Ex-NAACP head stops on campus

Former Congressman and CEO of the NAACP Kweisi Mfume admits that the Baltimore streets should have killed him at an early age.

Yesterday the Maryland Senate hopeful addressed more than 40 faculty, staff, students and local residents about issues ranging from race to his troubled childhood.

"I should have been dead 10 times over," Mfume said.

However, thanks to the memory of his mother and his own will to change, Mfume persisted to become a five-term Congressman and leader of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Mfume is campaigning in the Democratic primary against Rep. Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

The lecture was held in honor of Judge Leon Higginbotham, a deceased member of the Penn community who played a large role in the advancement of diversity on campus.

Higginbotham not only was the man who convinced Mfume to trade his job as congressman for CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but also was the reason Mfume took a break from the campaign trail.

"When you're in a Senate race like I am in Maryland, you're really not looking for any reason to leave the state, but I'm here because of my profound respect for him and of the center," Mfume said.

Mfume told students that he believes they have the greatest potential to change society.

He said the change would come "out of the minds and hearts of people who are much younger than I, in those years where college is a huge part of their lives, where they are being taught to be critical thinkers and question authority."

College freshman Hayling Price was inspired by Mfume's words.

"Hearing his personal testimony of the obstacles he's overcome from being on the streets of Baltimore to the kind of level of prominence he is today, it really put things in perspective for me," Price said.

"If he can overcome all of that, I have no excuse for giving my all and transcending all the barriers that I have," he added.

Onyx Finney, program coordinator at the Penn Center for Africana Studies, said that Mfume's role as a leader made him an ideal choice for the lecture.

"In this day and age, we tend to look up to athletes, actors and models as the epitome of success, but instead you need to look at people like Mr. Mfume and Leon Higginbotham," Finney said.

Throughout his struggles and success, Mfume held on to the words of his mother.

"My mother used to tell me that half of life is just showing up, full of energy and full of belief, and then to take a chance after that through the rest of that day and all of the ones that follow," Mfume said.

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