UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 36, Page 7
July 9, 1992
Walter J. Leonard addresses ninth annual RISE ceremony

     Hope, aspiration, struggle and betterment" were the themes of the
ninth annual RISE (Resources to Insure Successful Engineers) awards
ceremony and dinner. The May 16 event at Clayton Hall was attended by
approximately 300 students, families, friends and corporate sponsors.
     Keynote speaker was Walter J. Leonard, executive director of
Cities in Schools Inc. A graduate of Howard University School of Law
and the Harvard University Business School, Leonard became assistant
dean and assistant director of admissions at Harvard Law School, later
serving as special assistant to Derek Bok, then president of Harvard
University.
     In 1977, Leonard became president of Fisk University, a position
he held for the next six years, and later served as executive
assistant to the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he was
involved in housing, economic development, cultural and educational
projects.
     In his address at the RISE award ceremony, Leonard reviewed the
trials, in both the past and present, of African-Americans in seeking
equality and said, "In the face of all the challenges we have seen and
all the suffering and struggles we have known, we are persuaded that
our achievement, and the achievement of other oppressed people, can
and must bring equality to America....
     "We yet believe there can be a more perfect union: that justice
can be established; that domestic tranquility can be ensured; that the
common defense can be provided; that this country is rich enough and
strong enough to promote the general welfare; and that we can secure
for ourselves, and for our posterity, every blessing of freedom,
justice and liberty.
     "As Americans, we have the resources. All we need now is the
will, the courage to try and the audacity to believe."
                                        -Sue Swyers Moncure