FIRST PERSON
More reflections on 1968 are at chapman.edu/magazine. Share yours there or email them to magazine@chapman.edu.
Chapman Black Student Union, circa 1971.
JOHN H. SANDERS ’70, founding president of the Black Student Union at Chapman in September 1968 and now an attorney specializing in civil and business litigation: 1968 was like a precious stone being made hard by fire. Going through this volatile time in our history made us stronger. It made us intellectually more curious. It made us question authority. It made us ask why, instead of just going along. I ALWAYS TALK ABOUT 1968 AS A CRACK IN TIME. POLITICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, NOTHING WAS EVER THE SAME AGAIN.
For me, personally, it was my toughest year. I was a 19-year-old junior, there were threats on some of our lives, and I was trying to keep my grades up so I could qualify for law school. I am so grateful that I had a wonderful mentor. I could go to Dr. Don Booth (now professor emeritus at Chapman) to talk about anything, and he would help me through any situation. We are still friends today. 4 CHAPMAN MAGAZINE
EMMA (GRAY) SALAHUDDIN ’71, a child of the Jim Crow South who helped found the Black Student Union at Chapman and is now a retired educator: In 1968, the Chapman Black Student Union was faced with quite a daunting task. We needed to present our grievances concerning racist experiences in the community while trying to create a forum for constructive dialogue. Chapman’s president, Dr. John L. Davis, agreed to meet with us. We explained that the BSU would provide an opportunity for students of all races to learn more about black culture and history. We also stated that our ultimate goal was to enrich the lives of all students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community through communication and cooperation. Ultimately the goal of the Chapman BSU in 2018 is the same as that of the BSU in 1968, which is a very good and positive thing. The sad thing, however, is that while much has changed, much has stayed the same, and some of the same grievances we had in 1968 still persist today.
VERNON SMITH, Nobel laureate in economics and George L. Argyros Endowed Chair in Finance and Economics at Chapman: I will speak to 1968 as a transitional year in U.S. race relations; a year of personal insight in what had been wrong with earlier protest movements. At the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, American medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos (joined by Australian Peter Norman) staged a protest against U.S. racial discrimination. They were booed by spectators. Smith succinctly summarized that 1968 world: “If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say ‘a Negro.’ We are black, and we are proud of being black.” This open protest, by the victims of discrimination, championed “proud black” as the new in-yourface stance of young blacks and became a pivotal point in U.S. race relations. Starting in 1944 (when I was 17 years old in Wichita) I had been active in a local chapter of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). Founded on the principle of nonviolent civil disobedience, we formed mixed groups to buy theatre tickets to challenge theatre-imposed separate seating of “Negroes.”
Our biggest problem in CORE was to get blacks to join in these efforts. There was a silent keep-alow-profile acceptance of the status quo by blacks we knew. Of course, then it was “Negroes”– the polite but degrading term of the day. Why degrading? Because we were whites – not Caucasians – while they were Negroes – not blacks. It was a double-speak veneer that had become a reality cover-up, and Tommie Smith was among the young U.S. blacks determined to express a new pride in black accomplishments in the face of widespread unequal treatment. The tide had turned, black determinism was in ascendance; it was no longer just a bunch of wellmeaning whites pushing on a string.