Just hours after a brown doll was found hanging from a tree in front of the Cambridge Inn, Black Student Alliance members gathered in the same location for a very different reason: To stage a "study-in" at the Allen Building to call attention to a list of historic demands they say have been left unmet for 30 years.
The protest-which BSA leaders said was unrelated to the earlier incident, an act they believe was a protest and not hate speech-was largely commemorative. Its results, however, were both pragmatic and, in the words of all involved, highly productive.
The crux of the students' complaints lay in what they perceive as the administration's inability to convert rhetoric about improved race relations into action.
"We have had our concerns obscured by the administration's meetings and task forces, which are characterized by a lack of direction and roles that are changing and unclear," said Trinity junior Marcus Simms, BSA vice president for black affairs.
By the time the three-hour event had run its course, however, administrators and BSA leaders had agreed to appoint a full-time director for the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. They had also scheduled three issue-specific, action-oriented meetings: On Nov. 17, they will discuss the Mary Lou Williams Center director search process and resource requirements. On Nov. 24, they will discuss undergraduate admissions issues, including the establishment of additional scholarships for black students. Finally, on Dec. 8, they will discuss amending the Black Faculty Initiative, which could entail formalizing the recruitment process.
"Three meetings in three weeks after 30 years of struggle," said Trinity junior Sariyah Buchanan, BSA executive vice president, after the meeting.
The event began at 11:00 a.m. when about 75 students gathered in front of the CI and then, after being debriefed by BSA leadership to remain silent throughout the event, filed two-by-two across the quadrangle and into the Allen Building. Once inside the waiting area of President Nan Keohane's office, they set about the business of being students: Dressed in skirts, slacks or suits, they worked on their calculus, organic chemistry or history. One student read "Native Son" by Richard Wright while another typed away on a laptop.
The silence was broken only by the activity of its spokespeople. Simms explained to reporters that the event commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Hope Valley Country Club protest, during which black students voiced opposition to University administrators' membership in an all-white country club. That event resulted in the formation of the BSA's predecessor.
To explain their current expectations, BSA members distributed a chart of 13 demands. Simms explained that the list also has historical significance: Eleven of the demands were identical to those made by protesters when they stormed the Allen Building in 1969.
The two demands that BSA now deems most important-increasing the number of black faculty members and appointing a director for the Mary Lou Williams Center-were new to the list. They also replaced two outmoded demands, which were to grant amnesty to protesters and to suspend assigning grades to black students until racist grading practices were eliminated, said Trinity junior LeRhonda Manigault, BSA vice-president for black affairs along with Simms.
About an hour and a half into the event, Keohane addressed the protesters. She commended their efforts, recognized the historical significance of the day and said that University officials would meet with BSA leaders immediately to address their concerns.
Keohane explained that she was, fittingly, leaving for Washington, D.C., to attend a university race relations conference led by John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History and chairman of U.S. President Bill Clinton's Advisory Committee on Race.
Provost John Strohbehn and Dean of Trinity College and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences William Chafe, therefore, met with BSA leaders after Keohane's departure.
Strohbehn said he appreciated the candid and concerned discussions that resulted from the study-in. He also said he understands the concerns students have with committee-produced suggestions for change. As the chair of the newly-formed "Task Force on Faculty and Students," Strohbehn said his committee, which was charged with addressing race concerns, will attempt to avoid potential downfalls by quickly solving accessible problems and then dealing seriously and fairly with long-term issues.
The positive results were tainted, however, by the early morning events outside the CI; in an interview after the event, BSA leaders said they were very distressed by the occurrence.
"We really just caught the tail end of [the morning's incident]." Manigault said. "We have no idea if it was sabotage or what-the only thing that we know is that [BSA] had absolutely nothing to do with it."
Simms said he trusts that the troubling incident of the morning will not overshadow the accomplishments of the afternoon. "The [study-in] was a demonstration that blacks on this campus are mobilized," he said. "They have a general awareness of the issues that effect them as black students, and they can be organized politically at any time."
BSA organizers were particularly pleased with University officials' agreement to appoint a full-time director for the Mary Lou Williams Center. "The center isn't really up and running now," Simms said. "We need a full-time director to really put it on the map."
Concerning the Black Faculty Initiative, BSA leaders said it is both the longest-running and most complex of their concerns. "We'll just let the numbers speak for themselves," Simms said, referring to a table showing that, in the last four years, the number of black faculty who are tenured or on the tenure track rose by only nine, to a total of just 47.
BSA leaders also said they are placing priority on the list's fourth demand, "the right to establish a black dormitory," which looms large in light of this year's housing debate. Additionally, they are placing priority on their 13th demand, "an immediate end to police harassment of black students and protection of all black students at Duke." This problem was highlighted, they said, by last semester's incident in which a black student was improperly detained by police.
Several administrators and other student leaders spoke highly of the study-in, particularly in contrast to the morning's incident.
Assistant Vice President for Cross-Cultural Relations Ben Reese, an adviser to BSA, was particularly moved by the event.
"I hope that all of us in the administration recognize that our feet are being held to the fire," Reese said, "and we need to be responsive not only because of the heat of the fire but because it's the right thing to do."
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