WEBVTT - The A Building: The Takeover 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:05.800 Coming up on the A Building. 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.440 We have broken the status what we've changed. So that's 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:12.640 one of the reasons why our wins, our protests have 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:17.000 created this atmosphere right now to take away our history, 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.720 to take away everything from us, because we've won too 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:20.720 much in their eyes. 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.640 I really hope that there's a future where we can 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.160 still address social ills together. 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:38.320 The A Building, Episode five, The Takeover. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.080 Benjamin Mays with the sixth president of Morehouse College. He 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.520 was born to two former slaves in South Carolina. He 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.320 graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in nineteen twenty 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.520 He came to Atlanta and became a Baptist minister. In 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.800 nineteen twenty two. He concluded a master's degree in New 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.760 Testament studies from the University of Chicago School of Religion 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.200 in nineteen twenty five. He became president of Morehouse. In 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.120 nineteen forty, at the turn of a new decade, Morehouse 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:20.319 found itself amid a morale problem. Black institutions in the 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.880 Atlanta area were progressing faster in faculty and curriculum. Between 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.640 nineteen thirty and nineteen forty, the faculty and Land University 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.920 increased by two hundred and twenty percent, and the faculty 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.479 at Spelman College increased by eighty percent. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.399 Most Morehouse classes were taught by Atlanta University and Spellman faculty. 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:44.240 Uncollected tuition and a small endowment hurt any chance at 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.000 expansion for Morehouse. At the beginning of his tenure as president, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:53.000 Mays devised elaborate fundraising campaigns for alumni to increase contributions. 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.640 He also installed programs to collect tuition arrears from students aggressively. 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.360 He earned the nickname bucke Beny around campus. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.960 During his twenty seven years as president, the land area 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.760 doubled from ten to twenty acres. He was able to 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.520 build five dormitories, a dining hall, a new academic building, 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.800 the Morehouse School of Religion and Music, student and faculty housing. 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.160 After his retirement, he became a President emeritus and a 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.239 member of the Morehouse Board of Trustees. He cast a 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.760 large shadow on the new president, Hugh Gloucester. Both men 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.359 found themselves locked in with students who were very unhappy 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.520 with the corslated Morehouse, and the frustration would go beyond 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:37.920 the norm of the corps expected of Morehouse men. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:42.760 The students expressed their frustration to doctor Mays. They liked them, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:48.040 they respected them, but they wanted more. Doctor King's assassination 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.000 had left a dark cloud on the entire campus, and 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.520 in this moment all decorum was gone. Here are doctor 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.440 Mays's contemporaneous notes of the locke In. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.839 This is April eighteenth, the day of the annual board 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.959 meeting of Morehouse College. I'm writing this article while being 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.200 held hostage, along with other trustees of Morehouse College, by 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.560 a group of students from several of the institutions that 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.000 make up the Atlanta University Center. Members of a committee 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.520 which met with the Morehouse board were four women from Spelman, 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.320 three from Morehouse, one from Clark, one from Morris Brown, 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:23.240 and a professor from Spelman College. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:24.000 At ten a m. 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.880 The Atlanta University Board adjourned and the Morehouse board meeting 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.280 was supposed to begin. It never got started. The committee 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.120 refused to leave the Morehouse board meeting and presented certain demands. 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.280 The teacher from Spelman obviously was in control of the group. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:40.920 I came to the meeting at nine thirty this morning. 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.360 It is now three thirty a m. April nineteen, and 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.640 we have been chained in for seventeen and a half hours. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.880 Mays wrote this letter from the walls of the board 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:53.680 his frustration with the methods, and added Toude of the 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.000 students was clear he would continue. 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.520 The group outside the room. In the hall numbers about 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.760 fifty or sixty and a morehouse professor. The doors are 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.200 locked and chained. I guess that students in the hall 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.920 are from several institutions in the Center. Some of them 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:10.800 are not students at all. At noon on the seventeenth, 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.600 a group of students came to the Atlanta University luncheon 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.479 and presented the trustees with a document for each to sign. 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.120 This document read, we the undersigned, resigned from the Board 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.640 of Trustees of the schools within the Atlanta University Center. 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.760 Our purpose in resigning is to enable the Black community 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.240 to control their own education, and toward this end, an 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.640 entirely new process of control must be established, and so 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.640 we step aside. This act will release us from all 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.480 responsibility and leave the schools in the hands of an 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.680 interim committee of alumni, faculty, and the students, to be 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.320 elected from their respective groups. Of course, no one signed. 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.080 Among the demands are the name of the Atlanta University 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.760 Center to be changed to the Martin Luther King Junior University, 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.120 black control of the colleges in the center, and that 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.679 the trustees support the idea of a single university merging 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.120 the six institutions. They mean by black control that the 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:07.520 majority of the trustees be black. They really wanted to 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.040 get rid of all white trustees. Doctor Martin Luther King Senior, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.080 a member of the more House Board, vigorously opposed changing 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.480 the name of the center to the Martin Luther King 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:17.480 Junior University. 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.080 No, no, my son's name, my name, it won't be 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:24.919 used for this, not like this. 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:26.919 This isn't the right way to go about this. And 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:27.760 y'all know that. 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.000 The Moorhouse Board did vote to include an additional nine 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.680 members on the board, all of home would be black. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.039 There was no meaning of the minds on the other demands. 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.479 So here we are locked in the boardroom of Harkness Hall. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.040 We will remain in prison for a total of twenty 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:44.039 eight and a half hours. Some of the group of 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.440 students are most insulting. They curse and use vulgar language. 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.120 If the methods and demands of this group are implemented, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.120 the black colleges will soon pass away. I have never 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.840 met a more insulting group in all my years. 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.920 Using maze Is the voice of these contentious negotiations was 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.400 a deliberate choice by the administration. He was certainly more 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:09.680 popular amongst the student population than the current president, Hugh Gloucester. Therefore, 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.320 his rebuke of the protest and the students spoke to 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.279 the uphill battle and the current morale on campus. Here's 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.960 more from our conversation with Professor Philosophy at Morehouse College, 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:22.360 doctor Elia Davis. 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.520 You all probably already read many of the nineteen sixty 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.320 nine Maroon Tigers. 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.320 Now, like the Maroon Tigers are are newspaper. 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:34.880 Yeah, they are replete with story of the story of rebellion. 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.479 It is a ma and I have several of them 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:42.520 that I downloaded. I mean, these brothers, they're calling each 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:44.960 other out in ways that I wish my students would today. 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.800 If you look at the articles from sixty nine, if 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.560 you read those articles, you will see they were merely 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.359 acting out what had been written about that whole year. 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.920 November twenty two, nineteen sixty eight, Harold mckelton, This year 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.640 our college needs a reawakening, and such a rebirth can 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:02.960 only come with e mergence of a new student force 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.960 of creative innovators. No one is beyond criticism, not the 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.280 establishment or we ourselves. The old order seldom stumbles on 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.600 its own accord. Power is either wrestled from their hands 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.640 through destructive revolution, or the creative socratic gas lies pester 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:23.760 their tails until the annoying bussing is finally acknowledged. December eighteenth, 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:28.320 nineteen sixty eight. W. Grayson Mitchell. Student power comes out 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.840 of conflict, not a polite exchange of opposing views. It 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.560 comes out of military light confrontation between collegiate and the 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:40.000 college administration. In keeping with patterns of conventional warfare. The 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.960 side exerting more force and wielding more pressure exits as 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.800 the gallant victor. The students overthrow the system and impose 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:53.400 self rule. April eighteenth, nineteen sixty nine, Carthur Drake, editor 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.120 of The Maroon Tiger. Too many times I've seen falsely 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.720 led people make false accusations against other peace people's character. 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:02.120 Too many times. 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.120 I've seen falsely led people make accusations against our black institutions. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:07.320 Too many times. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.680 I've seen falsely led people make unsupported claimed accusations against 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:12.560 Morehouse College. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:15.720 And so I think the Morehouse students picked all of 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.560 this up as my point. I think all of them 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:23.600 understood acutely that we want to be different, and this 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.000 is the funny day. It's not just about morehouse and 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.360 black schools either. It's a sentiment that I think was 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.120 ubiquitous across college campuses. And that is for those of 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.560 us who care. What is it that we can. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:36.320 Do to represent it? 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.800 How do we not find ourselves being guilty of the 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.600 elitism that a generation before us was guilty of. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.120 One member of the board found himself at the center 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:47.040 of the conversation. 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.440 Martin Luther King Senior, often referred to as Daddy King, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.720 was a taling figure in the American civil rights movement 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.640 and a steadfast leader in the Christian community. Born Michael 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:03.640 King on December eighteenth, eighteen ninety nine in Stottbridge, Georgia, 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.600 he later changed his name to Martin Luther King to 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.720 honor the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. His legacy is deeply 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.200 intertwined with that of his son, doctor Martin Luther King Junior, 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:16.719 but he was a significant leader in his own right, 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.120 shaping the moral and spiritual fabric of the time. 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.839 Not old preacher was right, You know what that old 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:30.040 pushers after lone, you heard my drim hit. 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.320 Long as I live and travel around, I'll hasten to 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:37.160 the throne. 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:38.560 He was right. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:40.560 Are you listening? 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.199 I love him, God loves I do. 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.480 In pursuit of higher education, he attended Dillard University in 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:54.240 New Orleans, Louisiana, before transferring to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Morehouse, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.760 with its strong reputation for producing African American leaders, played 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.920 a crucial role in jping king seniors theological. 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:03.680 And social perspectives. 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.719 At Morehouse, he was mentored by influential figures such as 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.240 doctor John Hope and doctor Benjamin Mays, both of whom 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:17.320 emphasized the importance of education, service, and advocacy in the 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:22.319 African American community. His time at Morehouse reinforced his commitment 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:27.640 to fighting racial injustice and uplifted his aspirations for ministry 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:28.960 and social change. 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.920 After completing his studies, King Senior became a minister and 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.040 took on a leadership role at the Ebenezer Baptist Church 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:40.240 in Atlanta. He married Alberta Williams, the daughter of Riven 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:44.520 Adam Daniel Williams, the church's senior pastor. Following his father 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.360 in law's passing, King Senior became the lead pastor of Ebenezer, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.280 a position he would hold for over four decades. His 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.720 passionate sermons an unwavering commitment to justice made him a 0:10:55.760 --> 0:11:00.680 respected figure in Atlanta's religious and civic communities. Throughout his ministry, 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:05.160 King Senior advocated for racial equality and cannely uplifting it. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.520 He was a firm believer in economic empowerment, voter rights, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:14.480 and educational access for African Americans. His leadership extended beyond 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.240 the poolpit, as he played an active role in the 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:23.199 NAACP and other organizations pushing for desegregation and equal rights. 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:30.040 In nineteen seventy four, his wife, Alberta, was killed inside 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:34.800 the Ebenezer Baptist Church during a service. He was the target. 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.400 His legacy as a man of faith and social activism 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.400 connects him to the great legacy of American resistance. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.480 Here's a moment we've previously heard from Alvida King, granddaughter 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:53.439 to Daddy King. Dude, do you recall, as you all 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.400 called in, Daddy King's reaction to that lock in, or 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.959 his reaction to being essentially held hostage in that way you. 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.280 Know he was like these young folks. That's what he 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.880 would have said, you know, his own son. He didn't 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.560 agree with all my uncle and Daddy's tactics. He would 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.320 ask them to come back off, to not be so 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.079 forceful with it. It was too dangerous. There's got to 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.680 be a better way. That was Granddaddy's perspective. So he 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:21.880 would have had to have looked at it to say, 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.400 these are the young folks. He would never have discredited 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:29.320 their concerns. He never would, but he may not have 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:30.640 agreed with their method. 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.920 No, but sir, here us out. We only need to know. 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.520 No, my son's name, my name, it won't be used 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.000 for this, not like this. 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:43.679 This isn't the right way to go about this. 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.000 And y'all know that we're prisoners in here and we're 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:49.000 supposed to listen to you. 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.040 This isn't what more House men would do. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.839 All due respect sir, but I think this is exactly 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:58.800 what a more House man would do. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:05.400 So, Sam Vivid, where does that leave us? 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.000 Welcome back to the A building. 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.440 The following is a timeline presented by the Morehouse College 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.840 Bulletin in the summer of nineteen sixty nine. 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:25.319 Three pm. April eighteen, several hundred More House students advanced 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.440 toward the administration building to liberate the trustees and the 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.000 SGA representatives, but are dissuaded because of possible injury to 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.760 themselves and students occupying the building. 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:42.360 Evening April eighteen, Doctor Gloucester submitted his resignation as president 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.040 of Morehouse College, effective on a day to be agreed 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.800 upon by the Board in himself, because he would not 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.600 participate in a meeting in which members of the Board 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.880 of Trustees are confined in this conference room by force 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.640 and are subjected to insult and intimidation. He said that 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.240 he would not sign any document or vote on any 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.120 motion presented in such a meeting, that he would not 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.760 be a party to concessions made under duress. 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.840 After reading his letter to the board, Doctor Gloster went 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.960 on the balcony and read it to Morehouse students, who 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.800 once more were dissuaded from entering the building by force. 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.320 At the request of President Gloucester, Jared Manly and four 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.320 other Morehouse board members were freed from the locke in 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:28.320 because of age and or illness. Morning April nineteenth, several 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.840 hundred Morehouse students again advanced towards the Administration building to 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.400 liberate the trustees and their SGA representatives, but their SGA 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.160 president advised them to refrain from entering the building in 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:46.360 order to avoid violence. Doctor Mays and doctor Gloucester agreed 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:50.000 to go outside the building to discourage students from entering 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:55.480 by force. Four pm April nineteen, under duress, six of 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.920 the nine board members present vote to approve the following concessions. 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:05.160 The addition of nine black trustees, including students and faculty members, 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:09.120 and the limitation of all trustees to not more than 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:10.680 two successive. 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:11.680 Terms in office. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.960 The endorsement of the idea of the consolidation of the 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:20.000 six institutions in the Atlanta University Center and of recommending 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:24.320 this idea to boards of other Center schools. The granting 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.360 of amisted at Morehouse students participating in the locke in. 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.960 The lock in was terminated and both trustees and the 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:36.400 SGA representatives were freed. During the lock in, students not 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.160 only seized and occupied the administration building and attained and 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:45.080 imprisoned the trustees and Student Government Association representatives, but also 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.680 broke into and occupied the office of the President, damaged 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:54.440 school property, placed unauthorized long distance phone calls and made 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.320 unauthorized use of the school supplies. During a meeting with 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:02.600 the trustees in sale Hall Chatter, the student body overwhelmingly 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.520 floated to reject the resignation of doctor Gloucester and the 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.440 concessions made by board members to their captors. 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.960 On May sixth, the Faculty of Morehouse Will released the 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:17.000 following mimo to the Board. 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.560 To the Board of Trustees of Morehouse College from the 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.360 Faculty of Morehouse College, subject lock in of Trustees and 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.720 SGA representatives on April eighteen and nineteen, We the Faculty 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:31.520 of Morehouse College, do hereby disapprove, deplore and condemn the humiliations, 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.640 insults in terror tactics committed by certain students and teachers 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.720 on April eighteen and nineteen. We further resent the implicit 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.800 and explicit racist overtones and the activities of the aforesaid 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.400 group on the above dates. We affirm our support of 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.920 the attached Statement of Student Rights and Freedoms which was 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.480 adopted by the faculty on February sixth, nineteen sixty nine. 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.480 Since the Board of Trustees has nullified the concessions made 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.360 under dress on April nineteen, we are assuming that our 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.480 Faculty Student Advisory Committee, the duly established judiciary body at 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.560 Morehouse College, may proceed to take any disciplinary action which 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.200 it deems necessary and proper. The above statement was adopted 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.680 by the faculty during its regular student meeting on May sixth, 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.920 nineteen sixty nine, for transmittal to the Board of Trustees. 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.040 Samuel W. Williams, Secretary of the Faculty. 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.399 We spoke with reporter Arthur and white House, correspondent for 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.080 the GRIL, April Ryan about her alma mater, Morga State 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.359 University and protests as a means for change. There. 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:38.879 There's something familiar about an HBC. It's family, it's home. 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.480 What was campus activism like at the time, Oh my god. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.520 People were sick of the food, they were sick of tuition. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:52.080 At Morgan, we are part of the community. We don't 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.359 have barriers. You can walk on campus. Anyone is allowed 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.760 on campus, and unfortunately some of those elements from the 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.840 outside bleed into the campus. They have and so at 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.479 the time, I remember the students were upset because they 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:08.400 felt like it wasn't safe. And we've had these problems 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.800 for years. But there's more of a concerted effort now. 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.760 I mean And here's the thing, because of some of 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.639 those protests, we now have a police station literally right 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.640 next to the basically on some of the campus grounds, 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.840 just carved out, you know, a Baltimore City police station 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:29.639 right there. You know, it's never risen to a point 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:34.480 where we just shut the school down, but we've always 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.879 had faculty and staff that listened, and that's always been 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.560 the case. They did take over Truth Hall at one time. 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.399 That was after I got out of school. We also 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.359 Morgan is also historic because it was right around the 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:52.640 corner from this place called Northwood Northwood shopping Center, and 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.399 Northwood built a wall behind the shopping center so we 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:00.200 couldn't get in. But now the school owns that shot 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:06.520 center and they've taken the wall down. Morgan has been 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.520 a part of so much history. They sat in at 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.400 Northwood at some of those lunch counters in the sixties 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.000 when people were sitting in. Morgan is a small part 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.879 of the broader protesting of the sixties. You cannot be 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.480 black and be a black institution and not feel the 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:29.480 brunt of the broader society. And each time from Reagan 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:35.560 when Reagan was president, I was a student and I 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.760 see this Martin Luther King Day celebration. And guess who 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:45.040 happened to be there? Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks, the mother 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.280 of the civil rights movement, was sitting there at this 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.880 Martin Luther King celebration during the Reagan years, right Stevie 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.000 Wonder saying, and this was just a few years out 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.160 of us getting the national holiday. The place was on 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.359 such a high, it was the most amazing moment ever. 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.200 Our institutions are places that teach us to break the 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:11.119 status quo, just like Harvard and Yale and Georgetown and Princeton. 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:15.040 But we're taught it differently. You know, they were taught 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:17.520 and probably still are, that they were going to be 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.800 the ones to lead the country. But guess what HBCUs 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.320 have taught us that we break the status quo. We 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.960 have broken the status quote. You had a Vice President 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:26.680 of the United States. 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:27.439 It's an HBC. 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.480 You are. You have one of the most powerful men 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:36.119 in Washington, Collageman James Clyburn is an HBC. Youre Cedric Richmond, 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.520 who had the ear of the President of the United States, 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.560 was an HBC. Europ You know April Ryan, the longest 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.800 serving Black White House correspondent in the nation's history is 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.040 a proud hbc ere. We have broken the status quot 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.160 We've changed, and that's one of the reasons why our wins, 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:57.400 our protests have created this atmosphere right now to take 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.000 away our history, to take away everything from us, because 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.600 we've won too much. In their eyes, we've gained too much. 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.160 Why do you think they're going after anti woken, anti 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:11.840 dei I woke miss back in the sixties, I woke. 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.280 This now creates change, it effectuates change. 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.840 And now here's more from Mentalex conversation with Emmy Award 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.960 winning documentary filmmaker Mike Schumm on the complications of protests 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.000 today in the world of social media and the risk 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.639 to those who protest. 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:32.680 And so now you can literally now literally control what 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:34.120 you see. 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:35.560 Yeah, that's why. 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:39.240 People were shocked when Trump won the first time, because 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.040 it was like, hold on what the people that actually 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.600 voted for Democrat but it's like, yeah, because they literally 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:48.359 didn't see here read engage anything that wasn't outside of 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:53.000 their political purview, right right, Like that's that's fascinating that 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:58.680 it's creating like this intellectual isolation. That's that's actually anathetical 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.880 to anything when it comes to like this basic interaction, right, 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.720 like what was supposed to be a tool to truly 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.760 enhance our human connectivity. 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.640 Absolutely, I think it's the reverse, the reverse, and that 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.639 is that part is fascinating, you know, and that and 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:21.320 that's the thing that scares me. I'll say, I'm afraid 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:26.480 of how protests or what the future holds in. 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:33.280 The way of coming together and mobilizing. I don't know how. 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:36.160 I don't know the future of that because I see 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:41.000 a lot of consequence that is the loudest one on 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:46.639 social media is dictating the narrative of of of of 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:51.000 of protest or dictating the role of disrupting the way 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:55.240 people are thinking. I think we've created the conditions and 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.480 isolating conditions for us to not work together. I think, 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:04.080 uh that our identities tagged to this sort of virtual perspective. 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:06.680 That's really concerning, and. 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:08.800 I don't quite I don't quite know how to think 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:14.520 about it clearly. But I hope still that maybe if 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:18.040 it's not social media a reminder on some level that 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:21.280 we can stay connected and humanized moving forward. 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:23.240 I don't know. Yeah, I'm struggled about this. 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:25.600 That's a rough one, because then you have to say Okay, 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.840 what is the future of resistance in that in that context, 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:33.120 if you can't even really agree on what's what right right? 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:37.199 I think that's the part where we've relegated ourselves so 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:41.399 closely to how we appear in this virtual space that 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:46.400 I really hope that there's a future where we can 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:51.600 still recognize each other as human beings struggling to address 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.480 social ills together. I think there's something there, and I 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:58.000 feel like we've lost a bit of that spirit of 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.040 coming together. I think the more we lean into social media, 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:05.800 I think I think we create more barriers for ourselves 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:10.080 and hence not as effective resistance towards unchecked power. 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:13.439 Yeah. It's almost as if you get to clock in 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:17.200 and hey, see, look I did my resisting on Twitter already, 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:17.840 so I'm good. 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:20.199