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Words of Wisdom
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. influences Wheatfall to inspire others
Tim Moog, The Battalion
Donavan Wheatfall, a sophomore business major, speaks at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration last month in Rudder Auditorium.
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
D onovan Wheatfall stands at the podium,
his voice rising and ebbing as if it was
wandering through a mountain range. His
hands move with every word, cutting through
the air like the ocean waves.
Every sentence erupts through his lips like
fire. The several hundred people sitting in the
hard-backed seats of Rudder Auditorium punctu
ate his speech with staccato applause and thun
dering affirmations, supporting everything he
says as if he had read their minds.
The crowd has come on this chilly January
night to honor Martin Luther King Jr., the man
who used fiery speech to bring peaceful change.
And in each of Wheatfall’s syllables, the
specter of King hovers above.
Donovan Wheatfall is in his element.
It is two weeks after the MLK celebration at
Rudder, and Wheatfall sits at a table in the
MSC. Outside, the evening twilight highlights
Rudder Fountain.
Here, away from the podium, his words are
just as powerful. He moves fluidly, mixing his
movements and words like a grandmother blend
ing ingredients to make a cake.
“I have been given a gift,” Wheatfall says.
“There are things that have been given to me
that have been given to other people, but they
don’t know how to articulate that.”
The sophomore business major has spent al
most as much time on the speaker’s platform as
off it. Wheatfall is only 19 years old, but his age
belies his exceptional life.
An ordained minister since age 17, Wheatfall
is also state president of the NAACP for all col
leges in the state of Texas.
His speeches have reached crowds as large
as 13,000. He has spoken across the country
and across the world.
Those who have heard him include Coretta
Scott King, the wife of Martin Luther King Jr.;
Ralph Abernathy, King’s right-hand man in the
1950s and 1960s; and the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
perhaps the most recognized African-American
social activist of the past 20 years.
I After a speech in Nova Scotia, Canada, be
fore the province’s House of Representatives,
the premier approached Wheatfall and offered
this praise:
“Your are welcome in Nova Scotia,” the pre
mier said, “as long as you don’t run for office.”
That kind of adulation is commonplace from
Wheatfall’s audience.
“I think he is one of the most visionary orators
of his generation,” Kevin Carreathers, A&M di
rector of Multicultural Services who has known
Wheatfall for several years, said. “When I hear
him speak, I hear a lot of Dr. King.”
Others have noticed a current of King in
Wheatfall as well. Wheatfall proudly, yet humbly,
says that those close to King have told Wheatfall
that his speeches remind them of the slain civil
rights leader.
But that should not be surprising, considering
that King’s words pushed Wheatfall toward his
career as an orator.
Wheatfall was in the fifth grade when he first
heard “Sense of Dignity,” one of King’s speeches.
The speech was a wake-up call for the young
Wheatfall.
“What (King) was saying (in the speech) was that
in life, some people think they are superior and
some people think they are inferior,” Wheatfall says.
“I was one of those who thought I was inferior.”
Overweight as a child, Wheatfall was ridiculed
as a youngster, even receiving the nickname “Fat”
from his peers. To compensate, he became a class
clown, making himself the butt of jokes.
Wheatfall credits King with changing him. Af
ter hearing “Sense of Dignity,” the youngster real
ized that he did not have to be the kid everyone
laughed at.
“It enlightened me to the fact that we’re all
equal,” Wheatfall said. “Everyone has a signifi
cance on God’s keyboard, from the treble whites
to the black bass.”
Galvanized by those thoughts, Wheatfall
joined The Original King’s Kids, a pack of chil
dren that toured the country delivering inspira
tional speeches and songs. He stayed with the
Kids until he graduated from high school.
As part of the Kids, Wheatfall traveled not
only around the United States, but also to Bu
dapest, Hungary and later. Nova Scotia. It was
also as part of the Kids that Wheatfall decided to
become a professional orator,* quite a step up from
being the fat kid everyone made fun only years
earlier.
Yes, Wheatfall has considered going into poli
tics. Yes, Wheatfall has considered trying for
state and national offices, perhaps even the
White House.
But if public office is not in the works, Wheat-
fall still has plans to keep a close eye on the those
who make the laws.
“I see myself in the future always in the public
eye,” Wheatfall said, “always listening to the peo
ple and trying to apply what they tell me and try
ing to make a difference.”
Wheatfall also has closer tasks at hand. He is
about to launch Mantum Corporation, a public
speaking firm that will manage Wheatfall’s ca
reer, as well as other inspirational speakers.
But the orator never has his eye too far off
the future.
Wheatfall is set on making a difference. He
wants to be remembered not only as a man who
toiled endlessly to improve the anarchy that sur
rounded him, but also had the right attitude
along the way.
“I want to be remembered as a man who, even
in the midst of all of this, had a smile on my face
everywhere I go,” he said.
“People always ask me, ‘Why are you always
smiling?’” and I say, ‘It’s not what’s on the out
side, it’s what’s on the inside.’ So when it’s all
said and done, I want someone to say, ‘He may
have made mistakes, but the quality of the man
outweighs all of those things.’”
Students
'7 want to see
a day where it
isn't necessary.
If the culture is
represented
throughout the
year, you learn
about us with
everyone else."
— Tina Harrison
chairwoman of the
Black Awareness
Committee
celebrate culture during Black History Month
By Amy Protas
The Battalion
W hat started out as a week to cele
brate a highly ignored minority
has turned into a month-long cele
bration that has endured.
That celebration is Black History
Month. To some A&M students, a month is
not long enough.
Steven Traylor, president of Alpha Phi
Alpha and a senior finance major, said al
though the month is special, the African-
American culture should be celebrated all
the time.
“You have to open your eyes year-
round,” Traylor said. “I want people to real
ize even though February is the month
African-Americans celebrate, people
shouldn’t stop at February 28. Diversity
doesn’t stop being an issue when February
is over.”
Black History Month may only be a
month long, but campus organizations are
determined to make the most of it.
Tonya Turner, president of Alpha
Kappa Alpha and a senior marketing
major, said her culture is an important
part of her life.
“To me, a month isn’t enough time,”
Turner said. “I’m very into my culture. I
celebrate it all the time, but if there has to
be a designated time, I want that to be the
best it can be. It’s a part of my culture, and
it’s a part of me.”
Turner said her sorority wants to em
phasize service to the community as their
message throughout the month.
A black history Jeopardy and a book dri
ve are among the events planned. In addi
tion, Melanie Lawson, a news anchor for
KTRK Channel 13 in Houston will speak.
Turner said in today’s society, the com
munity tends to get neglected.
“For Black History Month, our focus is
going to be back to service,” Turner said.
“People have strayed from the community.
The kids are our future, and without them,
all is lost. We need to make sure that the
youth understand the struggle.”
Tina Harrison, chairwoman of the
Black Awareness Committee and a senior
finance major, said that .while the month
is necessary now, it will hopefully no longer
have to exist.
“Black History Month is extremely
important now,” Harrison said. “I want
to see a day where it isn’t necessary. If
the culture is represented throughout
the year, you learn about us with every
one else. Hopefully, we won’t need a
Black History Month.”
The committee is hosting “Envy Among
Us,” a program about prejudice within the
African-American culture.
The committee is also sponsoring
“HIV-Could Be You.” It wants students
to be more aware of the problem of AIDS
in the community.
People who are HIV positive will be
speaking to let students know that there
will be free AIDS testing in February.
The PanHellenic Council is hosting a
Harambee Festival.
The festival gets African-American orga
nizations to highlight something special
about their group.
The programs are open to all students.
Traylor said achieving diversity at a
school like A&M is going to be complicated.
He said he hopes the programs will help to
educate students.
“I don’t think, you can achieve diversity
at a school like A&M unless people are ex
posed to Black History Month,” Traylor
said. “If A&M continues to not want multi-
culturalism, we will never have diversity.
“This is one way we, as African-Ameri
cans, can enlighten others to our culture.
We encourage everyone to come out and
open their eyes and ears.”
Stephanie Rhodes, a program adviser in
the Memorial Student Center, said Black
History Month educates other cultures to
the African-American experience.
“The month allows an opportunity to
share knowledge not always gotten
through traditional education,” she said.
“People have always thought of African-
Americans as being of an ignorant nature.
But blacks have made tremendous contri
butions in science and medicine.
“People don’t know because they haven’t
been taught. Even African-Americans don’t
know, and if they don’t, most other peo
ple in society don’t know either.”
Rhodes said Black History Month is
not only for African-Americans. It is a
time for all cultures to unite.
“This is a time to truly educate and
provide knowledge,” Rhodes said. “It’s
not only for African-Americans to come
together.
“But other ethnic groups can come to
gether to share and learn about a com
mon theme, a common issue.”