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THE SPELMAN SPOTLIGHT
March, 1968
A. U. Center Reacts
To Orangeburg Massacre
&
eview
BU Pc
ower
A. U. Center students attend Memorial Services for students killed in Orangeburg, S. C.
TO: THE AMERICAN
PUBLIC
FROM: THE COUNCIL OF
STUDENT BODY PRESI
DENTS OF THE AT
LANTA UNIVERSITY
CENTER
South Carolina State Col
lege and Clafln College are
only two predominately Negro
institutions within a larger
black educational complex.
These schools are in a large
particular setting within a apr-
ticular locale; however, the
threads of kinship run deep
whereever black students are
involved in the struggle against
racial injustices throughout
this nation. Geographical dis
tance is no barrier to the iden
tity and the identification that
we, as black students, sense
with our brothers everywhere.
This identity transcends all
physical barriers whether they
be state borders or surround
ing lines of state troopers and
National Guardsmen. We, the
students of the Atlanta Uni
versity Center, make this state
ment as a concerted effort to
express our awareness of an
irreplaceable less — that of
three students who lost their
lives in an attempt to exercise
their full human rights in
Orangeburg, South Carolina.
We hope as a result of this
statement that not only will
the conscience of black Amer
ica be awakened to our loss,
but also that the conscience of
white America will be attuned
to, receptive to, and responsive
to our cry of anguish, anger
and outrage at this incident.
The climate presently exist
ing in the United States, which
permitted three students to
lose their lives because they
sought to exercise their legiti
mate civil rights, has been
created by a number of fac
tors. Clearly it is the result of
a biased racist system which
fails to convict and prosecute
those whites who have want
only and maliciously murdered
black Americans. The murder
of three students in South
Carolina is the upshot that has
sprung inevitably from inci
dents such as the failure to
prosecute the murderers of
four little girls in Birmingham,
Alabama, the heartless use of
dogs by policemen in Birming
ham; the wanton beating of
peaceful marchers in Selma by
state troopers, and the general
failure of the courts of this
land to stand firm on the prin
ciples of justice when the lives
of black Americans have been
ruthelssly taken by whites.
The present climate of hat
red and injustice, as it relates
to black Americans, has also
grown out of the willful distor
tion of law and order by a vast
majority of white Americans.
When the cry for law and or
der is heard, it is tacitly be
lieved by most whites to bear
directly upon the actions of
Negroes. This is an unde
served and unjustifiable slap in
the face to Negroes who are
just as law-abiding as any
other citizen of this country,
and who believe that justice is
not a principle to be trampled
under by an arbitrary power
structure. Negroes are not the
only ones who break the law
in this country, as anyone who
can see if he is willing to
see beyond his own petty prej
udices knows. What has hap
pened, of course, is that whites
have put “protective shields”
of moral blindings around
themselves and their conceited
hearts and minds will admit of
nothing but what their costly
prejudices and inconsibilities
approve. Within this bogeted
and willfully blind social set
up, Negroes have been made
the historical scapegoat for the
guilty, bloody consciences of
white Americans; and we are
rapidly becoming the modem
scapegoat in the historical
watered-down concept of law
and order. The impulsive cry
of whites has become simply
to “punish”, but not necessar
ily to “punish the guilty.” In
this clearly racist atmosphere,
whites who openly and heart
lessly murder black people feel
a certain legal immunity be
cause an unjust political and
legal system willfully a:ords
them a shield of protection by
never bringing many white
murderers of Negroes to trial,
by seldom convicting any of
those who are brought to trial,
and by adopting a virtually
passive attitude in granting full
citizenship to Negroes in this
country. Punish, yes, but pun
ish the guilty! Remove segre
gated facilities, unfair job prac
tices, housing bias, school
segregation, and neither Ne
groes nor any other American
citizens need be the undeserved
targets of “law and order.”
We call upon all of those
who truly do support law and
order for all Americans to con
demn the kinds of injustices
and violations of black stu
dents’ human and civil rights
as occurred in Orangeburg,
South Carolina. If American
people and especially Amer
ican students do not condemn
such actions against young
black college students, such
neglect will plunge us into the
kind of chaos that none of us
really wants to see, nor that
this country can afford during
hese critical times of interna
tional and national confusion
and unrest.
Roswell F. Jackson, Jr.
President, Student
Government Association
Atlanta University
Elias Hendricks
President, Student
Government Association
Clark College
Clarence Steger
President, Student
Government Association
Interdominational
Theological Center
Sanford D. Bishop
President, Student
Government Association
Morehouse College
Clarence Hyshaw
President, Student
Government Association
Morris Brown College
Laura J. Barton
President, Student
Government Association
Spelman College
Audience listens attentively as Carmichael speaks.
Stokley Carmichael’s and
Chas. Hamilton’s Black Power
demands to be read for what
it is—an exploration into so
lutions to the black man’s op
pression in the United States.
Black Power does not pretend
to offer especially new ideas
and approaches, but it does
intend to take the step of chal
lenging traditional forms. It
speaks up for change—change
in which black men are the
leaders. But before black men
can realize their potential for
this leadership, they must re
evaluate goals and values.
It must further be realized
that we are a peculiar people
and no amount of identifica
tion with the white man will
erase this. However, far from
being wrong, there is the utter
essence of good in our pe-
cularity. As Black Power
points o ut, the communion
shared by many of our race is
evidence of this. Thus, our
African heritage should lead
us to recognize that the truly
civilized man desires human
ity over technological ad
vances. Our African heritage
recognizes that security and
comfort are not the ultimate
in a civlization as long as in
humanity is enbedded within
its character. It seems that
only with the advent of the
white man did this compassion
for humanity turn to more
ruthless acquiescence.
Black Power seems then to
tell the young black intel
lectuals of our age that only
poor substitutes can be gained
from individual rather than
group solidarity endeavors.
Thus, there need be no apolo
gies to the white man for
wanting and gaining inde
pendence from him through
group solidarity. For if the
black race as a whole does not
step back and reckon like men
with members of other races,
the oppression which has been
felt for so long will only con
tinue until perhaps total de
struction will reek within this
nation. As Black Power so
vividly points out, only with
solid bargaining power can the
interests of the black race be
tended to.
The leadership needed for
the movement toward group
(Cont’d. Pg. 12)
