His successor, Alvin I. Thomas, has not retreated from that position. He dreams larger dreams than have ever been dreamed before on this campus—a dream of first class…of joining the mainstream of American life. He dreams beyond all dreams, a dream that has no limits of race, of color, of creed. This president has dared the lightning by dreaming a dream that says Black men have no limit, have no boundary. Black men have no barrier. We shall turn this institution into a place and into a situation where the world…and the concerns of the world, and the occupations of the world will be its concerns and its infancy.

And so all of the men who have headed the school have been pioneers. They have been a step ahead of the awareness of their people. They have dreamed for their people. Dreamed great dreams. Great thoughts. And those who come back, they come back to dreamland, and that truly is the function of an institution of higher learning. It is the place of dreams. Because the scriptures have truly said, “Without a vision, the people perish.” And, of course, Prairie View is a success story because the university continues to expand its interest in research. I dare say, from these fledgling days of the Banks administration, the administration of Dr. Thomas has emphasized strongly experimentation, research…both sponsored research by government and by foundation as a part of the normal program and the normal dimension of the institution of higher learning. Where we used to receive pittance, now we receive millions of dollars for research.

Because without the money to stimulate the mind of researchers, without the inquiring mind, an institution is sterile. Without the inquiring mind, an institution has nothing to put back into the stream of knowledge to justify its existence. Without the inquiring mind that can produce both theoretical and functional knowledge, an institution does not live.

And then we continue to contribute to society. We now know that we must stay on the frontier of opportunity for our people. If we will, if we ought to escape that peculiar position of becoming the underclass, where there are no job opportunities for our people at all, we must continue to pioneer in the economic arena. Opening more doors, expanding minority opportunity into new areas of opportunity. And we go forward now in the areas of engineering and the other new technological fields that are opening for Black people, and we must continue to go forward in these areas if we ought to, ought to keep abreast all the time, and to keep young black men and women alive and alert. If we do not pledge ourselves to continue our contribution of graduates both to our traditional areas and to new areas, we will die. The question of what we will do—our functional significant—will be settled.

So there is something fitting, therefore, in the fact that after 100 years or more, we are the university is returning to the full realization of its founding as an agricultural and mechanical emphasis. We are now operating in instructional areas, which the system to which we attach [had] better understand, admissions of the two institutions now coincide more and more with the better concern for creativity and knowledge than we had before. We have come from a small fledgling institution to a modern university with concerns which are worldwide.

We enter our 2nd century in this Golden Anniversary with a deep concern for our nation. And we hope those who come back to us for this convocation do the same. And we are also aware that we have a debt to our people, but our success is imperative. We must be a success because we serve Black youth and Black youth will only understand the success of Black men. We must be a success here, because our success is necessary. In the concept of success—as all youth know what success is—we must furnish the role model, because Black youth can understand the success of Black men. And to that success, we commend you. We are proud of the heritage of the success at this institution.

On this golden convocation, on this golden convocation anniversary, we present to those who come back to us a pride, a continuing pride in achievement, a heritage which they can come back and bask in the glory of, confident that their institution has a continuity, a purpose, and a function that will never die.