Blacks Get Changes Made Peacefully

"In many cases," wrote Charles J. Hamilton '69 in a CRIMSON Supplement last October, "blacks are leaving behind their token presence in other undergraduate organizations for the sense of unity and expression found in an all-black organization."

At the time, Hamilton was thinking primarily of Harvard's Association of African and Afro-American Students (Afro). But this Spring, immediately after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., anguished and angry black students formed an Ad Hoc Committee of Black Students which quickly won major political concessions from the University.

Through a mixture of back-room negotiation and public pressure the black students convinced Harvard to announce its intention to recruit more black high school students, and to study and presumably improve its course offerings in Afro-American Studies.

If the Harvard community needed a shock to begin acting on racial problems, the black students provided it a week after King's death. Harvard held a service in Memorial Church on the second day back from Spring recess, but the black students did not attend--they conducted their own service on the steps of Mem Church.

Inside the church, there were 1200 mourners, of whom no more than a dozen were black. Outside, 80 blacks listened to Jeff Howard '69 say, "We want black people to have a place here at Harvard."

After that service events moved more quickly than one would believe possible in a bureaucracy such as Harvard. Thomas S. Williamson '68, head of the ad hoc committee, and other black students met with admissions officials. Three weeks later, Dean of Admissions Dr. Chase N. Peterson '52 announced that Harvard will intensify its recruitment of black students, and will take black Harvard students along on recruiting trips.

Less than two weeks after that, Dean Ford announced the appointment of a Faculty committee to do the groundwork necessary for the establishment of a degree-granting program in Afro-American studies. Meanwhile, the CEP approved cross-registering with other universities in the Boston area for courses in African and Afro-American studies.

In addition to these two major gains, blacks have also convinced Derek Bok, dean-designate of the Law School, to pressure a construction firm working on a Law School building to hire more black workers.

Harvard's quick response to the complaints of black students has surely been the most encouraging aspect of a dismal year for University-student relations.