HBCU Tribute Honors Spike Lee And The Legacy Of ‘A Different World’

As A Different World prepares to introduce Hillman College to another generation, producer Torriel C. Simon Martin is looking at the real schools and people behind the HBCU experience. The Dillard University graduate has created a video tribute celebrating HBCUs while honoring Spike Lee and the influence of A Different World. The project arrives ahead of the Netflix series’ September 24 premiere and features students and alumni reflecting on their schools, the television characters they connected with and Lee’s contributions as a filmmaker.

Participants represent institutions including Morehouse College, Spelman College, Howard University, Florida A&M University and Hampton University. Students from Clark Atlanta University and Prairie View A&M University are also featured, among several other HBCUs.

For Delaware State University’s Kameron Taylor, A Different World offered an early glimpse at campus life through characters who approached college in their own ways. “Watching Whitley be extra, Dwayne be brilliant, and Freddie be free-spirited, really set the standard. But the one person who really made the example and showed me what an HBCU campus really is, was Ron,” he said. “Ron made HBCU life feel like a world full of personality, culture, and growth. It showed Black students being unapologetically themselves—from laughing to learning, messing up and bouncing back; maybe doing a protest because what they felt was right.”

The tribute also draws a connection between A Different World and Lee’s 1988 film School Daze. Set at the fictional Mission College, the movie explored life at an HBCU through students whose differing views often put them at odds. Morehouse graduate George A. Potts sees Lee’s film as an important predecessor to the television series.

“Spike Lee was the one. I mean, if you think about it, School Daze was really like the forefather to A Different World,” Potts said. “While A Different World was episodic, School Daze had its own episodes within that cinematic experience. And it was the first time we had gotten a look, a slightly unbiased, but really objective and definitely truthful look at what it meant to be a student on a predominantly Black college campus. That beauty, the cinematography, the narrative arc, the difference, the lack of monolith, the display of what it meant to pursue higher education while also having fun was something that made those of us who would go on to go to those schools believe that we had a responsibility to tell our stories as well.”

Lee’s own HBCU education plays an important role in the tribute. The filmmaker attended Morehouse College and studied film at what was then Clark College, where two professors helped steer him toward filmmaking.

“I went to Morehouse, I took my major at Clark, Clark College. Now it’s Clark Atlanta University. And I was a master cases major,” Lee said. “And that’s where I met Dr. Herb Eichelberger who really, really, really took care of me, guided me, because he knew I wanted to be a serious filmmaker. And on days when he wasn’t supposed to be on campus, he would still come in, open up the editing room so I could work on my stuff. So Dr. Herb Eichelberger was very, very instrumental in my development as a filmmaker.”

Lee also recalled another professor who challenged him when she believed he was capable of doing better. “And also Dr. Dolores Stevens, who was the English teacher, she was really, really hard on me,” he continued. “And I thank her for doing that because she saw potential in me and I was not putting forth the effort. And she stayed on me and I had to tighten up. So it was really the two teachers, Dr. Dolores Stevens and Dr. Herb Eichelberger that really saw some potential in me and they kept me on point.”

Decades after School Daze and the original A Different World brought HBCU life to movie and television screens, Martin’s tribute shows how those portrayals continue to connect with graduates and current students. Their stories also point toward the people who kept HBCU traditions alive off screen, from relatives who encouraged them to attend to professors who recognized their potential.