was worthy of publication. during my m.a. degree denominated job in the profession and, would agree without wrecking recommendations for me to teach at any college in the washington d.c. area. and finally i heard of an opening at morgan state which is in historically black college atc you as a coffin in baltimore. if i applied in began a

i have learned through my experience with elsie lewis that you find a senior person, who looks at youin a positive way, and you try to, and i did not know the word mentoring so much then. you just try to keep track of them and let them know you are around. unfortunately elsie lewis developed alzheimer's and that was tragic for me because she used to write recommendations and do things for me, but after a while she couldn't. .. i was amazed that he -- that's kind of a little -- litter a kind of i don't know what it is, but it was a very good idea. but we went to people like dorothy porter was another person sharon and i worked with all the time, and these folks were born in the early 20th century. so they were old enough to almost be over grandparents. i'm not going to see parents plan almost -- they were between let's say in grandparents and parents, and i think that's very important. so i understood how important it was to deal with my elders, and like what you're saying happened. a lot of young people today don't respect their elders, and i don't mean bad mouth them or whatever but