 David Robert Lewis was a trailblazer. He graduated in 1894 and if you can imagine that was just one generation removed from slavery. Purdue University produced its first African-American graduate and since that time Purdue University has really grown as an institution not only in terms of our facilities but also in terms of our commitment to diversity. During the late 1960s many predominantly white campuses throughout the United States began to accept and enroll African-American students in greater numbers and Purdue was one of those institutions. I started in 1966 as a freshman until my father wanted to be an engineer and he had the wisdom to introduce me to three African-American engineers. One did go to Purdue in majoring in civil engineering. He shared with me that he could not live on campus. He had to be back across the river by sundown every day back into the black community but the most interesting thing is he said this is in a somewhat of a matter-of-fact way that he accepted it and he graduated in four years so that became motivation to me that every time I felt that the university was too hard or the classes were too difficult I remembered him and said well if he can graduate in four years you're living on campus you can go to the library you can do all the things you need to do in order to finish your degree what's your problem and that gave me motivation to continue on when things appeared to be very difficult for me. When they arrived at Purdue University in the late 1960s it was in the midst of the civil rights movement so there was not much that was representative of African-American history art and culture and the students staged a silent protest and presented a list of demands to the university and that's how the Black Cultural Center was founded here. A group of six young men from Chicago Illinois actually held their meetings here at the Black Cultural Center the old Black Cultural Center and decided to start an organization nationwide organization to uplift and empower African-American students who are studying engineering. I could see the difference in performance with some of the minority students the graduation rates were low the retention rates were low the actual matriculation rates were low and there there were very few students on campus and as I had an opportunity to visit other campuses I could see that that that was a problem that was shared so when we got back and we kind of talked about what we were going to do about that we decided that we had a chance to make a difference here those experiences gave me the idea of forming the National Society of Black Engineers. All the six of us did was plant a seed and then we graduated and others behind us watered that seed and they they nurtured that plant and they grew down there's a whole big tree called the National Society of Black Engineers. When I was a student at Purdue back in the late 70s I was really intimidated by the fact that there just weren't many people that looked like me and I experienced a lot of anxiety about that and I would go through campus and go to my classes I always felt alone and there were times when I just felt I don't think I can do this maybe I should go back home. It wasn't so much academic as it was social pressure and being isolated and I remember I went through the civil engineering building and I looked up and there was a picture of this African American male and I stared at it and I'm like oh my god there's a black person on the wall because you know everywhere at Purdue any picture you see traditionally was a white person so I wanted to know who he was and it was David Robert Lewis and when I saw that he graduated in civil engineering immediately I began to weep and I just felt not only did he graduate but someone put his picture in a prominent place on the wall and I stood there like a kid and just wept and the energy that I got from just seeing the picture and realizing what he must have gone through in the late 1800s coming from Greensburg Indiana and he survived it certainly if he could survive it I could and he should forever be remembered at Purdue.