“Be Blessed, Grateful for Life’s Successes” -CAU 2025 Legacy Award Honoree Cummings Enjoins

MONROVIA – There is nothing more fulfilling in life than receiving one’s flowers (recognition) when you are alive to appreciate such recognition. Such was the case with the Political Leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Mr. Alexander Benedict Cummings when on Saturday, March 22, he was bestowed the Thomas W. Cole Jr. Legacy Award in Atlanta, USA. The prestigious award was created in honor of Clark Atlanta University’s (CAU) first president, Dr. Tomas W. Cole, Jr., for his outstanding contributions to the university.

Delivering his acceptance speech in the most humble tone, Mr. Cummings used the occasion to describe his life and life success in two words – blessed and grateful.

“I have had an incredibly blessed life. Oftentimes successful people take too much credit for their success, when most of our success is due to providence and is due to being blessed. I want to acknowledge and thank Clark Atlanta University, the Long Life Association for this recognition, for this acknowledgment. Thank you. I am humbled and I am grateful. I want to acknowledge the other honorees tonight. It’s an honor to be in your company,” Cummings enjoined.

“I also want to thank CAU for another gift, my key blessing, my wife Theresa. When I met Theresa and she saw the video, and we’ve been married for over 40 years, we have two wonderful adult kids who we are proud of, Ayo and Boakai. My siblings are here too tonight, Shanita and Julia. We lost our younger sister a few years ago. I have many friends and supporters. I want to acknowledge all of them. Thank you for being here,” he said.

Speaking directly to the students of CAU, Mr. Cummings said the event is about the young people, therefore he was prepared to give some advice in particular order.

“Be ambitious for yourself. Be determined. You will have ups and downs but be focused, ambitious and set goals that you want to go after. Be constant learners. It is important that you are constantly thinking, inquiring and learning, something that I encourage.

“Relationships matter. The world is run based on relationships so don’t burn any bridges. Pay forward by giving back to CAU. Pay forward by helping friends, relatives, neighbors when you are successful. Be happy for and celebrate other people’s success.

“Again, I want to thank CAU, I want to thank all my friends, family who have been my support base, who have encouraged me and explained a lot of my success,” the 2025 Dr. Thomas W. Cole, Jr. Legacy Award honoree trustee said.

Reminiscing Cummings and CAU

During an interlude segment of the award ceremony, the hosts chose the propitious moment to thrill the audience in the jam-packed hall with a memorable rendition of honoree Cummings’ life at CAU and its impact on his life. As the video rolled, Cummings enthralled the audience with his life-changing bromance with CAU.

“I had gone to undergraduate school in Illinois and I went home and was working in a bank in Liberia and I always wanted to get a graduate education. I didn’t want to go back to the Midwest where it was cold and freezing. I wanted somewhere in the Southwest in the United States. I wanted a good graduate program, great graduate school and Clark Atlanta University stood up for me. At the time, placements at most of the major corporations from students and graduates of AU had a great recognition, so I applied and fortunately I was accepted.

“What I like about the school and what I found surprising was that it was both competitive but also very supportive, and sometimes those things can appear to be contradictory. It was a competitive school, it was demanding academically but both faculty and students were supportive of each other, and for me, it was a wonderful experience.

“I met my wife at Clark Atlanta University. We were introduced by one of my own girls, a woman from Liberia who was a student at the time. She yelled across the floor and said, “Come and meet your future wife.” It was obviously prophetic and it’s a moment I will never forget.

“I am always inspired when I see any generation, any age of Africans and African Americans who are successful in the right way, meaning, they give back; meaning they understand that a large part of success is a combination of providence and what they do. A leader that I found very successful, who I admired and found some time to be with is Nelson Mandela. He was wise, had a sense of humor. Tough, generous and he was one of my inspirations.