Facing Franklin: The Clarence John and Dorothy Mae Guienze Scholarship Fund
In 1929, a boy in Franklin, Louisiana sang in his backyard with no audience and no orchestra, certain that if he sang loudly enough, someone would discover him and carry him off to the opera. His name was Clarence John. In time he understood that knowledge, not opera, would be his passport to the world. His mother made sure he reached it.
Dorothy Mae was a domestic worker whose own schooling had ended at the third grade. Her days were already long, but she took in laundry for white families so her gifted son could become the first college graduate in the family. In 1951, Clarence walked across the stage at Southern University as class president.
What followed was a remarkable life: painter, photographer, soldier, federal reform leader, and a singer who once stood on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Dorothy Mae lived to 107, the moral center of six generations, and in 2008 cast her vote for the nation’s first Black president.
This fund honors them both, and the belief that a dream can outgrow the walls around it. The next great American leader may be a student at Southern right now. Your gift could be the investment the world needs.