August 18, 1981
Black Ink
Page 5
Historical news flash
200^000 marchers gather for demonstration
Editor's Note; This story was printed Aug. 29,
1963 in the New York Times. Almost 18 years
later, Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream"
speech is still pertinent to blacks today.
Washington Aug. 28, 1963 — More than
200,000 Americans, most of them black but
many of them white, demonstrated here to
day for a full and speedy program of civil
rights and equal job opportunities.
It was the greatest assembly for a redress of
grievances that the capital had ever seen.
One hundred years and 240 days after
Abraham Lincoln told the emancipated
slaves to "abstain from violence and labor
faithfully for reasonable wages," this vast
throng proclaimed in march and song and
through the speeches of their leaders that
they were still waiting for the freedom and
jobs.
There was no violence to disrupt the de
monstration. At times there was an air of
hootenanny about it as groups of children
clapped hands and swung into the familar
freedom songs.
But if the crowd was good natured, the
underlying tone was one of "dead serious
ness." The emphasis was on "freedom" and
"now". At the same time leaders empha
sized, paradoxically but realistically, that
the struggle was just beginning.
On Capitol Hill, opinion was divided on
the impact of the demonstration in stimulat
ing Congressional action on civil rights leg
islation. But at the White House, President
John F. Kennedy declared that cause of the
200,000 blacks had been advanced.
"The nation can properly be proud of the
demonstration that has occurred here to
day," President Kennedy said.
The main target of the demonstration was
Congress where committees are now con
sidering the Administration's civil rights bill.
Of the 10 leaders of the march on
Washington, only the Rev. Martin Luther
King jr., president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, echoed his dreams
for all black people.
As he arose, a great roar came from the
crowd. When he started to speak, a hush
fell. "Even though we face difficulties of to
day and tommorow, I still have a dream," he
said.
"It is a dream chiefly rooted in the Amer
ican dream," he said. "I have a dream that
one day this nation will rise up and live out
the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these
truths to selfevident that all men are created
equal.'
“I have a dream that one day on the red
hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves
and the sons of former slave-owners will be
able to sit together at the table of brother
hood." The crowd roared.
"I have a dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their characer." The crowd
roared.
"I have a dream that one day every valley
shall be exalted, every hill and mountain
shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain, and the crooked places will be
made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed and all flesh shall see it
together."
As Dr. King concluded with a quotation
from a black hymn — "Free at last, free at
last, thank Cod almighty, free at last!" — the
crowd recognizing he was finishing, roared
once again waving their signs and pennants.
AP Photo
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
BSM has fulfilling history in the community
BEVERLY SHEPARD
Special to the Ink
The late 1960s. A time for Afros, tee-
shirts, mini-skirts and jeans. A time for soul
brother, Black Power and "right-on". Yet,
for a small group of black students at the
predominantly white UNC-Chapel Hill, the
late '60s was a time for change.
When the Black Student Movement was
founded on the Carolina campus in Novem
ber 1967, many regarded it as a racial, re
volutionary organization. And indeed, the
organization was often at the center of some
conflict, protest or demonstration.
Thirteen years later, the BSM continues to
serve as a center of cultural and social identi
fication for the black student, but its overall
approach has changed. Some of the radical
ism is gone.
"In the '60s, (the BSM) was different type
of organization. It was much more volatile,
much more boisterous, in a sense, more
militant," said Mark Canady, 1981 -82; BSM
chairperson.
Canady, a sophomore business adminis
tration major from Lansing, Mich., said,
"the times necessitated" protest because the
movement was just breaking ground.
However, times have changed as has the
need for radicalism.
"We don't always protest as much as we
used to," Canady said. "I have been criti
cized for that, but I believe in protesting
when it is necessary."
Allen Johnson, BSM chairperson in 1978-
79, said the organization's less radical role
has somewhat become a more passive one.
"(The BSM) served as an advocate, a
means for students to voice their emotions,
Johnson said. "Right now, (the BSM) is afraid
of making others mad, so we don't do a lot of
critisizing or bringing up provacative
issues."
Yet provocative issues was what the BSm
was all about in the early. '60s. The Rev.
Cureton Johnson, BSM chairperson in 1970-
71, said: "To me (the BSM) was revolution
ary. If violence was necessary, we d use it.
but it was a constraining type ot violence
with no plans to kill anybody or rip anybody
off."
Johnson of Raleigh said that the BSM also
served in alleviating the "cultural shock"
that blacks experienced after having to con
tend with a predominantly white university.
OnPe at Carolina, the minority students
were "lost in a sea of whiteness," which
created problems inside and outside the
classroom, Johnson said.
Whether black students were speaking of
cultural shock or protest, the degree of ac
tion and the cause for dissatisfaction were
both interpreted as "revolutionary" by the
white student body and administration.
In 1967, the Black Student Movement's
objectives were a full-credit black studies
course, student legislative funding, official
recognition by the LJniversity and the re
cruitment of more black students and black
faculty. Within a year, the group encoun
tered its first conflict with the administration
as a result of its placing "demands" on the
university.
The BSM presented 23 demands to Chan
cellor J. Carlyle Sitterson on Dec. 12, 1968.
In addition to its objectives, the BSM deman
ded admission of black students based on
their high school averages rather than their
SAT scores — which the group charged were
based on "middle-class white standards" —
and financial aid to black students, prefer
ably in the form of grants and scholarships
rather than loans.
Blacks numbered about 100 of Carolina's
15,000 student population in 1968. It was
these 100 who spoke out when Sitterson
received the "demands" and concluded that
they were outside his jurisdiction as chan
cellor.
In a statement to the Chapel Hill Weekly
on Jan. 26, 1969, Sitterson said, "the Uni
versity intends to be responsive to the needs
of all the people, including all races, colors
and creeds. . . the University cannot pro
vide unique treatment for any single race.
The University must be guided by reason
and knowledge."
Hawkins later addressed an audience of
about 150 students in Gerrard Hall. A rally
took place at noon Friday in Memorial Hall.
The "revolutionary" image of the BSM was
fostered and punctuated within a two-day
span.
But, once the BSM earned its activist
labels, its activism increased. The BSM be
came involved in the affairs of black non
students on the campus. In 1969, and again
in 1970, black cafeteria workers went on
strike. The Lenoir Hall dinning room closed
on March 4, 1969 only to be re-opened on
March 6 under the supervision of riot-
equipped state troopers.
"We thought it was ridiculous tha-
t. . . our brothers and sisters were slaving
and working for sub-minimum wages,"
Cureton Johnson said. "The protest was a
focal point for dissatisfaction. At the time, it
was the mood of the '60s — King had been
ki I led, the Panthers were bei ng exterm i nated
by the Police. All ingredients came
together."
"As a protest during the 1969 strike, a
group of about 20 students raided the
cafeteria, turning over tables, breaking cases
and destroying food, Johnson said. About 30
students took possession of Manning Hall
and established it as "headquarters."
"I remember standing face-to-face with
12 highway patrolmen," Johnson said. The
minister, who described himself as an intro
vert in high school, said "I was doing things
and others were doing things I had never
dreamed of doing. I was turned off by the
'system' — from the government down to the
UNC system — which was unresponsive."
Later that year, the BSM once more
reacted to the "unresponsiveness" of the
government. It protested the acquittal of
three white motorcycle gang members from
Durham for the murder of a black Chapel
Hillian in front of the Carolina Student Un
ion building in 1970.
On Nov. 25, Mayor Howard Lee and
Carrboro Alderman R.D. Smith led about 65
blacks in a memorial march down Franklin
Street. On campus, Nov. 21 was declared
James Cates Memorial Day. Black-white
tensions continue to rise.
Yet, the BSM as not all protest and demon
strations. For example, the organization
reacted to the assassination of Martin Luther
King Jr. on April 6, 1968. Students and facul
ty boycotted classes on the day of the funer
al, April 9. Chancellor Sitterson announced
half-day recesses and many downtown
businesses closed for the day.
In 1968, a newspaper gi^w out of the
organization. Only three issues were printed
that year. But Cureton Johnson, the paper's
first editor, said he originated the name,
Black Ink, because most papers were printed
in black ink. This paper, Johnson added was
solely for the expression of black ideals.
Conflicts arose between the BSM and
Central Governoring Committee in 1973-74
and again in 1976 when theCGC threatened
to freeze the BSM budget because of alleged
treasury law violations. Arguments that folf
lowed among the CGC members concerning
the disputes resulted in the resignation of
several CGC members.
In January 1975, tensions mounted
around what became known as the "David
Duke Affair." Duke, national information
director and Grand Dragon in Louisiana for
the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was sche
duled to speak at Memorial Hall.
"I was a part of the demonstration," Allen
J' Tnson said. "He was being paid to come
anrf recruit for the Klan and black students
didn't feel their fees should go for something
like that. Every time he attempted to speak,
we shouted him down."
In recent years, the BSM has been in
volved in the UNC-HEW desegreagation
dispute an in the 1979-80 tenure case for Dr.
Sonja Stone, a profesor in the African Afro-
American Studies Curriculum. The BSM has
also advocated the creation of an Office of
Minority Affairs and rallied behind Dean
Hayden B. Renwick, who charged the Uni
versity with unfair admission procedures for
black applicants.
"The Black Ink also reflected the evolving
ideas of black students. For example, over
the years, the newspaper's logos became
less radical. The logo which read the "Voice
(Continued on page 7)