Newspapers / Black Ink (Black Student … / Sept. 16, 1992, edition 1 / Page 6
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COVER STORIES = 5 SEPTEMBER 16, 1992 1 Student Activism For A Free- St Party in the Pit: Students March on South Building By Tiffany Mhhurst Ink Staff Writer Ethereal voices of many student protesters resounded through the campus last Thursday as they marched from the Pit to South Building, demanding that plans for a free-standing Black Cultural Center be established - immediately. “Nojastice.no peace,” and other words of protest were chanted as students filled South Building’s outside steps. Leaders of the march and some supporters entered the building and presented Chancellor Paul Hardin with a protest letter. The letter staled that Hardin has until Nov. 13 to give the Board of Trustees a concrete proposal for a free standing BCC or more direct action would be taken. “The intensity of our involvement from here will become greater and greater every minute,” said Tim Smith, one of the four leaders of the Black Awareness Council. “If he fails to adhere to the letter he will be disrespecting black and white people on campus.” The Chancellor said he respected the students’ right to demonstrate but was not swayed by the South Building march. “Nothing that happened today has altered my position,” Hardin said. Jimmy Hitchcock of the Black Awareness Council said of Hardin, “He never really supported a BCC, but since student activism started, he said he was for one.” In many newspaper articles, Hardin has expressed a desire to start negotiations for a BCC but has failed to contact any BSM, BAC, Campus Y or Black Greek Council members for a tentative meeting, said Michelle Thomas, president of the Black Student Movement ‘The media has portrayed us as a group of protesters who are not trying to negotiate, but we have tried to schedule a meeting with Hardin and they haven’t called us back yet,” she said. Despite the lack of concrete action from administrators, students still feel the marches and jrotests have been a success. Hitchcock said the success of this march was partly owed to the speak-out in the Pit and the march to Hardin’s house two weeks ago. Awa t Further Crowd of Students Action During the speak-out, students' emotions ran high because they were tired of being ignored. According to Thomas, about thirty people remaining at the speak- out gathered approxiamtely 500 people together for an impromptu march to Hardin's house at 11:20 p.m. “The media didn’t write about love, compassion and unity at the march,” Thomas said. What they are writing about is their truth, not ours.” Smith said student activism has increased since last semester bccause with direct action, people could see the hard work being done. “If the masses of people don’t see work getting done, then it’s not doing any good,” he said. Groundwork for a BCC started seven years ago. Broken promises and innumerable disappointments have caused the BSM to strive even harder for a BCC. In 1984, the BSM, various campus administrators,faculty.and the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Donald Boulton, started a BCC planning committee. S ti 11, a BCC has yet to be erected. “We havedocumentsasearlyas 1987 firom the University promising students that they would receive a BCC,” Thomas said. BAC, a newly formed group that supports a free-standing Black Cultural Center, has helped create more student activism by planning marches and other direct action approaches. “Our approach is lo put things into action,” Smith said. The group plans to take all of the minority issues nationwide and try to get more athletes to take a stand on all mincHity issues. The BSM, BAC and other supporters have created a lis^ of items they want to see in the BCC. “We want a music and dance studio, library, art gallery, study rooms, meeting rooms, hall of fame, multi-purpose room, auditorium, media room, kitchen and an African-American curriculum housed in the building,” Thomas said. Both groups believe the BCC could be a place where African- American culture could flourish and students and community members could benefit by learning about a culture that’s different from their own. “Personally, the BCC could be a place I call home and can learn about my history without going to each end of the campus to educate myself,” said John Bradley, BAC leader. Both BAC and the BSM are confident they will receive a BCC and plan on continuing to deal with minority and student issues on this campus, in the community and nationally. Black Ink 4/ Crawford Talks About Movement; Life As Activist By Lisa Underwood Ink Stcff Writer From her days as an elementary school educator, lo w(Mldng with the battle for a free-standing Black Cultural Center, Margo Crawford has always been an activist Describing activism as taking knowledge and scholarship and transferring that into action for the good of the world. Crawford said her role as an educator for 22 years could be seen as activist behavior. “That’s what I’ve done all of my life—work to make the world abetterplace,” CrawfOTdsaid.“An educator is an activist” Before coming to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988, Crawford worked as an African-American studies professor at North Eastern University in Illinois. At one time, she even worked for the Chicago Housing Authority in program development, where she helped raise money and implement programs, Crawford said. But today, most (rf Crawfcml’s thoughts and energy go into her position as director of the Black Cultural Center. Thinking back to when she was first hired to run the BCC.Crawford said there was even discussion then about the goal to build a BCC. Back then, the talk was about a 22,000 -square foot building and even led to the possibility of receiving funds from the Bicentennial Campaign, Crawfrad said. There even was a feasibilty study done about the BCC, she added. Among those whom Crawford remembered as taking an active interest in a BCC, was Bob Eubanks, chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University in 1988. He got the BCC on the Bicentennial Campaign’s original list of recipients, she said. That list stated that the BCC was to receive $2.5 million for a building, Crawford said. As of last year, the amount of money the BCC would receive from the Bicentennial list was $500,000, money to be used fw programs and renovaticwis only. Crawford compares the present tactics, which are being used to get a free-standing BCC, to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. They follow exactly the model Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Crawford said. She explained his model as having four parts: • Collect information • Havedialogueandcommunicate with who is in power • Pray, purify and strengthen in order to get ready for the last stage • Directly act “I think that the move for a free-standing BCC is exactly the same as the model,” Crawfwd said. Every step in the model has been followed, she said. For Crawford, recent protests have served as an eye-opening experience. It has forced us to k>ok at the relationship with our black athletes, she said. “If they (black athletes) had not joined this movement, it probably would not be at the level it is now,” she said. The four football playCTS who formed the Black Awareness Council (BAC) have helped organize evraits such as the march to Chancellor Paul Hardin’s hcxne on SepL 3 and the march to South Building on Sq>tl0. But more importantly, the protests have fwced us to look at the relationship between the black community and the University, Crawford said. The nation’s eyes are on this campus, and they are forced to look at institutionalized racism, she said.
Black Ink (Black Student Movement, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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Sept. 16, 1992, edition 1
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