10A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2007
ACTIVIST (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
of Education's business manager for seven years, and every other job she's had has been with the University She's even worked in some of the very buildings where she was arrested during her time here as a student.
The first time Brune was expelled was after a sit-in in 1965. At the time, some landlords near campus refused to rent houses or apartments to African Americans and even advertised in The University Daily Kansan, "no blacks." Brune was one of 200 people arrested in the chancellor's suite in Strong Hall and taken away in the "paddy wagon." A local African American minister posted bail for each incarcerated protestor: $10 a pop.
"We got out of jail," Brune said, "and got right back at protesting again."
Brune's next legal trouble came in a protest against the Vietnam War military draft. Brume was arrested after she chained herself to the door of the Military Science building. Her children, then three years old and one year old, attended the event and consequently were "arrested," too.
Gregor Brune said he was not as politically active as his mother, but he shared her values and beliefs.
in protest against the current war" Gregor said.
"The kids were really cool." Brune said. "Still are, actually."
Brune recounted the time the legendary baby doctor, Dr. Spock, came to speak at the University.
"I may be a little biased, but my mom has been a terrific person to be raised by," Gregor Brune said. "She took me to anti-Vietnam war protests with her when I was too young to know what was going on, and still today I have marched with her
"He told us — many of us families with small kids — 'It doesn't matter how you bring your kids up. There's going to be a point in time when they're going to rebel against you. Just accept it,' she said.
Brune had joined the Quaker Church to provide her children with a religious reason for avoiding the draft. After hearing Dr. Spock's advice, however, she quit going.
"I figured, what's the point? They're not going to turn out to be like me." Brune said. "But they did. It makes me have a renewed conviction that this is the right way to think."
Because she had two small children and a husband while she was a full-time student, Brune said she realized the need for on-campus childcare. At the time, on-campus childcare wasn't available, so her kids went with her to most of the protests. Women's issues plaguing the University at the time — such as a lack of women in the KU administration, no women's studies program and a Watkins Memorial Health Center that refused to dispense birth control information or contraceptives — were what sparked the events that led to Brune's third arrest.
In February 1972, a feminist protest took place in the then East Asian Studies Department building, which was later torn down. Brune and 14 other women took over the building and locked themselves inside. When the press came to look for a spokeswoman and a name for the protesters, Robin Morgan, one of the protesters, offered off-the-cuff "February Sisters."
"It was a group of women in February." Brune said. "Made sense!"
Today, the February Sisters is a campus organization that brings feminist forums to the University. Last February, the Sisters celebrated the 35th anniversary of the original sit-in.
The original name stuck, but the original group of protesters did not.
Less than a year after the initial demonstration, Hilltop Child Care Development Center opened, a women's studies program was created and annual February Sisters educational forums on women's issues began.
Brune remains close friends with another original February Sister, Christine Smith. They have been friends since 1965, when they met at a meeting called to integrate the Lawrence swimming pools.
"We never did anything together again," Brune said. "It's so funny to think this one thing, one action that we did, stuck."
"The work she did is solid. It touched lives," Smith said of Brune. "It made a statement."
Morgan, the February Sister who
named the group, is the former editor of Ms. Magazine, which covers feminist issues and politics, and lives in New York City.
Brune's present-day passion is participating with around 15 other protesters from the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice to protest the Iraq War in front of the Douglas County Courthouse.
On a recent Saturday, Brune stood next to Smith, her fellow February Sister who was holding a sign that said "No Escalation," chatting with Louise Hanson, another activist, about a recipe for green bean caserole.
"We're forcing people to think about what they think." Hanson said.
When she's not working her regular job or on her political endeavors, Brune spends time in her 6,000-book home library. Gregor Brune recently helped his mom alphabetize her library, an event that took six weeks.
“Perhaps the greatest legacy I have inherited from my mother is a love of reading,” Gregor said. “I am in awe of her enormous book collection, and she has inspired me to be the bookworm I am today.”
The Coalition meets weekly to plan protests and other events.
One book in her collection,
"Prairie Power," features Brune herself in the last chapter of the book, written by Robbie Lieberman in 2004. The Book focused on former student radicals at the University of Missouri, Southern Illinois University and the University of Kansas.
NO HASSLE FOR YOUR TASSLE
"It's kind of weird to be in a book," Brune said. "So many people were active in my time."
Lieberman said she wrote the book to explore the meaning of "prairie power" and how it fueled the activism on college campuses. The book is sold at the KU Bookstore for $50.
"But don't buy it." Brune advised.
"It's too expensive."
Jon Goering/KANSAN
CJ Brune stands among protestors in front of the Douglas County Courthouse at noon on Saturday. Brune has been an activist in Lawrence since the 1960s.
Photos from top to bottom
Sarah Leonard/KNSAN
Old posters and photographs of protests and rallies fill the walls of two rooms in Brunei's home.
Brune participates regularly in marches and protests and said she would go just as far as the law allowed, not wanting to jeopardize her upcoming retirement. But would she break the law again and risk arrest if the cause was important enough?
"Absolutely, without batting an eye," Brune said.
Kansan staff writer Bethany Bunch can be contacted at bbunch@kansan.com.
Sarah Leonard/KANSAN
J Brune reminisces about the graduation of 1970.
Almost half of the student body wore the dove and olive branch band around their arms in honor of peace.
Sarah Leonard/KANSAN
A crowd gathers around the steps of Strong Hall during a rally. "My son was arrested when he was 3 years old during a protest on the football field. Everyone on the field was under arrest," Brune said.
Edited by Ashley Thompson
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