[NFBofSC] FW: Beloved Professor

Sun Aug 4 15:26:20 UTC 2024

Steve Cook

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From: The Blind History Lady <theblindhistorylady-gmail.com at shared1.ccsend.com> 
Sent: Thursday, August 1, 2024 7:55 AM
To: cookcafe at sc.rr.com
Subject: Beloved Professor

Beloved Professor 

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Hello.

It is the first of the month again and time for a new Blind ancestor.

Bertram and Bessie Hudson were devastated. Their five-year-old son recovered from Spinal Meningitis, but the disease left him almost blind. They had such hopes for their five children. Being Black in Birmingham, Alabama limited the educational possibilities. But to be blind as well… 

Herman Cleophus Hudson was born February 16, 1923, into an educated, aspiring, Black family in Birmingham. His father, born in 1889, was a college graduate who worked as a bookkeeper in a Black-owned bank by 1900. Later Bertram worked as a porter, became a public-school teacher, and principal. His grandfather Burton Hudson, born about 1850, most likely into slavery, became a cashier at the bank that his son worked in. Several of Burton’s children grew up to be educators. Burton and his wife Hattie adopted several children. They had 12 of their own, but only seven made it to adulthood. Hattie, born in 1865, most likely was the child of parents born into slavery.

In 1929, Herman’s parents split up and his mother took him and four siblings to Detroit, Michigan. They lived with a great uncle who had a good job working in an auto factory. This turned out to be a major boost to Herman’s education. Although his family valued a good education, for a young, Black boy in Birmingham, there were no services for the blind. In Detroit, there was a sight saving class that helped him access the educational system with little eyesight.

Herman attended integrated Northwestern High School. Racial relations at the school were not good and rioting broke out. Herman went from class to class hoping to instill racial tolerance between fellow students. Already his leadership, determination, and sense of purpose were evident in his actions. Herman had the ability to see the greater picture at a young age.

In 1940, he worked with students from other high schools to organize and host a youth rally at a local YMCA to discuss the problems of Black youth in Detroit. More than 200 students were in attendance. Panels focused on interracial clubs and education. They discussed the need to understand the rich Negro heritage to best eradicate the inferiority complex they faced as a group. Herman felt that if Black youth learned of their rich heritage and accomplishments, more Black teens could shed their feelings of inferiority and achieve greater goals.

Herman served as captain of the Northwestern High School debate team. He was well-known at the school as an orator and won first place in the 1939 Century of Progress Club annual oration contest. He went on to compete nationally in 1942.

Not only in school did Herman work on issues of youth. He attended meetings at the Antoine YMCA. He spoke to other Black and white teens about the issues affecting them at school and in the neighborhoods. He learned from others and gave suggestions on what they as teens could do about their concerns. Already his skills as an educator were showing.

He entered the University of Michigan (U of M) in 1941. Herman had no family or friends to help pay for his college. He went to many community organizations for financial funding. Judge Ned Smith a white blind man assisted him in finding financial support for his education. Smith took Herman to the many white service clubs he belonged to and convinced the clubs to financially support Herman.

Herman had met Judge Ned Smith when a teen. Their friendship opened many possibilities for him as a blind man. Never had he met a blind man with a good job and position in the community. The two visited in-person frequently when Herman was a teen. Judge Smith taught him how to use readers effectively to get the most out of his studies. In College, a club on campus offered nine women to read for Herman for free. Herman knew from the Judges own experience that if they read for free, the women would not take his studies seriously enough to show up every day. So, he paid them 30 cents an hour.

The two blind men corresponded during college. Judge Smith sent money to Herman when Herman fell short of the expenses for the U of M and during his studies at National University of Mexico in the mid 1940’s. Later Herman wrote letters of support for Ned’s campaigns.

Herman received his B.A. in 1945 and a M.A. in 1946 in Spanish, English, and History, at the U of M. He later arrived at Indiana University in 1968, after teaching Spanish at Florida A&M University beginning in 1948, the University of Puerto Rico in the early 1950s, received his PHD from U of M in 1961, and in the 1960s he served as Director of the English language Program at Kabul University in Afghanistan.

Herman modestly described his duties in Kabul. “It was a program of English as a second language that. ..by that time, the government had decided to make English the second language of the country. English was being taught in grades seven through twelve, and thirteen through sixteen at Kabul University, but the whole instructional apparatus was at a very primitive stage. There were very few textbooks and very few Afghans trained to teach English, so, the project that I headed for six years involved the writing of textbooks for all those grades, training Afghan teachers to teach English, and setting up English departments in various high schools in the capitol of Kabul, and regional English language centers in the provinces. All of which was done with the assistance of a number of teachers from Columbia University and a number of Peace Corps volunteers.” 

In 1968, Herman became the first Black teaching staff member of Indiana University. He founded and chaired Indiana University’s Afro-American Studies department in 1970, the second such department in any US university. The department came out of protests by Black students on campus. Here he taught the history of Black people that he felt was so important in his life to be a better person. The program explored Black culture, Black accomplishments, race relations, and explored the potential for the future. His department was the first to collect Black history, Black-authored books, artwork and more.

Herman wrote several influential works that are still being used in university programs today. One article written in 1972, “The Black Studies Program: Strategy and Structure” in The Journal of Negro Education highlighted the concerns of the Black community regarding the restricted educational systems on campuses across the country. Black Americans attended colleges and universities, but the institutions did not provide curriculum about or for African Americans. His presentation of the issues was factual, well-thought out and helped to improve race relations not only at IU, but the town of Bloomington and around many college campuses across the country.

Herman and other professors organized high school programs for Black youth. Some classes focused on academics while others explored the arts, or social justice.

He served as vice chancellor and later as dean from 1970 until June of 1981 and from 1990 to 1993. In 1971, he began the Soul Revue, an all-Black music ensemble. The participants were recruited from the Black student body, not from the music department.

Herman created and expanded the department of African American Studies throughout his tenure. Herman created the first version of what is now the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, then known as Black House, located in a former fraternity house on campus. It focused on supporting the teaching, research, and service missions of the university, while also providing a positive and hospitable social environment for African American and African students, faculty, and staff.

In 1975, Herman played a crucial role in helping to form the National Council of Black Studies. Today, the council holds conventions annually and encourages papers on the African American experience.

But it was his mentoring and encouragement that stood out to those who remember him to this day. He recruited Black students and faculty for not just his department, but the entire university’s programs. He became a father figure to many of the students he followed during and after their years at IU.

His proudest accomplishments according to a 2001 interview was the creation of the Archives of the African American Music and Culture in 1991. “Besides being a building, (it) is a symbolic structure indicating that Blacks are part of this institution, and a kind of home away from home for them to conduct both academic and social activities.” Herman said.

Today, the Hudson and Holland Scholars program honors his achievements as a Black leader, mentor, and educator. It is the largest Merit-based Scholarship on the IU campus. Symposiums are named after him. When the department celebrated its 50th anniversary, Herman was credited for its beginning, expansion, and creativity. It is still the only African American Studies program with a Creative Arts component.

In his personal life, he married Katherine Pope on June 8, 1946, in Ann Arbor Michigan. She was a nurse. They had three children., Brenda, Margaret, and Karen, born in 1952. Herman taught Spanish at the University of Florida. His mother Bessie lived with them in 1950 at Herman’s home at 710 Gaege in Tallahassee. She died in 1951, never knowing what her son would become. His father died that same year back in Birmingham.

Traveling around the world was not only an education for himself, but his children as well.

Daughter Karen recalled her real education in life in Puerto Rico, followed by a short stint in Durham, North Carolina during the Civil Rights movement in the late 1950’s. In Durham she attended a segregated school and witnessed the sit-down strikes. She traveled extensively from Kabul with family to Europe, Pakistan, India, Iran, Hong Kong, and a class trip to Russia (the then Soviet Union). She received her BA and MA at IU and became news director at WGPR TV Channel 62, the first Black-owned TV Station in the United States.

Herman died on Feb 18, 2003, at his home in Michigan. Blindness was not what stopped Herman.

Peggy Chong is the 2023 Jacob Bolotin Award Winner.

To schedule The Blind History Lady for a presentation for your business, church or community group, email;  <mailto:theblindhistorylady at gmail.com> theblindhistorylady at gmail.com 

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