Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? by Reginald Lewis

had a hard side to him that showed itself in his being very blunt, with no bullshit attached,” Colon says. “I remember talking to Reggie about the possibility of a young lady that I was with being pregnant. He said, ‘Man, don’t you fall for that bullshit, she’s just jiving you.’ About a week later, she came and told me that everything was all right. I said, ‘Damn, Reggie was right about that, but why did he have to be so cold about it?’”
    Colon remembers Lewis worrying about whether he had enough credits to graduate on time. In fact, Lewis took three summer classes before his senior year to ensure that he would be leaving in May 1965. He was really pumped by the time regular classes began. Academically, it was do-or-die time.
    In his last semester, he earned three A’s, three B’s and a C, which oddly enough came in an individual sports course. These grades notwithstanding, one of the defining events of Lewis’s life was just over the horizon.
A GLIMPSE OF HARVARD
    I began to think about graduate school or law school or maybe, just maybe, a really great university like Harvard. At this point, it was really pretty much a dream, but who knows—keep punching and maybe.
    In my senior year, lightning struck. Harvard Law School started a program to select a few black students to attend summer school at Harvard, to introduce them to legal study in general. Participating colleges would select five students from their respective schools and Harvard Law School would select just one student from each school.
    I was excited, I mean, really excited. Calm down, calm down, I told myself. Develop a plan. It wasn’t easy knowing where to begin. First, I needed to get the literature on the program. My school only gave a summary of it, so I wrote to Harvard for specific details the same day I found out about the program. Harvard responded immediately, which really impressed me. My approach was to first make sure I was selected by Virginia State. That would not be easy. Many students had straight A’s and I had had a rotten freshman year, which hurt my cumulative grade point average.
    I needed to supplement my application—obtain letters of recommendation perhaps. I spoke to a couple of professors. I told them that this was my shot at the big time. I said I didn’t want a letter that just said “he’s a nice guy,” but a real substantive letter setting out what I did well and what I did poorly. I gave them a biography, grades, everything.
    Hanley Norment figured to be a natural ally in Lewis’s quest. Not only were they friends, but Lewis had received A’s in both classes he’d taken from Norment. Mindful of the rapidly approaching deadline for submitting Harvard program applications, Lewis barged into Norment’s office.
    “In the spring of 1965, a number of black colleges—I believe 32—were given an opportunity by Harvard to nominate some students to attend a summer program that Harvard had for minority youngsters. Virginia State was asked to send either four or five applications and Lewis rushed over to me when he found out about it. He was not one of those asked to prepare papers for that opportunity. So, he asked me if I could write a letter of recommendation for him,” Norment recalls.
    “I was pleased to do it and did it quickly. I knew there was some urgency. I met the time frame and personally walked it over to the president’s office. The person who handled it was the assistant to the president at the time, a Mr. Dabney. I don’t remember his first name. He took the letter and began to read it with a pained expression on his face. I said, ‘My god, what’s this all about?’”
    A tall, light-skinned man who wore glasses and squinched his face readily, Mr. Dabney said, “Well Mr. Norment, I see that you’ve put a lot into this letter, but I want you to know that Mr. Lewis is not one of the students that we’ve selected. But since you’ve put a lot into this letter, we will send it on. But