Heads Historic United Negro College Fund

Michael Lomax has a compassion for the HBCUs, as expressed in his writings and demonstrated in his service to black higher education as teacher and college president. He showcased his interest in a policy paper on “African Americans, Education, and Opportunities.” He cited black abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass who said, “education is the pathway from slavery to freedom” and concluded that black people must find a way to the pathway or make one themselves. Part of “making our own way,” Lomax wrote, is to continue to support the HBCUs’ important role of producing leaders. “Here, the record is clear, that HBCUs have been the most effective institutions in the academy in producing black college graduates.” To him, diversity in U.S. institutions of higher education means also “making sure that these institutions do not merely survive but prosper.” This way “they will continue to be a part of the American higher educational landscape that serves an array of different needs differently.”

It was perhaps Lomax’s views on the HBCUs as much as his stellar record in Atlanta and at Dillard that caught the eye of officials at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). After seven years as president of Dillard University, Lomax became the ninth president of the United Negro College Fund, immediately succeeding William H. Gray III, who headed the organization for almost thirteen years. He was appointed in February 2004 and took office in June of that year as president and as chief executive officer of UNCF, whose headquarters are located in Fairfax, Virginia.

Lomax, who according to the biography on his website at Dillard University is “as comfortable in the classroom as the board room,” and the UNCF were an easy fit. UNCF is the nation’s oldest and most successful organization that assists African American higher education. Established in 1944 by presidents of private HBCUs, it aids in educating more than 65,000 students each year. There are thirty-eight member schools in the organization; the schools receive funds for advanced training for their administrators and faculties. To some, Lomax was groomed for his new post from his career as a college student. His foundation was set at an HBCU, and he built on that foundation both by advancing his education and by going back to the HBCUs to teach and to serve as chief officer. He also had a well-founded career as educator, politician, and fundraiser/volunteer.

Lomax took the helm of the UNCF as it celebrated its sixtieth anniversary amid major challenges to higher education for black Americans. For Ebony magazine, Lomax identified them as “the triple threat of an Affirmative Action backlash in higher education, an economic downturn poised to dwindle major corporate contributions, and the continuing debate over the role and the significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in an ‘integrated educational’ era.” Notwithstanding his concerns, Lomax was firm about what he saw as the continued role of the black colleges. They had educated the “Martin Luther Kings, Thurgood Marshalls, and Toni Morrisons” when other colleges refused them. He still saw them as having an indispensable role of preparing thousands of young people for a place in the world of work who would not receive a college degree were it not for the HBCUs.

Lomax came to UNCF with admitted apprehension. At first a little overwhelmed by the underlying significance of his new position, he told Ebony magazine, “It’s a deep honor on the one hand and a little scary on the other because this is a tremendous responsibility.” But clearly Lomax was equal to the task and soon set ambitious goals in the area of fundraising for UNCF. He wasted no time in declaring that, over the next ten years, he wanted the UNCF endowment to reach $1 billion. No other institution in the country that concentrates its energies on the African American community has such an ambitious goal. He wants the African American community to demonstrate to the world and to the UNCF that they can build and manage a billion-dollar operation.

Lomax has an additional role at UNCF. He chairs the Board of the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFS)—an organization that supports colleges and universities and helps them to build relationships and establish partnerships with the federal government and other organizations as well. By the time Lomax began his tenure at the organization, UNCF was administering some 450 programs that included the “Gates Millennium Scholars Program” under a $1 billion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With the Gates grant, Lomax and the UNCF intended to address the digital divide that Lomax referred to in his testimony to the House Subcommittee on twenty-first century competitiveness. He wrote that the term “represents something distinct to us as an HBCU.” For example, the technology gap seen on HBCU campuses “is a visible reminder of the unresolved legacy of separate but equal systems of education.” At Dillard, he knew the importance of incorporating advanced technology in the classroom and noted Dillard’s collaboration with the University of Colorado at Boulder to share course materials and classroom activities through distance learning technology. He noted the financial problems of black schools as they “are challenged to keep up with the steady torrent of upgrades that give students the competitive edge in the career world.” In coming to UNCF, Lomax remained committed to increasing access to technology for the students and faculty of HBCUs.

As head of UNCF, Lomax chairs the UNCF Advisory Board for the Frederick D. Patterson Institute. An email from his office to the author described the Patterson Institute as “the first African American-led research institute in the country to design, conduct, analyze, interpret and disseminate research to the public, policymakers, and educators.”

Because of his role in the arts, Lomax became a board member of the Studio Museum of Harlem and a member of the Council of National Museum of African American History and Culture. His board memberships include Emory University, the Carter Center of Emory University, the United Way, Teach America, Foxfire in Atlanta, and the Amistad Research Center. President George W. Bush appointed him to the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

In 1969 Lomax married Pearl Cleage, later well-known as a poet and playwright; five years later their daughter Deignan Njeri was born. Divorced in 1979, Lomax married Cheryl Ferguson, a financial manager with Coca-Cola, in 1986. In addition to his daughter Page 436  Deignan, who graduated from Dillard, Michael and Cheryl Lomax have two daughters—Michele and Rachel. A grandfather as well, Lomax has two grandchildren. Atlanta is still home for Michael Lomax, as he commutes there each weekend; his wife, three daughters, and grandchildren are there as well.

His private life also includes tennis, to which he admits an addiction. He told Ebony magazine that he is “a Venus and Serena groupie.” His exercise routine includes a workout four or five days a week. His spare time, which is rare, is spent reading fiction and history. An avid book collector as well, Lomax has over five hundred first-editions of African American works, the oldest of which is a book of slave narratives published in 1850.

While he balances his personal life with the enormous task he has set before him as head of UNCF, Michael Lomax has already demonstrated that he has the tools for success. As he leads UNCF in its continuing mission of enhancing the quality of education for black people, he continuous to demonstrate that he is articulate, a strategic thinker, a strong manager, and a successful fundraiser. Although UNCF keeps him busy, rather than complain, Lomax told the New York Times , “As long as I have breath, a beating heart and working mind I’ll be doing it, because after all a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”