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Tuesday, March 8, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
KKK on campus
Ed Zeitler, Wichita freshman, confronts a police officer after Hoch Auditorium. The police forced the door closed and a window was broken in an attempt to enter the front door of locked it with handcuffs until after the forum.
Administration defends position on Klan's visit Students' rights stressed
By Rebecca J. Cisek
Kansan staff writer
KU administrators met several times yesterday with campus, community and media groups, explaining the University's reasons for allowing members of the Ku Klux Klan to participate in a free speech forum.
the day of meetings began at 8 a.m., when students and black leaders met with Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, and asked that the forum be canceled. They contended that Shlightly Older Americans for Freedom, the group led by Michael Foubert that sponsored last night's forum, was not a legitimate organization.
The Rev. Calvin Jackson, president of the Lawrence chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and vice president of the Ecumenical Fellowship, questioned how Foubert could be the faculty adviser, president and treasurer of the group.
Ramaley said later yesterday afternoon during a University Senate meeting that the organization met University regulations to qualify as a campus group.
She said that the requirements for a student organization included having at least one appointed officer, having 75 percent of its membership as students and abiding by University general rules for student organizations.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, emphasized what he called the sacred right to organize on the University campus.
Speech forum sponsor
At a news conference at 4:45 p.m., Amler told about 25 members of the regional press that student organizations could bring any speaker they wanted to campus.
As administrators met inside强 Hall, the group Students and Community Against Oppression and Racism distributed fliers on Jayhawk Boulevard protesting the forum.
Ardra Tippet, St. Louis sophomore and a spokesman for the group, said that her group had received threats and racial slurs as they passed out the fliers but that the group was planning a non-violent protest.
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At a late afternoon news conference, both Ramaley and Ambler wore red ribbons symbolizing their protest of the Klan's views.
Slightly Older Americans stress open discourse
Sam Adams, associate professor of journalism, center, Lenny Wesley, Wichita senior, far right, and other members of the Lawrence community assemble outside Hoch Auditorium. Protesters started gathering about 6:30 p.m., yesterday.
By a Kansan reporter
Slightly Older Americans for Freedom, the group that sponsored last night's open forum at Hoch Auditorium, became a University-recognized organization four years ago. Student organizations and activities classifies the group as sociopolitical. The group's primary function is to promote political discourse without actually advocating a particular policy.
Michael Foubert, the group's adviser and treasurer, said the group was formed during the 1984 election season to offer students a middle-of-the-road viewpoint that differed from the conservative ideals of the Young
Americans for Freedom and the liberal stance of the KU Democrats.
In October 1985, the group sponsored a lecture and workshop series discussing the arms race and disarmament. The group brought Lawrence Weiler and Frank Rubenfield, two experts on nuclear arms
The group's name, Foubert said, was picked to poke fun at the Young Americans.
Files in the student organizations and activities office list the group's membership at about 35, but Foubert said he would estimate that the group had between 12 and 20 members. Foubert also said the group usually meets informally about once a month.
T
The group's primary function is to promote political discourse without actually advocating a particular policy.
policy, to campus to talk about the arms race.
In 1986, the group helped sponsor Kim Doughtery, a KU student who participated in a pro-peace march across the country. The march began in Los Angeles, and Doughtery was one of the few who finished the eight-month walk.
This year, the Student Senate allocated about $230 for the group.
William Dann, Lawrence resident, is escorted from Hoch Auditorium after disrupting the forum. Dann was not arrested in the incident.
Joe Wilkins IIUKANSAM
Joe Wilkins III/KANSAN
Dennis Mahon, a king kitele of the Missouri Knights, a Ku Klux Klan affiliate, coordinated the Knights' personal security.
Skinheads go to forum to join Klan protesters
Bv Ric Brack
Kansan staff writer
Young men with shaved heads got a lot of attention last night.
John F. Noonan, Webster Groves, Mo. freshman, is not affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. But the fact that he calls himself a skinhead made many people think he supported the Klan at last night's free speech forum.
"The UDK put out the information that all skinheads are white supremocrats," he said. "I'm not a white supremacist. I'm a Catholic."
Noonan said that he and some friends attended the event hoping to educate people to the fact that not all skinheads are hired thugs for the Klan.
Noonan, clad in a bomber jacket, a T-shirt and blue jeans held up with red suspenders, wore his hair about a quarter-inch long. As a crowd grew around him and taunted him, he explained that the Klansmen offended him.
A member of the congregation weeps at prayer services at the First Regular Missionary Baptist Church
punks," Noonan said. "It's just what people call them."
"There's Skinheads, and there's
A member of the crowd asked him,
"Are you a white supremacist?"
Noonan said, "That's an insult to me."
Last night, the police paid close attention to all skinheads, both those for and those against the Klan.
As he spoke, the crowd continued to grow. Finally, police officers escorted him to safety.
One Skinhead, clad in blue jeans and a denim jacket with a small Klan insignia patch on the front, stood in the parking lot behind Lindley Hall during the forum. He said that he was guarding the Klansmen's cars.
Before the forum, Klansmen said they might bring about 25 Skinheads to provide security for Klan speakers J. Allen Moran and Thom Robb. Because of the crowd at the forum, it was difficult to determine how many actually attended.
Protesters would see the skinheads and ask them questions such as, "Are you a Nazi? Are you with the Klan?"
150 gather to pray for safe protest
Bv Iames Buckman
Kansan staff writer
About 150 people gathered last night at the First Regular Missionary Baptist Church, 1646 Vermont St., to pray for non-violence and safety for those protesting a Ku Klux Klan visit to campus.
Though the church's minister, the Rev. Calvin Jackson, was at the forum at Hoch Auditorium, several ministers from Lawrence led the group in prayer.
The service started at 8 p.m. and lasted a little more than an hour.
The Rev. Leo Barbee, pastor of Victory Bible Church, 1629 W. 19th St., said the group prayed for unity and for a peaceful demonstration.
"And we prayed that God would protect the people and that God would be glorified," he said. "We prayed that there would be no one hurt or injured."
"This is spiritual warfare, not person-to-person warfare, and God
Barbee said that he still wished that no one had attended the forum.
"I figured that we should not have graced them with our presence, but some did, and that is their perogative," he said. "We are not enemies; we are all friends."
has to be the protector."
Gregg Jackson, a Lawrence resident who attended the service, said that because of his Southern upbringing, the Klan visit didn't shock him. Jackson said the prayer service had helped facilitate unity.
Barbee said that he hoped citizens would work with the University to solve problems of racism brought to light by the events surrounding the KKK's campus visit.
"I think what they were doing in church had a purpose to it," he said. "I think it mostly was to draw the blacks and whites in this town together."