Iconic HBCU powerhouse Spelman College, which once receive a $20 million gift from comedy legend Bill Cosby, has now suspended The Cosby Chair for the Humanities indefinitely until the score of rape allegations get resolved.
The Cosby Chair is an endowed professorship at the all-female, predominantly-black college in Atlanta, which was subsidized by the Bill and Camille Cosby honorarium to the school in the 1980s.
Spelman had previously refused to comment nor suspend the chair previously, despite the almost daily allegations of sexual assault claims against the venerated comedian and former star behind the record-breaking “Cosby Show.” However, the stakes were raised exponentially when former supermodel Beverly Johnson gave a painstakingly detailed account to a major magazine stating that Cosby allegedly drugged her at his home in an effort to rape her.
The accumulation of allegations against Cosby has proven to be too much for the esteemed all-female black college in Atlanta.
“The William and Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Endowed Professorship was established to bring positive attention and accomplished visiting scholars to Spelman College in order to enhance our intellectual, cultural and creative life,” a school spokeswoman said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The current context prevents us from continuing to meet these objectives fully. Consequently, we will suspend the program until such time that the original goals can again be met.”
The deconstruction of Cosby’s legend and seemingly infallible image has been spectacular as it has been tragic. Spelman suspension of the Cosby Chair follows his resignation from the board of trustees at Temple University after 32 years and as an honorary co-chair of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s capital campaign. High Point University in North Carolina removed Cosby from its national board of advisers, and the Berklee School of Music stopped granting a scholarship in his name.
The donation subsidized the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby, Ed.D. Academic Center, which houses the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the college archives and offices.
About Post Author
