February 21, 2023
PC presents MLK Vision Awards at prayer breakfast
By Michael Hagan ’15, ’19G
An alumnus who has dedicated his life to ministry and education and a student committed to leadership on and off campus were recognized with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Vision Awards during a prayer breakfast at Providence College.
College President Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G presented the awards to Rev. Dr. Anderson W. Clary Jr. ’69 of Hampton, Virginia, and Justin Babu ’23 of East Meadow, New York, during the breakfast on February 15 in Slavin Center ’64 Hall.
Members of the alumni and college community were invited to nominate recipients for the awards. It is the sixth year that the college has presented the vision awards as part of its monthlong celebration honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Father Sicard praised Rev. Clary’s “unquenchable desire to lighten the loads carried by others” during a 50-year career that spanned education, business, elected office, and ordained ministry.
“Rev. Clary stands among the most impactful and respected of all Providence College alumni, committed to the highest ideals of his alma mater,” Father Sicard said.
As an undergraduate, Clary studied education and played basketball under coach Joe Mullaney ’98Hon. After graduating, he made history as the first African American high school teacher in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He studied biblical studies at the graduate level at PC from 1982-1984. He taught at Harvard Divinity School, Richmond Virginia Seminary, Hampton University, and Canaan Theological Seminary in Hampton, Virginia, where he also earned master’s and doctoral degrees in sacred scripture.
He was joined at the breakfast by classmates Thomas Madden ’69, Vincent Marzullo ’69, Norman McLaughlin ’69, and Michael Stapleton ’69. His wife, Leann, and their adult children, Andrea and Robert, also attended.
“My credo is: if I can help somebody, as I’m traveling along, if I can cheer someone with a word or song, if I can aid someone who’s gone wrong, then my living shall not be in vain. God loves you and so do I,” Clary said.
He was pastor of Queen Street Baptist Church in Hampton for more than 20 years until his retirement in 2014. In retirement, he is supply pastor at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia.
Father Sicard described Babu, who majors in biology/secondary education, as “a student who has fully participated in the life of the community, in addition to making meaningful connections and contributions in Providence and beyond.”
Babu serves on the diversity committee of the Providence College School of Professional Studies and was a Feinstein Community Fellow during his sophomore and junior years. As a junior, he independently studied campus climate and college policy on diversity, equity, and inclusion, presenting his findings to an audience of students, faculty, and staff in April 2021.
Last summer, Babu completed a Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship in Ireland through the Council on International Educational Exchange. He is a member of the Honors Program and leads a peer study group for biology students. He co-hosts the radio show “Last Three Brain Cells” on WDOM and is a gifted vocalist who leads the St. Cecilia Ensemble that performs during eucharistic adoration at St. Dominic Chapel.
The keynote speaker at the breakfast, Carl Jefferson, pastor of Life Change Christian Church and member of the Ministers Alliance of Rhode Island, delivered a rousing address appealing for “the intelligence to know, courage to do, and devotion to love” God’s will. He harkened to the civil rights movement when “Episcopalians and Catholics and Baptists and Methodists and others marched from churches in the streets and were beaten on bridges for voting rights.”
“They encountered the Jim Crow of the past. We encounter James Crow dressed up in a suit,” he said, relating current to historical struggles for equality and justice.
Attendees were welcomed by Santiago Najarro Cano ’24, a marketing major from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, who introduced Rev. Peter Batts, O.P., assistant professor of theology, to offer the invocation. Father Batts prayed “that we may be proclaimers of peace and justice” and appealed to a litany of Roman Catholic saints and historical Christian leaders, including Dr. King, whom he styled “Martin of Atlanta.”
After the awards presentations, Satoya Isophe ’24 from Malden, Massachusetts, read a selection from a sermon by Dr. King on the Christian teaching that we must love our enemies.
Hashim Hassan ’23, a music technology and production major and MLK scholar from Mashpee, Massachusetts, performed on violin “Variations of Snowden’s Jigs” by the Snowden Family Band, a 19th century African American musical group.
Rev. Bruno Shah, O.P., assistant professor of theology, offered the benediction in English and in Spanish, thanking God “that all of us, baptized and unbaptized, believing and unbelieving, are loved by you in the son by the power of the Spirit.”
The program concluded with Rev. Lauri Smalls, pastor of Union Baptist Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, performing the spirituals “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” and “This Little Light of Mine,” inviting the audience to join in singing.
