Holmes tells black alumni to seek ways to enhance quality of life

He remembered the obviously horrible nature of this particular case. But he said what distressed him most was that the victim was a black child in a small Mississippi town. It wasn't in New York City or Detroit or Birmingham or Jackson.

Dr. Richard E. Holmes, center, with Black Alumni Society President Ernie Hughes, left, and Mississippi State President Donald Zacharias after the renaming of the Holmes Endowed Scholarship Fund.

As an emergency room physician based in Birmingham, Ala., who has practiced emergency medicine for 14 years in four states and in 30 emergency rooms, Holmes has seen similar situations on many occasions.

Mississippi State's first black student was on campus to address the fall gathering of the Alumni Association's Black Alumni Society. Holmes, who enrolled in the university in 1965 and completed his bachelor's degree in 1969 and a master's in 1972, used the desperateness of this story to underscore the all too common situation on the streets, in the neighborhoods, and on the blocks of cities across America.

"Incidents such as this occur all too frequently," said Holmes, "and they are not restricted to our large towns and cities. The spiraling crime rate, run-away teen pregnancies, and the upsurge in drugs on our streets and in our schools is distressing."

Holmes, who spent 55 days in Saudi Arabia in 1991 as part of Desert Storm, told those gathered that the injuries he treated in combat paled in comparison to the injuries he sees in the United States.

"Of the injuries that I have seen in emergency departments—the pain inflicted by hand guns, box cutters, hot water, hot grease, the open and closed fist, and the switchblade knife—95 percent are inflicted by black brothers on black brothers and black sisters.

"It's a popular joke that Friday and Saturday nights are 'knife and gun club nights.' These are the nights when we, the brothers, take to the streets, or stay home, and cut and shoot each other. And I'm not suggesting that we stop cutting and shooting each other and start cutting another group."

The Starkville native believes that a breakdown in the home and society and the direct loss of family values are major contributors to the state of today's society. He draws on the words of his grandmother for a solution.

"I know now what my grandmother meant when she said, 'Charity begins at home,'" he explained. "It follows, that if our society is in a mess and it needs fixing, it needs to start at home. As African-American males, let us exert our leadership muscles by encouraging any brother who will listen to stay with his family, and if he must leave, encourage him to take care of his mate, his wife, and/or his children.

"We have the opportunity to help the young and impressionable minds in our care. You can teach your child to have strength of mind and be an independent thinker. Children who are independent thinkers don't succumb to peer pressure, they usually follow their own beliefs."

Research shows that the most successful black children are from two-parent homes and that 38 to 48 percent of black families are headed by a female. This creates a dilemma, Holmes said, to those being asked to provide leadership to their families, to their communities, and to their institutions.

"We must convince our brothers somehow—by word, by deed, or by example—that it is not the time to replace lynchings with drive-by shootings," he stressed. "We must tell our brothers that we have come too far to lose it all by indiscriminate and random violence."

Holmes closed his address with the story of another child he treated in the emergency room who had been treated two days earlier and given a prescription. During the exam, Holmes said he learned the child hadn't been receiving her medication.

"It was clear that the mother had not filled the prescriptions that she had received," he noted. "As I proceeded to lecture the mother on why she needed to fill the prescriptions, she stopped me, looked me straight in the face, and said, 'I don't have enough money to get the prescriptions filled and buy food too.'"

Holmes told the Black Alumni Society they could use their talents and their influences to change this picture, but it would take leadership, brotherhood, and most importantly, commitment.

"Now is the time for us to be committed to our own existence and our welfare. We should make a commitment to help change our image, we should make a commitment to help some child, and we should make a commitment to get involved in a worthwhile community project. And, yes, we should make a commitment to help our own university."

Following Holmes' speech, President Donald Zacharias announced the establishment of the Dr. Richard E. Holmes Endowed Scholarship Fund. Established in the early 1980s by the Black Alumni Society, the endowment initially was known as the Black Student Scholarship Fund.

Holmes and his wife, Judy, have pledged $10,000 to the university. The gift supports the scholarship fund and the Richard Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, which the university named in his honor in 1991.

The Holmes' daughter, Rikeeda, is a Mississippi State freshman.