Two thousand and three is a year which marks many things. To some it is the culmination of the successful presidency of one of the greatest fundraisers in the country, President Nan Keohane. Some see 2003 as the year in which Duke witnessed fierce campus debates on race and social life. To others it marks the year hell froze over and both the Red Sox and Cubs actually went far into the playoffs.
However, to a few who have actually know something about Duke when Wallace Wade was a coach, not a stadium, and the idea of a dual-sex campus seemed ludicrous, 2003 marks the centennial of the Bassett Affair. In short, the Bassett Affair was an episode that set the precident for how much academic freedom professors would have at Duke and also exposed the state the South was in as it entered the twentieth century.
So here's a quick history lesson, which I will try to keep short, so as to avoid sounding like a James B. Duke professor. Before Bassett became the dorm where Luol Deng lives, it was the name of a history professor: John Spencer Bassett. He was a popular professor who specialized in Southern history. He was acclaimed by his peers for doing excellent work on the life of Andrew Jackson and antebellum North Carolina. Eventually he developed a large following among the students at Trinity College (the name of the school before it was named after a tobacco farmer with a lot of money). Bassett, who was raised in western North Carolina, was also a zealous Southern liberal, a minority faction in those parts.
In 1902, he started a newsletter which he ran himself called The South Atlantic Quarterly. In the newsletter he wrote scathing editorials criticizing the racist nature of the South and encouraged furthering the educational opportunities available for African-Americans. Naturally not too many people around Durham were pleased with the man. Many called for his ousting and some started to reference his name as bASSett.
After much deliberation and debates that lasted until 3 a.m., the Board of Trustees voted 18 to 7 to keep Bassett on as a faculty member at Trinity. Bassett staying at Trinity was celebrated so much that Theodore Roosevelt came to Durham to applaud the college and students held bonfires to celebrate the decision of the board. (Hmmm... in 1903 they had bonfires to celebrate professors, now we do that... for beating a team in basketball. Maybe the claims that there has been a decrease in intellectualism on campus actually have some grounds. I just don't see students breaking out wood and lighter fluid for Reynolds Price some day, but let's not go there.) Anyway, the event signaled that the administration would encourage academic freedom among its professors and protect its faculty even if they publish controversial material.
So 100 years later, we are forced to look back and question where Duke and Durham are, both in terms of the academic freedom of professors and in terms of the tolerance and liberalism of the South.
As far as academic freedom goes, the tradition of John Bassett continues. Professors speak freely about whatever subject they feel like outside of class no matter how controversial it is. The University very much wants to keep a happy faculty so its main purpose as an excellent academic institution can be retained. One must be wary when faculty influence overshadows the direction the administration wants to the University in.
As far as the South goes, it is undeniable the Durham of today contrasts greatly with Bassett's Durham. Despite some beliefs, the South has done a lot to strip away its shameful past.
Last year a column written by a person from outside the South ran in The Chronicle. To paraphrase the 800 word document, it basically bashed southern culture with a sledgehammer and chastised southerners today for the sins of their fathers. A buddy of mine from Western North Carolina who takes pride in his southern heritage wanted to personally march over to the columnist and shove the newspaper down his throat.
Most Southerners today reject the views of the Jim Crow South despite the sad fact an ignorant few still hold them. The University of Mississippi has banned the use of the Confederate flag at their football games and recently got rid of its mascot, a plantation owner named Colonel Rebel. Currently Louisiana is seriously considering electing as governor the son of Indian immigrants.
Another example is how recently the Republican governor of South Carolina denied the right of exhumed bodies of Confederate soldiers from The Hunley to lay in the state house as was custom for Confederate veterans in the past, an example of how some parts of the South are trying to turn away from glorifying its rebellious past. These incidents show how the South is trying to move on. Of course, there is still much work to be done to erase the stains of the past and change the perceptions of a few bad seeds. In honor of this momentous anniversary, cultural groups on campus should take time to recognize how far the actions of one man can turn around perceptions. I'm sure John Bassett would agree.
Jonathan Pattillo is a Trinity sophomore. His column usually appears every third Thursday.
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