50 Years Later—Remembering the Allen Building Takeover

Courtesy of Duke University Archives

50 years later

Feb. 13, 1969

Remembering the Allen Building Takeover

2 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

dukechronicle.com

The Chronicle

Letter: On the Allen Building Takeover On February 8, 1968, three 18-year-old students from lunch counter at a Greensboro Woolworth’s department South Carolina State University, a HBCU in Orangeburg, store. The Allen Building Takeover was singular, though, SC, were killed by state highway patrolmen, who opened because of what it meant for the future of Duke and the fire on a crowd of unarmed college students. Two years later, city of Durham. similar shooting deaths occurred at Jackson State University, With the integrating of Duke in 1963–Mary Mitchell another HBCU in Mississippi, and most famously at Kent Harris, Gene Kendall, Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke, Cassandra State University, where four white students were killed by Smith Rush, Nathaniel B. White, Jr., forever known as the National Guards. This violence was “First Five”–and campuses reflective of the tumult of the era, across the nation, the political where students across the nation not Duke is not what it once was, but it passions and activism that only made demands for change in the certainly is not where it needs to be. were gestating at Historically nation, but at the very institutions that Black Colleges and Universities were charged with preparing them for We can thank those brave souls of began to flower. the future; a future that many of these 50 years ago for always making that That flowering at Duke institutions were unprepared for the took shape in the Spring of future that those students demanded. clear to us.

1968, immediately after the Duke was such an institution. death of Martin mark anthony neal shooting Like every protest, the Allen Building Luther King, Jr., with the JAMES B. DUKE PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN AND Takeover was not unique—there were AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES Silent Vigil, remembered as student strikes at San Francisco State the largest student protest in University and an armed student the history of the university. takeover at Cornell University that occured only two months Among those student demands, were increased wages after the Allen Building Takeover, mirroring the outbreak and the right to collective bargaining anong Duke’s of sit-ins that went viral in the Spring of 1960 after four non-academic workers–many of whom were Black Black students from North Carolina A&T, another HBCU, Durhamites, who never had the opportunity to attend an famously began a movement by sitting down at a segregated institution like Duke. That flowering was in full bloom

on February 13, 1969 when dozens of Black students occupied the Allen Building, supported outside by White allies who could bear witness to their demands for a public unprepared for the rage that had been bubbling within a generation that was no longer going to be denied access to their dreams.

The first of the demands by those students who occupied the Allen Building was for the formations of a “fully accredited” Department of “Afro-American” Studies. I write today as the James B. Duke Professor and Chair of the nationally and internationally renowned Department of African & African American Studies, in large part, because of the vision and bravery of those students 50 Years ago.

It speaks volumes that the Allen Building Takeover has resonated for virtually every generation of student activist at Duke over the last five decades–that a full 50 years later, it is a beacon of possibility for a generation of Asian and Asian American students making their claim on, not just diversity at Duke, but real inclusion.

Duke is not what it once was, but it certainly is not where in needs to be. We can thank those brave souls of 50 years ago for always making that clear to us.

Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D. is the James B. Duke Professor of African and African American Studies and chair of the African and African American Studies department.

Photo: Feb 14, 1969 edition of The Chronicle

Table of Contents Page 2: Letter from the Chair of the African and African American Studies department Page 3: The path to the Takeover Pages 4 to 5: From the Archives Pages 6 to 7: Timeline of the Takeover Pages 8 to 9: Activism at Duke since then Pages 10 to 11: Where are the Takeover participants now?

Page 12: The reunion

The Chronicle

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The path to the Takeover: Activism and injustice

By Lexi Kadis Senior Editor

The Allen Building Takeover was not a random demonstration, but rather the culmination of African American students’ protests at Duke in late 1960s.

Although the University underwent the process of desegregation in the early 1960s, the process of integration was much harder and took place over the entire decade. The rise in African American student activism in response to the University’s lack of integration efforts eventually led to the Allen Building Takeover of 1969.

Duke began the process of desegregation on March 8, 1961 when the Board of Trustees announced a new admissions policy that allowed students to be admitted without regard to race to Duke’s graduate and professional schools, as mentioned in Legacy, 19631993, a book published by the University to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Duke’s desegregation.

“Resolved that qualified applicants may be admitted to degree programs in the graduate and professional schools of the University, effective September 1, 1961, without regard to race, creed, or national origin,” the Board of Trustees resolution read, which was printed in a Chronicle article.

According to a Duke University Libraries exhibit on desegregation, the Divinity School and the Law School were the first graduate schools to admit African American students in September 1961.

Legacy explained that the Board announced that the undergraduate colleges would also be desegregated in June 1962.

The University welcomed its first African American undergraduates—Gene Kendall, Mary Mitchell Harris, Wilhelmina ReubenCooke, Cassandra Smith Rush and Nathaniel White, Jr.—in September 1963, Legacy stated. President Douglas M. Knight—whose tenure was characterized by bouts of student activism—arrived at Duke the same year.

Although the University was desegregated, African American students still had difficulties integrating into the Duke community.

At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Duke in Page Auditorium on November 13, 1964.

He discussed the progress of the movement, including the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the importance of integration.

Courtesy of Duke University Archives Students joined hands on the main quadrangle during the Silent Vigil in 1968.

“The idea that only time can bring about integration is false because time is a neutral quantity that can be used either constructively or destructively.

The notion that legislation can’t solve the problem is only a half truth,” King stated in The Chronicle article. “You can’t legislate integration, but you can legislate desegregation; you can’t change the heart, but you can restrain the heartless.”

As the 1960s continued, Duke saw incremental changes in the inclusion of African Americans on campus.

Samuel DuBois Cook, Trustee Emeritus and professor of political science, became Duke’s first African American faculty member in 1966.

A year later, Harris, Reuben-Cooke and White were the first African American students to earn their bachelor’s degrees in 1967, as noted by the library exhibit.

However, African American students were still excluded from many aspects of student social life. In particular, they were unable to attend off-campus events hosted by student organizations at segregated establishments like country clubs.

Randy Teslik | Published April 8, 1968 The Silent Vigil, shown here on its second day, began after Martin Luther King Jr.’s killing in 1968.

On November 13, 1967, African American students staged a day-long demonstration in the Allen Building, known as the Allen Building Study-In, to protest the use of segregated facilities by student organizations.

The Chronicle reported that the students sent a letter to President Knight demanding that he prohibit the use of segregated venues.

“The Duke University Afro-Americans DEMAND that our administration IMMEDIATELY announce and explicitly institute a policy of total prohibition of patronization of segregated facilities establishments by ANY University organization,” the letter stated, according to The Chronicle.

Four days after the Study-In, a Chronicle article described how Knight announced that the University was extending its existing policy prohibiting the use of segregated facilities to apply to all students groups.

The Study-In set the precedent for occupying the Allen Building, which was later repeated during the Allen Building Takeover.

After the Study-In of 1967, the next major

student demonstration was the Silent Vigil, which was precipitated by the assassination of King on April 4, 1968.

From April 5 to April 11, 1968, the University witnessed a student-organized demonstration that started with the nonviolent occupation of President Knight’s house and eventually moved to Chapel Quad, according to the University Archives. The Chronicle detailed that students kept a silent vigil on the quad for four days, culminating in a crowd of 1,400 people by the end.

Student activists also called for a boycott of the dining halls to support the food service and housekeeping employees who were on strike at the time. After the Vigil, the administration said they would raise the minimum wage for campus employees.

In addition to the Silent Vigil, 1968 marked the establishment of the Afro-American Society, the first African American student association at Duke, Legacy noted.

Representatives of the Afro-American Society met with faculty and administrators in October 1968 to discuss 12 “points of interest” regarding the status of African American students at Duke, The Chronicle reported. Their concerns included African American student enrollment levels, the need for an African American advisor and the membership of University officials at segregated country clubs.

“We’re working together to solve these problems,” said Chuck Hopkins, a member of the Afro-American Society, in the article.

However, the Afro-American Society would have to wait four months until President Knight responded to some of their demands, as mentioned in a Chronicle article from Feb. 4, 1969.

Legacy detailed how the African American community continued to try to make the administration address their concerns in early February during Black Culture Week—a scheduled week of speeches and programs led by local African American activists and writers on campus.

On Feb. 11, 1969, The Chronicle reported that approximately 75 African American students had visited President Knight’s home the previous night to give him a set of demands regarding the University’s treatment of African American students.

Two days later, members of the AfroAmerican Society instigated the Allen Building Takeover.

Published November 13, 1967 In 1967, black students staged a sit-in of President Douglas Knight’s office.

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The Chronicle

dukechronicle.com

From the Archives

Feb. 13, 1969

Feb. 14, 1969

About 75 Afro-American students because we have been negotiating with seized the first floor of the Allen Building the Duke administration and faculty early this morning. concerning different issues that [affect] They have barricaded themselves black students for 2 ½ years. We have no in at both ends of the building and meaningful results. We have exhausted all have warned they will burn the files the so-called proper channels.” containing nearly all student records if Chuck Hopkins, spokesman for the police are sent in. They have renamed the Afro-Americans, said that the occupants building, “The Malcolm of Allen Building X Liberation School.” have enough food to We have no meaningful President Douglas remain for a week.

Knight is returning from results. We have exhausted Speaking through New York City, where he all so-called proper a window of Allen was on business.

Building, he said channels.

The black students that no property have a list of thirteen statement from students in had been destroyed demands. They want a the building nor is there any Black Studies program, intention to do so. which they will control, a However, if attacked, black dormitory, the reinstatement of black the black students will defend the black students who flunked out of Duke last women in the building. Hopkins said that semester, an increase in the black student 25 to 50 faculty members would interpose population to equal 29% by 1973, a black themselves between the police and the advisor selected by the Afro-Americans, a occupying students. summer program for entering freshmen, Right-wing students, including an end to police harassment of black members of the Young Americans for students, more black professors, an end Freedom, were said to be considering to the the University’s “racist” policies, “direct action” against the blacks, possibly an end to the grading system for black including an invasion of the occupied students, and amnesty. building.

White students on campus called a University Provost Marcus Hobbes forum for 11:30 to support the blacks and asked the blacks to send five representatives decide on action. to his second floor office this afternoon.

In a 9 a.m. statement, the black They refused however, preferring to remain [students] said, “We seized the building together on the first floor.

Durham city and county police confronted police retreated toward Allen Building, and the about 1500 Duke students with tear gas in the crowds of students followed at a distance. The main quad yesterday after the black students police charged again, and the crowd retreated again. The police retreated again, and the crowd had voluntarily vacated Allen Building.

As the black students marched down moved in again. This process was repeated Campus Drive carrying a sign worded “Malcolm several times.

Finally the police tired of this action. They X Liberation School,” followed by a crowd of interested observers, the police moved in toward charged until the students went inside Flowers, the religion building, Allen Building and the chapel, and even from their sprayed the tear gas into assembly point in the buildings until the the Duke Gardens students managed to close and began to the doors. surround the It was reported that a building.

By this time, the People had reportedly been number of students were crowd had turned treated at the emergency room injured in the melee, most of them either inhaling the gas around and was proceeding toward the main quad, chanting “It or stumbling and being trampled in the rush.

45 people were reported to have been treated ain’t over yet!” as they went. Several police cars drove through the crowd, and angered students at the Emergency Room of the hospital, two of banged on the cars as they did so. At least one them policemen.

Finally the police did retreat into Allen person, a girl, was reportedly knocked down by to remain. A crowd of students, numbering a police car.

As the police stood at the doors of Allen, a between 500 and 1000, remained outside, crowd of supporters of the black demands and some of them taunting the police.

Dr. Thomas Rainey of the history others formed. Some angry students shouted at department was finally able to arrange some the police.

A loud noise, presumably that of a tear sort of truce between the students and the gas gun, was suddenly heard, and the police police inside.

Rainey, who was in contact with the men opened up with a barrage of tear gas and then inside Allen finally reached an agreement with proceeded to march into the crowds.

The students ran back in several directions, them by which the students would be able to toward the dorms and the chapel, seeking hold a meeting in Page and the police would refuge from the acrid clouds of tear gas. The depart through the rear.

Blacks occupy Police and students clash Allen, ask demands action on main quad

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The Chronicle

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 | 5

From the Archives

March 20, 1969

Blacks get probation for building takeover The Hearing Committee deliberated nearly bring,” Spears warned the committee during three hours yesterday afternoon before placing his summation.

The defense, in questioning their witnesses 47 black students on probation for one year for occupying Allen Building Feb. 13. and in their summation, hammered at the The verdict followed a nine-hour theme that the occupation was an outgrowth hearing in a packed Moot Courtroom at of “years of frustration” on the part of the black students. the Law School.

While the prosecution said the occupation The University had originally charged 26 of the students as those they could “positively was a “serious matter” and called for a rigorous identify.” The others turned themselves in punishment, the defense contended that “this voluntarily to the committee at the beginning is not a time for revenge” and that “what is serious is the way the University has treated of the hearing yesterday.

All of the students pleaded nolo contendre. black students for years.”

They did not contest the charge. Therefore, The university attorneys produced a series as the committee chairman explained, the of witnesses—mostly secretaries and all purpose of the hearing was not to determine white—who were in the building when the their guilt specifically but the punishment that blacks entered it just before 8 a.m. the day of the occupation. would be imposed.

Before delivering the committee’s decision, The witnesses testified that the students its chairman, August Pye, Dean of the Law carried “pipes, chains” and what one described School, pointed out that two witnesses had as “a baseball bat.” All testified that they were testified the group thought it was justified in either “frightened” or “shocked” or both.

Black students who were in the building entering the building and would possibly do it again in the future. testified that they carried only one short length “Continuation of such attitudes are of chain and three or four short iron pipes into incompatible with the attitudes of the the building.

Those instruments were only for “securing university,” Pye said. He said that “sentences of suspension would clearly be appropriate for the building”—tying and barricading the those who planned and led such action.” doors—they testified. They also claimed that He then pointed out that the committee was they never threatened nor intended to harm unable to determine the degree of culpability of anyone on the building.

Frank Bowers, director of operations and the 47 students being tried.

“To impose suspension for some” would head of campus security, said that his men be a miscarriage for others, he said. If recovered a number of instruments from convicted of violation of the Pickets and the building after the black students left.

Protest policy The instruments, including a pick handle, a hammer, a during the year’s Action must seek not so long iron pipe, several short probation period, the defendants much to rehabilitate the iron pipes and nails were will be considered students as to rehabilitate introduced as evidence by in violation of the the university.

During their crossprobation. They the university. may be liable to examination of Bowers, the j.w. ferguson defense attorney pressed suspension.

CONDUCTED THE STUDENTS’ DEFENSE Two Durham the point, confirmed attorneys, Robert

by Bowers, that no one Baker and Marshal Spears Jr. of Spears, who testified, including Bowers, saw the Spears, Barner and Baker, conducted building sooner than two hours after the the prosecution for the university. J.W. black students left.

Ferguson of Charlotte and W.M. Warner R. L. Tuthill, registrar, testified that the of Rocky Mount, father of one of the Central Records office was put 6-8 days behind in some of its work by the occupation. defendants, conducted the defense.

The prosecution contended that the He said that there was considerable clutter occupation had been well planned, that there and items “not concerned with the normal was a significant degree of fear inculcated in operations” of the office there when he saw the employees present when it began, and in the it the night of Feb. 13, after the students had summation called for stiff penalties against the left the building.

H.S. Morgan, the bursar, said that his office, defendants. “If we are going to allow this kind of action to take place in this University, then which was also on the occupied first floor of the we can not in any way say what tomorrow will building, was put 2-3 days behind in its work.

Morgan also said that three of his employees, all women, had quit because of the incident.

One said in her resignation that she “could no longer work at Duke University” after the incident, he said.

The defense called two defendants who were members of the Afro-American Society, a Duke professor and a former professor to testify to the relations between the University and the black students in the past.

Stef McLeod, a senior, told the committee that “I do not feel myself a part of the University because the university is not meeting my needs.”

He admitted that some progress had been made in “certain areas,” but that “in general there hasn’t been much progress.”

Specifically, he testified to dissatisfaction with curriculum, the living system, the lack of black advisors and such minor but “basic” discriminations as feeling that buses did not wait for black students to board.

Ferguson, in making his summation, pointed out that the three purposes of punishment are “to deter, to seek retribution, and to rehabilitate.”

He then contended that “The University is in a sense on trial.” “Action must seek not so much to rehabilitate the students but to rehabilitate the university,” he said.

Immediate action on the problems would serve to deter, he said, and emphasized that “this is no time for [vengeance].”

The students were charged with four separate counts of violating the Pickets and Protest Policy by their occupation. They were: Occupying “without authorization the University Central Records Office, the Courtesy of Duke University Archives University Bursar’s Office, the University loan The Takeover occurred on February 13, 1969, when black students took over the Allen Building. office, excluding therefrom all except those

acting in concert with them. “[Interfering]with the orderly operation of the University by forcibly preventing from functioning the Central Records office. operation of the University by gaining by force or threat of force, unauthorized access to the records of every student in the University, past and present, jeopardizing the record’s accuracy, integrity and confidentiality.”

“By force or threat of force [interfering] with the rights of certain staff members of the University in carrying out their duties.”

Following are the names of the 47 students who pleaded nolo [contendre] and were sentenced to one year’s probation for the occupation of Allen Building Feb. 13.

Brenda E. Armstrong, Charles L. Becton, Ernest L. Bonner, Isaac Byrd, C.B. Claiborne, Carolyn E. Day, Herbert Exum , Vaughn Glapion, James R. High, Jr., Robert L. Hines, Bertie R. Howard, Micael Le Blanc, Sandyles Pearson, George O. Phillips, Jr., Cheri B. Riley, Larry W. Shelton, Robert S. Walker, William C: Warner, Jesse T. Williams, Stephen T. McCleod, Jose Knowlin , Clarence E. Morgan, Jr., Theon Beal, Brenda C. Brown , Robert Brown, Jr., Arther Cole, Jr., Swander Fleming, Janice Gill, Adrenee Glover, John Hudgins, Raymond E. Johnson, Quenlan Johnson, William McCadden, Carl Mitchell, Regina Sanders, Cheryl Smith, Linwood E. Stevens, Benjamin Stokes III , William C. Turner, Franklin Waddell , Catherine Watson, Daisy Weaver, Edward White, Donald Williams and Ted Williams.

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The Chronicle

dukechronicle.com

Timeline of the Allen Building The Takeover

More than 50 students—most of whom were a part of the Afro-American Society—barricaded themselves in the first floor of West Campus’ Allen Building, Duke’s administrative headquarters, according to Duke University Libraries.

The students did so to highlight needs of African-American students, from a black student union to an African American studies department to protection from police harassment.

The students blocked the entrances to the building, warning that they would “burn the files containing nearly all student records if police [were] sent in.”

In a statement, the occupying students said that they had seized the building because they had “exhausted all the so-called proper channels” in negotiating with the administration.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon, students gathered in several places, according to an online exhibit by Duke University Libraries.

A public forum took place outside the Allen Building to discuss the takeover and white students held a “Sympathy School” on the Allen Building’s upper floors to “discuss how best to support the black students who were occupying the first floor.”

At 2:30 pm, a group of supportive white students gathered in the chapel to discuss a plan of action and surrounded

the Allen Building.

By the late afternoon, more than 400 white students surrounded the Allen Building to protect the protesters inside.

The Chronicle reported the next day that the crowd had grown to around 1,500 people by the time police arrived.

After hours of meetings between the protestors and school administration, provost Marcus Hobbs issued an ultimatum at 3:30 pm, ordering the students to leave the building within an hour.

Durham police arrived on campus to clear the building at 5:30 pm, but the protestors peacefully left at 5:15 p.m.

According to the exhibit, an “outside adviser” had warned the students that the police were coming.

The students may have left the building without a fight, but things soon turned violent on West Campus. As the predominantly white protesters walked down Campus Drive, the students who had gathered nearby marched on the quad, some chanting “it ain’t over yet!”

After one protester allegedly threw a rock at a police officer, the police responded by firing tear gas.

The students fled, but several more confrontations followed after the police retreated back toward the building. At the end of the roughly 90-minute struggle, 23 students and two police officers were injured and the crowd forced the police back into the building. The officers eventually left through the back.

Courtesy of Duke University Archives Tear gas was fired on protesters outside the building.

Feb. 13

Feb. 15

Feb. 19

President Knight speaks out Student leaders resign in protest On February 15, University President Douglas Knight delivered a speech that was broadcast on WDBS, Duke’s campus radio station at the time.

Knight said that illegally occupying buildings “is no way in which to resolve a problem. It only compounds it.”

However, the president said he had “long standing and deep concern” for black students and promised that two committees within the administration would work to improve their status.

Knight lamented that it was necessary to bring police onto the campus, he said, and asked for the “mature judgement and… sympathetic forbearance” of the Duke community in working through what he described as a “very difficult experience.”

February 21, 1969

On February 19, the student members of Duke’s StudentFaculty Advisory Committee (SFAC) “temporarily resigned their membership” in protest of the administration’s resistance to change.

Wade Norris, a member of the committee and the president of Duke’s student government, said that the move would make it clear to the student body that students, including the SFAC, had no input into the “large and basic issues of university policy.”

He recalled having gone to Knight the previous fall with concerns that racial tensions could develop into a crisis, and said that Knight would not commit to any reforms.

The Chronicle

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Takeover and the aftermath

Committee recommendation; Black President Knight resigns students say they will withdraw In early March, concrete changes to university policy began to emerge from the crisis. On March 4, a faculty committee recommended the establishment of “a program in African and Afro-American studies” at Duke.

One member of the committee, James Graham, urged the creation of a Department of Afro-American Studies. However, the majority report called only for an interdepartmental major.

On March 13, the Undergraduate Faculty Council approved a resolution by which a Supervisory Committee for the new program would consist of five faculty members and three black students.

On March 10, 23 black students announced that

they would withdraw from the university. Seventeen more announced plans to withdraw at the end of the semester. Chuck Hopkins, a second-semester senior at the time, said that the move was in protest of “the inhuman conditions we have been subjected to.”

Days later, several of the students announced plans to found the Malcolm X Liberation University, which would focus on courses in African-American history.

The school operated until 1973.

On March 17, the Duke Afro-American Society announced that the students who had withdrawn would remain at Duke after all in order to “continue the struggle” for racial justice.

On March 31, 1969, it was reported that Douglas Knight had resigned as the president of Duke University after taking the reins six years before.

The University’s fifth president said in a statement that he had “an obligation to protect my family from the severe and sometimes savage demands” of running a university.

Knight’s resignation went into effect on June 30.

March 31, 1969

March 7, 1969

March 4 to 17

March 19

March 31

December 13

Background: Courtesy of Duke University Archives

Protesters placed on probation

Terry Sanford named president

In March, the University’s legal advisor recommended disciplinary charges against 25 students involved in the protest. The students were charged with violating the Pickets and Protest Policy.

A five-man Hearing Committee chaired by

On December 13, the Board of Trustees announced they had elected Terry Sanford as Duke’s new president.

Sanford had served as the governor of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965.

During his 15-year tenure at Duke, Sanford worked closely with protestors to prevent a repeat of the events that undid his predecessor.

The Sanford School of Public Policy now bears his name.

After leaving Duke in 1985, he served a term in the United States Senate from 1987 to 1993.

law professor A. Kenneth Pye heard the trial on March 19. The students did not contest the charges, and the hearing focused on the punishment they would receive.

The committee ultimately placed 47 students on probation for one year.

Courtesy of Duke University Archives Crowd watches armed police walk by on the day of the Takeover.

Bob Hewgley | Published December 15, 1969 Terry Sanford was announced as the next Duke president.

Timeline compiled by Matthew Griffin, staff reporter

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The Chronicle

Activism at Duke since the Allen Building Takeover

By Shannon Fang

and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

The president of BSA gave an opening speech to a crowd The Allen Building Takeover sparked a long series of student of around 300 people, which was followed by speeches from protests for African-American rights on campus and set a faculty and students about the issues and hopes they had for precedent of marginalized students fighting for rights. the future of Duke.

In 1975, the Association of African Students presented In May 1985, 60 graduating seniors organized a silent a similar list of demands as in 1969, but the tone of the vigil outside the Duke Chapel during baccalaureate demonstration was notably different. The Chronicle ceremonies to encourage Duke to divest from South Africa reported that the group quietly gathered outside the due to apartheid.

Allen Building, and the president of the association, “We think the University has to accept the role of moral Clemon Richardson, handed out copies of the 11 steward,” graduating senior Steve Rottman told The Chronicle demands to students. at the rally.

The demands included departmentalizing the Black One year later, the Board of Trustees set a deadline to Studies Program, increasing in the number of black faculty withdraw all investments from South Africa if apartheid and ending systematic reduction of practices continued. special programs for black students.

In 1989, another march was Once the demands were read held on National Black Student aloud, the students entered the Action day, this time with students Allen Building and walked up marching from East to West to the second floor, where they Campus. The march ended in front presented their list of grievances of the Allen Building, where BSA to several administrators.

Students gathered together in 1975 President and then-junior Craig “A line of more than 100 students to deliver a series of demands to the McKinney presented a list of goals formed behind Richardson, watched to Provost Phillip Griffiths. administration quietly and then silently walked out “The march, one of 40 to 80 again,” The Chronicle reported. taking place at colleges around In 1979, the Black Student Alliance held a march the country, was an attempt to accelerate and intensify and rally during Black Solidarity Week to “awaken the University action on a list of nine concerns compiled by the University community to black-related problems and Black Student Association,” The Chronicle reported. needs,” according to The Chronicle. Approximately 250 Their concerns echoed those of previous years, such as African-American and white students marched from East increased African-American student recruitment, expansion to West Campus, singing songs like “We Shall Overcome” of the African-American Studies program and a Division of Minority Affairs.

In April 1997, campus police handcuffed and frisked firstyear Calvin Harding, mistakenly thinking he was the thief of a recently stolen laptop.

In the following semester, students boycotted class as a part of a “speak-out devoted to confronting strained campus race relations,” The Chronicle reported. Students set up a podium on the chapel steps for an “open-microphone” forum about race on campus.

Two hours into what was deemed “Race Day,” a long line of students continued to form, waiting to for their turn to speak to a crowd whose maximum size reached 500 people.

More recently, in February 2016, The Chronicle reported that Executive Vice President Tallman Trask allegedly used a racial slur after hitting a parking attendant with his car.

Following the report, Duke Students and Workers in Solidarity held a rally in support of Duke workers.

They announced that nine students began a sit-in in the Allen Building with seven demands, including Trask’s termination. Students then started to tent in the quad in front of the Allen building, which was then called A-Ville, or Amnesty-ville.

The students occupied Allen Building for one week, yet tents continued to stay up for almost one month in solidarity with the protesters.

“It became the site of activism, teach-ins, art displays and impromptu music,” The Herald-Sun wrote.

In 2018, a group of students that would come to be known as People’s State of the University stormed the stage at Page Chris Graham | Published April 21, 1989 Auditorium as President Vincent Price stood at the podium Towerview Managing Editor

100

Students marched from East to West Campus for National Black Student Day in 1989.

See ACTIVISM on Page 9

1975 The Association of African Students issued a list of demands echoing the set from 1969.

Approximately 100 students entered the Allen Building and took the list of demands up to administrators’ offices on the second floor.

1979 The Black Student Alliance held a march for Black Solidarity Week. Students sang songs such as ‘We Shall Overcome’ as they marched from East to West Campus.

1985 Students protested outside the Chapel, asking Duke to divest from apartheid South Africa.

1989 Students again marched from East to West Campus, this time for National Black Student Action Day. Protesters asked for increased black student recruitment, a Division of Minority Affairs and an expansion of the African-American Studies program.

1997 A silent protest was held after campus police frisked and handcuffed a freshman, mistakingly thinking he was the thief of a recently stolen laptop.

2001 After The Chronicle published an ad arguing against reparations, there were three days of protests on the quad and a sit-in near the newspaper’s offices.

2016 After a Chronicle report that Executive Vice President Tallman Trask allegedly hit a parking attendant with his car and used a racial slur, nine students from Duke Students and Workers for Solidarity began a sit-in of the Allen Building.

2018

Students rushed the stage as President Vincent Price stood at the podium during an alumni event, issuing a series of demands.

Will Hicks | Published May 9, 1985 Seniors protested in front of the Chapel on graduation day in 1985, demanding Duke divest from apartheid South Africa.

The group, calling themselves People’s State of the University, addressed issues ranging from intersex surgery to children and Board of Trustees transparency.

The Chronicle

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ACTIVISM FROM PAGE 8 during an alumni event and issued a series of demands for the University.

Demands On the morning of the Allen Building takeover in 1969, the students issued demands to the administration, known as “The Black Demands.” Below are some of the demands and the progress made up until today.

The creation of an African American studies department at Duke.

In 1970, just one year following the Allen Building Takeover, Duke created its first black studies program. However, the program historically encountered many issues with lack of black faculty, courses and administrative commitment.

Following protests calling for the departmentalization of the program, it was not until 2006 that the program earned departmental status.

The African and African American studies department currently has approximately 25 faculty members, and Duke is tied for second place for the best African-American history programs, according to US News and World Report.

The right to a black dorm on campus.

The first black fraternity and sorority appeared in 1974—the Omega Zeta chapter of Omega Psi Phi and Delta Sigma Theta, respectively. They were given housing in Wannamaker one year later.

Duke continued to establish more black Greek organizations. Duke’s current black fraternities and sororities do not have housing space on campus.

Increase black student population to 29 percent to represent the Southeast by 1973.

The population of African-American students has gradually climbed since 1969, with the current number at 10 percent of the student body, which is short of the national African-American population of 13 percent collected during the 2010 census.

Notably, the African-American student population fell 3 percent in 1983. For the past few

Jesús Hidalgo | Published April 1, 2016 Students rallied in front of the Allen Building and staged a sit-in in 2016 after reports that Executive Vice President Tallman Trask allegedly hit a parking attendant with a car and called her a racial slur.

decades, BSA has hosted Black Student Alliance Invitational, a weekend when prospective students can visit campus and “explore the Duke experience from a Black perspective,” according to the event’s website.

Reinstatement of black students who were forced to leave because of their inability to achieve academic standings due to Duke’s “stifling social and academic environment.”

The Office of Black Affairs was established soon after the Takeover, and they began to hold summer transitional programs for minority and low-income students to help them address the problems they may face at Duke.

The Office offered counseling in academic and social affairs as well as career opportunities.

Its name was soon changed to the Office of Minority Affairs and the Office of Intercultural

Affairs before becoming the Center for Multicultural Affairs.

It focuses on creating an equitable and inclusive campus environment through multicultural and social justice education, according to CMA’s website.

Financial reassurance for black students.

Duke currently offers an AIA/AAF Minority Disadvantaged Scholarship, which offers $3,000-$4,000 to “high school graduates, college freshmen, and community college students from a minority and/or financially disadvantaged background” pursuing an accredited degree.

Duke also offers the Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship Program to applicants of African descent, with a focus on leadership and social justice.

The Class of 2022 was the last class to receive The Mastercard Program, which supports students from sub-Saharan Africa based on their academic capability and “desire to become change agents in Africa.”

Duke admissions is also currently needblind and states it fills all demonstrated need, according to Duke’s website.

A black adviser selected by black students.

In 1976, the Association of African Students became the Black Student Alliance. BSA changed its purpose to be a primarily political group, with the goal of relaying the concerns of African-American students to the student body and administration, as well as educate the community about African-American culture and heritage.

“The BSA not only offers a wide variety of fun and interesting activities, it also unites the black student body and gives voice to an otherwise under-represented facet of the ‘Duke Vision,’” one of the organization’s flyers stated in 1994.

Black student admission is based on high school academic achievement, as current criteria are oriented toward white middle class students.

Duke’s current admissions process is a holistic process that looks not only at academic performance and rigor, but also personal qualities.

The Duke admissions office’s website states that admissions officers consider student accomplishments within the context of his or her opportunities in mind, and they seek students who will bring a variety of backgrounds.

Courtesy of Duke University Archives

Creation of a black student union.

Fulfilled in September 1983, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture opened. During the formal opening, BSA held a workshop “to strengthen ties between Duke and Durham blacks,” The Chronicle reported.

The Mary Lou Center promotes racial understanding and fosters appreciation for black culture, and they serve as a safe and supportive space for the black community, according to the center’s website.

They currently hold many programs and services for the community, such as Freestyle Friday and Black History Month.

Non-academic employees to have the power to determine their working conditions and rights.

Established in 1965, Local 77 is a labor union that represents housekeeping and Marketplace employees.

Duke also has a staff and labor relations department that focuses on initiatives to improve work environments.

However, in September 2018, The Chronicle reported that housekeeper shifts were upended because the union cannot negotiate shifts, leaving many workers feeling “betrayed and worried about what the future holds.”

An “end to tokenism of black representation in university power structures.”

The University only had two AfricanAmerican professors during the time of the takeover, Samuel DuBois Cook and Philip Cousin.

The Black Faculty Initiative was created in 1988, which was initially voted in a 27-27 tie by the Academic Council.

In a moment of suspense, Council Chair Philip Stewart broke the tie in favor of the BFI. At the time, 2.2 percent of Duke’s faculty was African-American. The BFI pledged to add one African-American faculty member in each hiring unit.

The initial momentum was not sustained, and when the BFI ended five years later, seven more black faculty members were hired. Richard Powell, John Spencer Bassett professor of art and art history, and Karla Holloway, James B. Duke professor emerita of English are the two remaining faculty hired under the BFI. In 2015, 4.5 percent of the faculty identified as African-American.

Additionally, the students asked for black students’ fees to be redirected from the student union to a black student union.

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Where are they now? Participants’ lives since 1969 and memories from the Takeover

By Hank Tucker Towerview Editor

Many of the students in the Allen Building Takeover went on to become leaders in law, business, education and social justice after graduating from Duke.

We caught up with five of these protesters to find out what they remember most about the Takeover and how it has made an imprint on the rest of their lives.

Chuck Hopkins Hopkins, a second-semester senior in 1969, was one of the Takeover’s main organizers and served as the participants’ spokesperson during their negotiations with administrators that day.

“The first thing I did was call Dean [Bill] Griffith and inform him that the Afro-American Society had taken over the building and that we had secured it, and that he needed to know our demands,” Hopkins said. “He sort of quietly said, ‘Okay Chuck, I’ll have to get back to you.’ And he hung up. That was a very clear memory. That sort of started the day.”

Hopkins was an experienced student activist prior to the Allen Building Takeover, participating in protests against the Vietnam War and the segregation of Durham’s Hope Valley Country Club, where Duke held some banquets. Douglas Knight, Duke’s president at the time, was a member.

“For the majority of black students, Duke was probably our baptism into activism,” Hopkins said. “I was raised in a home and taught by black teachers in segregated schools about what was right and what was wrong. That’s what I brought to Duke.”

After graduating, Hopkins continued what he called “full-fledged” activism for about a year and won his case to file for conscientious objector status to the Vietnam War when he was drafted.

He then received master’s and doctorate degrees in political science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, writing his dissertation on the deradicalization of the Black Panther Party. He spent time as a university professor and administrator and said he’s now “mainly retired” while teaching a small course on civil rights at a boarding school in Virginia.

Charles Becton A third-year law student at the time, Becton was the only graduate student among the protesters who entered the Allen Building. He hosted some Afro-American Society meetings at his off-campus house on Markham Street, and the protesters

Courtesy of the Chanticleer Catherine LeBlanc, then a senior, as photographed in the 1971 Chanticleer.

Bre Bradham | Contributing Photographer Participants in the Allen Building Takeover returned to campus last weekend for a reunion and posed for a photo in front of the Building.

all met at his house the night before the Takeover and the police coming in by squeezing lemon juice on our eyes and morning of Feb. 13, 1969 to ride together to West Campus in a putting cigarette butts in our noses in order to blunt the impact rented U-Haul truck. of tear gas,” Leblanc said. “We were highly naive because we “I thought our going in would heighten their awareness had no way to protect ourselves or to fight back. Our leaders and their need to talk to us seriously about some of our had insisted that we bring nothing into the building that concerns. I don’t think I thought the national guard even remotely looked like a weapon, so as I reflect back on would be called,” Becton said. “I it today, I see how our youthful remain convinced that had we not naiveté, but nevertheless our dramatized our indignities, not Duke is an immensely powerful fearless commitment to what just for Duke University but for the institution. It wants to be, and I we believed was right, could Durham community and the state and have gotten us severely injured the national press we received, our think it is, a leading educational or killed.” demands would not have been met as institution, and I think they have Leblanc, who called the timely as they were.”

Takeover the “seminal moment” not done all they can.

Since 1969, Becton has become a of her college experience, prominent attorney in the Triangle bertie howard spearheaded the planning area and taught at Duke Law School for the recent ALLEN BUILDING TAKEOVER PARTICIPANT committee for decades until 2012, when he was reunion and commemoration named the interim chancellor of North of the event.

Carolina Central University.

After graduation, Leblanc began to pursue her goal of He was also the first African-American man to serve as becoming a social worker and took a job with the Pennsylvania president of the North Carolina Bar Association.

Human Relations Commission, investigating cases of Aside from Becton’s first year out of law school, when he discrimination in housing and employment. worked for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund in New York, he But she soon grew impatient with the slow pace of has spent his entire career in North Carolina, where he served change in her chosen field and enrolled in the Harvard as a judge for the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Business School, graduating in 1980 to start a career in “From a very early age, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer the corporate world while continuing to volunteer with to help people. The pursuit of justice was always one of nonprofit organizations. my goals. Fighting injustices and discriminatory practices “I had a very satisfying career and found outlets for was always at the forefront,” Becton said. “The experiences expressing social consciousness in other ways. Sometimes, my at Duke and those of other black students made us more contribution was made through just being a pioneer in areas acutely aware of the need to be advocates. Those of us where women and blacks had not worked before,” Leblanc who had the ability to effect change in some way had an said. “I remember being one of the early females to go through obligation almost to do so.” a company’s manufacturing training program and having assignments in production and as a board person on the Catherine Leblanc factory floor.”

Leblanc was a sophomore in the spring of 1969 and was However, she later shifted gears once again to recommit to one of the few women to stay in the Allen Building for the the public sector and nonprofits full-time. duration of the Takeover, despite male students’ insistence Leblanc worked for the superintendent of Atlanta’s public that they leave before law enforcement came in. She said schools and served in President Bill Clinton’s administration students left through a back window as the day progressed, as the executive director of the White House Initiative on and by the evening, the number of protesters in the building Historically Black Colleges and Universities. had dwindled to the mid-20s.

See MEMORIES on Page 11 “Those of us who chose to stay began to prepare for the

The Chronicle

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 | 11

to me, it suggested I had come full circle.”

Courtesy of the Chanticleer Bertie Howard, a senior in 1969, is from Orangeburg, S.C.

MEMORIES FROM PAGE 10 “When I did decide to leave the corporate sector, I remember one of my MBA colleagues who was pretty shocked at the decision [telling] me that I was, and this is his direct quote, ‘an anachronism from the 1960s’,” Leblanc said. “He was just trying to say that finding people who were still committed to wanting to do good and make a contribution was sort of out of step with the way the world was. I considered it quite a compliment, and

Bertie Howard Howard had a more personal understanding than most of her peers of how dangerous student activism could be.

Almost exactly a year before the Allen Building takeover, on Feb. 8, 1968, her hometown of Orangeburg, S.C. became a headline when police opened fire on students on South Carolina State University’s campus protesting the segregation of a local bowling alley, killing three and injuring dozens more.

“I was out with some students from my dorm. I lived in Pegram,” Howard said. “We were driving there and the radio was on, and I remember that they broke into whatever music we were listening to say that there were students who had gotten shot.”

The massacre made national news while Howard was a junior at Duke, and she had regularly participated in protests while she was growing up in the town. Around fourth and fifth grade, Howard spent two to three full years without ever going to downtown Orangeburg because its stores didn’t hire black workers.

“I grew up in a time of struggle,” Howard said. “In spite of all the achievements of black people in my town, in my county, it was still a very segregated place.”

After she graduated in 1969, Howard worked in independent black education and early childhood education and was also involved in the anti-apartheid movement that put pressure on South Africa.

She now works for a community action agency in her native region in the midlands of South Carolina helping people support their families, get an education and find employment.

Howard is proud of the progress Duke has made in the last 50 years, pointing to the establishment of the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and the John Hope Franklin Center as positive steps, but still wants to see the University do more, particularly for non-academic workers.

“I’m a hard person to satisfy,” Howard said. “Duke is an immensely powerful institution. It wants to be, and I think it

Courtesy of Duke University Archives Students met with President Douglas Knight in February 1969 after the Allen Building Takeover.

Thanks Camille Jackson, Duke Council on Race and Ethnicity Duke University Archives Dr. Mark Anthony Neal

Project team Hank Tucker Lexi Kadis Matthew Griffin Mary Helen Wood Emily Qin Shannon Fang Carter Forinash Bre Bradham General Manager: Chrissy Beck

Courtesy of the Chanticleer Sundar Fleming was a senior in 1971.

is a leading educational institution, and I think they have not done all they can.”

Sundar Fleming Fleming’s experience with the Civil Rights Movement long predated his time at Duke. His father was a preacher and a professor at Shaw University when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed there in 1960. In his father’s office that year, Fleming was introduced to Martin Luther King, Jr. at age 11. Three years later, he took a bus from Raleigh to participate in the 1963 March on Washington.

When he arrived at Duke as a freshman in the fall of 1967, Fleming found that the African-American students there were generally all used to fighting for inclusion.

“I think the black kids then were middle class, lowermiddle class, those kinds of families versus what you’ve got now is you have upper-middle class and in some cases very, very affluent and famous kinds of people that come to Duke,” Fleming said. “Duke did a fairly decent job in terms of getting us ready academically in terms of things that they did for us, but I think socially, we were very, very limited.”

Fleming participated in the Takeover as a sophomore and remembered seeing storm troopers out the back window carrying billy clubs. He believes the protest was a long-term success, with Duke ceding to students’ demands out of concern for its long-term image.

“I think they learned that we were actually more powerful than they had given us credit for, and I don’t think they necessarily wanted to have that kind of an event to happen again,” Fleming said. “Duke and Vanderbilt were both trying to be Ivy League schools of the South.... Duke was trying to elevate its reputation in the country, so they didn’t really want to have a southern bent on race relations and the Civil Rights Movement.

They were kind of caught between a rock and a hard place.”

Fleming earned his undergraduate degree in 1971 and received a doctorate in marketing at the Fuqua School of Business in 1977. He spent most of his career as a professor of marketing at North Carolina Central University and briefly served as the interim dean of its business school before he retired.

Editor’s note: Accepting letters on the Takeover’s anniversary

By Bre Bradham Editor-In-Chief

Wednesday marks 50 years since dozens of Black students took over the Allen Building on Feb. 13, 1969 and issued demands for administrative action.

Duke’s racial history did not start or stop with the Allen Building Takeover. The events that led up to the Takeover were marked with activism, and the halfcentury since has seen students continuing to push for progress.

This past weekend, many of the Allen Building

Takeover participants returned to campus to commemorate the event. A reunion was held and panels discussed the Takeover and student activism since then.

As the University commemorates the students’ action 50 years ago and examines the struggles for racial and labor equality since then, we invite members of the Duke community to submit letters to the editor this week about the Takeover and the legacy those student activists left behind from a half century ago.

Letters should be less than 325 words and can be submitted by email to chronicleletters@duke.edu.

12 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

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The Chronicle

The reunion: Participants return to campus half a century later

By Carter Forinash Staff Reporter

Original members of the student group that took over the Allen Building shared their memories of the takeover at an official commemoration Saturday afternoon.

As part of the official events held at the Washington Duke Inn and the Nasher Museum on Saturday Feb. 12, original student protestors from the Allen Building Takeover discussed their memories of the Takeover and the legacy it has left on Duke’s campus.

The Allen Building Takeover, which took place on Feb. 13, 1969, helped lead to the creation of the African and African American Studies program at Duke and brought attention to the needs of black students at Duke.

The panel discussing the Allen Building Takeover was led by Catherine LeBlanc, Woman’s College ‘71.

The other members of the panel were Charles ‘Chuck’ Hopkins (Trinity ‘69), Michael LeBlanc (Trinity ‘71), Michael McBride (Trinity ‘71), Charles Becton (JD ‘69) and Janice Williams (Woman’s College ‘72). All six panelists were among the original students who participated in the Allen Building Takeover in 1969.

Emily Qin | Staff Photographer At the commemoration, members of A panel Saturday afternoon to commemorate the anniversary included participants from the Takeover discussing their experiences. the Duke administration acknowledged the influence of the Allen Building Takeover on the University.

“I began to quickly learn what those “Not everyone at Duke agreed that black into the Allen Building, it was because my Trinity Dean Valerie Ashby and Mark disparities were and what those injustices were, people were smart enough to be at Duke,” community was here, among the black Anthony Neal, chair of the department and was eager to learn how to fight against Hopkins said. students,” Claiborne said. of African & African American Studies at them,” Williams said.

Along with conditions on campus, the The panel also discussed the role of Duke, also acknowledged the pivotal role of Other panelists mentioned that black national and local atmosphere in 1969 also Black Culture Week, which ran from Feb. the Allen Building Takeover in influencing students at Duke at the time were kept apart played a role in creating the conditions for the 4 to Feb. 12 1969, in driving the Allen student activism at Duke in the five decades by the Duke administration.

Allen Building Takeover.

Building Takeover. since the Takeover. Qsanet Tekie, a current “Duke thought that the best way to The original protesters mentioned both According to Williams, the week helped senior, joined them as welcome speakers at the bring us here was to keep us isolated, keep national tensions and civil rights-focused convince members of the Allen Building commemoration. black students isolated from each other, so college protests around the country, including Takeover that the group’s demands were Both Ashby and Neal also cautioned that the in all of our classes we were the only one,” a five-month strike at San Francisco State necessary. lessons of the Allen Building Hopkins said.

University in California.

Takeover show that Duke still Hopkins, a The strength and organization of the ‘We’re in here now, and these are our It was hard to find a black has much progress to make. talented writer Durham black community also helped support demands’ “Duke is not what it once individual at the time who when he got to the black students at Duke and draw attention Once plans for the Allen Building Takeover was but it certainly is not Duke, also recalled to their cause. were in place, details still had to be resolved. where it needs to be. We can criticized the things we were the extreme “Durham was unique in the United States The original protesters recalled that they thank those brave souls 50 trying to do. difficulty that at that time in terms of having one of the most briefly considered whether to bring weapons years ago for always making it black students had conscious and organized black communities,” into the Allen Building for self-defense before charles hopkins getting professors Hopkins said. “We immediately had older deciding against it. clear, making that clear to us,” TRINITY ‘69 AND A TAKEOVER PARTICIPANT Neal said. to acknowledge people that we could lean on and learn from “Our thing was don’t give the administration The panelists discussed the quality of their who were interested and supportive of what we an excuse not to focus on the issues that we’re their initial reactions to the Duke community work. One professor even accused Hopkins of were doing.” trying to raise,” Hopkins said. and the injustices that existed when they having his roommate, a white student, write Perhaps more than any other factor, The protesters were careful to make their arrived on campus. his essays. the panelists argued that student unity, demands clear and communicate quickly with particularly among the black students at the administration.

Duke, was the driving force behind the Allen “I got on the phone, called [Dean of Student Building Takeover.

Affairs Bill Griffith], and said Dean Griffith, “It was hard to find a black individual at we’re members of the Afro-American society, that time who criticized the things that we were we’ve just taken over the administration trying to do,” Hopkins said. building, we’re in here now and these are our demands,” Hopkins said.

The Takeover Although negotiations took place over Members of the panel agreed that the the course of the day of the Allen Building Allen Building Takeover was the culmination Takeover, the administration refused to of poor conditions for black students on negotiate until the students had left the campus and years of inaction by the Duke building. administration.

The University issued a series of “This was like water boiling. It just got ultimatums before the student protesters hotter and hotter and hotter,” Michael received word that police were organizing in LeBlanc said.

Duke Gardens to force the protesters out of Hopkins, the leader of the Allen the Allen Building.

Building Takeover, said that it was initially “On the next vote [on whether to stay or difficult to convince students to commit leave] I was counting and the vote was 13 to to the Allen Building Takeover, despite the stay and 12 to leave, but I reported that as just conditions on campus. the opposite,” Becton said.

“The turning point for me as an organizer Other panelists suggested that Becton’s of the thing was when grades came out. I had decision to report the vote as a decision to leave people coming to me, people who had never may have saved the students’ lives. participated in any kind of Afro-American “After we took the second vote and Society activity, black students who had never Becton so graciously saved our lives we spoken to me, who said Chuck we need to do decided to come out of the building. After something,” Hopkins said. then, the police was coming in the door that C.B. Claiborne (Pratt ‘69), the first black faced Campus Drive as we were coming out basketball player at Duke, spoke about his of the building facing Perkins Library. Our Emily Qin | Staff Photographer reasons for joining the students in the Allen recollection is that they came in throwing tear gas so we got out just in time,” LeBlanc Valerie Ashby, Dean of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, spoke Saturday at the commemoration Building.

“When I’m asked why did you come said. events for the Takeover participants.