Justin C. Caesar, the 2012-2013 Mr. DSU, has added a new crown for his head after winning the 8th annual Mr. Historically Black Colleges and Universities Pageant held at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri on February 25, 2012.
Mr. Caesar, a senior public relations major at Delaware State University, won the top title over 13 other HBCU university and college kings who competed in the 2012 pageant.
The competition consisted of a three-minute oratory and talent category, as well as a question and answer challenge.
For the talent category, he came up with a creative monologue – which he gave while lying in an actual casket. “I portrayed our past ancestors as rolling over in their graves while seeing how this generation has taken for granted what they fought for,” Mr. Caesar said. “There just happened to be funeral home near the competition site, and they let me use one of their caskets.”
All of the contestants were asked to give three-minute oratory on the theme “HBCUs, the Cornerstone of our History – Black Men, the Catalyst for the Survival of These Institutions.” In his oratory, Mr. Caesar affirmed the value of HBCUs in producing the African American male leaders of the future.
“HBCUs were designed to use education as a means of breaking the mental captivities of slavery,” he said in his oratory. “Men such as William Jefferson, the white founder of Morehouse College, had the vision that one day the Morehouse men of today would be the catalyst of change in tomorrow’s society.”
In the question and answer category, Mr. Caesar was asked: “If he could switch places with a historical figure, who would it be and why?”
“My answer was Thurgood Marshall, and I used his quote that we need to ‘change the way that we see the world’,” Mr. Caesar said. “As African-Americans, we are presented with many barriers and obstacles in life, but we have the ability to change that and overcome.”
Mr. Caesar, who is from Newburgh, N.Y., is slated to graduate in May. He said that he already has a job waiting for him in Atlanta, Ga., where he will work as a sales specialist for the MillerCoors LLC.
It is the second time that a Mr. DSU has won the Mr. HBCU title since the University began crowning a king in 2005. Harold Burnett, Mr. DSU 2006-2007, won the Mr. HBCU title in 2007.
The Mr. H.B.C.U. is not the only pageant for Black men in the country, the distinction for pageants on this order goes to the Mr. Collegiate African American Scholarship Pageant, founded in 1990 and staged in 1992 at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. The 2013 Pageant is set for March 21-24 in Texas. For information contact: mrcollegiate@yahoo.com or unitancommunications@yahoo.com. Deadline is January 31, 2013.
Story from http://www.desu.edu/news/mr-dsu-justin-caesar-wins-2012-mr-hbcu-title
ABOUT DSU: Delaware State University has a long and proud history as one of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It has a blend of both long-standing traditions and growing diversity. Founded in 1891 as the State College for Colored Students, DSU takes pride in its heritage as one of the country’s first land-grant educational institutions, rooted early on in agriculture and education. Our current population includes a 75 percent African-American enrollment and an increasing number of Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian and other international students. DSU is located in the historic city of Dover, the capital of Delaware, which has a geographical position at the center of the state. Its close proximity to the city of Philadelphia afforded Caesar Rodney a short horseback ride to sign the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution, the document that continues to protect our nation’s liberty, also declared Delaware as the “The First State” of the new Federal Union.
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