KU Blacks have troubled history
(Continued from page 1)
(Continued from page 1)
athletics, they were either segregated or arbitrarily banned.
Efforts to change this discrimination met with much white hostility and little success.
Before 1948, Negro students were unable to enjoy a hamburger in most Lawrence restaurants. They either had to eat it outside or take it home.
Most dining facilities in the KU Student Union, were barred to black students until 1948. Two small booths in the Hawks Nest were allotted to serve a Negro student population sometimes totaling 250 persons.
Housing presented another problem. While some blacks belonged to fraternities and sororities, many had to find accommodations off campus. The University wouldn't lodge them in its scholarship and residence halls.
Jesse Milan, Lawrence NAACP president and the source of information for that period, was a KU student during 1948-53. He recalls the situation then.
"Negroes had to live on the far (east) side of Massachusetts Street in the homes of Negro families. . . . very, very few students owned cars and there was a lot of walking."
The KU Housing Office kept segregated lists of facilities for white and black students.
Murphy broke bars
Another blatant source of discrimination were the local movie theaters, which required Negroes to sit in restricted areas or in the balcony. This practice was discontinued during the 1952-53 school year, when Chancellor Murphy threatened to show first-run films in Hoch Auditorium for a djme and carried out his threat.
Soon after Murphy's coming, racial barriers in University housing were dropped and black coeds entered Corbin Hall.
During the late 1940's and early 1950's, black students at KU banded together to form the Negro Student Association (NSA). In 1952, the NSA attempted to desegregate several *off-campus cafes. A petition signed by 1,269 KU students was presented to the cafe operators but they refused to integrate.
While black students at KU combated discrimination in housing and public accommodations, Negroes at nearby state universities faced
2 KANSAN Feb.17 1969
NEVER TOO LATE
At the University of Oklahoma, Negroes sat in the same classrooms with whites, but were "segregated" from their peers by "isolation booths."
even more outlandish types of discrimination.
Missouri established a completely separate branch of its law school for one black student rather than permit him to attend the all-white main school. Later on, it temporarily abolished its journalism graduate school to prevent a Negro coed from entering.
KC Negroes attended KU
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Because of segregation and inadequate facilities in their own "separate but equal" state colleges, many out-of-state Negroes attended KU during the 1930's and 1940's. A large number came from Missouri and the Kansas City area.
Cliff's Notes
The Supreme Court desegregation decision of 1954 had little effect on academic life at KU, which was already technically integrated. It did, however, spark a new determination on the part of local black students in their
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drive for equality.
In the early 1960's, the NSA was replaced by the KU Civil Rights Council (CRC). Like its predecessor, the CRC was concerned with discrimination in public accommodations and off-campus housing. It also took aim at what it considered another source of racism-KU's white fraternities and sororites.
Prelude to the 1965 sit-in
The following account, gleaned from University Daily Kansans of the period portray the torturous route leading to the mass student arrests of 1965. In 1963, the CRCU representatives submitted to the All Student Council (ASC) a proposed amendment to the University's Human Rights Bill No. 7. The existing bill was considered weak and ineffective by CRC members. The additional amendment called for the denial of official recognition to any campus group which had a discriminatory clause.
The bill was approved by the ASC, but because of bureaucratic confusion, was not signed by Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe.
discrimination amendment was again put before the ASC. The revised bill, due to take effect in September of 1965, was approved by the ASC and sent to Wescoe.
In 1964, the anti
It remained in Wescoe's hands for more than a month—unsigned.
Finally, in February of 1965, the Chancellor explained that he was withholding his signature because of grammatical errors in the bill. Kansan's of the day reported, he felt that the deadline for compliance with the bill should be longer-it should not take effect until spring of 1966.
110 KU Students Arrested
While the ASC dutifully prepared yet another anti-discrimination bill to submit to Wescoe, the Civil Rights Council was making other plans.
Fifteen minutes later, the Lawrence police arrived. One hundred and ten persons, mostly KU students, were arrested and taken to jail.
On the morning of March 8, 1965, approximately 150 persons filed into the Chancellor's office. They filled the room and spilled out into the second floor lobby.
As the demonstrators took positions, CRC leaders presented a list of demands to Wescoe. The Chancellor took no
At 5 p.m., the demonstrators were asked for the last time to leave the Chancellor's office. They refused.
At the same time, Wescoe announced that all of those arrested were suspended from school.
action on the demands at the time.
The next day, the much-debated ASC bill was signed into law by Chancellor Wescoe. The suspension of the arrested students was lifted.
★★★
That was March of 1965 at KU. In the four years which have followed, many changes have occurred. The CRC has disbanded, a Black Student Union has been formed. Open housing and public accommodations laws have been passed.
But the Problem remains.
Tomorrow: The Black Athlete at KU.
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