#ReachHigher – Education Kept Me From Disappearing

Boston University is one of several colleges and universities taking part in First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher initiative encouraging college access and attendance on May 1st. Here is Dean Elmore’s reflection about what choosing higher education meant to him.

I understand how human beings can disappear but still be flesh and blood.

It shouldn’t have been, but seeing the analysis of 1.5 million black men who are missing from society and civic life, was a shock. When I read it, my eyes filled with tears as if something suddenly hit me across the bridge of my nose.

I am a witness – education kept me from disappearing.

Education came at me in so many ways that looked nothing like a classroom. I was educated in Brooklyn and the City; by folks in rural South Carolina; and, within the Pomfret, Brown, Boston University, and New England Law communities.  My teachers have been Civil Rights, urban decay, Booker T and the MGs, the so-called “digital age”, poor folks, Ellison, DJs and B-Boy creators, random storytellers, Morrison, Root medicine, and the dozens.

My life education may have helped me get by, but I doubt it would have helped me complete my search for my hopes and dreams or to be the full person I want to be. Reading a $4 copy of “The Fire Next Time” – I still carry that same copy – with James Baldwin’s striking essay, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation” was my personal game changer.

How fitting? An essay that I read – on the side – as a junior high school student convinced me to give up my flirtations with crime; not fall victim to urban poverty; fight educational isolation; and, to use education as a way to deal with some of my pounding anger.  Baldwin’s essay swayed me – college was going to be a new hustle. I decided to jump – it was a real leap of faith for me:  the chance that going to college would change my situation and maybe even outcomes in my life.

I put all I had in to getting into college. A dull headache and constant stomach pains were high school companions. Rejection was a fear of mine – it meant that my assessment as a 13-year-old was off and that I might disappear.

I know the stories may be different now, but, for me, the story played out well. College opened doors. It saved my life and made it possible for me to be alive. 


I hope your May 1, choice is the beginning of many doors that open to you.

Peace.