The Rainbow Connection

STUDENTS HAVE a unique position in society; their schedules are flexible; they know they will stay at school for just a few years; they usually do not have an employer, spouse, parent, or other authority who watches over them on a day to day basis. College students are able to experiment and do things most people do not have the freedom to do. This is why students have often been the first to lead people into new areas, new ideas, new politics: we have not yet bought into the establishment, into the workaday world, into domestic regularity.

The results of this unique situation have often been awesome. For example, four students from the Negro Agriculture and Technological College in Greensboro, N.C., started the active civil rights movement in the 1960s by staging a sit-in at a local variety store. Twenty years later, 6000 students hit the streets on election day to push Harold Washington on to a victory with national significance.

With Washington's victory, hopes were raised for a Mel King victory in Boston. Momentum at Harvard for King began last February at a Black Students' Association (BSA) conference during Malcolm X weekend. At the conference, a challenge was made to reawaken student social activism, especially in the Black community. Cynthia Silva, chairperson of the Seymour Society, explains that one theme that has been used at Harvard is the responsibility Black students have to the Black community. Students at Harvard have enormous class privileges. Black students at Harvard on the whole have these class privileges because the Black Community pulled together in the 1960s and fought for these things, Black students, she says, should recognize their responsibility to pay back the Black community for their privileged position. Some Blacks at Harvard do agree with this, yet Silva confronts others with the attitude that they are at Harvard because they are the best and the brightest. The '60s activity is history now--the '80s are a period of individual achievement they may claim. Unhappily, this is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But many students did listen to the call for social action, and a committee was formed at the conference to work with King and talk to student groups at B.U., Roxbury Community College, Northeastern, and other colleges. During the summer, the Seymour Society worked on voter registration in Boston, coordinating in activities with Operation Big Vote.

At the same time, something new had been developing in national politics, which was reflected in the Harvard community: a rainbow coalition. Popularized by Jesse Jackson, the rainbow has become such a powerful symbol that Mel King's rainbow buttons are scarce and sought after--and the campaign is still underway.

At Harvard, Mel King supporters began talking with a variety of organizations, including the H-R Peace Alliance, La Organization, the Committee on Central America, and the Democratic Club. The interracial group that grew out of these efforts became part of a larger city-wide student coalition to support King. In the past white students have mainly participated in groups like the Democratic Club and the Peace Alliance, while Black students worked mainly through the BSA. But now individuals from across the color and political spectrums have come together to work to elect King, and also to build a rainbow coalition for the future.

BY THE TIME Harvard students returned in the fall, the mayoral primary campaign was alreay in its last stages. While some students volunteered and rallied in the weeks leading up to the primary election, the most powerful student activity was the "Bus" on election day itself.

Early in the morning, students from all over Boston helped with poll-watching. Then, the group of us--Black, white, Hispanic, Asian--got on the bus with big signs. "Vote for King" fliers, and the coveted "Mel King Para Alcada" buttons. First stop: a large magnet high school in Roxbury.

As the students tore out of school we lined up and tried to catch the 18-year-old vote. These kids came from all over the city. One white kid told me he would not vote for King. I asked him whom he was going to vote for. "Somebody white," he said.

Then we got back on the bus, and hit the Dudley T and bus stop. We passed out fliers and cajoled people to vote. Next we canvassed a few housing projects in the Roxbury area. including Academy Homes, an enormous and economically depressed project. It is a nine story building of concrete and broken glass with a barbershop and variety store for its all Black residents. We visited another ward before ending a day that had begun at 6:15 in the morning.

People become alienated thinking about their single vote against the vote of thousands or millions. The "Bus", by creating small rallies at housing projects or at bus stops lets people know that they are not alone--that their vote can be part of a bigger movement. The students on the "Bus" were not only part of that movement but also were spearheading it.

This new Freedom Ride was so effective that the city-wide student coordinating committee decided to continue it every Saturday until the election But the Ride remains a small part of the momentum in the King campaign. After the primary several Finnegan offices, rented through November went to the King campaign: some of the minor candidates and Barney Frank endorsed King. Yet with all the serious concerns and high-level politics, the campaign field staff applauded enthusiastically when the students announced that the Freedom Buses will keep on rolling. Students sometimes fail to realize the influence they can exert.