![]() The teen came straight home: “Thank you, Dad.” If you’re accused of stealing, you’d have no proof.” Years later, Greg and his friends were stopped at the store. Those lessons influenced his parenting: “My son, Greg, came home from the store without a receipt once, and I said to him, “Don’t you ever come home without a receipt again. Write “N” on your schoolbooks, don’t talk to white girls, ever, and speak softly to the police. ![]() Never hold out your hand for change, pick it up from the counter. Payne learned early how to survive the segregated South: step off the sidewalk when white people pass, and don’t react if they stomp on your feet. My uncle said he never tried to pass for white because it would have meant that he couldn’t have us.”ĭr. “A Southern accent is considered dumb, so a Black person with a Southern accent is doubly dumb,” Dr. Uncle Lawrence and his wife were light skinned and educated, so the Payne boys had access to books and other advantages. His father died in a car crash a few months before Payne’s birth, so his dad’s brother, Uncle Lawrence, offered to raise Payne and his brother. ![]() Payne grew up in Philadelphia, Miss., the youngest of five children. “They mean old,” he said shortly after his 80th birthday in April, when he talked with Alumni Magazine about his storied life. He spent the remainder of his life-before his passing in June-supporting youth, serving his church, and advocating for equity and inclusion across Indiana. ![]() Payne spent 41 years at the University, retiring as assistant provost for diversity and professor of secondary education. Charles Payne taught through story, and the most powerful parables are his own: how did a Black Mississippi boy, stricken with polio, cross several graduation stages to become the first tenured and full Black professor at Ball State University? Charles Payne shared his journey to start the University’s first multicultural education program.ĭr. Ball State University’s first Black tenured and full professor died in late June. ![]()
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