Lottery Winner Gives Morris College $10 Million (470 hits)
The reverberations from Rev. Solomon Jackson's recent gift to Morris College, the largest in its 103-year history, are still bouncing around the Sumter, South Carolina campus.
Explosions of joy, gratitude, shock and disbelief rocked the Neal-Jones Auditorium when the Baptist minister told students and faculty that he'd just donated multiple millions to his struggling, historically black alma mater, where he studied theology in the 1970s.
"It was one of those moments you will never, never, ever forget," said Dr. Maggie Wallace Glover, the college's director of Developmental Programs, as she described the scene in the auditorium last Thursday afternoon. "There was standing-room only, people stood wall to wall," she recalled in an interview with BlackAmericaWeb.com.
NiCole Williams, the Morris College director of public relations, said school officials had called students to attend a special program, "but did not disclose the announcement because they wanted the initial surprise to be felt by him and the students. They didn't want to take anything from Rev. Jackson and his moment."
"So," Dr. Glover said, "when Rev. Jackson announced his gift, it was magnificent! The students clapped and clapped and screamed and screamed."
Rev. Jackson, and his stunning gift made a lasting impression, Dr. Glover said.
"We will we never forget him or his persona," she predicted. "He looks just like us. He's like the guy next door, without the aloofness of corporate America or somebody with a Ph.D. He's just like your father, brother or uncle."
Rev. Jackson's donation was carved out of his share of the $259 million Powerball Lottery he won in August of last year. He elected to take one lump sum, which netted $88 million after taxes, rather than increments over time. In addition to his contribution to Morris, he's also established a statewide college scholarship fund.
A relatively small group of critics - none or few of whom appear to be African-American - have denounced Rev. Jackson and his good fortune in comments under Internet articles about the funds he's donated to educate South Carolina's poor and marginalized blacks. The shepherd of Columbia's Shiloh Baptist Church, he has apparently ignored them all.
BlackAmericaWeb.com made numerous attempts to reach Jackson, but without success. Morris College's president, Luns C. Richardson, was also unavailable.
Since Rev. Jackson's announcement, Dr. Glover said, she's asked faculty and administrators if they'd have remembered their alma mater if they'd been as fortunate as Rev. Jackson in winning a lottery. None of them, she said, answered affirmatively. "That makes his gift even more significant," she said.
Students still in shock, she said, "who will probably never get that close to a millionaire again, got a chance to see him and hear why he donated $10 million to Morris College."
Melvin T. Howard, III, Morris College's student body president, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that the gift, which will fund 10 critically needed projects, "has truly been a blessing from Heaven." Among the target projects are a $3 million dormitory with sections for men and women; a $2.5 million administration building; a $1 million college endowment; a $500,000 endowed freshman scholarship and a $170, 000 student health center.
The impact of Jackson's gift, Williams said, "will be felt for generations to come, by our students' children and their children."
Nathaniel Abraham, publisher of the Carolina Panorama, a black weekly located in 45 miles from Sumter, in Columbia, the state's capital, said African-Americans there "applauded Rev. Jackson and his contribution. It's a great gift for our youth and their future."
To show their deep appreciation, Howard told BlackAmericaWeb.com, "each and every student will sign a huge thank-you card," which will be delivered to his attorney and longtime friend, I. S.Leevy Johnson. .....
