The Bishop College motto Fiat Lux means "let there be light". Like the first chapter of Genesis, there was light at Bishop. Any school that came out in 1881 (not quite twenty years out of slavery) with such a focus will always be great.

I first learned of Bishop while spending part of my childhood in Louisiana where Grambling or Southern were the usual schools discussed. I met a young man who was telling me about the stimulating challenges he had encountered at Bishop. I then started dreaming of going to Bishop.

Bishop did not have fraternities and sororities on campus. There were some fraternities a man my color could't get into. If we are going to behave that way amongst ourselves, how are we going to criticize the white man?

Bishop was the only black school I attended, and I don't grieve going to Bishop. It was not that I wouldn't study; I would study too much. My goal was always to press forward. Around small private schools like Bishop, the students were challenged to fully push themselves in the direction they want to go. This work ethic prepared me for masters level work at Crozier Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and my doctoral work at Southern Methodist University. I was the only Negro in my class at Crozier and the whites would constantly ask, "Where is that?" It would vex me. And I'd answer, "You don't need to know Bishop. Wherever you see me, you see Bishop."

I returned to Bishop as a faculty member in 1959. It became my job to help students find the incentive to push themselves. At Bishop you never had many students. We had about 2,000 students when we broke ground in Dallas. Bishop provided the light --- a great opportunity --- for all people who would come to avail themselves of a good education.



Dr. Leroy Seals
Bishop College
BA in 1955
Major: Religion

Crozier
BD/MD Master of Historical Thought and Church History
SMU Master of Liberal Arts and DBM

1959-1988
Bishop College faculty member