Carlton Riddick

Johnson C. Smith University. Class of ‘93

I am originally from Harlem. My roots on my mother’s side are from North Carolina. The Charlotte area. So from about age 7, we used to go to “go down south” on the Amtrak and visit relatives. My aunt lived right by Johnson C. Smith and they would always say, “Oh, you going to Johnson C. Smith one day.” College was always something that I was going to do. It was never like an optional thing. I didn’t want to go to Johnson C. Smith. I had already been to Charlotte, of all places. When I got to my senior year, “School Daze” was popping off and “Cosby” and “A Different World.”

I applied to four HBCUs: Johnson C. Smith, Hampton, Fisk and Howard. Smith was my second choice and I went ahead with Smith. I said, “Let me go: I’ve got family down here. I have like a million cousins down there. Let me just go to sniff sniff.” And you know I fell in love with the place. It was incredible. I got on the dean’s list the first semester and it was good. My teachers really really got on me. It was like I had a second mother and father. They were on me. And Mrs. Ledbetter ... she was my English lit teacher. In every class we had to write a paper ... and she would give it back to me red as I don’t know what. I had been used to that because I would hate to give my papers to my mother because my mother would do the same. So it was like I had my mother again in a class.

So it was just that whole environment really pushing me the whole time to really apply myself and do well in school. Once I hit the deans list, I knew I could do this. Smith ironically recruits heavy in the New York area, so there was a lot of us there. We had New York group as freshmen. So it felt just like we were home still. But I started branching out and developing relationships with other people from other areas. I started noticing their culture and vibe. I started embracing what they were doing. Are you familiar with the brand Duckheads? All they wore was Duckhead. Of course, we had Timbs and baggy clothes, but I was like that is kind of cool. Polo shirts and khakis. But I never wore Duckhead. I had to keep it New York.

Carlton Riddick: “So it was just that whole environment (atJohnson C. Smith University) really pushing me the whole time to really apply myself and do well in school. Once I hit the deans list, I knew I could do this.”

Carlton Riddick, an Atlanta resident and graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.