Google Image<\/em><\/p>\n

Tatyana Ross
\n<\/span>Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n

Hilliard Lawrence Lackey, Ph.D. sat down to speak with Flash Editor-in-Chief about his upbringing and the journey that led to his over 50-year span of service to Jackson State University<\/span><\/p>\n

Lackey was born on Oct. 9, 1942 in Marks, Miss., a small town located in the Mississippi Delta, where his family lived on a cotton plantation as sharecroppers. He knew there had to be more to life than working in cotton fields all day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lackey attended Friendship School located in rural Quitman County.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had two teachers, Mary Valentine Johnson and Solomon Benson and they were not college graduates. They might have taken classes but I\u2019m reasonably sure they did because they spoke so well,\u201d Lackey said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He added, <\/span>\u201cWhere I was, you went to church on Sunday and we had funerals on Sunday afternoons in those days because you couldn\u2019t miss work to do anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lackey was always interested in higher education and in 1961, his high school teacher Leo D. Reed took him to Jackson State to take the ACT.<\/span><\/p>\n

When his classmates were presenting which college they planned on going to, Lackey told the class he wanted to attend Memphis State University and the room just went dead silent before his teacher interjected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he just laughed at me and said, \u2018They don\u2019t want you there\u2019 and he invited me and two other students along with him that same weekend to take the ACT here,\u201d Lackey said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lackey admitted to never actually trying to get into Memphis State but he said he always fantasized about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI read a newspaper everyday which was passed along from the plantation owner, The Memphis Press Scimitar,\u201d Lackey said. \u201cEverything we had in the Delta came from Memphis, so I was infatuated with Memphis and I wanted to get there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lackey said that the day he took the ACT marked his first real time getting to see black people wearing such nice suits and dresses and he was inspired and described it as having instant role models.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He admired all of his teachers but he said that Allen Brown, a chemistry teacher, is who he looked up to the most.\u00a0 After taking the ACT he was invited to stay at Brown\u2019s residence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown was more than just a teacher but he also filmed the sports games for the school. And after helping Lackey receive a position with student employment, he joined the staff of The Blue and White Flash as a photographer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers were bigger than life in our minds as students and we really held the teaching faculty in high regard. We thought they were something,\u201d Lackey said. \u201cAnd now that I am one of them I emulate those of the past.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI want to just overwhelm students and innovate them with knowledge and my perspective of an open-minded person seeking the truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After earning his bachelor\u2019s degree from Jackson College for Negro Teachers, Lackey continued his education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Lackey, there were only three schools where African-Americans could attain a Ph.D.: University of Oklahoma, Indiana University, and Ohio State University. However, he managed to gain his Ph.D. from The University of Mississippi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lackey became the first employee hired on Peoples\u2019 staff holding the position of the Director of Alumni Affairs, and he has maintained a position at Jackson State for 56 years and counting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI came on April 1, 1967 and that was 56 years ago. One of the smaller things in life is to be the longest serving employee of Jackson State,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1967, the school was renamed Jackson State College and Lackey said that after Peoples took over as president he had goals to make Jackson State even better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Dr. Peoples became president, he asked all employees, especially faculty, to get their \u2018meal ticket\u2019,\u201d Lackey said. \u201cHe wanted to strengthen the institution by strengthening the faculty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIn those days you couldn\u2019t get a master\u2019s degree in Mississippi unless you got it from Jackson State, if you were black. And you couldn’t get above a master\u2019s at all unless you left the state of Mississippi.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lackey said he is grateful for all the years he has dedicated to Jackson State because it has had a lot of influence on the man he is today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJackson State is F.U.B.U., for us and by us. We made this school. And a student should understand that nobody gave us this school. We made this school,\u201d Lackey said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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