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  • History: Crystal Reynolds speaks during Saturday's public forum The Fruits of '60's Activism at University Hall.

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  • Public forum: The Fruits of '60's Activism was discussed during Saturday's public forum at University Hall.

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  • Welcome: Indiana State University President Daniel Bradley welcomes those attending the public forum at University Hall Saturday afternoon.

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October 21, 2012

ISU celebrates anniversary of African American studies

Brian Boyce The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — A story of campus diversity was celebrated Saturday, by senior citizens who once wouldn’t trust anyone over 30.

Indiana State University celebrates the 40th anniversary of its African and African American Studies department this year with a series of projects scheduled through April. But Saturday afternoon, it was the department itself which warranted focus by the men and women who fought to establish it while students themselves. From riots and protests to taking over administration buildings, old radicals recalled their experiences from a time when segregation was the status quo.

Inside the University Hall auditorium, ISU president Dan Bradley said discussions about the 1960s are always nostalgic for those who were there.

“When I think about the ‘60s and 70s, they were a wild time,” he said, describing it as a great time to be young.

The Center for Afro-American Studies was established in the fall of 1972 and began granting degrees within the College of Arts and Sciences in 1979. That entity became the Department of Africana Studies in 1993, and eventually the Department of African and African American Studies in 1999.

Crystal Reynolds, who wrote her dissertation about the center’s history, prefaced Saturday’s panel discussion with a brief presentation of pictures and old newspaper clippings dating back to the 1870s. Since its founding, ISU has been relatively progressive in terms of race, she explained, noting the first African-American student, Zachariah Anderson, began there in 1870 as a member of the school’s second class. Meanwhile, Indiana University didn’t admit African-Americans until 1884.

Yearbook and newspaper clippings detailed the relatively advanced race relations at the Terre Haute campus. ISU maintained integrated male and female sports teams from track to tennis as early as the 1920s. Segregated housing was the norm of the day, but black clubs such as The Statonians were hosting proms and social activities while their members reported fair treatment by professors in class, Reynolds said.

White-dominated Greek fraternities were known to actually admit black members, albeit on extremely rare occasions, she said. And in 1964, the university hired its first black professor, Dr. James Conyers, who participated in Saturday’s forum.

But the happy pictures trailed off in the 1960s, and articles about protests began to dominate. Black students began protesting lack of representation on campus that decade, she said. On May 1, 1969 a number of black students took over the university’s administration building. On April 23, 1970, a race riot on campus involved more than 1,000 individuals, motivating Indiana State Police to use tear gas on the crowd, she said.

Sam Dixon a panel participant and former head of the university’s Black Student Union, said the group’s desire for an African-American studies program was based in its need for parity.

“A tree needs roots,” he said, recalling his days as a Sycamore between 1968 and 1972.

For Ron Gremore, who served as Student Government Association’s vice president at the time of the 1970 riot, ISU was a great place to experience diversity. Describing himself as a naive white kid from rural Indiana, the fact that students of different backgrounds were all on one campus impressed him.

“I thought, wow! We have black students. We have Asian students,” he said, crediting his later career as a union organizer and human resources professional to those experiences.

Bill Powell, Class of 1970, chief organizer of the administration building takeover and a member the “Magnificent Seven,” recalled traveling to Washington, D.C. with Gremore to protest the Vietnam War. The two marched together there and on campus here, part of the many alliances formed at the time.

“The reason a lot of these happened was student activism,” he said.

Barbara Norman, then a student at ISU, spoke from the audience, recalling the riot and how a police officer drew his pistol at one point. A biology professor jumped on the officer’s back in an effort to disarm him, she said, crediting the teacher as a “hero.”

Sociology professor Chuck Norman began teaching at ISU in 1968, and recalled on the stage how Dixon and others were wrongly vilified as “radicals” at a time when cultural norms were vastly different on all levels. It was, after all, a time when students urged each other against trusting anyone over the age of 30, the gray-haired professor chuckled.

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.

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