Brother Mattheiv Dawson
llllllllllllll Brother MATTHEW DAWSON, is president of the Vallejo Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. While the plummeting national literacy rate is an issue that cuts across color lines, the problem is particularly hard felt among blacks. Blacks accounted for 30 percent of the dropouts in the Vallejo City Unified School District in 1988, according to district records. Facing an increasingly competitive job market in the 1990s, the employment prospects for blacks who fail to make the grade academically are likely to be bleak. To improve the black educational performance, the district has set up the Tanner Program, a volunteer remedial education project that encourages teachers, students and parents to work together in an effort to prepare more blacks for college enrollment. "For the majority of our young, black males, the system is not working. A lot of black students believe that external forces control their lives. If they blame the system, then that gives them an excuse not to take responsibilities themselves. I think each of us bears a share of the problem — society, the schools and individuals. "The (Tanner) program works with both the students and the parents and that's very important." "Let's hope that we can motivate more black youngsters, male and female, to get enrolled in black universities. "Too many black people who are
Brother Hugh M. Gloster, ]r.
graduating from high school still can't get jobs, either because they're untrained or because they can't read. We've got to work to raise those youngsters' aspirations."
llllllllllllll Brother HUGH M. GLOSTER, JR., received the M.D. degree at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta during commencement exercises. One of the top-ranking students in his class, he was a holder of the coveted Regents Scholarship and->a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the prestigious medicalschool honorary society. At MCG he was also a member of the American Medical Association, the National Medical Association, the Black Students Medical Association, and the Student National Medical Association. In July he will begin his residency at the George W a s h i n g t o n University Hospital in Washington, D.C. The young physician is the son of Dr. Hugh M. Gloster, life member of Alpha, recipient of Frederick Patterson Award last summer, President of Morehouse College from 1967 to 1987 and currently Co-Director of the College Consulting Network of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and the late Dr. Beulah H. Gloster, former Professor of English and Director of the Writing Laboratory at Morehouse College. Young Dr. Gloster received the bachelor's degree at the University of I'd go 37