iA = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LANGSTON HUGHES
TUESDAY, JAN. 29, 2002
HUGHES CONTINUED FROM 1A
Hughes never denied his Kansas roots. During a campus visit in 1965, he told students that, although he was born in Joplin, Mo., "I sort of claim to be a Kansan. My first memories are of Lawrence and the schools I went to — Pinckney and old Central. In fact, my first novel, Not Without Laughter, uses Lawrence as a background."
In the 1930 novel, Hughes called the town Stanton and the main character Sandy Williams. He wrote in his autobiography, I Wonder as I Wander, that he made Sandy's family more typical of the black families he had known in Lawrence than his own had been.
own had been.
His parents were well-educated; his father was a lawyer and rancher in Mexico and his mother a newspaper woman and stenographer. A grand-uncle had been a congressman, and his grandmother's first husband had been killed in John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. "We were poor
but different," he wrote in The Big Sea.
But Hughes drew on his own experiences growing up in racially segregated Lawrence on and off from 1902 to 1915 for the novel. A true Kansas classic, Not Without Laughter, begins with a 1911 Lawrence tornado. "I put in a real cyclone that had blown my grandmother's front porch away," he wrote in his first autobiography, The Big Sea.
The Tornado
Aunt Hager opened the front door, but before she or the child could move, a great roaring sound suddenly shook the world, and, with a deafening division of wood from wood, they saw their front porch rise into the air and go hurting off into space. Sailing high in the gathering darkness, the porch was soon lost to sight.
"Good white folks, the Gavitts," Aunt Hager had often said, and now their large frame dwelling lay on its side like a doll's mansion, with broken furniture strewn carelessly on the wet lawn—and they were dead.
— from "Storm," chapter 1,
Not Without Laughter
Elizabeth Schultz, a KU professor emerita of English who has written about Not Without Laughter, said the tornado's impartial destruction contrasted with the discrimination Sandy faced in Stanton.
"A tornado affects us all," Schultz said. "A tornado doesn't make judgments about class or race."
Not Without Laughter is more frank about the racism Hughes encountered in Kansas than is his autobiography, The Big Sea, Schultz wrote in the recently published Embattled Lawrence: Conflict and Community. Hughes based several scenes in the novel on his actual encounters with racial segregation or "Jim Crow," as the system was known.
Jim Crow Row
The roll was repeated, each child taking a seat as she had commanded. When all but four of the children were seated, the two colored girls and Sandy were still standing.
"Albert Zwick," she said, and the last white child sat down in his place.
"Nów," said the teacher, "you
three colored children take the seats behind Albert"...
Sandy felt like crying. And he was beginning to be ashamed of crying because he was no longer a small boy. But the teacher's putting the colored children in the back of the room made him feel like crying.
— from "School," chapter 11,
Not Without Laughter
In the novel, Sandy was submissive. But Hughes' classmate John Taylor recalled to former KU student Paulette Sutton that when their seventh grade English teacher put the African-American kids in one row, Hughes protested.
"He printed an awful lot of cards,' Jim Crow Row," Taylor told Sutton in a 1972 interview. "He passed them out, and we put 'em on our desks. He gave me a handful of 'em, and I threw 'em out the window so that they would blow all over the schoolyard advertising what was being done, and let people know what we were undergoing.
"It caused quite a bit of commotion," Taylor recalled. "The principal came up, and they really got into a fight. Just a fist fight
right there in the classroom. We were sent home to our parents."
Their mothers returned with one of the town's few African-American doctors to argue their cause, Taylor said. The teacher and the two boys exchanged apologies, and they were let back into class.
Taylor said the teacher, Ida Lyons, told Sutton that the black students had chosen to sit together "in the best seats in the house," but that Hughes began chanting "Miss Lyons got a Jim Crow Row."
The "Jim Crow Row" wasn't Hughes' first memory of segregated education. He attended Pinckney Elementary School in Lawrence, which at the turn of the century had separate classes for African-American students. Many large Kansas cities had segregated school systems then.
Protesting segregation was a family tradition. Hughes first attended school in Topeka, where he was assigned to an African-American school across the railroad tracks from his home instead of a white school nearby. His mother complained to the local school board and had him assigned to the white school.
Segregated schools continued in Topeka until 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown vs. The Board of Education, in which the Topeka school board was the defendant.
Merry-Go-Round
In the summer a new amusement park opened in Stanton, the first of its kind in the city, with a merry-go-round, a shoot-the-shoots, a Ferris wheel, a dance-hall, and a bandstand for week-end concerts. In order to help popularize the park, which was far on the north edge of town, the Daily Leader announced, under its auspices, what was called a Free Children's Day Party open to all the readers of that paper who clipped the coupons published in each issue. On July 26 these coupons, presented at the gate, would entitle every child in Stanton to free admittance to the park, free popcorn, free lemonade, and one ride on each of the amusement attractions-the merry-go-round, the shoot-the-shoots, and the Ferris wheel...
SEE HUGHES ON PAGE 7A
University of Kansas
Hillel Foundation
940 Mississippi Street Lawrence, KS 66044, 785.749.5397
Hillel Calendar
Greek Community Shabbat - Friday, February 1, 2002; 6pm Join us for a celebration of Shabbat. We will be serving a gourmet, kosher meal in the Kansas Ballroom and our entertainment will be provided by funny man Joel Chasnoff and Sony recording artists, Shiray Shabbat.
Taste of Lawrence Sushi Night - Wednesday, February 6, 2002; 6pm Join us for a night of sushi and fun at Kokoro's. You pay $5 and we cover the r
The Impact of Terrorism on the Jewish Community- Sunday, February 10, 2002; 12-3pm This event is by reservation only. A gourmet lunch and trasnportation will be provided by Hillel.
Hands Helping the Hungry Cooking Class - Tuesday, February 12, 2002; 5pm Learn how to cook a traditional Italian meal. One dish will be eaten that evening and the other dish will feed those who are less fortunate in Lawrence.
A Woman's Evening: A Purim Celebration - Tuesday, February 26, 2002; 8pm Learn how to pamper your body; massage, mud masks, salt rubs and more.
Helen Epstein - Thursday, February 28, 2002; 7:30pm
*Lactuca: Memoir as a Tool for Understanding History*
Helen Epstein - Thursday, February 20, 2020 Public Lecture: Memoir as a Tool for Understanding History The event will be held at the Springhill by Marriott located in the old Riverfront Plaza us at (785) 749-5397.
The event will be held at the Springhill by Marriott located in the old Riverfront Plaza For more information on KU Hillel events, please contact us at (785) 749-5397.
RECREATION SERVICES SPORTS CLUBS
badminton
crew
soccer - men & women
fencing
rugby - men & women
wrestling
ice hockey
tae kwon do
judo
lacrosse - women
roller hockey
water polo
rock climbing
cycling
ultimate - men & women
volleyball - women
sailing
For more information about these clubs or starting a new club contact us at 864-3546 or stop by 208 Robinson
STUDENT
SENATE
Get Involved
RECREATION SERVICES TOP 3 LIST
WAYS TO BE ACTIVE ON CAMPUS (ALL ARE NO ADDITIONAL COST TO STUDENTS)
1. JOIN KU FIT-KU Fit is both aerobic classes & personal training. Classes everyday of the week beginning January 22nd.
2. WORKOUT AT THE BURGE FITNESS CENTER-Bring your KU Id and check-out the 9 pieces of cardiovascular, 11 pieces of resistance equipment, 4 TVs and a stereo for tunes. Hours are MWF 8am-8pm, TTH 10am-10pm and Sun 10am-7pm. Located on the west side of the Burge Union, 3rd level
3. Anschutz Sports Pavillion-Indoor facility for all you walkers/runners. Hours are M-TH 8:30pm-11pm & Sun 7pm-10pm.
WAYS TO NOT BE ACTIVE ON CAMPUS
1. LYING ON THE COUCH EATING BON-BONS EVERYDAY
2.LOCKING YOURSELF IN YOUR ROOM AND STUDYING THE ENTIRE DAY
3. SLEEPING UNTIL NOON, EATING LUNCH, THEN GOING BACK TO BED.
REASONS TO BE ACTIVE
Contact us at 208 Robinson or 864-3546. Check us out at www.ku.edu/~rec
STUDENT SENATE
--environment, living in a multicultural society, giving yourself
Alternative Spring Break Northern New Mexico
A CROSS - CULTURAL VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Participants live at Rancho de Los Brujos (Ghost Ranch) 65 miles north of Santa Fe Past participants say:
"I feel that the trip gave me insight as to the lives of other cultures. The beauty of Ghost Ranch went beyond my expectations."
"The experience of working in the surrounding community is an invaluable part of the trip." "I learned a lot about others and myself."
Yes, if you are open to understanding ethical issues of the
in service, interacting with others and reflecting on the theme of the trip. There will also be opportunities, for those to participate in
There will also be opportunities, for those to participate in worship celebrations or sunrise meditation on the side of a mesa.
In the past, participants have identified with the Christian,
Jewish and Muslim faith traditions, along with others who did not feel comfortable in identifying with
any historic faith tradition No one is given a "religious hassle."
Information meeting: Sunday, Feb. 3rd, 7:30 p.m. at ECM Center Questions? - Call ECM, 843-4933, or drop by the ECM Center, one block north of the Kansas Union