{"id":5826,"date":"2017-05-04T09:02:07","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T13:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=5826"},"modified":"2017-06-16T14:23:26","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T18:23:26","slug":"a-student-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2017\/05\/04\/a-student-of-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Student Of Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Abner<\/a>First Georgia Southern African-American art department graduate returns to Statesboro<\/h2>\n

Abner Cope (’74)\u00a0has a love and a fascination for people. It\u2019s a trait that led him to an award-winning career as a portrait painter and teacher \u2014 and helped him navigate the early years of desegregation in Georgia.<\/p>\n

Cope was the first African-American student to graduate with a fine arts degree from Georgia Southern, and he was among the early groups of black students at the University. In 1970, his freshman class brought the black student population to about 75 \u2014 out of a total of nearly 5,500 students when he arrived \u2014 a culture shock for Cope, a native of Savannah, Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that there were so many whites there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was that there were so few blacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he found at Georgia Southern was a largely welcome atmosphere, especially from the faculty, staff and, for the most part, the students. While there was never any overt racism from the students on campus or in his dorm, he often found racial epithets scrawled on the bathroom walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of it was pretty vicious,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as for racist attitudes and comments, I never experienced that in the dormitories. Those guys were very receptive in the dorms. We were friends.”<\/p>\n

Despite his friendships, Cope intended to transfer to Morris Brown, a historically black college in Atlanta. But it was a special friendship \u2014 more than a friendship \u2014 that kept him at Georgia Southern. During a small get-together on campus, Cope met Sandra Riley (’75), a business education major. The two were married their junior year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter meeting my wife there, that was the end of my notions about transferring,\u201d he said. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t going anywhere and neither was I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cope studied painting under Roxie Remley and printmaking under Bernard Solomon, both of whom had a significant influence on his education and career, and were among the many professors who encouraged him to continue his education in a master\u2019s program, which ultimately led him into teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re impressed by a teacher, you want to do what they do,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was a big influence on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After leaving Georgia Southern with a B.F.A. in 1974, Cope earned his Master of Fine Arts from Eastern Michigan University in 1980 and went on to teach at Central State University, a historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. In 2010, he moved back to Georgia. Cope and his work have been featured in several publications, including International Artist<\/em>, which features accomplished artists from around the world. His award-winning artwork is featured in private and corporate collections throughout the Midwest, and a mural he painted hangs in the Hallie Q. Brown Library at Central State.<\/p>\n

In January of this year, he returned to Statesboro for the first local showing of his work since his graduation. He was able to reconnect with old friends, meet new admirers of his work and give his former professors the chance to see the fruition of his lifelong study of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was amazed at seeing the work that he does right now,\u201d said Remley, now 97. \u201cHe\u2019s done beautifully. I was impressed all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Cope, it was a pleasant reminder of the impact of his alma mater, and the inspiration it provided to a very impressionable young man.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt inspired to stay with art, and was convinced that it was for me,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I credit Georgia Southern for that inspiration.\u201d \u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first Georgia Southern African-American art department graduate returns to Statesboro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":5829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-5826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-features","tag-spring-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}