Blacks Abandon University Hall After Suspension and Injunction

Nearly 100 members of the Organization for Black Unity (OBU) occupied University Hall for four and a half hours today, but left peacefully after the University obtained a temporary restraining order against the demonstration.

The demonstrators walked out of the building at 4:45 p. m.-two hours after the court issued the injunction and three hours after Dean May temporarily suspended all students involved in the demonstration.

The students filed out slowly, passed under the brilliant television lights, and chanted, "Black black power to the African people."

The occupation followed a similar occupation of the Faculty Club for three hours this morning and a dawn demonstration at the Gund Hall construction site on Quincy St.

The occupation of University Hall was the second in the last week by black students who are attempting to dramatize their demands on Harvard's hiring policy.

Injunction

The administration obtained the temporary restraining order at 3 p. m. after a 45-minute hearing before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Thomas Spring. Harvard was represented by Attorney John H. Harrington, Jr. and L. Gard Wiggins, Administrative Vice President.

The order named six members of OBU and Afro-Leslie F. Griffin, Phillip N. Lee, Gregory K. Pilkington, Edward Sanders-Bey, Roderick J. Harrison, and Mark D. Smith-and applies to all others in University Hall as well. The text of the order, which went into effect immediately, is "to keep them from occupying, trespassing, or remaining in or about University Hall, the Gund Hall construction site, the Faculty Club, or any other building or premises of the President and Fellows of Harvard College."

The students decided to leave as soon as the injunction was served because violation of the court order would have made them liable to jail sentences for contempt of court, one OBU member said.

May issued the temporary suspension at 2 p. m., with members of the Rights and Responsibilities Committee and several House members looking on. He then proceeded to announce the court injunction a few minutes later.

May appeared inside University Hall at 1:45 p. m. After knocking on his office door and trying unsuccessfully to open the door with his key, May read a statement to demonstrators over a bullhorn warning them of temporary suspension.

"The University wishes, insofar as it can, to handle this demonstration as a purely internal University matter. At the same time, we cannot accept the continuation of this or any other obstructive demonstration." he said.

May warned the students of even more severe punishment if they continued to occupy the building after being suspended and also warned of the court injunction.

May said he decided on temporary suspension, the first occasion it has ever been used, after consulting with members of the Subcommittee of Six on the Rights and Responsibilities Committee and "appropriate" other persons.

The five OBU leaders named in the suspension announcement are Mark Smith, Griffin, Bruce Smith, Harrison, and Bonnie Lee Carter.

The Committee of Six met in Wadsworth House at 3 p. m. with Dean May and representatives of the liberal and conservative caucuses of the Faculty. The meeting ended at 4 when about 50 members of SDS broke into the building. No incidents of violence were reported and the meeting had already adjourned when the SDS members entered.

Dean May and James Q. Wilson, professor of Government and chairman of the Committee of Six, then went over to a meeting of the Council of Deans at the Law School with two proposals that came out of the meeting: that the University take no action at night, and that all precautions be taken to avoid violence.

Before the meeting broke up, Richard W. Hausler '72, student member of the Subcommittee of Six, was sent to University Hall to find out whether the occupiers would agree to be removed non-violently. Hausler said upon his return that leaders in the building would not guarantee to avoid violence if police were sent in.

The building take-overs follow the announcement yesterday of a breakdown in negotiations between OBU and the administration on the question of Harvard hiring practices for black workers and the painters' helpers controversy.

The primary source of disagreement lies in the black students' demands for a 20 per cent quota of black workers on all Harvard construction projects.

The University yesterday called the demand illegally discriminatory and out of proportion to the 9.3 per cent non-white population listed for Boston and Cambridge in the 1960 census. Harvard does not have the power to demand a quota, the University added, because it cannot interfere with the practice of outside contractors on projects already underway.

Start at Gund

About 8 a. m., about 100 black students marched through the Yard to the construction site for Gund Hall of the Graduate School of Design behind Mem Hall.

Carrying two-way radios and chains, the students entered the site and locked gates to workmen arriving in the morning. Workmen were asked to go home and left peacefully after checking with the construction supervisor.

Around 9 a. m., about 60 students raced down Quincy Street, blocking traffic, and went into the Faculty Club through the back door, surprising a sprinkling of Faculty members who were eating breakfast and about 15 employees who had come to work.

The students told Faculty members, employees, and eight guests staying at the club to leave.

"They weren't rude, they were just to the point," Richard J. Silveria, assistant manager of the club, said.

At 11:15 a. m., Mark D. Smith, spokesman for OBU and one of the students named in May's suspension order, emerged from the building to read a statement to the press on the front steps of the club.

"OBU has moved from the Gund Hall construction site to occupy the Faculty Dining Club, a place where Harvard Faculty members relax in leisure and comfort and dine in elegance ignoring the fact that black people are suffering at the hands of Harvard's Racist Policies," he said.

Smith returned to the building without answering questions. About ten minutes later, the students filed out the back door of the club. Many held scarfs or coats over their heads to conceal their identity.

After leaving the Faculty Club at noon, the students ran through the Yard and converged on University Hall. All doors were locked.

The students, numbering between 50 and 70, gathered near the basement door where they unsuccessfully tried to break through the window with a chain. One student then climbed onto the railing beside the door and, grabbing the Ivy vines on the wall, kicked the window in and unlocked the door.

The blacks crowded in through the door and pushed past five Harvard policemen who attempted to block their way. Once inside, the students filtered upstairs into the offices of the Deans.

At the time, Dean May was teaching a class and not in the building. He had, however, called five Faculty members around 10 a.m,. asking them to be in University Hall in the event of a take-over.

"We were informed of the take-over and told we could stay in the building if we wanted to," Edward T. Wilcox, head of the General Education program said.

Within 15 minutes, all of the secretaries had left the building, chains were strung along all four doors leading outside and the protestors had locked themselves into May's office.

University police also attempted to stop students from barricading the northeast door. After a brief tugging match, the doors were locked, but one black policeman slipped through.