Amherst experience
When asked to talk about a single moment that defined his Amherst experience, Price was unable to do so. He found it hard to isolate a situation or a moment. He had only general feelings, which he said were the only things that he could use to describe a place and a time that hold so much of his personal history. Price met his wife of 40 years-Marilyn Lloyd Price, the only black student at Mt. Holyoke College at the time-during his time at the College.
Price's first two years at Amherst were the last vestiges of peace before the turbulence of the '60s reached campus. Things began to percolate during the tail end of his junior year. Many Amherst students became involved in the struggle for civil rights by participating in freedom rides and protests and marches to the White House. While the country's political temperature rose, the tension on campus began to rise as well. Agitation and controversy ensued over the fact that eight out of 13 fraternities excluded blacks from pledging.
Many things about Amherst have changed since the 1960s, but many things have remained the same. Price remembers "the same superb quality of teaching … the quietude, the solitude … and the intense intellectual atmosphere" that generations of Amherst students have experienced and will continue to experience.
After Amherst
After graduating from the College, Price went on to Yale Law School. In 1998, the College presented him with an honorary degree. In addition, he has received honorary degrees from Yale University, Indiana University and Hunter College. Price is currently the senior advisor to Piper Rudnick, one of the nation's leading law firms.
Price served as President and CEO of the National Urban League (NUL) for nine years. The NUL is a large non-profit organization focused on empowering blacks on social and economic levels. While working for the NUL, Price reinvigorated the League's newspaper, Opportunity.
Price is no stranger to the realm of newspaper articles and other published materials. In the late '70s and early '80s, he was a member of the editorial board of The New York Times. He has written two books-"Achievement Matters: Getting Your Child the Best Education Possible" and "Destination: The American Dream." In addition, many of his speeches and articles have been included in compilation publications.
From 1988 to 1994, Price served as vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a foundation committed to enriching the lives of the underprivileged. His projects included programs promoting education and opportunities for at-risk youth and people of color.
During the early '80s, Price served as senior vice president to the nation's largest public television station, WNET/Thirteen (PBS). Among other things, Price has been Executive Director of the Black Coalition of New Haven, and a lawyer servicing low-income clients.
Most of Price's work has been in the public sector. He explained that he had inherited his passion for social service from his mother, who was an active participant in the fight to integrate schools in Washington, D.C. She also fought to bring full and equal voting rights to the nation's capital.
Reminiscing
Amherst has changed in one way that disappointed Price. The school's shift to an open curriculum came as a surprise to him. Even though he had to be "dragged, kicking and screaming" to his six required classes, when he looks back, Price appreciates "the range of exposure and breadth of preparation, across multiple domains" that the College's core curriculum gave him. It prepared him for "the world we live in and the world that we are headed into." According to Price, this kind of well-roundedness "is the essence of the liberal arts education and shouldn't be left up to chance."
Price has been a strong force in the field of social services for nearly four decades. His voice has stood for reason and equality, and his writings have inspired many to action. Forty years ago, he walked the same paths that we do. He sat in the same classes, read the same books and learned from the some of the same professors. When he left Amherst College for the outside world, he decided that he wanted to change it, and he did. Just as Amherst has morphed and evolved in the last 40 years, so has the world around us. We owe our gratitude to men like Hugh Price, a man who acted upon his beliefs.