THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.116 ISSUE 95
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15.2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Family fought for home
Amanda Sellers/KANSAN
Robert Sanders, retired professor emeritus of biology, looks at old family pictures Monday night. In the albums are a few snapshots of the first house his family struggled to obtain possession of in Lawrence. Sanders faced such troubles because of racial discrimination.
BY ANNE WELTMER
aweltmerekansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Robert and Gladys Sanders wrote a full-price offer to buy their first house, but they were refused by the house builder because they are black.
But the Sanders were determined. They knew a lawsuit would take too long and they could lose the house, so they went about it in a different way.
Greenberg made an appointment to see the same house the following evening. The house, 809 W. 29th St., was brand new and in Lawrence's newest neighborhood: Indian Hills. It would be a great place to raise a family because Broken Arrow Elementary was scheduled to be built soon after.
The next night Robert and Gladys Sanders arrived, looked at the property carefully and handed the realtor a down payment to purchase the home they had been hoping for. They quiet-
That's when they had a white neighbor at Sunflower Apartments at the University of Kansas call to make an appointment with another realtor. Gladys said people could tell a black voice on the phone, so neighbor Gwen Greenberg helped out.
"It was illegal for realtors to deny them," Greenberg said. "I just forced the law. Nothing spectacular."
if she knew the contract that might. "We looked at the house as if we'd never seen it before." Gladys said.
ly signed the contract that night.
That's essentially how the Sanders family became the first to desegregate a whites-only neighborhood in Lawrence in 1968.
It wasn't quite that simple, however. The first time the Sanders' saw the house was just days earlier with their realtor, Glen Kappelman. After they made an offer, the builder, Russ Jones, refused.
The Sanders thought the seemingly friendly white neighbor they'd spoken to while looking at the house the first time had been spying for the builder.
SEE SANDERS ON PAGE 5A
Kappelman called the Sanders' in the morning and said the builder had refused their offer.
That's when the Sanders' called a lawyer. Covenant for Indian Hills purchasers said that no black family could move in. But in 1968, Lawrence passed a fair housing ordinance to desegregate the city; it just wasn't being enforced.
On the Sanders' second try, after the contract was presented to Jones, he tried to refuse it again, but it was already too far along. He said the deal was fraudulent because Greenberg had called instead to make the appointment.
ADMINISTRATION
Provost selection released
BY MELINA RICKETTS
mricketts@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Chancellor Robert Hemenway will announce today that Richard Lariviere has been selected as the new provost.
Lariviere, 56, is the dean of liberal arts at the University of Texas at Austin, the largest college of liberal arts in the United States.
"I am deeply honored and very excited at the prospect of working with the faculty and the administration at KU." Lariviere said.
He will take over the position on June 1.
"The thing that I'm looking forward to the most is working with a group of faculty and students that are among the most congenial that I have ever seen." he said.
Larry Faulkner, who recently
Hemenway will make the announcement and welcome Lariviere and his wife to the University of Kansas at 10:30 a.m. at the Adams Alumni Center.
stepped down as president of the University of Texas, said that Lariviere is "one of the most talented, rising academic leaders in America."
"He has energy, imagination and superb standards," Faulkner said.
Lariviere's wife, Janis Lariviere, will join the KU Center for Science Education in July. She is project coordinator for the University of Texas College of Natural Sciences
Lariviere will succeed David Shulenburger, who will step down this summer and assume the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs at the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.
LAWRENCE
Larivire is a scholar of Sanskrit and Hindu law, speaks three languages and can read several others. He has had extensive business experience involving travel and research in India. He has been the dean of liberal arts at the University of Texas for five years.
— Edited by Kathryn Anderson
Ban keeps guns away from bars
BY ANNE WELTMER AND
BY ANNE WELTMER AND
KRISTEN JARBEO
aweltnner@kansan.com,
kjarbое@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITERS
LaTonia Coleman, whose husband was killed in the shooting near the Granada early Sunday, Feb. 5, said, "We looked at Lawrence as a place where we could raise our son because we felt safe here."
The Lawrence City Commission passed an ordinance Tuesday's that weapons cannot be taken within 200 feet of a drinking establishment, which redefined the current city code.
"Protection has to be upgraded," she said.
Now that ordinance number 7976 has been adopted, section 14-408 of the Code of the City of Lawrence states: "Close proximity,' means property any part of which is within 200 feet, except that if any portion of the contiguous area of a park, unimproved lot, parking garage or parking lot is within 200 feet then the entire contiguous area of the parking lot or parking garage is within close proximity."
People with encased firearms in their vehicles driving by a drinking establishment on the way to another destination would not be subject to prosecution.
According to the memorandum sent by Lawrence staff attorney Scott Miller in January 2006, the Lawrence Police Department asked the
city commission to review the ordinance because it was not specific. The unclear terms included "close proximity" and "dangerous weapon."
The memorandum stated that a number of handguns had been observed near drinking establishments in the downtown area and revision needed to be looked at immediately.
A person going into a bar can carry a folding pocketknife if the blade is no longer than four inches and establishments can keep knives for dining purposes, according to the revised section. Other terms such as "drinking establishment" and "possession" also were more clearly defined.
Miller said this policy applied to restaurants and any other establishment with a liquor license.
"I think it's helpful to clarify this ordinance." Mayor Dennis Highberger said. "I hope the ordinance will discourage people from showing up at Lawrence bars with loaded weapons."
Commissioner David Schauer said the memorandum was discussed in January, but the recent Granada shooting proved its relevance.
At the meeting, all of the residents and commissioners who spoke expressed that this was not sufficient to controlling the problem and agreed that further discussion should be given to the topic in future meetings.
ACTIVISM
SEE BAN ON PAGE 5A
Brian Azcona, graduate teaching assistant in sociology, and other GTAs protest in front of Strong Hall yesterday. The protesters called for the elimination of the 10 semester limit on graduate teaching assistant appointments. Azcona wore a pig mask and a sign on his back reading "KU Bureacrat."
Nicoletta Nissi/WANSAM
GTAs rally for new contract
BY RACHEL PARKER
rparker@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition rallied yesterday in front of Strong Hall to pressure the University to negotiate a new contract.
Members of the coalition used megaphones, drums and signs with phrases like "We take education seriously, do you?" to attract the attention of those on
campus.
Others were handing out flyers in front of Wescoe Hall including information about the coalition.
The participating GTAC members wore T-shirts with individual letters and numbers that read "10 semester limit," and lined up holding hands on the Strong Hall lawn to play a game of Red Rover. People were asked to put on a GTAC T-shirt and try and break the line.
Brian Azcona, co-president of
the coalition, played the part of a KU Bureaucrat, wearing a tie and jacket, a briefcase and a pig mask trying to stop the GTAs from breaking the line.
"We aren't just being funny," Azcona said. "We're setting an example for the undergraduates."
Since the previous contract expired last spring, GTAs are pressing for higher salaries, more benefits such as health care and the removal of the limit of semesters they are allowed to teach.
They also want the University to educate new GTAs about their contracts with the University and make them aware of the coalition.
The GTAC wants the University to schedule more meetings on school days so they can negotiate a new contract. There were numerous fall meetings and one article was agreed on, but there were only three meetings scheduled for this semester.
SEE RALLY ON PAGE 5A
Today's weather
Former KU student honored by charity Friends and family gathered at the unveiling of the newest Ronald McDoland House. A room in the house was dedicated to Nicole Bingham. PAGE2A
KU women look to right ship
The Kansas women's basketball team hosts the Nebraska Cornhuskers tonight. The Jayhawks will turn to their offense for this showdown. PAGE 8B
More than basketball
Former Kansas superstar
Wilt Chamberlain was
important to Lawrence's
desegregation in the 1950s.
A University of Memphis
speaker will discuss "The
Big Dipper" today at
Ellsworth Hall. PAGE 3A
More than basketball
Index
Comics. 5B
Classifieds. 7B
Crossword. 5B
Horoscopes. 5B
Opinion. 7A
Sports. 1B
All contents, unless stated otherwise,
© 2006The University Dalv Kansan
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