Speaker 1: Coming up on the A Building.
Speaker 2: This is your time.
Speaker 3: The light of new realization shines on you today.
Speaker 2: This was an era of terror. It was not a
Speaker 2: term network.
Speaker 4: This is an era of terrorism, of lynchings, of rape,
Speaker 4: of impunity.
Speaker 1: I knew doctor Gloucester very well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, what kind of man was he?
Speaker 6: Well, he was a more rigid He kept telling me
Speaker 6: to shave my beard.
Speaker 1: The A Building, Episode three, Historically Black.
Speaker 5: Atlanta, nineteen ninety six gold medalist Muhammad Ali lights the
Speaker 5: torch to start the Olympic Games. His body, now controlled
Speaker 5: by Parkins's disease, could barely hold steady as he lights
Speaker 5: the torch. He manages to light the flame and he
Speaker 5: raises the torch, his arms shaking from the disease. It
Speaker 5: made the once invincible boxing champion into a mortal man
Speaker 5: with a frail body. However, in that moment, he reminded
Speaker 5: the world why he was still the greatest champion of
Speaker 5: all time. The nineteen ninety six Olympic Games had begun
Speaker 5: and Atlanta was on the world stage.
Speaker 7: The decision goes to Cassius Play of the United States
Speaker 7: Masterful Boxing Exhibition.
Speaker 5: Nineteen sixty nine, just nine years after I Leave won
Speaker 5: gold in Rome, Atlantis sat Amid another historic moment, but
Speaker 5: unlike Olympic sports, victory would be much harder to prove.
Speaker 1: At an HBCU halftime is game time. The sounds of
Speaker 1: the big band carry through a stadium with pulse and energy.
Speaker 1: There is no place like a historically black college on Saturday.
Speaker 5: Dion Saturdays took the road of college football by storm
Speaker 5: when he took the head coaching position at Jackson State
Speaker 5: University in Mississippi in eighteen seventy seven. Jackson State was
Speaker 5: originally called Natchez Seminary. The school was established to educate
Speaker 5: recently free slaves and prepare them for a new world
Speaker 5: of American possibility. Jackson State is just one example of
Speaker 5: a storied history of historically black colleges and universities. As
Speaker 5: of today, there are one hundred and seven hbcs. This
Speaker 5: accounts for three percent of all collegies and universities around
Speaker 5: the country. However, the impact goes far beyond this number.
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty one, Deon Sanders shocked the world by
Speaker 5: flipping the number one recruit in the nation, Travis Hunter,
Speaker 5: from his alma mater, Florida State, to Jackson, Mississippi. I'm
Speaker 5: pretty certain that this is why I'm hearing.
Speaker 8: I'm pretty certain this is why God led me to
Speaker 8: Jackson State University, to HBCU, to the Swag. I'm pretty
Speaker 8: certain that's why I tried to tell you. Everybody nobody wanted.
Speaker 5: To listen to.
Speaker 8: You thought I was just just running the mouth, and
Speaker 8: it was not that. I truly believe. You know, we
Speaker 8: stand by that word. I believe and we truly believe
Speaker 8: that it's going to be a change. Everything I've done
Speaker 8: in my life, I provoke change.
Speaker 1: Change At an HBCU, change is more than cliche. It
Speaker 1: is a way of life. And they knew that at Morehouse.
Speaker 1: Here's a young graduate and more House man Otto Taylor
Speaker 1: discussing his reasons for attending me.
Speaker 9: It was always, you know, what is my why when
Speaker 9: I get discouraged? What I go back to to keep
Speaker 9: me going even if I don't feel like going to
Speaker 9: class or doing my work? Got standing behind me. Doctor
Speaker 9: Martin Luther King Junior DATD Team Warehouse College. But a
Speaker 9: lot of enough people don't know about his mentor Doctor
Speaker 9: Benjamin lager Mas very intricate part of the Moorhouse mystique,
Speaker 9: and I see that today on campus.
Speaker 5: A lot of people have left at Marco Morehouse and
Speaker 5: now Elwood Robinson talks about the mission and value of
Speaker 5: HBCUs in the US.
Speaker 3: HBCUs have strived to be driven by something more than
Speaker 3: the market economy. There has been the vision that a
Speaker 3: university would be an inescapable social.
Speaker 5: Force for good.
Speaker 3: This has attracted a caguary of faculty, staff, and administrative
Speaker 3: to these institutions who came because of a strong sense
Speaker 3: of mission and providing an excellent educational experience to those
Speaker 3: who have been denied access because of racial, social, cultural,
Speaker 3: or economic barriers.
Speaker 5: In the core of the HBCU experience. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 5: HBCUs account for three percent of collegies and universities in
Speaker 5: the United States.
Speaker 1: But they play an outsizeer role and the success of
Speaker 1: this black leaders and politics, sports, business, and the arts.
Speaker 1: Here are just a few.
Speaker 5: We love road called y'all.
Speaker 1: Lionel Richie, everybody see everybody, Advanced tu Ski University, Taraji
Speaker 1: p Henson.
Speaker 2: There are no colored bathrooms in this building.
Speaker 1: Howard University. Thirdgood Marshall, I'm getting Nolan coming apart. Howard University.
Speaker 10: Oprah Winfrey, Who's proud to vote again and again and again,
Speaker 10: because I'm an American, and that's what Americans do.
Speaker 1: Tennessee State University, Common Fletsco, Florida A and.
Speaker 5: M University, Jerry Rice, I.
Speaker 1: Always gave one.
Speaker 5: Mississippi Valley State, Walter Payton.
Speaker 3: Life is short. It's also sweet.
Speaker 5: Jack The State University, Steve McNair.
Speaker 1: It's been ups and downs. I learned from the good
Speaker 1: and I learned from the bad.
Speaker 5: Our Course State University, Erkabadu A warm and Sunday Grahmy
Speaker 5: State University, Chadwick Boseman. This is your time.
Speaker 3: The light of new realization shines on you today.
Speaker 5: Howard University, Felicia Rishard.
Speaker 11: Doctor King was assassinated in my sophomore year.
Speaker 12: I watched these things happen.
Speaker 11: So much unfolded on that campus.
Speaker 5: Howard University, Kamala Harris.
Speaker 10: And together, let us write the next great chapter in
Speaker 10: the most extraordinary story ever told.
Speaker 5: Howard University, Spike Lee.
Speaker 1: Let's do the right thing. Do you know how to
Speaker 1: get that.
Speaker 5: Any Morehouse College, Samuel L. Jackson.
Speaker 9: The dream has been shared with my partner in crime,
Speaker 9: my critic and residents, my rock solid foundation, and my
Speaker 9: best friend.
Speaker 1: Tell you Morehouse College, Latanya, Richardson Jackson.
Speaker 11: If there's something we can do.
Speaker 5: We get to it.
Speaker 1: Spelman College, Stacy Abrams.
Speaker 2: We were dreaming here in Georgia.
Speaker 10: We were dreaming about a president and a vice president
Speaker 10: who could look at us and actually see us.
Speaker 1: Spelman College, and the list goes on and on.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to the A Building. The impact of HBCU
Speaker 5: alumni goes far beyond the Richard famous. You can find
Speaker 5: HBCU alumni in every industry and work in large corporations
Speaker 5: that work as teachers. Their impact is directly connected to
Speaker 5: the American experience. Despite a nationwide decline in college enrollment,
Speaker 5: many HBCUs saw an increase in student applications and enrollment
Speaker 5: during the early twenty twenties. This surge was partially attributed
Speaker 5: to the height and awareness of from injustice Following the
Speaker 5: twenty twenty protests that gave systemic racism and police brutality.
Speaker 5: HPCUS became a refuge for black students seeking a culturally
Speaker 5: affirming academic environment.
Speaker 1: In response to growing interest, HBCUs expanded academic programs in
Speaker 1: stem science, technology, engineering and mathematics, healthcare, and entrepreneurship. Schools
Speaker 1: such as Howard University, North Carolina A and T State
Speaker 1: University and Spelman College saw growth in their engineering and
Speaker 1: medical programs, partnering with major corporations to provide students with
Speaker 1: career opportunities. Education is often tied directly to impact. We
Speaker 1: see the effect on the sciences, sports, business, humanities, and entertainment.
Speaker 1: We see the impact on pop culture. At Morehouse, doctor
Speaker 1: King's death created a new reality for Black America, and
Speaker 1: this reality was beyond grim.
Speaker 5: Back in nineteen sixty nine, the students of Morehouse College
Speaker 5: wanted more from the HBCU experience. HBCUs were often too
Speaker 5: conservative for the wide raising protests of the sixties. In
Speaker 5: those days, the class and political divide was drawn by education.
Speaker 5: This created conflict between an old school administration at Morehouse
Speaker 5: and the new generation that would be drawn to leaders
Speaker 5: like h. Ray Brown, Up Newton and ADAMLA. Davis. Battle
Speaker 5: lines have been drawn, but what are the stakes and
Speaker 5: who wins? We spoke with Dick Celeste, former director of
Speaker 5: the Peace Corps, two term governor of Ohio, and most
Speaker 5: recently nine year president of Colorado College. What was your
Speaker 5: initial thought, you know, as a former college president, when
Speaker 5: you heard about this story at Morehouse.
Speaker 7: Well, firstly, I you know, I had a lot of
Speaker 7: sympathy both for the president and for the students. Sure,
Speaker 7: you know what, the late sixties were a fraught time,
Speaker 7: and elect state government, you know, would have its young
Speaker 7: rotc kids really fire on students who were their own
Speaker 7: age demonstrating against the war. It was a tragedy. It
Speaker 7: was one of the things that motivated me to get
Speaker 7: involved in politics when I did, and I found that
Speaker 7: the challenge was how to bring people who had very
Speaker 7: different perspectives together in a way where they could really
Speaker 7: listen to each other and hear each other. And often
Speaker 7: those who were in authority, governors or college presidents felt
Speaker 7: that their responsibility was to protect the institution and students
Speaker 7: who were angry and frustrated and determined to try to
Speaker 7: achieve change, but had very few ways in which they
Speaker 7: could directly achieve that change had to find other ways
Speaker 7: to do it. So a lock in, I thought, was
Speaker 7: from a student perspective, a pretty creative thing to do.
Speaker 7: It was peaceful, but it was firm, it was serious.
Speaker 5: Well, okay, what's your view on the board lock in?
Speaker 5: In nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 7: I could understand a president or members of a board.
Speaker 7: Anyone being locked in would be upset because it is
Speaker 7: resisting authority, and it makes it difficult to carry on
Speaker 7: a conversation, to really listen to each other and to
Speaker 7: say is there a path forward that we could do
Speaker 7: together to address the concern that you have. As I
Speaker 7: listened to the story of the lock in at Morehouse,
Speaker 7: I kind of admire both sides for that story. I
Speaker 7: mean Morehouses, I mean it was the leading HBCU. It
Speaker 7: is a terrific university and proud of its tradition of
Speaker 7: leadership moral leadership. At the same time, they were training
Speaker 7: more House men to be men, to stand up for
Speaker 7: you know, values, and to speak out. And so I
Speaker 7: think in some respects the lock in may have been
Speaker 7: a quintessential expression of protest in a Morehouse fashion.
Speaker 5: Here's more from doctor Lomax, president and CEO of the
Speaker 5: United Ingo College Fund and former president of Duluk University,
Speaker 5: Doctor Lomax, If you're in charge doing that lock in
Speaker 5: sixty eight or sixty nine, do you expel those students?
Speaker 5: I mean, don't.
Speaker 6: I don't want to say in one sense, I don't
Speaker 6: want to say. Guest Hugh Gloucester, he handed me my degree. Yeah,
Speaker 6: because I was in the first graduated class and I knew.
Speaker 2: Doctor Gloucester very well.
Speaker 5: Yeah. What kind of man was he?
Speaker 6: Well, he was a more rigid.
Speaker 2: He kept telling me to shave my beard so I
Speaker 2: would play you.
Speaker 6: You know, I was called in weeks a week before
Speaker 6: graduation by the dean of the college, a guy named
Speaker 6: Brailsford Brazil, who had been given the authority to do this,
Speaker 6: I'm sure, by Hugh Gloucester. And doctor Brazil said, uh,
Speaker 6: you know you're going to graduate. We can't stop you,
Speaker 6: but you need to shave that beard off because you
Speaker 6: look like a goriller. And you know I love doctor Brazil,
Speaker 6: And I said, you know, but you know I was
Speaker 6: graduating second in the class Phi Beta Kappa, and I.
Speaker 7: Said, well, you know what, I guess I've just got
Speaker 7: to look like a gorilla.
Speaker 6: The things that they thought were important in my life
Speaker 6: how I appeared had nothing to do with who I was,
Speaker 6: So I know I would say if doctor Gloucester had
Speaker 6: asked me, i'd have said I definitely would not have
Speaker 6: expelled them. When I had a student graduated the year
Speaker 6: that I had John Lewis as the speaker, and we
Speaker 6: gave honorary degrees to him and to Julian Bond. And
Speaker 6: we had a policy at at Dillard you could march
Speaker 6: even if you hadn't completed everything, if you had something
Speaker 6: left to complete. And there was one student, a young
Speaker 6: woman whom I knew well, and she was allowed to march.
Speaker 6: And she was so mad at me that she wasn't
Speaker 6: going to get the degree yet. She's had jand something
Speaker 6: to finish. And when she got up to there, she
Speaker 6: took her robe off and threw it at me.
Speaker 1: I was a little bit surprised. But what was the reaction.
Speaker 6: Well, we didn't expel her. We didn't say she could
Speaker 6: never get her degree. We just required her to take
Speaker 6: a course in anger management before she I haven't seen
Speaker 6: that young lady since, but she now a dinograt and
Speaker 6: she got her degree.
Speaker 5: She to anger imagine maclass.
Speaker 1: That was a requirement.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to the A building. More with our conversation
Speaker 5: with doctor Lomex.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, then, what do you think about
Speaker 1: the jeers that did? I watch several clips of these jeers.
Speaker 5: Hans is talking about the commission address for President Claire
Speaker 5: Shipman at Columbia.
Speaker 13: We firmly believe that our international students have the same
Speaker 13: rights to freedom and speech as everyone else's market are
Speaker 13: playing the government for exercising that right.
Speaker 1: I watched the facial expression of the President and it
Speaker 1: felt at some point that she was either surprised or
Speaker 1: disappointment at the length of the.
Speaker 6: Jeers with those presidents is what do you expect? I mean,
Speaker 6: what do you expect? You don't know the students, you
Speaker 6: don't engage with the students. And I'm going to just
Speaker 6: say this about what I saw happening on those campuses
Speaker 6: from October eighth on. I went to Columbia academic year
Speaker 6: in nineteen sixty eight sixty nine, the year after their lockup.
Speaker 6: It was a highly politicized environment. People from varying points
Speaker 6: of view were speaking on all the occasions, but no
Speaker 6: one No one stopped you from being able to go
Speaker 6: to class. No one said you were an illegitimate member
Speaker 6: of that community. All that happened within the gates of
Speaker 6: Columbia University. It was a very tempestuous time, but it
Speaker 6: was never a physically threatening time. What I saw happening
Speaker 6: on that campus after October seventh was like a repeat
Speaker 6: of what I had seen happening at University of Georgia,
Speaker 6: when Charlene Hunter Galt and Hamilton Homes were admitted, when
Speaker 6: the University of Mississippi was integrated, those when black children
Speaker 6: were admitted to the public schools of a little Rock, Arkansas.
Speaker 6: Those students were threatened, they were vilified, they were disrespect
Speaker 6: they were put in harm's way. And I watched on
Speaker 6: the University on Columbia University's campus, on UCLA's campus, disagreement
Speaker 6: turning into violence and hatred and disrespecting the rights the
Speaker 6: beliefs of others, and with respect to Jewish students, treating
Speaker 6: all Jews as the enemy. I mean, I said to myself,
Speaker 6: what has happened to this great university? So I would
Speaker 6: say that the earned authority of the presidents of some
Speaker 6: of those campuses, they haven't earned the right to lead,
Speaker 6: and they got a lot of work to do to
Speaker 6: determine how to earn that right once again. And I
Speaker 6: think that's been a great harm to those institutions. And
Speaker 6: I think you just compare that with what has happened
Speaker 6: on HBCU campuses, where students may have disagreed, but where
Speaker 6: it's their education and the community in which they've received it,
Speaker 6: which they are respecting as they participate in this great
Speaker 6: ritual of transition for them. You know, oftentimes HBCUs are
Speaker 6: not viewed as leaders as institutions which demonstrate what higher
Speaker 6: education should become. I think that they have demonstrated that
Speaker 6: we have embraced diversity and disagreement and discourse and still
Speaker 6: found a way to create community. And I hope that
Speaker 6: we won't forget that. I hope that we will work
Speaker 6: hard for that. I celebrate the presidents who have been
Speaker 6: very intentional about imbuing the institution. Doctor Gloucester was a
Speaker 6: very important president Morehouse. He created the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Speaker 6: But on the issue of agreement versus disagreement, he may
Speaker 6: have made a mistake, but that was a mistake in
Speaker 6: the course of a very important leadership journey he was on.
Speaker 6: I disagreed with him about my beard, and I disagree
Speaker 6: with it, the characterization that I look like a gorilla.
Speaker 6: You know, I look pretty cool.
Speaker 2: I will say this.
Speaker 6: Always embraced me, always celebrated my achievements, and never allowed
Speaker 6: how I looked or what I thought to diminish the
Speaker 6: respect that I received. And I think we have to
Speaker 6: learn to do that. And I believe that we've learned
Speaker 6: to do that at HBCUs. We have to continue to
Speaker 6: cultivate that and we have to share that with the world.
Speaker 6: That is one of our gifts to American higher education.
Speaker 6: But there's a dark side to the world of HBCUs.
Speaker 6: These schools face historical and systematic headwinds to growth. Al
Speaker 6: rule of twenty twenty one, the State of Maryland announced
Speaker 6: through state Attorney General's office it had reached a five
Speaker 6: hundred and seventy seven million dollars settlement. The funds would
Speaker 6: be divided between its four HBCUs Alcorn State, Bowie State,
Speaker 6: Morgan State, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Speaker 5: Quote.
Speaker 12: The lawsuit accused Maryland of underfunding these institutions while developing
Speaker 12: programs at traditionally white schools that directly compete with them,
Speaker 12: draining away prospective students. In twenty thirteen, a federal judge
Speaker 12: ruled that the state maintained a dual and segregated education
Speaker 12: system that violated the Constitution end quote.
Speaker 5: In September of twenty thirteen, the US Secretary of Education
Speaker 5: and US Secretary of Agriculture sent letters to sixteen governors
Speaker 5: across the country serving their disparity in funding between laggrad
Speaker 5: HBCUs and their mind HBCU Land grand peers. These disparities
Speaker 5: affect schools like Tennessee State University, which in September of
Speaker 5: twenty twenty four support to be underfunded by the state
Speaker 5: by as much as two billion dollars. GCU is reportedly
Speaker 5: in a budget shortfall over forty million dollars. Such a
Speaker 5: severe money crunch affects the acron inequality of life of
Speaker 5: current and former students. One of the most defining aspects
Speaker 5: of HBCUs in the twenty twenties has been the significant
Speaker 5: increase in funding from both government and private sectors. The
Speaker 5: Biden administration made historic investments in HBCUs, including billions of
Speaker 5: dollars allocated through pandemic belief packages, student deck forgiveness initiatives,
Speaker 5: and increased peil grant funding. Additionally, private corporations that philanthropists
Speaker 5: recognize the importance of supporting HBCUs companies like Apple, Google,
Speaker 5: and Netflix, pledged millions to support HBCU endowments, scholarships, and
Speaker 5: research initiatives. Notably, Mackenzie Scott formerly m Kidney Scott Bezos,
Speaker 5: a philanthropist, donated hundreds of millions of dollars to multiple
Speaker 5: HBCUs on unprecedented act that provided much needed financial support
Speaker 5: to those institutions.
Speaker 1: While students at HBCUs feel the financial pressure at their
Speaker 1: respective schools. In twenty twenty three, the Supreme Court reversed
Speaker 1: a long standing affirmative action ruling, gutting race based admission considerations.
Speaker 1: During the unrests of the pandemic, black students and students
Speaker 1: of color documented and protested their struggles with equal treatment
Speaker 1: at predominantly white institutions.
Speaker 5: In the fall of twenty twenty one, a protest erupted
Speaker 5: on the campus of Howard University. The situation was more
Speaker 5: complex because the president, doctor Wayne Frederick, not only held
Speaker 5: three degrees from Howard University, but was relatively young in
Speaker 5: his late forties.
Speaker 1: The students were protesting housing conditions on campus. Things took
Speaker 1: a turn when students pitched tents on campus. The visuals
Speaker 1: embarrassed the university not sit in.
Speaker 14: At Howard University, about a dozen demonstrators are still occupying
Speaker 14: Blackburn Universeverity Center. The students are demanding representation on the
Speaker 14: university's board of trustees. They're also calling for action to
Speaker 14: address living conditions in student dorms.
Speaker 15: So, students, I've been facing a lot of issues on campus,
Speaker 15: everything from housing to tuition increases to safety issues on campus,
Speaker 15: and we feel as though administration is not listening to us.
Speaker 5: Back in nineteen sixty nine, HBCU students were experiencing some
Speaker 5: of the same issues. We spoke to doctor Alvita King,
Speaker 5: niece to Martin Luther King Junior and granddaughter to Daddy King.
Speaker 5: Who better to give us perspective on the climate of
Speaker 5: Atlanta at the time and the thinking of both men.
Speaker 1: When is the first time you heard the story of
Speaker 1: the lockout?
Speaker 5: Actually, during the time that it happened, I didn't know.
Speaker 5: Samuel L.
Speaker 11: Jackson became a famous actor and all that and a
Speaker 11: big voice that everybody listens to. But back in those days,
Speaker 11: I heard about it, but I was on a different
Speaker 11: front of protests, you see. I wasn't Black power all
Speaker 11: of this. I tried to do that, but my daddy
Speaker 11: before he was killed. Dad was killed the next year
Speaker 11: A d King, Martin's brother was killed and throwing the
Speaker 11: swimming pool no water in his lungs. But until Daddy died,
Speaker 11: he made sure that I didn't join the Black power
Speaker 11: black only he said, you really can't do that. So
Speaker 11: I was in a different movement, but I was there
Speaker 11: at the same time, so I heard about it.
Speaker 5: Do you recall, as you all called in Daddy King's
Speaker 5: reaction to that locking or his reaction to being essentially
Speaker 5: held hostage in that way.
Speaker 11: You know, he was like these young folks, That's what
Speaker 11: he would have said, you know, his own son. He
Speaker 11: didn't agree with all my uncle and Daddy's tactics. He
Speaker 11: would ask them to come back off, to not be
Speaker 11: so forceful with that. This were too dangerous. There's got
Speaker 11: to be a better way. That was Granddaddy's perspective. So
Speaker 11: he would have had to have looked at it. What
Speaker 11: was he in his forties then, maybe fifties alm, But
Speaker 11: he would have had to say, these are the young folks.
Speaker 11: He would never have discredited their concerns, He never would,
Speaker 11: but he may not have agreed with their method.
Speaker 5: In our question to deep in this event, the first
Speaker 5: person we found who was willing to speak about the
Speaker 5: lock in and was actually participant was James Counts Early,
Speaker 5: a cultural educator in Morehouse alone class of sixty nine.
Speaker 5: Here's what he had to say, starting with Benjamin Mays.
Speaker 6: The only real image I have of him is the
Speaker 6: quiet doctor Mace when we took over the administration building and.
Speaker 5: He was sitting there.
Speaker 2: He sat basically quiet.
Speaker 4: I don't remember him saying anything in the whole meeting,
Speaker 4: at least those parts of the meeting that I was
Speaker 4: engaged in.
Speaker 2: He was a stately looking man. He was quiet. Gloucester
Speaker 2: was really on the pin head of consideration.
Speaker 4: That was for the sort of clash with executive authority
Speaker 4: at Morehouse. But I don't have any larger I never
Speaker 4: read doctor.
Speaker 5: Mays, you know.
Speaker 4: I knew he was a highly touted and highly respected figure,
Speaker 4: and I accepted that there was a historical reasons for that,
Speaker 4: but it was never He was never a point of
Speaker 4: reference for me. So I don't have any more familiar
Speaker 4: kinds of intersections with him.
Speaker 5: James, tell us a little bit about the institution of
Speaker 5: the Black World, and to follow up on that, a
Speaker 5: little bit about the man who, from your perspective, led
Speaker 5: the lock in.
Speaker 6: Abdullah Calamonde INSWO the Black World is a major catalyst
Speaker 6: for the Black Studies movement.
Speaker 4: They organized major conferences. Abdullah Klimite is still one of
Speaker 4: the principles and the evolution and ongoing issues and new
Speaker 4: generations of people who were doing black studies.
Speaker 16: That was a sign of a changing moment, a major
Speaker 16: sign of a changing moment, because he was connected to
Speaker 16: doctor King, Missus King, to all of those upper class,
Speaker 16: middle class people in Atlanta who were fighting vigorously to
Speaker 16: break American apartheid, a metaphor we now use in hindsight
Speaker 16: to break American segregation.
Speaker 6: Another key figure here was a Spellman student, doctor Bernie
Speaker 6: Johnson Reagan. She had gone to college at sixteen.
Speaker 2: Was its spell from Albany State.
Speaker 6: Because she organized a protest against white man trying to
Speaker 6: pick up black students, and the black community was very unsettled.
Speaker 2: I mean, we must try to think about this. This
Speaker 2: was a day. This was an era of terror. It
Speaker 2: was not a terminenty.
Speaker 4: This was an era of terrorism, of lynchings, of rape,
Speaker 4: of impunity in which black people would move off the
Speaker 4: sidewalk when white people were coming.
Speaker 2: You didn't look him in the eye.
Speaker 6: And my generation, I'm now almost seventy nine years old,
Speaker 6: but you know, as an eighteen year old while I
Speaker 6: live that, I'm.
Speaker 2: Not sure we didn't understand the cavity of that.
Speaker 6: Sure, and So the integrationist move was to find an equality,
Speaker 6: which is to be positively acknowledged.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 6: Now we critique it as you know King, and as
Speaker 6: before he died Harry Belafonte, with whom I became very
Speaker 6: close to, we used to say how King would say,
Speaker 6: you know, I think we're integrating a burning house.
Speaker 2: But that was an evolution in King's thinking as he
Speaker 2: was as he was about it.
Speaker 1: You're attracted to this particular professor. You hear about this
Speaker 1: particular course of this book that somebody shared that, you know,
Speaker 1: the way people would talk around in dorm rooms and spaces,
Speaker 1: and this is perculating, right.
Speaker 2: And plus King has been killed. Yes, so this is
Speaker 2: a globe.
Speaker 6: This is an Atlanta shock, it's a Moorhouse shock, it's
Speaker 6: a national shock, it's.
Speaker 2: A global shock.
Speaker 6: The whole society was unsettled, The whole liberal society was
Speaker 6: unsettled because King was not just an individualized black figure.
Speaker 6: He was a contextual figure of massive change.
Speaker 5: American history lives in the echoes of education. These echoes
Speaker 5: speak to the fights of the past and the promise
Speaker 5: of the future. Education provides stability in the potential of economics, prosperity,
Speaker 5: Is that enough? Next time on the A Building.
Speaker 2: I climbed the tree into the second floor because the
Speaker 2: doors have been locked.
Speaker 5: I go in.
Speaker 2: I'm in the hallway.
Speaker 1: The hallway is packed.
Speaker 6: Abdu La kale Made and a few other students were
Speaker 6: inside the conference room with the board.
Speaker 1: And I go in the room. The A Building is
Speaker 1: produced by Imagine Audio for iHeart Podcasts. It is written
Speaker 1: and hosted by me Hans Charles and my co host
Speaker 1: menelike La Mumba.
Speaker 5: It is executive produced by Karl Wa Poker and Nathan
Speaker 5: Klok me manelik Wamomba and Hans Charles.
Speaker 1: Executive producers at iHeart Podcasts are Katrina Norville and Nikki Torre.
Speaker 1: Marketing lead is David Wasserman.
Speaker 5: It is produced, directed, and edited by Timothy Fernara with
Speaker 5: producer John Asanti, Sound design and music by Alloy Trex.
Speaker 1: And special thanks to April Ryan, Doctor, Elia Davis, Kim
Speaker 1: vs Ada, Bobby Know and James Early. If you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode, be sure to rate and review The A
Speaker 1: Building on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast