dailygamecock.com WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2010
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
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Survivor shares tragic experience First-person account of 16th Street Church bombing stirs students
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Men’s Basketball T he me n’s basketball team looks for student support against LSU.
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VOL. 103, NO. 69 ● SINCE 1908
Josh Dawsey
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Birmingham, Ala. — The shards of glass in Sarah Randolph’s eye kept her from seeing her sister and three dead friends underneath the rubble of 16th Street Baptist Church. It was a usual Sunday morning for the group of five. They were in the restroom together, laughing and looking at themselves in the mirror before worship service. At 10:22 a.m., the bomb set there hours earlier by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded. “I was standing a few feet away from her when we heard a boom,” Randolph told the group of USC students on the Civil Rights Tour. “And then I cried out to Jesus and called for my sister Addie three times, but I didn’t get a response. I couldn’t see her or anything else for the glass in my eyes.” The bomb was intended to scare the church away from their activism in the movement, those convicted said. Instead, it killed four children and left Randolph with a prosthetic eye and a lifetime of trauma. The vivid stories of civil rights leaders and foot soldiers have been told over and over here in the Deep South. But Randolph’s emotional first-person account was the first time many of the students on the tour had put a living face with the terror of the civil rights movement. “ Her pre sent at ion wa s more enlightening than anything we’ve seen,” said Shad Crank, a secondyear psychology student. “It felt like
a family member telling it. The raw, gritty account will help me remember this more than anything I’ll ever see in a museum.” The students already knew the facts of the attack. The story of the church was first recounted to the 27 students Friday inside the newly-renovated building — complete with a video, tour, multiple exhibits and a lecture. Randolph’s emotional story occurred across town in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, inside a church with cracks in the wall, a patched staircase and government houses with caved-in ceilings across the street. Before the bombing, Randolph’s life was stable. But after she lost her sister and eye, she lived in constant fear. She wasn’t offered any counseling and chose not to attend college. She’d often lose herself in random cities where no one could find her and she found herself dependent on alcohol and marijuana. Now, that’s all changed. She speaks to teenagers across the globe about her experiences, hoping they’ll find love in her hate-filled experiences. Randolph attends Perfecting the Saints Church where she spoke Friday. “I don’t live in fear anymore,” Randolph said. “So I warn you to not rely on the things of this world and find peace in yourself spiritually.” Her account of the bombing was the highlight of the day for many on the trip. But the day’s events gave students a glance into a violent city of ten k now n as “Bombingham” during the 1960s. The group started the day at the historic church, where t he civ il rights movement in the city found its pulse. High school and college students would often gather there to march. They’d be faced with police dogs and high-powered fire hoses.
Josh Dawsey / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Students take pictures and view exhibits in the 16th Street Baptist Church. They’d be arrested by the thousands, threatened and told their parents would suffer for their actions. But the next day, thousands more came to the church and signed up for an almost-guaranteed arrest. Mallory was one of them. “If you were wet from the hoses, they wouldn’t take you to jail,” church tour guide Dennis Mallor y said. “They’d just let you go home. But you tried to stay far away from the hoses and the dogs.” The church holds a memorial service once a year on Sept. 15 for the girls, and their likenesses and stories are told in the basement. But there’s no memorial, and the bathroom where the girls were killed wasn’t recreated in the renovations. Some on the tour thought their lives deserved more recognition. Survivor ● 6
Denzel Washington puts “The Book of Eli” on our list of must-see films this season.
Seniors remembered through donations
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Plaque funds go toward furnishing, updating library
Explosion scare Port threat in Morehead City proves local authorities are prepared to handle Marilynn the worst.
Joyner
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Second-year English and dance student
Sara Hartley
THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Keri Goff / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Jordan Todaro searches for a psychology book Monday afternoon at the USC Bookstore.
Book rental program debuts USC students able to rent textbooks for 43 percent less Josh Dawsey
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Josh Dawsey / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Sarah Randolph delivers her speech.
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Two local bookstores are rolling out a textbook rental program this semester for the first time with good results, bookstore managers say. Bot h t he Ba r ne s a nd Noble c a mpu s bookstore in the Russell House and the USC bookstore on Main Street are offering students the chance to rent a book for about 43 percent less a semester instead of buying textbooks. “We have a line to the back of the store right now, and a lot of people seem to be using the rental option,” said Bruce Wyndham, general manager of the USC bookstore. “I’ll know more after this week, but people seem to be interested.” It’s an alternative many students have been hoping to see for years. But some student leaders say they’re upset with the specifics of Barnes and Noble’s program. After consulting with the bookstore for months, they say the bookstore implemented a plan over winter break without notice. “I don’t think it’s a good deal for students. Were I to suggest a rental program, that’s not particularly what I’d do. I also the fact think there wasn’t any student input in it makes it not a good program,” said Will Payne, secretary of academics for Student Government. “Any real solution to lowering
textbook costs has to come from students, or at least with the input of students.” Payne said the prices are too high for most students to use the program. With the help of faculty and staff, SG hoped to implement a program with cheaper rates, leaders in the organization say. Booksellers disagree with their contentions. "I don’t know how much more they want to save,” said Andy Shaffer, Barnes and Noble’s general manager. Shaffer said the bookstore was selected by national headquarters to be a part of the program. The bookstore had consulted with SG on a program in the past, but the program would have taken months to implement. “We wanted to do this as soon as possible,” Shaffer said. “We did something totally different than we looked at with Student Government earlier this year.” Booksellers admit all rental programs have their pros and cons. Students can save hefty amounts of cash if they don’t desire to keep a book past one semester. Most textbooks aren’t up for rental yet and many never will be, bookstore managers concede. Because publishers often update editions every year, bookstores won’t rent a book they think will be updated soon because they’d lose money. Students say they can often find books on Web sites, like Half.com and Amazon. com, for cheaper than the rental price in the bookstore. “But you don’t have to go through the ex perience of buy ing it online and not Books ● 3
Though seniors will be graduat ing in May and leaving USC, the Senior Class Legacy campaign will offer graduates the opportunity to leave their mark on campus for years to come. Students in the Class of 2010 can have their names engraved on a plaque if they donate an amount that matches their graduating year: $20.10. The plaque will hang on the fifth floor of Thomas Cooper Library, deemed the most visited building on campus by the campaign’s Web site. “The Sen ior Class Legacy campaign is the first opportunity for graduating students to leave their mark and support future Carolina students, as well as begin a lifetime of involvement w it h t he Un iversit y of S out h C a r ol i n a ,” s a id Steven Farwick II, assistant director to the Office of Annual Giving. The donations made by the seniors will be used to improve the resources in
Thomas Cooper Library, such as periodicals, computer labs and quiet study spaces. More specific g o a l s i n c lu d e m a k i n g more laptops available, pu rchasi ng moveable wh iteboa rds for g roup study, providing more fulltext digital articles online and installing a flat-screen monitor for news updates in the coffee shop, according to the Web site. Led by t he Of f ice of A n nua l Giv i ng, t he campaign began in 1998 and has seen an increase of participants since then. According to its Web site, between 1998 and 2008, t he nu mber of pledges almost tripled from 215 to 539. During this time, the amount of money raised also increased from $9,615 to $14,827. “ T he c a mp a ig n w a s created because students benefit from annual gifts made by alumni and friends from the time they first step foot on campus,” Farwick said. “These annual gifts en ha nce t he st udent ex per ience by f u nd i ng scholarships, recruiting w o r l d - c l a s s f a c u l t y, enhancing classrooms and much more.” Though t he program began in 1998, the first graduating class to have a Legacy ● 6