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Spelman Spotlight
Page 15
November 14, 1983
Political Activism...
The Story of the Sixties, The Challenge of the Eighties
by Layli Dumbleton
With presidential elections
now less than one year away, we
are particularly pressed to begin
pondering politics. With the
numerous voter registration
drives we witness, and with
issues like whether the Rev. Jesse
Jackson should run confronting
us, we can scarcely evade the
idea of activism.
Many people unthinkingly
equate political activism with the
radicalism of the 1960’s. Unfor
tunately, such a narrow view
hinders many people from
realizing the tremendous need
and potential for political ac
tivism today. What is political
activism? Why is it as important
now as it was during Martin
Luther King’s time or during
Frederick Douglass’ day? What
are Sepelman’s traditions in
political activism and what can
we — as young, intelligent,
Black, female students and
bearers of teh Spelman trust —
draw from these roots? To begin
to answer these questions, let us
re-examine political activism at
Spelman during the Sixties and
then let us relate our school’s
experience to the present.
Two major causes motivated
Black studentsduringtheSixties:
the Civil Rights Movement and
the Black Movement. The initial
objective of activists was clear-
cut to achieve equal status for
peopleof color underthe law. As
time progressed, however,
federal laws — such as the 1964
Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting
Rights Act, and the 1968 Housing
Act — were enacted which
removed the overt signs of racial
discrimination. This situation left
activists with more subtle dis
crimination to combat.
In the later Sixties and early
Seventies, Civil Rights activism
gave way to the “Black Move
ment,” in which Afro-Americans
■ explored and expanded the
bounds of their solidarity. Goals
of the Black race and fostering
cultural pride amongst all people
of color.
On Spelman’s campus, Civil
Rights activism took many
shapes. The Student Govern
ment Associations of all the AUC
schools worked in unison with
students, faculty, administrators,
and civic leaders. Inter-campus
interaction was an integral part
of this activism, and students
were aware, via lectures and
other media, of campus
movements nationwide; from
this knowledge they drew ideas
and inspiration. Politically active
members of the S.G.A. invited
good students to join forces with
them in projects which had the
potential to be dangerous.
Organized sit-ins were staged
and students were jailed more
than once. Demonstrations also
were not unknown. Even though
students sometimes excused
themselves from class to par
ticipate in thei political activities,
the administration gnerally sup
ported the students’ activism
and, at times, became involved
themselves. For example, in the
mid-Sixties, the presidents of the
AUC colleges issued a joint
statement to the President of the
United States concerning the use
of violence and force by police
on college cmapuses around the
country.
As the Civil Rights Movement
calmed, Spelmanites directed
their activism towards problems
on their own campus. As the
Black Movement gained
momentum, students were in
terested in altering the
traditional “liberal arts
curriculum” to include more
subjects and courses in the area
of Black Studies. Although a
Black Studies major was never
implemented, certain con
cessions were made to the effect
that Afro-American history, art,
and philosophy classes were
devleoped. These classes
remained in the curriculum until
lack of demand forced some of
them to be discontinued.
Interestingly enough, when
Spelman’s activists turned their
focus Spelmanward, many of the
issued they contested were
similar to the ones we concern
ourselves with today. For exam
ple, students sought to abolish
mandatory daily chapel, curfew,
and the dress code. In order to
facilitate communication
between students, faculty, and
administration, President A.E.
Manley organized “speak-outs,”
which were similar to the “town
meetings” sometimes held at
Spelman today. In addition,
students from Spelman and
Morehouse often collaborated;
most student demands were
eventually met.
A unique incident occurred
during this active period when a
few militant students from
Spelman and Morehouse locked
in some members of the Board of
Trustees during a meeting and
insisted upon recognition of
their problems and concerns.
The trustees, frightened by the
acts of student militants which
had occurred on other campuses
around the U.S., heard the
students out, but President H. M.
Gloster of Morehouse momen
tarily resigned in protest of the
students’ demands and modus
operandi.
Although a few radicals made
a great deal of headway during
the Sixties, student activism
fizzled out in the Seventies, to be
replaced by political apathy,
conservatism, and greater self
and career-orientation on the
part of students. Some people
agree that the Black students, in
accordance with a national
trend, lost a good deal of their
solidarity and feeling of “com
munity.” Although Spelmanites
have always borne an interest in
taking the skills they acquire
here back into the Black com
munity, students became more
money-minded in the Seventies
and, according to some, far less
interested in academic and civic
excellence. One source
suggested that our diminished
sense of struggle was a direct
result of the strides our
hardworking forbears made for
us a decade earlier: we became
less concerned due to a false
sense of well-being.
What are the implications of
these trends for the Eighties? Will
we remain a disorganized and
blase contingent of citizens, or
will political activism reemerge
on a new plane? It is importantto
note that the problems we face
as Blacks and as women are not
the same as they were in the
Sixties. Racism and sexism still
exist and they are just as odious
as they alwasy were, but they are
more subtle and more personal
than they were in the sixties.
Legal parameters Of these ini
quities are hard to define and to
attack in light of the American
ideals of personal freedom of
thought, speech, and assembly.
For instance, at present we are
legally impotent to prohibit the
Ku Klux Klan from congregating
in any place a cjiurch group
might, simply because
Americans theoretically oppose
ideological regulation.
Nevertheless, as members of a
double minority, we can sense
the irony of our plight.
Necessity, then, dictates that
we reassess ourselves as political
beings. I daresay that no
Spelman student should ever
graduate without having first
come to terms with herself
politically. Our political
stereotypes must be set aside
long enough for us to answer to
ourselves what it means to be
political, and how we ourselves
■ will be political.
Again, let us raise thequestion
— what is political activism,
political awareness? Consider
the following definition: to be
politically active is to be a
constructive participant in
human society, which in our
time encompasses every person
on this earth. Unless we look at
ourselves as essential and effec
tual components of a larger
human entity, we lose some view
of the magnitude of our political
potential and responsibility.
Political activism is working to
make your life work for you
while upholding the same op
portunity for others. It is up to
those who see the need for
justice and change in society to
effect it, and who is better
equipped for such a pursuit than
young, intelligent, Black
women?
Political activism is easier than
many of us will admit. It involves
merely participation in causes
which are near and dear to our
own lives. Few people stop to
realize that a student joining her
alumnae association upon
graduation is an act of political
activism, or that a parent joinin 0
her child’s school’s PTA has great
political remifications if she will
let it. We have many poltical
options, but most are what we
make them. The clubs and
societies we join could be
transformed into powerful
political interest groups if we
spoke out and made our in
terests heard. And, of course, it is
never too late to register to vote,
and to vote, because voting is the
dundamental mode of political
expression. We can join political
parties if we desire, but if, after
consideration, we decide not to,
it is said; “if you choose not to
decide, you still have made a
choice.” Then, finally, we must
not forget, as we enter our
respective careers and reach
financial maturity, that money
speaks. It is a political tool which
does not have to be used im
morally. to be used. Where we
place our investments speaks for
itself. What we choose to buy
and consume speaks. Where we
bank speaks.
In summary, poltical activism is
the duty of everyone, be it of the
quiet or the outspoken variety.
Only we can make our soceity
what we want it to be. Being
political is easy; making changes
is not. But-in the best tradition of
our people, we must not give up
the battle. Spelman’s history of
political activism has been uni
que and it gives us much from
which to draw inspiration and
food for thought, but we must
not only be inspired and
thoughtful — we must be active.
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