THURSDAY, DECEMBER5, 2002
ACTIVISTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
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ing on two fronts," he said
But, as Dowdell looks back, he attributes much of his action to his youth and the anger inside him.
"I had so much hatred in me, I couldn't see past my right finger," he said.
While tragic, the effects of Tiger Dowdell's death sobered Lawrence, said Rusty Monhollon, historian and author of This is America?: The Sixties in Lawrence, KS.
"His death served as a wake-up call for Lawrence," he said. The death also illustrated that the problems of the 1960s hit close to home for Lawrence residents, Monhollon said.
"It wasn't a distant war all the way across the world," he said. "Race was at the heart of that."
While he visits frequently, Randy Dowdell has no desire to move back to Lawrence.
"You remember what used to be there and what used to take place," he said. "We don't have any good memories, just the struggle. It ruined me."
Dowdell said the bad experiences he had during the early 1970s, specifically his brother's
death, were the reason he didn't get his degree from KU. Instead, he transferred, and eventually graduated from Malcolm X College, which was not an accredited institution.
Dowdell encourages young black people today to invest in their community and look after each other.
"The Black Student Union just needs to address today's issues, war on drugs. They need to get back into the black family."
From Guns to Gardening
Bob Lominska, a kindergarten teacher at Hillcrest Elementary School in Lawrence, found himself at the heart of the action of the anti-war movement at KU during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lominska came to the University from Long Island, N.Y., where he helped put together an issue of an underground newspaper, "before there was such a thing," he said.
At KU, he attended Students for a Democratic Society meetings, participated in marches and vigils, and handed out anti-war literature.
He took such action to help send a simple mission to U.S. leadership; end the war.
In Spring 1970 then-Chancel-
"We always kept the first cylinder empty. That way, if someone took your gun, you knew you had time to rush that person."
nancy Dowdell
Former Lawrence resident and student activist
lor Laurence H. Chalmers asked for a review of the ROTC cadets by having them march at Memorial Stadium. Lominska was there, along with several other student protesters.
"People saw it as an endorsement of the war," he said. "People were looking for any way to confront the establishment."
When asked to move out of the way of the marching ROTC cadets, Lominska moved; other students didn't. Chalmers eventually cut the review short because of the protest.
He and his roommates were living at a house at 1603 Louisiana St. and often studied in the lobby of the Union. Around 10 p.m. on April 16, 1970, Lominska was already back at home from studying when one of his roommates rushed in and told him the Union was burning. Lominska went to help.
In April 1970, another landmark event of the tumultuous times erupted; arsonists set fire to the Kansas Union. Lominska was there the night it burned.
"People were hauling paintings and grand pianos," Lominska said. He started helping, too, hauling hose in for the men fighting the fire.
"I didn't get to do a whole lot, but we were inside a burning building," he said.
These days, Lominska doesn't join the ranks of protesters on Massachusetts Street, partly because the current conflict does not directly affect young people the way it did during his college years.
"If there was a draft it would be different," he said.
Lominska sees distinct differences in protesting between then and now.
"There are not that many people now, and it's much less intense," he said.
wife, Joy, have new causes. The couple grows organic vegetables outside their home to promote alternative agriculture without the use of pesticides.
Instead, Lominska and his
"That, and teaching keep us very busy," he said.
Chonged Lives
More than 30 years after the protests and violence in Lawrence, some of the people most affected by the time reflect on how their lives have changed.
Lominska no longer wields a sign and Dowdell doesn't own a gun.
Dowdell also observes how Lawrence is different from the way it used to be.
TOP RIGHT Lawrence resident Joe Douglas sings with a peace choir in front of the Douglas County courthouse in protest of war in Iraq. He said he protested because he wanted a better world for his grandsons.
"Lawrence is a nice town if you haven't lived there all your life," he said.
Edited by Sarah Hill
Contact Nothwehr at cnothwehr@kansan.com
RIGHT: Activists gather on Massachusetts Street, to protest America's involvement in the Middle East.
BELOW: Anne Haehl shows her support of peace in the Middle East during a Saturday rally on Massachusetts Street. Haehl earned several degrees at the University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.