Black law dean ushers in a new day at Ole Miss

Ebony, August, 1995 by Kevin Chappell

But that's all behind Westerfield, and today, he's receiving both support and praise. Through it all, he says he's remained the same person, someone who cares about all of his students, but especially the underdogs. "I'm sure there are people who think I talk Black too much and there are people who think I talk White too much. But I think people realize that I'm no raving militant," he says, looking at the tall, blossoming magnolia trees visible from his office window. "I try to be fair to White students as well as Black students, but I am sensitive to the needs of people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, because that was me."

While Westerfield credits hard work and discipline for his success, his history-making law career might never have happened were it not for the actions of a White man in 1967. Westerfield had graduated from high school with good grades, but didn't think about going to college, although people had told him he should. Instead, he worked as a janitor at a New Orleans beauty salon, making $30 a week. "I was sweeping the place one day when a Caucasian man came in, stepped in my trash and called me a nigger," Westerfield recalls. "I cursed him and then I quit. I went home and told my mother I was going to college."

Westerfield enrolled at Southern University of New Orleans, which charged $30 per semester back then. He wanted to become a social worker because "I lived in the projects and the strongest person coming through there was the welfare lady. She had power, so that's what I wanted to do."

After spending time with two friends who were lawyers, he later decided he wanted to practice law instead of social work. "We used to sit around and drink wine and talk about law school," the dean says. "I came to realize the respect a lawyer garners and the importance of being able to interpret and apply the law. I thought I could gain respectability and help people."

Westerfield remembers vividly the day he took a streetcar to Southern University's law school, hoping to enroll. "I got there about 7 a.m. and sat out on the porch until they opened. A lady walked up and I told her I wanted to go to law school. It turns out she was the director of admissions."

He said she was somewhat amused to see this young man who was saying he wanted to be an attorney. After all, Westerfield hadn't taken the law school admissions test, didn't have money for tuition and hadn't even applied. But what may have seemed like insurmountable obstacles to; most people, were only small irritants to Westerfield. He won acceptance into a six-week law school training program for the disadvantaged, worked two jobs to pay for tuition and afterwards was admitted to the law school. He was first in his class when riots closed the school and forced him to transfer to Loyola University in New Orleans where he graduated in 1974.

Twenty years later, Westerfield has become dean at Ole Miss. He calls his first year there "one of the best years of my life" and says his fantastic journey to become the first Black dean at the once volatile university has helped put his life, with its humble beginnings, into perspective. It has also taught him one important thing, "You can't go around worrying about pleasing everyone," he says. "If you do, you compromise everything you've done to get to where you are."