Beautillion will showcase 15 young black Wichitans’ strengths, talents

Peyton Morgan claims he doesn’t have a talent to display at this year’s Beautillion, but he’s being modest.

The East High senior is a clarinet section leader in band, a high jumper for the track team, a good student and a member of several organizations in and out of his school. In fact, he’s just the sort of accomplished young African-American male that Beautillion organizers build the pageant and program around.

For some reason, he just doesn’t want to play his clarinet in front of a packed house this Saturday at Century II.

“No, I could have, but … ,” he says, his voice trailing off.

And as it turns out, Morgan does have a talent: raising money for college, another part of Beautillion. “Without being overconfident or cocky, I think I have a pretty good chance” of winning that part of the competition, he said, making sure to give plenty of credit to his family and friends.

Beautillion takes place Saturday at Century II. Now in its 41st year, the program was started by the Wichita chapter of a national women’s organization, Links Inc., to benefit and showcase black male high school seniors.

Saturday puts the 15 participating “Beaus” in the spotlight, with singing and dancing, a talent show and the escorting of the Beaus’ “Belles” – young women from local high schools – across the stage.

Peyton Morgan laughs when asked if Beautillion is the male version of a beauty pageant.

“I don’t know that I would say a beauty pageant, but when people ask me what it is, I describe it as a pageant,” Morgan said. “We don’t change outfits that much.”

Another Beau and fellow East High senior, Sage Williams, is taking part in the talent competition with a spoken-word performance of the poem “Let It Ring.” Williams said he plans to give it “a nice dramatic appeal.”

Like Morgan, Williams said learning how to solicit donations was important.

“I want to start up my own charter school system someday, so you have to learn how to ask for money,” Williams said.

One of his most successful efforts was selling cookies that he and his aunt made at Sport Burger on Hillside every Saturday, at 89 cents each.

Williams plans to double major in industrial engineering and business management in college, and has narrowed his choice of schools down to the University of Missouri and Columbia University in New York. Morgan is leaning toward Kansas State University and a computer science major.

The program part of Beautillion starts back in the fall, when high school counselors encourage seniors to participate. With help from family and friends, the young men start raising money for college and take part in social and educational activities organized by Links members. The latter culminate in a spring break trip, which this year took the group to St. Louis and Jefferson City, Mo.

The spring break trip always includes visiting one more or historically black colleges. In Jefferson City, the group toured Lincoln University. In St. Louis, they paid a visit to Harris-Stowe State University. This year’s trip also included a bigger-than-usual dose of contemporary history, as the group went to Ferguson, Mo., to see where racial unrest followed the death of Michael Brown. They met Ron Johnson, the Missouri Highway Patrol captain who led law enforcement efforts in the area.

“He sat with the boys and talked to them, just basically about being a leader and being an adult, just getting out there and working hard,” said Teketa Harding, a Links member who chaperoned the trip.

Morgan said he initially was “a bit upset” by the Ferguson visit because “I felt it was more of a tourist attraction than it needed to be.” But after talking with Johnson, he felt lucky to have seen the spot “where a lot of these movements like ‘Black Lives Matter’ happened.”

The group had plenty of fun in St. Louis, too, visiting a blues museum, a well-known soul food restaurant called Sweetie Pie’s and the Anheuser Busch brewery.

“Of course, they couldn’t get any beer,” Harding said.

Morgan said getting to know his fellow Beaus, who come from different area high schools, has been a highlight of the experience.

“It’s a great experience,” he said. “Not only raising money, but getting your name out in the community, networking, organizing one’s own events. It’s great way to show some leadership skills. As a person, it almost forces you to grow up and become somewhat more of an adult than you were when you started.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Beautillion will showcase 15 young black Wichitans’ strengths, talents."