by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Alumni from across generations gathered to connect and celebrate during the college’s 2024 Alumni of Color Reception. Hosted during Alumni Weekend by Dickinson’s Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, which marks its 10th anniversary this year, the event included meaningful musical performances, exhibits and a chance to raise a glass in remembrance of two well-loved alumni of color: Thomasena “Toni” Somerville Ebron ’74 and Ed "Duke Bootee" Fletcher ’73.
A portrait of Ed Fletcher '73 was on display. Photo by Tyler Caruso.
Fletcher, known to the music world as Duke Bootee, was an English major and tennis player at Dickinson who went on to become a touring and session musician with Sugar Hill Records.
He’s best remembered as the songwriter and producer of “The Message,” a critically acclaimed and commercially successful hip-hop song released in 1982 by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Long credited with shaping the genre, "The Message” was enormously influential to artists such as the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z and Questlove. According to Questlove, it established hip-hop as an enduring artistic form that could be used to promote sociopolitical change.
In 1985 Fletcher contributed to the record Sun City, a musical declaration of support for the United Nations’ cultural boycott of Apartheid in South Africa; as a result, he was an invited guest at a ceremony hosted by the chair of the U.N.’s Special Committee Against Apartheid. And later in life, Fletcher influenced a younger generation as a lecturer in critical thinking and communications at Savannah State University.
In decades past, Fletcher didn’t receive full credit for his influential work in hip-hop. But his legacy became much more widely known in recent years, as leading publications, including The New York Times and Rolling Stone, published articles spreading word of his rightful place in music history. Fletcher died in 2021.
Photos and memorabilia representing Toni Somerville Ebron '74. Photo by Tyler Caruso.
A Philadelphia native, Ebron studied economics at Dickinson, took part in athletics and the campus choir and wrote for The Dickinsonian. After graduation, she married, raised two children, earned a master’s degree in management and finance from the Wharton School and forged a three-decade career at IBM.
Equally important, her loved ones say, were the many ways Ebron gave back. She was involved with Philadelphia Cares and Junior Achievement, and she was a board member of Children Empowered by Love. She also was a devoted woman of faith, lending talents to the church choir, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, youth ministry and the women’s retreat and serving as a deaconess.
Ebron left a legacy through Dickinson as a member of the Mermaid Society who supported Dickinson scholarships and as part of a core group of alumni who sparked and took part in Dickinson’s African American Alumni Association (A4DC). Before her 2023 passing, Ebron also helped bring alumni together as part of the 50th-reunion committee for her class.
Yvette Davis, director of the Popel Shaw Center, speaks during the 2024 Alumni of Color Reception. Photo by Tyler Caruso.
Recalling the ways these alumni touched many lives, Yvette Davis, director of the Popel Shaw Center, read Ebron’s obituary during the reception, while Patrick Chang '72, founding president of A4DC, recalled the life and accomplishments of Fletcher, his longtime friend. Displays showcased photos of Ebron and Fletcher, mementoes from Fletcher’s career and clips from Ebron’s days as a student reporter. And a watercolor portrait of Fletcher, commissioned by his widow and on loan to the college, was on display.
Another program highlight was the music. Vocalist Lisa Turchi, contributing faculty in music, sang two a cappella works and musician Warren Wolf played Fletcher’s vibraphone as vocalist Allison Bordlemay sang. The vibraphone, dedicated in Fletcher’s honor during the event, was lent to the music department by Fletcher’s widow, Rosita, who has donated and lent some more of her husband's instruments and music memorabilia to the college.
All Dickinsonians are invited to further explore Fletcher’s life and career through a student-curated exhibit that includes his signature walking stick, leather pants and eyeglasses; his instrument travel cases, adorned with stickers from his travels and experiences; and original vinyl copies of The Message and Sun City. The exhibit will remain on display in Dickinson’s Archives & Special Collections during the coming academic year.
Alumni connected with new acquaintances and reconnected with longtime friends during the reception. Photo by Tyler Caruso.
As alumni took in the displays and celebrated the lives and work of Fletcher and Ebron, they also acknowledged the good work of founding and new officers for the A4DC, now in its second year. While celebrations such as these—and the connections that arise from them—strengthen vital bonds among alumni of color and the college, Davis observed, they also reinforce and reflect a growing sense of momentum among alumni of color and within the institution that brings them together.
“Dickinson is at a historic and welcomed turning point in its culture, in terms of its commitment to acknowledging that, as Patrick Chang likes to say, ‘We too have walked these halls,’ ” Davis said.
Published July 3, 2024