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Thursday, April 21, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
KU professor still fights racial injustice in society
By Kathleen Faddis
Kansan staff writer
Sam Adams would much rather talk about race relations than himself.
But the two are intricately related. First as a journalist and later as a journalism professor, Adams has a facial justice a central issue in his life.
"There is a new openness for racism today; it never went away." Adams said. "And the whole Reagan administration helped give life to this new racism."
Adams, associate professor of journalism, became the first black faculty member at the School of Journalism in 1973. Until three years ago, he was the only black professor in the school.
He has not been afraid to test the system — to be first.
In 1964, Adams was an intre-
tive reporter for the St. Petersburg
(Fla.) Times. He and his wife,
Elenora, who is an activist in the civil
rights movement, agreed, as an
assignment from the newspaper, to
test the newly passed Civil Rights
Act in the Southern states.
Their assignment was to take a 15-day, 4,300-mile driving tour through 12 Southern states and seek out good restaurants and motels that had until recently been labeled "for whites only."
In his story about the trip, Adams wrote, "Racial prejudice isn't going to evaporate because Congress passed a law. It will be many years before a Negro driving through the South can forgive his fear."
In spite of their fears of violence, the Adams made their trip without weapons.
"My worst fear on the whole trip was in Mississippi," Elenora Adams said. "We were refused restrooms, we went to eat. We were trailed by policemen."
And she often thought about the blacks and civil rights workers who had disappeared in Mississippi and Muddy Creek, where she said there were still bodies that have never been recovered.
Adams credits his family for giving him the courage and self-confidence to accomplish all that he has.
Adams was born in 1926, and is the third of six children. He grew up in Waycross, GA, where he father owned and operated a shoe repair business, and his
Sam Adams
mother operated a dry-cleaning business. She did this while putting five of her six children through college.
He and his siblings succeeded because they were able to believe in themselves during a time when many considered blacks to be inferior. Adams said that white children would stop him on the sidewalk and insist that he yield or even try to push him down.
And a white adult might do the same thing or do something even more humiliating to Adams — rub his head "for good luck."
Something else that Adams learned from his family was a belief in the value of education.
"Education was supposed to be the great equalizer, but it is not, though it goes a long way to help." Adams said.
Adams' aspiration, until he discovered he was color blind, was to be a cartoonist. He earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts and English at West Virginia State College in 1948.
He obtained a bachelor's degree in journalism at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., in 1950.
After a two-year tour in the U.S. Army, he completed a master's degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 1964.
Adams was an investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg Times for nine years, but he did not participate in the events he covered.
getting my head cracked."
Although Adams says he used to feel a little guilty at times that he wasn't out on the front lines, he feels he carried out an important role as a reporter.
"I'm a journalist, as a result, I've not been an activist," Adams said. "I covered the marches, but I was not
"You are a witness to history," he said. "But you are not only a witness, you are also a journalist, you are able to have a great impact on the times."
Adams is particularly proud of a
she writes he wrote for the St. Petersburg
Times in 1969 on Camp Happy, a
migrant workers camp near Naples,
Fla. The series was used by the U.S.
Senate Select Committee on Hunger
and Malnutrition to push for a shift
from food commodities to food
stamps as a way of combating hung-
er, Adams said.
The Adams have two children. Their daughter Carol, who is married and lives in California, and Sam Jr., a KU graduate assistant in urban planning, often became involved in the civil rights activities of their parents. Sam Adams Jr. participated in marches and demonstrations while being carried on the shoulders of adults, and he learned to say "I Want My Freedom" at the age of two, his mother says.
In St. Petersburg and again in Atlanta, the Adams were the first black family on the block, and the children were the first blocks in previously all-white schools.
"They shot at us, they threw Molotov cocktails at us, and they put KKK ins in our yard," Elenora Adams said.
Adams believes that as a journalism professor, he has an important role in the continuing struggle for civil rights. Part of that continuing role for Adams is promoting the field of journalism for minority students.
A large part of his efforts have been concentrated in the Urban Journalism Workshops that he founded in 1975. Every summer he provides intensive journalism training for selected minority high school students for two weeks.
Mary Wallace, associate dean of journalism, thinks that Adams has been a real asset to the school.
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"We've gotten some good students out of that program," Wallace said. "And he's certainly been a mentor to the minor students here."
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