September 3, 2021
The World Needs Visionaries
The University will be closed on Monday, September 6, to observe the Labor Day holiday. Offices and classes will resume normal operations on Tuesday, September 7. 
Claflin University and Student Government Association Hosts Town Hall to Discuss COVID-19 Concerns
Dr. Linda Bell has the daunting challenge of spearheading South Carolina’s battle against COVID-19. As the Palmetto State’s epidemiologist with the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), Bell has been the face and the voice of the agency which is charged with promoting and protecting the health of the public and the environment in South Carolina.

Bell spoke to Claflin University students during a Town Hall meeting hosted on Zoom by the University and the Student Government Association (SGA) on Monday, August 30. Her data-driven discussion included a look back at how the country was seemingly months from possibly finding its way out of the pandemic. However, the confluence of July 4th and other summertime holidays, failure to maintain previous protection and immunization levels, and the emergence of a new variant contributed to a steep increase in positive COVID-19 test results.

“We were seeing double digit cases or fewer than 100 confirmed cases in a single day in the middle of June. Now we have more than 5,000 to 6,000 cases in a single day,” Bell said. “Then, the worst thing that happened was the arrival of a new strain – the Delta variant -- which is highly transmittable from person to person. All of this created a perfect storm and the situation got completely out of hand.”

Bell pointed out that the Data Tracker map developed by the Center of Disease and Control (CDC) identifies if states have high, substantial, moderate, or low rates of COVID-19 transmissions. It confirms that the United States is “red hot” with COVID-19 cases.

Despite the dramatic surge in infections, Bell remains optimistic.

“We have some tools and things available to us that can prevent what is causing illnesses and deaths,” Bell said. “The fact is that so many people are not taking advantage of that. I am spending the bulk of my professional time on this one thing. But I understand that for others, accurate information may not be available. I want to provide, accurate and correct data that may help them make informed choices.”

Research by the CDC reported that African Americans have disproportionately higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19. Bell supported those findings and added that many African Americans have elevated risks due to underlying medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and other health problems. 

“African Americans with any of these conditions are at least three times more likely to be admitted to the hospital. If they have COVID, they can develop complications and are more likely to die,” Bell said. “If you have three of these conditions, you are five times more likely to be admitted to the hospital to take care of your COVID-19 infection than people without these conditions."

Bell said that she hears many questions about the vaccine, but she encourages people to ask instead about the disease itself. 

“The benefits of the vaccine significantly outweigh the risk of the disease,” Bell said.

Other startling facts in the CDC’s report were that COVID-19 deaths are increasing among African Americans in the 15-24 and 45-49 age groups. The number of African American deaths due to COVID is disproportionate to the percentage of the African American population in South Carolina, which is 27 percent.

Bell confirmed that the vaccines were properly tested and that it does have any properties that enable anyone to track a person’s movements or locations. She also dismissed the notion that the vaccine causes infertility, takes too much time, or is unnecessary to prevent COVID-19 infection.

“I encourage you not to wait and to take the vaccine,” Bell said. “More than 174 million people have been vaccinated but two-thirds of the population has not been tested. The vaccine is safe, and it has gone through all the clinical trials by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The side effects are mild – it may cause some pain and swelling due to the needle. But it does not infect you with the disease.” Please protect yourself so you can protect the people around you. Make sure you are able to realize the bright future that’s ahead of you.”

Click here to view a recording of the Town Hall meeting.
Faculty News
“Paintings & Lenticulars,” an exhibit featuring the work of Raishad Glover, will be on display through January 1, 2022, at the Charleston Tech Center, 999 Morrison Drive, in Charleston, S.C. The exhibit is free and open daily from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Glover is an assistant professor of studio art at Claflin. Lenticular printing is a technology in which lenticular lenses (a technology that is also used for 3D displays) are used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles.

The exhibit comprises a series of paintings on square hemp boards that originated as digital sketches. The paintings incorporate a textured graphite powder background with an iridescent glow with diagonal color slashes. Glover has exhibited his work in Europe as well as across the United States.
Alumni News
Civil rights pioneer Dr. Gloria Blackwell Rackley, '53, is featured in the South Carolina African American History Calendar. Listed below is the brief information shared in the calendar:

Rackley was born in Little Rock, S.C. in 1927. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Claflin College, her master’s at South Carolina State College, and a doctorate from Emory University.

In the 1950s, she, her husband Jack Rackley, and their two young daughters, became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in Orangeburg. She had previously engaged in voter registration drives with her parents in Dillon County, where she worked as an elementary school teacher. The segregated system made some teachers reluctant to participate in the NAACP-led Movement in South Carolina because they relied on white school boards to renew their teaching contracts. Dr. Rackley won a lawsuit on their behalf in the 1960s guaranteeing the same rights to contracts that white teachers held.

By 1961, she was an NAACP local leader and a target of the white power structure that declined to renew her husband’s contract at S.C. State and declared her unfit to be a teacher. Her firing led to student demonstrations of support for her. Dr. Rackley served as a field organizer for the NAACP, counseled college-aged NAACP members, walked picket lines, and was arrested with other protesters, including her daughter, Lurma. She was a member of the steering committee of the Orangeburg Movement that worked for civil rights and economic justice.

With the NAACP’s attorney Matthew Perry, Dr. Rackley filed Rackley v. Tri-County Hospital after being arrested for sitting in the “whites only” waiting area seeking care for her daughter Jamelle’s injured finger. The lawsuit succeeded in integrating the hospital.

After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Dr. Rackley moved to Virginia and taught English at Norfolk State College. Next, she taught at American International College in Springfield, M.A., at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., and at Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University), where she remained until retirement in 1994. Dr. Rackley died in 2010 in Peachtree City, Ga.
Would you like to purchase Claflin University items for yourself or as gifts? Proceeds from the items above will support scholarships for the next generation of visionary leaders at Claflin University.

Click here to order today.

If you are paying by check, please make payable to Claflin University. Please put t-shirt size on the memo line. Mail to:

Claflin University
Attn: Marcus Burgess
400 Magnolia Street
Orangeburg, SC 29115

For more information, please call (803) 535-5348.
400 Magnolia Street
Orangeburg, SC 29115 
1.800.922.1276
@Claflin is published by the Office of Communications & Marketing 
President: Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack
Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement: Dr. Marcus H. Burgess, '96
Assistant Vice President for Communications & Marketing: George Johnson Jr.
Public Relations Director: J. Craig Cotton
Web Communications Manager: Colin Myers, '07
Photographers: Cecil Williams, '60, Geoff Henderson and Colin Myers, '07