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Friday. April 16. 1976
University Daily Kansan
Muriel Paul defends oppressed
By BILL UYEKI
Staff Writer
Who in the world is Muriel Paul?
That question is often asked by people who want to know more about the woman who has been so actively involved with the University of Kansas and the city of
Paul's most recent activities, on which her local reputation is based, include involvement in a dispute between the Coalition of Minority Students and the administration at Baker University, filing a complaint as a KU graduate student that accuses the University of discriminatory biring practices and being a memoirist. She has also investigated mismanagement charges against the Lawrence city government.
Muriel Paul says she's a defender of the oppressed
THESE ACTIVITIES seem to indicate that she is in a position for contenders and an eye for conflict.
out ww., "people ask, "is Muriel Paur: Paul is a black woman who lives in North Lawrence at 438 Elm. She graduated in 1943 with a B.A. in sociology and received her Ph.D. from Boston University in counseling. She has worked for more than 20 years in New York City in social work.
She has been a counselor, a professor of sociology and a probation officer, working at six different institutions in New York. She also serves as the County Rehabilitation Center in Ottawa.
HE IS A pleasant, rotund, middle-aged lady ("My age is none of my business"), with a personality sparked with vitality. She likes to sit quietly on her chair, clarity, closely observing her listener with gleaming, penetrating eyes. Possessing a lively sense of humor, she sometimes bursts out with carefree laughter, then just as quickly settles into a pensive, speculative
And, as her record indicates, she is a crusader for minorities and oppressed
"I'm people-centered, particularly when it "comes to oppressed people," she explains. "I don't want to sound self-righteous, but I am the only reason for Muriel Paul's cause."
SHE ADMITS that her family and her late husband played the biggest roles in influencing her to speak out and crusade for the rights of the oppressed.
She grew up in one of Lawrence's most affluent black families and attended the University. Both her parents influenced her somewhat, because they were both proud of their racial ancestry. But the biggest influence in her life was her late husband, an attorney who
NOT MANY women in Lawrence,
mostly black women, are outspoken
so Paul
"I married a man who was very active with trade unions," Paul said, "and I guess from him my values and perspectives evolved."
"I get this from my family. I am vocal, I have none. None of my family has ever been heard."
In batting she calls nation-wide discrimination, Paul firmly believes in working within her community for changes. This feeling is reflected in her teaching policies, such as those she applied while teaching social work at Baker.
THERE ARE some in Lawrence who now Paul, and their opinions of her reflect the view of our generation.
"I'd always told my students, 'Your community tells where you are, not across the tracks. It's where you live, and this is where you start first.'"
"I admire a person who is outspoken enough to say what they want to say without worrying about the repercussions," said Rehlio (Ray) Samuel, a black and executive director of the human relations commission at City Hall.
"She represents the lower class people, the people who don't have a chance. She's hard-working, honest and truthful," said Dennis Smith, president of the city government. He is also a member of the special committee to investigate city mismanagement charges.
"I find her to be a highly-motivated individual in neighborhood and community," said Thomas Galloway, director of the urban planning program in the School of Architecture and Urban Design who has worked with Paul in North America.
"SHE SPEAKS for herself. She has an
abrasive personality, and she rubs people the wrong way. I think there are people who can represent a broader spectrum of the black community," said Donald Binsn, city commissioner and member of the special commission to investigate "city mismanagement charges.
Bins also said, "I certainly don't think she speaks for the black community as a
She is also quite critical of those who say women are among today's oppressed people. White women can't be grouped with Black women because they don't share common experiences.
Paul responds, "Oh really? Well, who
would we represent the whole white
community?"
"If you have any self-respect, are you fighting to be integrated with your own organization?"
"Why is it a black has to represent every black, when a white does not have to represent every white?" she asks, the tone of her voice higher and louder. "Not every black has to agree with me, but I have to do what I feel is right."
"You don't see any black women in the movement, and for good reason. They know that I am a white woman."
The women's movement is counterrevolutionary for blacks, she says, because it increases the number of people blacks must compete against for jobs.
PAUL HAS definite feelings about equal rights for blacks. She favors an unimpeded right to get an education and earn a living, through integration if necessary. But she believes that integration isn't an end in itself.
"THE WHITE women wants to get out of her kitchen these days," she says, "while the black woman wants to get out of the white women's kitchen, into her own."
"I would not fight for integration because I think it is a substitute for oppression. Where in history have you seen anybody fighting for integration with the oppressor?"
"How can you fight the man you sleep with every night?"
The desire to excel and the hard-work
ethic so prevalent in Paul seems to run in her father's family. She has two brothers—one a computer analyst in Washington, the other a retired legislator in Kentucky.
SHE HAS two daughters, one of whom lives in Tanzania. Like any proud mother, she is quick to display photographs of her daughters' families to any visitor. Her other daughter is the head of a new library in San Francisco. Paul also has six grandchildren.
"Certain things have drawn me to certain places," she said. After being in New York, she met Dr. Lawrence and was closer to Lawrence when her mother was afflicted with cancer in 1971. She became the director of the work-study program and served as the dean at the University of Missouri at Columbia.
She seems to be as much a nomad as she is a crusader. Aside from 12 years as a probation officer in New York, she hasn't stayed in one job for more than a year since she landed her first job in New York City in 1952.
But family responsibilities brought her west, and after he mother's death in 1972, she moved to Lawrence to manage the family's real estate interests. Because she was a widow, she was the logical choice to marry him, because both her brothers had families.
"I DIDN'T want to leave New York," she said. "I wanted to blend the beauty and the ugliness."
While managing the family's real estate in Lawrence, Paul worked for a doctorate in psychology and taught courses part-time at Baker. This work load became because she submitted her documentation to Baker.
It's interesting to note the circumstance surrounding some of her most recent controversies at Baker, KU and with the city commission.
HOWEVER, SHE WASn't leave Baker before she had become embriled in a controversy regarding the administration's failure to adopt an affirmative action plan.
One of her students, Jerry Williams, led the Coalition of Minority Students, which
In April 1974, Baker was interviewing possible replacements for her position on the faculty. Paul said the school had made no special effort to recruit blacks, so she and some students picketed the building where the interviews were being conducted.
protested the administration's lack of action.
"This was tremendously embarrassing for the administration," she said, "to have a new person on the campus it was interested in having come to Baker, and having all those kids picket. More embarrassing than not, a very likely member (hereself on the pikeet line.)"
THE ADMINISTRATION accused her of aggravating the problems of minority students by resigning from her position. Regardless of whether she was regarded by some as a troublemaker, she feels she made one positive contribution to Baker.
She originated the "Day of Dialogue," during which she said classes were canceled for one day, and students and faculty members met to resolve problems between blacks and whites, and also between Greek and nonGreek students.
It was in 1974 that she and Williams, also a KU student then, filed a complaint to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, accusing KU of discriminatory hiring practices. The complaint stemmed from the hiring of two white part-time teachers at the Times Rossier, a black who had a full-time position in the University administration.
NEITHER WILLIAMS nor Paul had applied for the position. An investigation of the complaints by the U.S. Office of Civil Justice resulted, but the findings haven't been released.
Paul is also quite critical of KU's OutreachProgram. Instead of offering more equivalent courses for students outside Lawrence, Outreach really should mean using the University's resources to help residents of East and North Lawrence, she said.
Thanks to Paul and others, the University is assisting residents in North Lawrence through the North Lawrence Planning Commission. This is an important step from the School of Architecture and Urban Design, who are analyzing the North Lawrence community's land use, housing
THE LAWRENCE City Commission meetings on city mismanagement gave Paul the opportunity to defend the "op-portunity" again, this time the city's workers.
She said she was happy with improvements made in the area of employee safety since the meetings. But she added that she was dissatisfied with the lack of attention paid to the city's management structure and its affirmative action plan.
It was Smith who recommended Paul for the special communication six-member investigating committee.
"She did a beautiful job," Smith said. "She dedicated a lot of time to it, and she feels bad because she thinks she didn't do enough. But she did all she could."
Doing all that she can is characteristic of Muriel Paul, regardless of where she goes. Whether she is a crusader or a nomad, there are two ways she must be most to her—the oppressed people.
“And wherever you find them,” she concludes, “I hope you'll find me.”
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Work exhibited in architecture
Students and faculty of the School of Architecture and Urban Design will have a chance to exhibit their projects at a spring exhibition today and tomorrow in Marvin
Don Lee, St. Louis, Mo., sophomore, said he will be the project of first year design students.
be the only projects on exhibit, there will be
the artwork and photography, also. Lee said.
sculture and photography, also, Lee said. What Lee called an "implied tent" of fishnet and helium balloons will be constructed outside of Marvin to attract the
The exhibition will last until 5 p.m. today.
It can be seen from 8 p.m. until 5 p.m.
tomorrow.
The Mount Oread Bicycle Club
invites you to an:
Easter Monday Ride-April 19th Hop on your bike and meet at South Park by the bandstand at 11:00 a.m. Bring a friend and a picnic lunch. We'll travel to Lone Star Lake (35 miles) on the flattest roads in the county. For more information, stop by the SUA Office in the Kansas Union or call 864-3477.
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