It was one of my favorite stories to tell on an admission tour as we paused in the lobby of Blair Hall. I recounted the day I walked into my history course, “The Global Color Line” with Professor Vinson, and he stared us all down. “Today, you are going to teach class,” he said, while we shifted uncomfortably in our seats. Starting us off with a question, Vinson guided a few students to the front of the classroom where they started—quite awkwardly at first—to talk and then ask questions of others. Slowly, we rotated who was standing at the front, writing on the board, bringing up new ideas, and then passing the chalk. At the end of the class I found myself at the back of the room seated next to a smiling Prof. Vinson. “See,” he said, probably to the whole class but in that moment it felt like it was just to me, “Strong students don’t need strong professors.”
At that point in the story I would exclaim to my tour, “Which is a total lie! We needed an incredible professor like Prof. Vinson to get us to that point.” I still think that’s true, but I recently realized something else about what he said. It’s a reworking of a quote by Ella Baker: “Strong people don’t need strong leaders.”
Ella Baker was an incredible civil rights and social justice activist, often left out of the history of the modern civil rights movement. Thankfully, I was introduced to her work and words by Prof. Vinson, and she has become a role model for me. I love quotes, and Ella has one of my top three. In talking about her unrecognized leadership in a lot of movements, she said, “I have always thought what is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership among other people.” After reading those words my junior year, it became my guiding statement. I want to use my strengths to empower others. That’s also what Professor Vinson did that day in our classroom.
I’m with Ella on the idea that if we develop the leadership of all we won’t have to rely on the few who are catapulted into role of “The Leader,” but I still call Prof. Vinson out on telling us strong students don’t need strong professors. It is through the time I spent with strong professors that I became a strong student and realized that I needed to soak up knowledge to empower others. That’s what my time in William & Mary classrooms (and across campus) did for me. That’s what that one day that a professor at William & Mary lied to me did: It reminded me that I come alive with the power to know and to share, which is to learn.
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