Reprinted with permission of the News-Register. By Starla Pointer, March 11, 2019.
Hundreds of people gathered Friday to celebrate Miles K. Davis and his role as Linfield College’s 20th president — faculty, family members, faith leaders, famous actress Phylicia Rashad, former Linfield presidents and representatives from other schools far and wide; students, staff, alumni and McMinnville community members.
But no one — neither Davis’ wife, Naomi, nor his mother nor his daughters — could have been more excited about the new president than Christine James Brown. A Linfield alumna who first came to McMinnville in 1968, she flew in from Georgia to attend the formal inauguration.
Bursting with pride, Brown stood and waved to the crowd when Davis introduced her. They’ve been friends since he moved into Linfield president’s office in July.
“She was one of the first to congratulate me,” Davis recalled. “She sent me a letter — a letter! — and since then, she’s called and prayed for me almost every week.”
Brown, who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, was one of the first African-American students in Upward Bound, one of the arms of President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s War on Poverty. She also was a first-generation college student.
Following the inauguration, she told the News-Register about having a choice of two colleges, Linfield or a school in Colorado. She’d always wanted to visit California, she said, so she chose McMinnville for its proximity to her dream state.
Once she arrived on campus, she realized what a good choice she’d made — even though she was surprised by how few African-Americans lived in Oregon.
She treasures her college years.
“Linfield meant so much to us,” she said, speaking for herself and other Upward Bound students.
With support from the program and the college, she said, she thrived. “The friends I made and the experiences I had here … life changing.”
Five decades later, she had another life-changing experience when she heard that Miles Davis became Linfield’s first African-American president. She wouldn’t have missed his inauguration for the world, she said.
And she plans to keep calling him. And praying.
