D’wayne Edwards (left) attends the first-ever LA Creativity Counter Conference. | Source: Vivien Killilea / Getty
Pensole Academy founder D’Wayne Edwards is adding to his legacy and the legacy of Black Michigan youth.
According to reports, Edwards has now acquired The Lewis College of Business, which will now be referred to as the Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design. The higher learning institution would be the first reopened HBCU in America (the original college closed down years ago), as well as the only HBCU in Michigan.
“The Lewis College of Business — a Detroit-based HBCU founded by the late Violet T. Lewis, closed in 2013. Edwards, the majority shareholder of the former institution, is reviving the college with a new found emphasis on design and creative thought,” NiceKicks.com reports, adding “PLC is expected to open starting March 2022, with enrollment beginning on December 2022. Until its move into metro Detroit, the reopened college will be located in the College for Creative Studies’ A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education.”
“I am not a politician. I am not even interested in politics, and this is really my first time meeting politicians, and they’ve been phenomenal,” Edwards said in a statement, according to the site. “They all knew about the school and were sad that it closed, and now they’re excited that someone wants to take it on and reopen it because of how much it meant to the city of Detroit. GM and Ford and Michigan Bell, all of their first Black office employees came from this college. To be able to reopen a college that had so much significance to the city and paved the way for diversity within its largest industries, that’s part of history that should have never went away.”
A huge round of applause for this King who is going above and beyond to change lives. Stay tuned for updates on the school’s reopening.