Inaugural Keeper of the Dream honoree returning for program’s 35th anniversary

When Alicia (Cunningham-Sampson) McCalla returns to Oakland University in January 2027, she’ll bring more than memories of her college years. She’ll bring a piece of the university’s history — one shaped by student activism, racial tensions and people who stood up for change.

McCalla, an inaugural recipient of Oakland University’s Keeper of the Dream Award, is returning to campus for the 35th anniversary of the annual celebration honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“As we prepare to celebrate the 35th annual Keeper of the Dream Scholarship Awards, we are reminded that Dr. King’s legacy is not just history — it is a living, breathing reality,” said Omar Brown-El, senior director of OU’s Center for Multicultural Initiatives. “We are profoundly honored to have one of the very first recipients from our inaugural celebration be able to join us this year. Alicia’s journey weaves our past into tomorrow’s promise.”

For McCalla, the occasion offers an opportunity to reflect on the experiences that helped inspire the award and recognize the students, faculty and staff who worked to make OU a more inclusive community.

“Thirty-five years later, I think there may be an opportunity to tell a fuller story,” she said. “Not simply that Oakland University changed, but that students, faculty, staff and administrators all played roles in making change possible.”

When McCalla arrived at OU in the late 1980s, the university had approximately 10,000 students, including about 400 students of color, by her recollection. Having grown up in a predominantly Black community in Detroit, she encountered racial experiences on campus that were unfamiliar and, at times, deeply challenging.

An early experience involving a roommate and her boyfriend left McCalla feeling unwelcome and prompted her to move to another residence hall. Although the university helped resolve the immediate situation, the experience revealed a broader challenge: building a campus community where students from different backgrounds felt supported and respected.

Finding her voice through ‘Umoja’

University Archives photo of McCalla during her time at OU.

McCalla initially enrolled at OU intending to study journalism. But when she approached the student newspaper about creating space for Black students to discuss racial issues on campus, she encountered resistance.

Rather than abandon her goal, McCalla found another way to make her voice heard. She launched an independent newsletter called “Umoja,” a Swahili word meaning “unity,” to share the perspectives and experiences of Black students.

The newsletter covered topics ranging from African American history and identity to politics and social issues, reflecting the diversity of thought within the Black student community.

“I was trying to show the wide diversity amongst the Black community, and how our opinions differed,” McCalla said. “To get a full scope of the Black community and all of our ideas.”

While at OU, McCalla launched Umoja, an independent publication featuring diverse perspectives of Black students. (Photo courtesy of Alicia McCalla)

As the newsletter gained traction, it also attracted backlash, including racist hate letters. Local news outlets reported on the situation, and McCalla remained committed to publishing “Umoja.”

Despite the hostility, she found support from those who believed in her work, particularly in OU’s Publications Department, now known as University Communications and Marketing (UCM).

“They gave me a desk. They let me use the photography studio and printing resources,” she said. “(Department Head) Geoff Upward read my work and patiently edited the publication.”

With the department’s support, the independent newsletter eventually grew into a magazine featuring full-page black-and-white spreads. As editor-in-chief, McCalla managed a staff of 10 to 20 writers.

“Umoja’s” contributors were members of OU’s African American Journalism Club, and they also established a student chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Turning student activism into lasting change

The challenges McCalla and other students faced fueled a broader effort to push the university to address racial issues and expand opportunities for students of color.

Their advocacy included calls for scholarships specifically for Black students, an office dedicated to minority affairs, a required course on racism and an academic department focused on ethnic or Black studies.

McCalla's Keeper of the Dream Award certificate, which she received at the program's inaugural event in 1993. (Photo courtesy of Alicia McCalla)

The Keeper of the Dream Award emerged from these efforts to promote greater racial understanding on campus. McCalla and fellow student Lisa McRipley were selected as the award’s inaugural recipients.

They were recognized at the first Keeper of the Dream Celebration in 1993, an event featuring a keynote address by Dennis Archer, who would be elected mayor of Detroit later that year.

McCalla said the recognition represented a meaningful step toward the changes she and other students had worked to bring about.

“I’m proud I was able to usher in something new and different and something of change,” she said.

McCalla is quick to acknowledge the people who supported her along the way, including UCM leader Geoff Upward and English professors Robert Eberwein and Brian Connery, to name a few.

She also remembers Glenn McIntosh, a longtime OU student affairs leader who died in 2025. McCalla’s mother attended the church where McIntosh preached, and the family formed a close bond with him, affectionately calling him “Reverend Glenn.”

“I was never his student, but he later told my mother that the activism and pushing I had done helped pave the way for OU to bring him from Wayne State,” McCalla said. “Knowing that the university had responded, that the work had contributed to something larger than anything I could see at the time, gave me a great deal of peace.”

A legacy that extends beyond campus

From left: Alicia McCalla, Dr. Howard McCalla and Glenn McIntosh. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Howard McCalla)

After graduating from OU with a degree in English and a minor in film studies, McCalla pursued graduate studies in library science at Clark Atlanta University. She went on to spend 20 years working in libraries and education, including positions at the University of Michigan and at a community college and public school system in Atlanta, where she now lives with her husband, Dr. Howard McCalla.

Alongside her professional career, McCalla continued to nurture her passion for fiction writing. Today, she is a full-time fiction author whose stories feature powerful Black women confronting injustice and fighting for others.

In many ways, the themes that define her fiction echo the determination she demonstrated as a student: challenging barriers, making room for underrepresented voices and telling stories that might otherwise go unheard.

McCalla believes those lessons remain relevant for students today. She sees Dr. King’s legacy as an ongoing call to consider what racial inclusion and understanding mean in each generation.

“My experience with OU taught me how to navigate those issues,” she said. “Hopefully students today have the support system in place from what my generation did, and they can go out and succeed at the things they’re being called to do in the world.”

To learn more about OU's Keeper of the Dream Award, contact the Center for Multicultural Initiatives at cmi@oakland.edu or (248) 370-4404, or visit oakland.edu/cmi/kod.