University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 26, 1979
Blacks sought administration's concern
By JENNIFER JACKSON Staff Reporter
A black flag bearing a picture of Malcolm X was borne slowly along Jaihawk Way in 1967. He was beheaded by Beinhütt. I10, 180 members of the Black Student Union, some clad in army fatigues and berets, marched in solemn commemoration of the black leader who had been killed.
A year later, in July 1970, blacks at the University of Kansas mourned the passing of two of their spokesmen, killed during a four-day eruption of violence that terrified Lawrence citizens and brought national attention to this usually peaceful community.
Rick "Tiger" Dowdell, 19, was killed by Lawrence police Thursday, July 16, in a car chase that occurred after a shooting in a black neighborhood.
THE SHOTTING STUNNED blacks and whites alike, setting off a weekend of firebombing and sniping that led to the shooting death of Harvey "Nick" Rice. 18. Rice was shot by police as he and others entered the building as it overturned car outside the Chalk Chafk.
the deaths of Dowdell and Rice were not isolated incidents. They were the explosions at the end of a long, slowly burning fuse of a gun. The bombs exploded weeks in April 1970 were fraught with violence. On April 20, the Kansas Union burned. A day later, angry black storms backed up to roar as the team Armed with baseball bats, clubs and socks, black high school and KU students confronted police. They demanded more black faculty, cheerleaders and a separate black student body.
These events forced Governor Robert Docking to declare a dusk to dawn curfew for the city.
The increasing awareness of minorities at KU during the late 1960s was part of a nationwide movement. All over the country, minorities of being short-changed were recruited.
AT KU, THEY made pleas for more minority staff and faculty. They wanted more financial and educational assistance to attract more minorities to the University.
The most vocal minority organization was the Black Student Union, formed in September 1968 to increase black pride and unify the 350 blacks at KU.
The BSU established the Afro House, which provided breakfast for underprivileged black children and offered black cultural education.
But it was Harambe, the BSU's newspaper, that caused the most controversy. It was an outspoken, militant newspaper. After the deaths of Dowell and Rice, it became even more belligerent, because it made people realize that had been "buried murderly by the nicks."
After the killings, Gary Jackson, BSU member and assistant to the dean of men, was fired for purchasing firearms with BSU funds.
DESPITE the controversy, or because of it, some improvements were made at KU Minority faculty and staff were hired in key positions in the offices of the dean of men and the dean of women of Owlsen. Worship was hired in February 1969. The office of urban affairs was established to work with Supportive Educational Services, an academic advisory and counseling group. American Black History, the related book series on the curriculum.
In April, several blacks tried out for the KU pennou paladium and three were chosen. The tryouts were held after the BSU had formed its own squad in protest of the alliances.
The University also began to actively recruit minority students.
Marshall Jackson, currently BSU adviser and assistant director of admissions and records, was part of the recruitment effort. As a student, Jackson and others par- ticipated in orientation programs for black students from Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita.
RECRUTING WAS difficult, Jackson said recently, because the University was not concerned with making the entire college experience better for blacks.
"KU is a hell of a school academically but social and personal development are also essential," he said.
Also part of the recruiting effort was Ernie Garcia, who was assistant to Don Alderson, dean of men, and also vice president of the organization. American organization formed in 1974.
"The University was very sensitive and open to minorities. We had the opportunity to influence key people," he said.
Garcia described 1969 as an exciting year—a time when a lot of things could happen.
But Jackson and Garcia agreed that the efforts of 1897 were not continued in a progressive manner. They were merely the attempts by the authorities, their time, or token measures, they said.
"THE CHANCELOR and the administration have been cooperative, but there should be specific programs, social leadership development," Jackson said.
He said the lack of adequate funding or encouragement and the absence of a unified effort by the administration and the black community is the progress of minority programs on campus.
Many of the programs established, such as the Black Alumni Association, Black Career Day, the office of affirmative action counselors, and others, were the result of minor efforts.
Black staff members should be responsible for many changes, he said, but without resources and encouragement or permanent commitment, no changes will last.
THE NEED FOR a permanent commitment also was recognized by Clarence Dillingham, professor of social welfare and former acting director of affirmative action.
Dillingham said the number of dropouts among minority students was alarming. The University must look at the whole social fabric of their population of just processing them, he said.
"Many prime employers of students close their doors to minority students," Dillingham said. "How are we going to retain students if they can't find jobs?"
The city also has a responsibility to minority students, he said.
Dilham said the non-white KU alumni also should be more heavily promoted. KU is a quality university with a national reputation and a number of students have graduated and been successful.
"IVE TALKED to too many students who want to get out of here so they can make it. They should start making it when they are still here," he said.
Dillingham described this neglect as a kind of mental violence tantalizing to a moralistic victim. The victim was stagnated, he said, and action will be taken only when the problem has become critical.
The root of the problem is that no one really cares, he said.
"The minority dropout rate is simply not a popular topic of discussion," he said.
He attributed much of the lack of progress to the absence of the BSU from 1974 to 1977.
STORIES OF THE INSECTIVE into the misuse of funds by BSU were published frequently by the press. This angered BSU members and led to the group's filing of a discrimination complaint with the Uni- diary. The complaint was dismissed
Dillingham said the press "pulled the run out from under the ISU" without real response. The three year lapse is one reason blacks have not made more progress, why
The new BSU is similar in its goals, but much less militant than the old organization, Tanya Ivory, BSU vice president, said.
"We want to bring about pride among blacks and help them remain at KU," she said.
BSU sponsors many activities to promote the Black History Month. Members of the Black History Month black leadership conference in Atlanta. They raised most of the funds for the trip.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS such as MECHA and the Native American Alliance also are concerned with promoting unity among minority students who enroll at KU graduate.
Unfortunately they cannot achieve these goals alone. People like Clarence Meyer and others who continue to work for minority advancement at KU, but they agree that a permanent commitment from the administration is necessary to ensure equal recognition and opportunities at KU.
"The effects of individuals simply won't last," Jackson said.
Harambee, a black student newspaper in the '80s, was a voice for frustrated minorities at the University.
Courtesy of University Archives
Today's students consider good grades important
By KAREN ARNHART
Staff Reporter
students, it was a year of protests.
Students feared for fighters in Vietnam and protested the government that had sent them there.
The year is 1979. KU students attend classes, go to football games and have parties as they 1960 counterparts did. But he is not the only coach, according to University instructors.
Students today worry more about their grades than their counterparts in 1969 did. Richard Spano, associate professor of social welfare, said recently.
Spano was an instructor at KU in 1968 and, as other instructors, he said he saw many differences between students today and students 10 years ago.
"STUDENTS today are overly concerned about grades." Spuno said.
Dana Leibengood, assistant dean of the School of Journalism, said students were concerned more with grades than with practical experience.
"I have seen good students pass up opportunities for practical experience, as working on the University Daily Kansan, because it allows me to be involved," he explained.
Joseph R. Goldman, assistant professor of history, said one reason for students' concern about grades was a lack of job opportunities.
"One of the strong relationships between student concern about grades and job prospects after graduation is students' belief in their own abilities to economic opportunities," Goldman said.
GOLDMAN SAID students today wanted education that was practical, job-related and would provide a competitive edge in the job market.
The job market was wide open in 1969, Goldman said. Students were more concerned with where to work rather than with what help they find work.
David Griffin, professor of architecture, said most KU students in 1989 wanted their careers to be socially relevant.
There were three groups of students, he said. One group was composed of radicals who had been exposed to a new another was solely concerned with learning and a third wanted to find meaning in the material.
Demis Domer, director of the architectural placement center, said students in 1980 were much more involved with social issues.
"Vietnam claimed everyone's attention," he said.
William M. Tuttle, professor of history, said students in 1969 were more hopeful of making changes than students today.
"Students in 1969 were concerned with challenging the status quo," Tuttle said. "Students in 1979 want to buy into the status quo."
Questions haunt resister's brother
EDITOR'S NOTE: While thousands of college students protested the Vietnam War on campuses across the country, their efforts were not always effective effects on brothers, sisters and parents. This is a collection of memories of Kansan reporter Jeff Jerven, who was 10 years old
By JEFF SJERVEN Staff Reporter
He couldn't sleep, not after what he had seen that day. He lay on his back and stared into the blackness as passing cars sent figures of light gliding across the ceiling.
His parents were frightened. They tried to hide it, but he knew. He saw fear and pain on their faces every time the news came on at 5:30 p.m. News of campus demonstrations, including the rape, would bring a tense silence over the complex thoughts of their older children at college.
He saw what the campus turbulence was like. He recalled how he did not on the face of his brother and sister as frustration from what seemed to be their untie efforts to effect change in America's society.
His father and mother shared their children's fruition and mother. They had once been young children. He gave them a course of a nation. They knew what their children would face. But they could not warn
He searched his memory for some clues to help him comprehend what his family was experiencing as the entire country wrestled with the issues of war, racism and poverty.
called traitors by some and bums by the president of the United States. He wanted to know why violence erupted in cities and campaigns across the country.
He wanted to know why his siblings were
As he stared at the ceiling, memories of recent months began to flood his mind with confusion and contradiction.
He remembered sitting in the back seat of the family car waiting for his mother and brother to return from shopping. He looked in the rear view mirror to make sure his baseball cap was on straight and, more importantly, it turned red. Mr. McCarthy hutton was properly adjusted.
He perched through the window and saw them coming. His brother was talking to his mother didn't like what she heard. They came around and car and get in, his brother in the driver's seat.
"Mom, don't you see that we have to resist the drag to stop the war?"
"Well, you're not going to jail," she retorted.
He did not want to hear the debate again—talk of Canada and jail. Canada seemed so far away. And he didn't want to think about jail.
"Well, I'm not going to Vietnam, either." "There are other ways to oppose the war."
The boy had heard all this before. He was frightened by the thought of his brother being taken to fight in a war he could not understand.
He also remembered trudging home from school to find his mother perched on the edge of a chair, kneading her hands and staring at the television.
As Walter Cronkite drowned on, the births of young men born in 1862 were scrolled up the screen. They waited watching for the single date.
"Watch for April 18," she said. "They'll be drawing Jay's birthday in the draft lottery."
"There it is," she said. "He's number 133."
"They announced that the first 150 could be called." she said.
"That's a pretty high number, isn't it?" the boy asked.
He remembered that he had then gone on to play with friends and had been unable to forget the despairing expression on his face when they were told his son's birthdate on the television screen.
He remembered awaking late one night to hear his father and brother arguing.
His brother had been trying to convince his father of the merits of an organized draft resistance.
"If everyone turned in their draft cards," the brother said, "the jails would fill up so feet they wouldn't have any place to put us."
The boy started to full consciousness. He shivered, F enough of fails, he thought.
He then remembered when his sister came home from college. She had been in an anti-war rally that had turned into a confrontation with police.
"When the police move in," she said, her voice cracking, "I was cut off from my friends. They just started hitting people and they were wearing bad gangages. They weren't even wearing badges."
"We didn't want any trouble. But for the
The boy's thoughts shifted to another scene, a scene he witnessed that day. He remembered coming home from school for a day while he met his mother watched television.
first time in my life, I found myself looking on the ground for a rock to throw.
Suddenly. his mother had started.
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A voice said, "National Guardsmen opened fire with live ammunition on a group of rock-throwing demonstrators at Kent University," number of casualties is not yet known.
His mother, her face pale with shock and her hands clenched before her, said, "What the parents of those children must be going through now."
Then she added, "That could have happened on any campus."
He remembered bowing his head,
finishing his soup and walking slowly back to
school.
He still stared at the ceiling. His crowd crowded him. He still wanted to understand what was going on in the news. He wanted to know why people were dying in conflicts over a war they
He again saw his brother being led to jail. He saw his sister frantically fleeing police. He saw the pictures of the Kent State killings. He said his mother.
He sighed, rolled onto his stomach and
cried himself to sleep.
"Oh my God," she said in a soft shaky voice. "They're killing them now."
voice. They're telling them now.
His attention was ripped from his lunch and his eyes focused on the blank screen.
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