Photo from the Hewlett Diversity Archive |
The
Second Year
The door to diversity opened wider in the fall
of 1966. Thirty-three African-American students matriculated, making up
8.9 percent of the class of 1970. In its effort to help black undergraduates
in the transition to campus life, the University added more support, expanding
the roles of some Admission Office personnel so they might maintain their
relationship with minority freshmen they had recruited.
Dwight L. Greene, who quickly became an energetic
leader and often served as a spokesperson for the black student community,
was elected president of the class. Another new arrival was Carl Johnson
'68, a transfer student who came in the fall of '66. Johnson founded the
first formal black student organization, the Reading Group, which met weekly
in the College of Letters for long discussions about black literature and
social issues. It was simply expected, within the group, that all would
attend, even though Reading Group assignments were made in addition to
regular academic class work. Dwight Greene, quoted in Alford Young's monograph,
said he believed that, through the group, Carl Johnson first articulated
the sense of black consciousness at Wesleyan.
Beckham contends that black undergraduates discovered
their collective identity quickly, but that "Carl Johnson intellectualized
it, located it in the historic frame of reference of a black movement seeking
political change."
In November 1966, Martin Luther King (by then
a Nobel Peace Prize winner) made his fourth visit to campus. He spoke to
a packed house at McConaughy about the future of race relations in America
and about the declining involvement of undergraduates in the civil rights
cause. The slogan "Black Power," he noted, had first been heard the previous
summer, and it was not to his liking. "There is no black path to power
and no white path to power," he said, and called on the audience to realize
their destinies were tied together, warning: "We haven't long to solve
the problems we face in the field of human relations."
Two youthful black speakers shared the evening
with Dr. King. The first was Herman McKeever, a junior at Middletown High,
who had been a summer student in the Upward Bound Program. "Is black nationalism
another form of slavery?" he asked, "a slavery to hatred? On the other
hand, how is one to be tolerant and patient in the midst of killings, riots,
and token legislation designed to spoon-feed the Negro his freedom? Where
does he draw the line?" The other was Wesleyan sophomore Eugene Lang '69,
who had been an Upward Bound tutor. From the Argus: "[Although] he beseeched
his Negro listeners to inform themselves of the causes at hand, spread
the spirit of freedom and brotherhood . . . and work for change . . . .
he told them that living in peace is impossible with Civil Rights bills
which are watered down and forced." "Integration comes after liberation,"
he said. "The racially intensified riots of the past two summers are the
manifestations of police brutality, economic blood-sucking and social degradation." Thus, only a year after the quiet arrival of the
Vanguard Class, the harsher language and sharper realities of the Black
Power movement had begun to be heard in campus discourse.
By the spring semester in 1967, "black" had replaced
"Negro" as the defining word in campus publications and reports.
In April, Hoy and his associate director, Bob
Kirkpatrick, initiated a new admission and counseling program that provided
incoming freshmen with a smoother transition from secondary school. Hoy
also became Dean of Freshmen, responsible for advising on academic and
personal counseling policies. Kirkpatrick became Director of Admissions
with responsibility for selecting the entering class. |
