Heritage Chapel honors BPC’s racial diversity, history

Dr. Ron Melton, BPC provost, delivers a memorable Heritage Chapel address on Inauguration Day 2009. The chapel service was held in Saliba Chapel on the Mount Vernon campus Jan. 20. (Photo by Kayla Oliver)

By Kayla Oliver

BPC Marketing Staff

MOUNT VERNON—Approximately one hour before President Barack Obama was sworn into the presidency, Brewton-Parker College students attended a special chapel service of its own on the Mount Vernon campus.

The Heritage Chapel, hosted in Saliba Chapel Jan. 20, provided a sense of awareness and importance of racial diversity in Brewton-Parker’s history. BPC Provost, Dr. Ron Melton, delivered an address in which he tied the “impact of the day’s inauguration,” the historic event of our nation’s first African-American President, to racial diversity and altruism and generosity of oppressed African-Americans, especially in Brewton-Parker’s history. He shared the story of Warren Crawley, a former slave who gave five acres of land to help establish Brewton-Parker. Crawley’s gift was especially significant and generous because, under Jim Crowe laws, neither he nor his children would be able to attend the institution.

He continued to narrate Brewton-Parker’s history of diversity by telling the story of Douglas Williams, who was the first African-American student to attend Brewton-Parker. His attendance of Brewton-Parker for the first time in 1967 served as a springboard for Brewton-Parker’s diversity. Presently, Brewton-Parker enjoys a mix of numerous cultures on campus in both its employees and its students.

Brewton-Parker College is the only accredited four-year Christian college in south Georgia.

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