Underwriting the future: two women will send 146 kids to college

Ebony, April, 1989 by Roxanne Brown

UNDERWRITING THE FUTURE: Two Women Will Send 146 Kids To College

TWO women -- an educator and a real estate broker--hail from different backgrounds, live on opposite coasts of the country and have never met; yet they are linked by a single, exemplary goal. Mrs. Oral Brown and Dr. Ruth Wright Hayre plan to put 146 children through college.

During graduation ceremonies at two Philadelphia public schools last June, Dr. Hayre, a retired educator, made a surprise announcement that instilled hope in the hearts and minds of 119 sixth-graders and their parents. She told them she had made provisions to send them all to college, provided they made good grades and were accepted at accredited institutions. Before she could finish her speech, she was drowned out by thunderous applause as gleeful parents leaped to their feet.

Meanwhile, in Oakland, Calif., Mrs. Brown, a real estate broker, shocked the principal of an elementary school in a low-income neighborhood when she informed her of plans to adopt a class of 27 first-graders and fund their college education. After Mrs. Brown told the news to Brookfield Elementary School Principal Yolanda Peeks, the educator rose silently from her chair, walked around her office, sat back down, and asked Mrs. Brown to repeat what she had just told her. Being the bearer of news that was well worth repeating, Mrs. Brown did just that, until it became believable to Mrs. Peeks.

Philanthropy is certainly not stupefying; even the "adoption" of inner-city school children has begun to catch on, but virtually all of the donors have been White. Mrs. Brown, 43, and Dr. Hayre, 78, are, perhaps, the first Blacks to guarantee a college education for classrooms of disadvantaged children.

The adopted students of North Philadelphia, now in junior high school, could not have been blessed with a more laudable role model. Dr. Hayre graduated from high school at age 15 and earned a master's degree in education at the University of Pennsylvania by the time she was 20. Her passion for education dates back to her grandfather, Richard R. Wright, who attended Harvard, was president of Georgia State College and founder of the Citizens and Southern Bank, one of the first Black banks in Philadelphia. Wright's words were immortalized in a John Greenleaf Whittier poem when a Union Army general from the North visited a Southern school and asked Black students what message he should take back with him. "Tell them we are rising," was 10-year-old Wright's reply. Dr. Hayre chose her grandfather's words for the title of her scholarship program, and selected a class of recipients from an elementary school named after Wright.

Having inherited a legacy as a trailblazer, Dr. Hayre (her father, Richard Jr., was also a college president, an A.M.E. church bishop and among the country's first Blacks to earn a doctoral degree) has continued the tradition. In 1946 she became the first Black high school teacher in Philadelphia, and 10 years later she became the first Black high school principal. During the last 12 years of her career in education, Dr. Hayre served as district superintendent for North Philadelphia.

When asked about her acquisition of the financial means to educate so many youngsters, Dr. Hayre, her brown eyes twinkling, reveals only that her husband, who died 12 years ago, "left a tidy little sum," and that she has invested her money wisely. "I've always kidded her about holding on to a dollar," reveals Anne Garrott, a friend of Dr. Hayre's for more than 50 years.

She refuses to give a figure for the cost of the program, but Dr. Hayre does say it "will take a greater part of my assets." Tuition costs for half of the 119 students are in a trust account at Temple University, which coordinates the program, absorbs most of the operational costs, and provides tutors and program evaluation. "If half of them go, it will be a tremendous success, because normally only a 10th would be expected to go," says Dr. Hayre.

"Tell Them We Are Rising" students have been matched with mentors who will spend time with them on a weekly basis. In less than one year, positive changes resulting from the program are easy to find. One parent, Synera Washington, 27, the mother of Michael, 12, has been motivated to finish high school. "At one point, I know he's going to look at me and say, 'Mama, you don't have a diploma; why should I go to college?' Well, I'm beating him to it." As for the scholarship, Ms. Washington, a divorcee, says a great burden has been lifted because she has two other children to send to college. "Every time I see her [Dr. Hayre], I just want to hug her."

Thousands of miles away in California, Mrs. Brown gets plenty of hugs each time she visits her appreciative second graders at Brookfield. She meets with parents of her adopted group once a month and visits the students every week. "I'm a small woman, but every one of them tries to get some place where they can hold on to me," says the founder and president of Nationwide Realty.