Annie Tubman: Tough Love

While standing in line at the University Bookstore’s Commencement Fair,
Annie Tubman (Class of ’06, B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies/Sociology) could easily be mistaken for a proud parent about to purchase cap and gown photos of her graduating offspring. Upon bestowing mistaken congratulations on her accomplished son or daughter, one learns that it is she who is the excited graduate, and cum laude at that.

Of her daughter, who graduated from UC San Diego in the late 1980s, Tubman says, “She is very, very proud of her mama. She doesn’t show it to me, but she tells everybody at her job about me. She kept pushing me. I’d say, ‘Kelly, help me with my paper.’ And she’d say, ‘Mom, I’ll proofread it, but you have to learn to do it yourself.’”

The granddaughter of an alumna of the first graduating class at Spelman College, a historically black women’s college in Atlanta, Tubman was surrounded by a family who believed strongly in education.

“I had an uncle who was an engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, even though he didn’t have a degree,” she says. “When he retired and went to Ohio State University, he got a dual bachelor’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. He was hired after that by Rockwell at age 63. So it always stood out in my mind that if he could do it, I can do it. It’s not too late.”

While the age difference between herself, her fellow students, and often her professors, was “intimidating” at first, Tubman enjoyed the challenges of learning and making use of her life experience in the transition to becoming a college student.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up with these young minds at first,” she says. “But then I realized I had something that they didn’t. I had focus. I think I’ve made an impression on them. Several students told me, ‘I wish I could get my mom to go back to school.’”

After taking time off briefly to relax this summer, Tubman plans to start shopping for a law school. Her experience in a criminology class, and her observations of single parenthood, have inspired her to become a counselor for juvenile offenders.

“A lot of young people get into situations because their parents are not doing their job,” she says, having been a single mother herself. “When I worked for the county, I would see these young mothers who weren’t as concerned about spending time with their children as they were about getting another man. If you don’t invest time in your children, you’re going to end up picking them up from jail.”

Tubman plans to talk to parents to get them more involved in their children’s lives. She also believes in going to the heart of the matter with at-risk youth.  

“I would also emphasize to the child, 'You don’t have to be in this situation again,'" she says. “Whatever your mom or dad didn’t do, you’re on your own now. Go back to school, get an education. Don’t run with the same crowd. Whatever I do for you will be negated if you go back to them, and I’ll be seeing you again.’

“I was sitting in my Spanish class, and this young guy who sat next to me had his cell phone ringing. I said, ‘You know what? You’re in class. Your friends know when you’re in class, why would they call you? They’re trying to make you fail. Turn that cell phone off.’ The next time I saw him in class, he said, ‘I got my cell phone off.’”

- Joanie Harmon