Photo Albums

'Bing' Davis was a student at Washington Elementary School in East Dayton, OH, when his mother spoke the words he’s lived his life by: 'Reach high, reach back, and always walk with dust on your shoes.'

Speaking without notes and from the heart in the Lovell Lecture Room, the 1959 DePauw University graduate, Athletics Hall of Fame honoree, and that institution’s first professor of black studies explained how his liberal arts education had “reinforced” and helped him live out 'what I had learned from my mom, my coaches, and my pastors.'

Director of the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies Willyerd Collier ’75 introduced Davis as this year's John Evans Lecturer. The Evans Lecture is the signature presentation of the MXIBS.

Jasmine Robinson, the first African American employed at Wabash and beloved by generations at the MXIBS and the College, listens to Davis' talk next to Marta Collier, Special Assistant to the Dean for Student Success.

Students take in Davis' lecture, delivered without notes and from the heart in Lovell Lecture Hall.

'My mother said, ‘Reach high—go as far as you can with your gifts, your talent, and education. But reach back, because you’re no one if you can’t reach back and encourage someone else.'

As a teacher, I stopped teaching art and started teaching people, to help students understand themselves.

Wabash Basketball Coach Antoine Carpenter talks with Davis.

Former rivals turned good friends Davis and Bob Wedgeworth: 'When you sweat, toil and try to shake someone who’s defending you for 40 minutes, you become good friends out of respect. My expectations of young African American scholars at Wabash is very high, because my introduction was Bob Wedgeworth and knowing of John Evans.'

Davis and former MXIBS Director Horace Turner

Davis and Bob Wedgeworth

Davis poses with Jasmine Robinson

Davis and admissions associate Wes Chamblee ’12

Collier, Davis, and Wedgeworth.