Acknowledgments

Page 247 →I owe thanks and gratitude to many people who encouraged and guided my passage. I highlight a few. The guidance I received from my sixth-grade teacher, Sister Cyprian, a nun with the Black Roman Catholic order of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, was critical in instilling discipline and shoring up my self-esteem. The rigorous training, push, and encouragement I received from Mrs. Clara Robinson, my high school American History teacher, and Mr. Henry Brown, my Geometry teacher, motivated me to enter college as an early entrant before graduation. The dynamism of three professors at Fisk University—Theodore Currier, Michael Lunine, and Charlotte Spivak—compelled me to think big and opened the world of possibilities that propelled me to transfer to the recently desegregated University of South Carolina (USC). The mentorship of Professors Glenn Abernathy and Donald Fowler at USC impressed upon me the imperative to excel and steered my decision to attend Harvard Law School and later return to USC as the first full-time African American professor of law. And the scholarly preparation, intellectual toughness, and moral direction drilled into me by Professors Clark Byse and Roderick Hills at Harvard Law School taught me to never abandon morally justifiable principles in the face of seemingly overwhelming opposition.

I would also like to acknowledge a few individuals who made helpful contributions that measurably improved this manuscript. Many thanks go out to my dear friend, Alice DeLana, a former English literature teacher at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Page 248 →Connecticut, who read the entire manuscript during its early iteration and provided generous editorial comments. I thank Professor Bobby Donaldson, head of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at USC, who opened new avenues of research that expanded the scope of the manuscript. Valuable contributions were made by my mother, Anne B. Bowers; my father, Walter T. Bowers; my brother, Walter T. Bowers II; other relatives; and especially a cousin, Robert James Hubbard, of Orangeburg, a consummate construction professional with a photographic memory, in providing key pieces of written and oral history that provided focus and clarity to the manuscript. In addition, Ehren Foley, acquisitions editor at the University of South Carolina Press and the designated peer review team selected by him provided valuable suggestions that guided the integration of the narrative with proper historical references. Most of all, I thank my wife, Rebecca L. Swanson-Bowers, for her encouragement in writing this autobiography and her input in editing the manuscript.