5Cs invest in apartheid despite student opposition

AVERI SULLIVAN & SARU POTTURI

By October 1985, Pomona College had reportedly invested $13,459,810 in companies with ties to South Africa during the apartheid, according to Pomona’s then-President John Alexander’s memo to TSL.

“It would be deeply offensive to me if I were accused of being for apartheid,” Alexander said in the memo. “But I don’t think selling these stocks is going to make me a better person.”

In 1985, the country was still embroiled in a nearly 40 year struggle with apartheid –institutionalized racial segregation of Black South Africans — a government enforced system rooted in white supremacy. The South African government poured money into American businesses, and the institutions that invested in them, which included the 5Cs.

Students first discovered Pomona’s involvement with apartheid stock holdings, after the faculty Commission on South African Issues released Pomona Vice President Fred Moon’s financial report in April 1979.

“Investments are like guns; they put distance between us and our actions,” Faith Richie wrote in an opinion for TSL. “White South Africans enjoy the highest standard of living in the world, while 80% of black families in the country live below subsistence level. Pomona College has over $5 million invested in corporations with subsidiaries in South Africa

... Is that responsible?”

But Pomona College was not the only administration entangled in apartheid investments at the time.

According to the Los Angeles Times, all of the Claremont Colleges had invested millions of dollars of their respective stock portfolios into “firms with South African ties.”

“Spokesmen for Pomona, Harvey Mudd and Scripps colleges said those schools have no plans to divest,” Jesse Katz of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1986.

But the resistance to the apartheid was brewing at the 5Cs. Students Against Apartheid

(SAA) organized a “South Africa Awareness” week to demand that Pitzer College, Pomona and Claremont Graduate University divest their funds. Many students felt that the 5Cs’ refusal to divert funds suggested complicity in the oppression at the root of Black issues.

“The issue of divestment forces us to question our own priorities regarding human dignity, our fear of communism, and our love of profits,” Lara Broadfield wrote in an opinion for TSL.

Outspoken Pomona professor S.J. Lamelle expressed disapproval for the colleges’ persistent investment in South Africa. Additionally, the BSU hosted a Candlelight March to protest the 5C administration’s failure to explicitly condemn segregation and support Black rights.

“[An] often heard [...] argument is that [Black people] in South Africa will be the ones who will suffer the most,” Lamelle said. “The majority of [Black people] in South Africa [...] say that any such suffering is preferable to the suffering caused by the continuation of the apartheid.”

But other faculty were more reluctant to divest funds from South Africa, regardless of its apparent impact on Black rights.

“There is no disagreement that apartheid is a bad system,” CMC

President Jack Stark said. “How we can be the most effective in changing it is a subject where there is a lot of room for disagreement.”

Despite any existing policies on socially responsible investment, Alexander continued to defend the near ten year investment into apartheid affiliated companies.

“We are frustrated — we want to do something to help [Black people] in South Africa,” Alexander said. “I don’t think divestment or disinvestment is going to help.

Instead, Alexander and thenPitzer President Frank Ellsworth called for “understanding” and “cooperation” between people of different races but did not recommend any direct action.

After numerous student and faculty anti-apartheid demonstrations, the Pitzer College Board of Trustees and the Claremont University Consortium Board of Trustees agreed to withdraw a portion of stocks by the end of the decade. On June 17, 1991, the South African government repealed its apartheid legislation. According to a Feb. 1991 issue of TSL, the other colleges allegedly did not relinquish investments until mandated by California’s Assembly Bill 134, which required all California institutions to sever ties with South Africa.

Donny Hathaway’s ‘Extension of a Man’

Growing up in Miami, Dr. Eric A. Hurley recalls driving through the affluent neighborhoods as a typical Saturday activity for his family.

“I remember my mom and stepdad used to drive us around the city to look at the big beautiful houses,” he said. “She didn’t say it at the time but I suppose my mom’s idea was, ‘You need to see that the world is bigger than what we can manage.’”

Hurley is a professor of Africana Studies and Psychological Science at Pomona College who researches implications for the social and educational outlook of African American and other minority children. His research integrates culture and education in order to understand the relationship between African American children and schooling, an idea prompted by his upbringing.

Hurley was raised by a family of educators in a low-income neighborhood. Determined to alleviate his economic status, he initially pursued a bachelor’s degree in Advertising at the University of Florida.

Hurley settled on advertising as he believed the marketing field would guarantee him secure employment while allowing for him to be creative and work with people. Most importantly, he wanted a career that gave him the ability to influence others.

However, any prospects of advancing his advertising career came to an abrupt halt during an internship with Reebok in his senior year of college. In the midst of a hot Boston summer day, a moment of clarity struck him — “At some point I looked up and was like ‘wait a minute, I think I just sell shoes!’”

As luck would have it, a window suggesting a pathway into academia opened for Hurley at the same time as he was closing the door leading him into advertising.

After Hurley enrolled in a research methods class, his professor noticed his natural inclination towards the subject and encouraged him to pursue psychology. But it wasn’t until after seeing his friend’s senior thesis on bystander criticism and racism did Hurley pick up a minor in psychology.

“I didn’t actually know about the academic pathway – I just didn’t have the cultural capital for that,” Hurley said.

While at the University of Florida, Hurley also witnessed the Black Student Union protest the university’s homecoming activities’ lack of inclusion towards their Black student population. This led Hurley to seek a deeper connection towards Black issues and consequently, Black scholars. Equipped with a newfound desire to study the mind, Hurley enrolled in Howard University’s graduate school, the only historically Black college/university (HBCU) with a graduate program in psychology.

After completing his doctorate at Howard, Hurley spent three years working at a research nonprofit before ultimately deciding to return to higher education as he was dissatisfied with the direction of his research.

From 2002 to 2005, Hurley taught at Smith College as an Assistant Professor of Psychology and found that liberal arts colleges like Smith strongly appealed to him for its small size and abundant resources.

Once his visiting position at Smith concluded, Hurley picked up another job nearby at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where his determination to publish research was sparked.

The two years spent researching and publishing at UMass Amherst allowed Hurley to compile a more competitive resumé, and by 2007, Hurley began to work at Pomona College.

The resources and attractive physical space at Pomona has kept Hurley in Claremont for over 15 years, where he continues to pursue research on the intersection of structured cultural values and education.

Under the mentorship of his advisor A. Wade Boykin, a cultural psychologist at Howard University, Hurley has spent the last two decades chipping away at his “intellectual crisis”, which he says is “the one thing in the world you cannot let exist as it is.”

For him, that “intellectual crisis” is the inequalities facing African American schoolchildren.

Understandably, Hurley’s passion for “intellectual crisis” stems from his own environmental and social observations he made growing up in South Miami. While Hurley credits “cultural capital” to his going to college, he noticed that there are other smart kids in Miami who don’t go to college. Through his research, Hurley attempts to find alternative reasons for why there is a gap in schooling amongst African American children in order to depict more “authentic pictures of Black people.”

Outside of the classroom, Hurley dedicates most of his time to being a father and husband. Whether it’s coaching his two daughters in soccer or baking a cake for his wife’s birthday, Hurley maintains a close relationship with his family at home and enjoys participating in the occasional marathon.

CW: This article contains mentions of suicide

Good day, my beautiful reader! Today, I’m talking about a Donny Hathaway album, and I have three reasons for doing so. Firstly, I want to highlight a lesser-known Black artist. Secondly, without Donny Hathaway, many uber-famous Black musicians couldn’t have done what they’ve done. And thirdly, the tragic and beautiful story and music of Donny Hathaway are, in many ways, emblematic of the larger story of Black music.

To get into this article and Hathaway in general, I strongly recommend that you listen to his 1990 song “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” Seriously, do it right now! Have you done it? I can’t talk about it until you listen to it … OK, here goes.

“Someday We’ll All Be Free” is perhaps Hathaway’s most famous track, and it isn’t hard to see why. The lyrics were written as an homage to Hathaway’s personal struggle with mental illness, and he reportedly broke down in tears upon hearing it for the first time in the studio.

The song has become a Black anthem, representing the struggles both Hathaway and his community faced — addressing them all with a high-flying faith: “It won’t be long, take it from me, someday we’ll all be free.”

Hathaway’s vocals soar over a shimmering background of arpeggios from his keyboard, a free-floating guitar line and a firm bassline. The instrumentals give Hathaway all the emotional weight he needs to deliver his sermon. Hathaway doesn’t negate the struggles of the world; rather he provides a forceful and poetic statement for resilience and adaptation to a world that “spins around,” always trying to throw him off. Let’s talk about the album around it. In 1973, Donny Hathaway released “Extension of a Man,” his final studio album. The album wasn’t certified, and the biggest hit, “Love, Love, Love,” peaked at No. 44 on the U.S. charts. And yet, it was a central part of Hathaway’s discography and went on to be incredibly influential, inspiring generations of artists and changing the direction of American music.

While working on the album, Hathaway was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He underwent severe mood swings that he could only ease with a cocktail of 14 different medications he had to take twice a day. In the six years after the release of the album, he was hospitalized several times, and on Jan. 13, 1979 he jumped from his fifteenth floor balcony. He was 33 years old. The album is a product of a man desperately struggling with his demons, showing the world the beauty only he could make for the last time.

“Extension of a Man,” and Hathaway’s discography in general, was extremely influential. He was a central figure in the foundation of soul music and one of the most important singers in the history of gospel music. His unique blends of jazz, gospel, soul, R&B, rock and Motown have been a significant contributor to the sounds of Black music since his death.

Ultimately, Hathaway’s influence extended much further than his limited discography. He can be heard in artists such as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, George Benson, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Aaliyah and, of course, his daughter Lalah Hathaway. His music has been covered by literally hundreds of artists from as diverse paths as Micheal McDonald, Chris Brown, Pentatonix, The Backstreet Boys, Destiny’s Child and Sergio Mendes.

All of this influence is for good reason. The album comes with incredible range, featuring glorious symphonic harmonies, achingly beautiful R&B standards at their best, several unbelievably gor geous instrumental tracks, slow ballads that let Hathaway pour his entire soul out to the listener — and some fantastic gospel tracks to boot.

The album thematically centers around love, unity and the beauty of God and the universe He created, enabling Hathaway to create a wealth of powerful moments. The instrumentation is flawless and stands as a testament to Hathaway’s incredible talent as an arranger and composer as well as a musician — every song has just enough going on to keep you constantly engaged without being overwhelmed.

On this album, Hathaway is at his absolute best. His unique voice is incredibly powerful, and his unbelievable talent on the keyboard provides the listener with no end of moments where you have to sit back and ask yourself, “damn, how on earth is he this good?” Hathaway’s voice is spectacularly expressive, constantly shifting from the bottom to the top of his range and always providing a distinctive tone and immaculate vibrato to each note in line with the lyrics and vibe of the song. Hathaway is always emotional, reaching out to the listener, pulling them into the song and ending every phrase distinctively and impactfully.

Throughout the story of Donny Hathaway, we can see themes that come up over and over again in the broader stories of Black music: his lack of commercial success despite his influence, his ability to blend so many different aspects of Black culture, his constant work to create life and beauty from a place of struggle and despair, his devotion to making music for his community and his tragic death. So this Black History Month, celebrate

April 1990 5Cs launched “African American Families Weekend”

Jan. 1990 OBSA and IDBS celebrated 20 years

Sept. 1993 7Cs surpassed 350 Black students

May 1995 OBSA and IDBS cosponsored first annual ceremony for Black graduates at CMC’s Mary Pickford Auditorium in Bauer Center

Feb. 1991 5Cs celebrated 10th Annual Sojourner Truth Lecture featuring speakers such as Maya Angelou

Feb. 1994 OBSA partnered with the Mzee Coalition to host ceremony to honor Black elders for their contribution to the Claremont community

Nov. 1996 California banned affirmative action at public universities, 5Cs not affected

Aug. 1995

Current C MC Government Professor Fred Lynch called 5Cs to pushback on affirmative action and “rotten social science”

Nov. 1997

Scripps College welcomed awardwinning actress Nancy Wilson to deliver Sojourner Truth Lecture to 5C students and faculty

May 1997 Pomona hosted Tanzania’s first president, Julius K. Nyerere at Seaver House and Garrison Theater

Feb. 1999 5Cs host author Nikki Giovanni to celebrate Black History Month at the Claremont Colleges