to be more tolerant today, says Dr. Melvin Allen ’69, retired Leaving freshman English that hot August day in 2013, associate professor of philosophy and founder of the Black Samuel Brown felt tense. Student Association 48 years ago. “That’s not unimportant.” The semester was rolling. Brown had long since won In these comparatively enlightened times, McNairy says, scholarships and lugged his stuff into Harbold Hall dorm. But she can promise any youth that “if you come to Millersville and suddenly he wasn’t sure he belonged. meet the faculty halfway, you will be surprised at what you can He was an 18-year-old black student from Coatesville, the achieve.” first-ever college student in his family. He’d It was not always so for minorities. chosen “predominantly white” Millersville In fact, says professor emeritus of University over other schools. But he soon Brown is acutely aware German and historian Dr. Leroy Hopkins realized he hardly knew a soul. ’66, for years after Lancaster County “I was torn down the middle about of long-ago civil rights Normal School was founded in 1855, none whether I wanted to be here or not,” he struggles that helped emerged. says. “I went back to the dorm and made Emanuel Epps was the first black a phone call,” talking hours with a mentor propel him—and his graduate in 1897. But his achievement back home. school—forward. opened no floodgates. When Hopkins, “I changed my major that afternoon who is of West African and European [from business to communications],” descent, entered Millersville State College Brown says. He joined the Black Student as a freshman in 1961, he found just two Union (BSU), which welcomes all races other black students and no faculty of color. and collaborates with other groups to socialize and promote By the mid-1960s, says Paula Jackson ’69, the nation’s black culture. And he kept cracking the books. seething social ferment was still mostly underground at small, Today, he’s a junior student ambassador who introduces sedate Millersville, where her peers once demonstrated in favor others to Millersville University. He’s also BSU president and of the Vietnam War. “The students were that conservative,” was voted the 2015 Homecoming King. Jackson muses. And mostly white. Brown is acutely aware of long-ago civil rights struggles that So Jackson, a young, white English major with an activist helped propel him—and his school—forward. bent, invited three black city residents to share their stories. And he’s keenly following the still-evolving movement. Into a classroom the guys trooped, sporting Afros and Half a century after sweeping reforms outlawed dashikis, loose West African tunics. “They were well spoken,” discrimination and transformed the nation, racial issues have remembers Jackson, who had met the young men drumming in welled up anew—in police shootings, a “Black Lives Matter” a Lancaster park. And very well received. Students just hadn’t movement and in belated dialogue about yawning class had much exposure to blacks “as classmates and friends.” disparities. But change was coming. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson The worst conflicts may seem remote from MU, which has had signed the watershed Civil Rights Act prohibiting racial long striven to nurture cultural diversity. and gender discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired But while those contacted for this story praise the efforts of followers with peace talks and nonviolent marches. Then, in the the school, they say it’s still haunted by racism simply because aftermath of his 1968 murder, the country was rocked with race the country is. riots in major cities. “The students come from the world,” and the world It was the same year that the late civil rights leader Julian is troubled, says Dr. Rita Smith-Wade-El, a professor of Bond first spoke at Millersville, paving the way for firebrands psychology and longtime force for advancing minority culture like Abbie Hoffman and Angela Davis to come to campus. at Millersville. “I think the conditions for the everyday African By that time, Vietnam violence was escalating, and American have not improved.” disproportionate numbers of poor whites and poor blacks were That’s the verdict of Dr. Francine G. McNairy, the first black being drafted. woman to lead a Pennsylvania state university. She says she’s After National Guardsmen shot at protesters and killed four more conscious of that milestone Kent State University college students on May 4, 1970, angry now than when she was president youths nationwide went on strike. President William Duncan of Millersville, 2003-13. “That’s supported the class cancellations at Millersville. scary. It’s almost as if I’m seeing Cries for peace and social justice had merged, observes Dr. history repeat itself.” Jack Fischel, a history professor emeritus who joined the faculty But there’s also good news. in 1965 and launched the Venture Coffee House lectures to air Black enrollment at MU is nine the issues. “You couldn’t be against the war and not support percent. Millersville president Dr. civil rights,” Fischel says. “We drew students.” John Anderson’s administration Around this time, a lanky Philadelphia basketball player is exploring new initiatives named Mel Allen thought Millersville’s small pool of black to grow student diversity and students needed a stronger voice. He formed the Black Student retention. Association (now BSU) in spring 1967. And younger people appear Dr. Francine McNairy
FALL/WINTER 2015 REVIEW 9