Albany State University’s future focus of town hall

ALBANY — Local opponents of legislation that would split the state’s three predominantly black public universities away from Georgia’s college ruling board say they see in the effort a return to the days of “separate but equal” in educational opportunities that were anything but.

“The future of Georgia’s three historically black colleges and universities is threatened, and we want to make sure we continue the vision of Dr. (Joseph W.) Holley,” said Albany State University graduate and businessman Gilbert Udoto, referring to the founder of the Albany Bible and Manual Institute, ASU’s original name. “If we didn’t have this, some of us wouldn’t be where we are. It’s really important to preserve these universities.”

Albany City Commissioner Jon Howard is hosting a fifth town hall meeting Tuesday to discuss the issue. It will be held at 6 p.m. at the Albany Police Department’s downtown Law Enforcement Center at 201 W. Oglethorpe Blvd.

“We just want everybody to show up, especially the church leaders, black and white,” Udoto said.

Howard, Udoto and TiaJuana Malone, also an ASU graduate, said they fear that the three public HBCUs — Albany, Fort Valley and Savannah State universities — would be combined under the proposed legislation.

Doing so, Malone said, would erase the individual histories and circumstances in which each developed.

HB 278, proposed late in last year’s session of the Georgia General Assembly, would remove the three HBCUs from the umbrella of the Georgia Board of Regents and place them under a separate board of trustees.

Howard said he hopes the proposal draws such a chorus of criticism and outcry that its sponsor, state Sen. Lester Jackson III, D-Savannah, drops it in January 2020.