Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 4-6-18

FLORIDA SENTINEL
FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018
B
Speaker At Black Brown Summit Brunch:
Minister And Civil Rights Activist Calvin O. Butts
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Success in any area of your life re- quires following the plan of F. E. W., or faith, education, and work.
Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III,
renowned civil rights activist and minister of New York City’s Abyssin- ian Baptist Church, imparted the ad- vice last week to about 200 attendees at the closing brunch of the Black, Brown, & College Bound Summit.
While all three must be applied, work is most important because it requires action, Rev. Butts said.
“If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” he said. “I learned that from James Brown before I saw it in the Bible.”
And it’s not just yourself who benefits from doing the work, but it
REV. DR. CALVIN O. BUTTS, III
serves “as a foundation for future generations.”
Rev. Butts, a graduate of More- house College, credits his parents for giving him a solid foundation in
faith. As a student, he studied hard and was planning to attend Trinity College after high school. But those dreams were dashed when a re- cruiter offered him admission to the school, but no financial aid.
He said he was heartbroken until his mother suggested he take a look at Morehouse, the historically black college where former Tampa Urban League president, Benjamin Mays had been president. He applied and was accepted.
“I got to campus and went to Archer Hall,” he said. “For the first time in my life I heard the Glee Club sing every stanza of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”
Rev. Butts said he excelled aca- demically at Morehouse, earning straight A’s his first year.
“My mother asked me ‘do you still
want to go to Trinity?’,” he said. “I said ‘no, leave me where I am.’ Part of that had to do with all-women’s Spelman (College) across the street.”
Rev. Butts, who is the chairman of nonprofit community and eco- nomic engine Abyssinian Develop- ment Corporation, charged the young men at the conference to never forget their roots and to shun overt displays of wealth.
“You’ve got to get away from os- tentation,” he said. “You don’t tell people how much money you have. You don’t have to show off every- thing you have.”
Those who focus on the F. E. W. – faith, education, and work – and keep their roots close, “are the ones who are chosen,” he said. “Those are the one who can...capture the atten- tion of the world.”
Scenes From One Of The Black Brown College-Bound Summits
(Photos by Frederick Harris)
Daughter and mom at the Summit, Tonyata and Sharon Thompson.
Attendees included: Reginald Roundtree, Schar Tim, Dr. Ken At- water, President, HCC; Dr. Joan Holmes, Asst. to the President for Equity and Special Programs and Mayor Bob Buckhorn.
Reginald Roundtree of Channel 10 News was the Master of Cere- monies for the Black Brown and College Bound Summit on Monday, March 26th, when retired NFL football player and TV host/analyst, Michael Strahan was the guest speaker.
Among those who attended the Summit were: Keith Bell, Con- gresswoman Kathy Castor, Virgil Johnson, Maleek Moreno and Ernest Coney, Jr.
Shane Kidd and Bryan Ter- rell Clark.
Also in attendance were: George Davis, Joan Dawson, Jackie Davis, Freddie Hudson and Janice London.