WEBVTT - The A Building: Unrest on Campus 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:05.760 Coming up on the A Building. 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.360 I saw somebody running toward the administration builder talking about 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:11.880 there with the lock in that happened to be of 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:13.000 Saram Jackson. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.280 Sent Tron died of a heroin overdose, with a lot 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.799 of my buddies in the house when it happened, and 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:19.640 Moreouse covered all of these things up. 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.720 The A Building, Episode four, Unrest on Campus. 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:43.519 In the heist, the take is always clear, money, jewelry, gold. 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.000 This may have gone too far, Sam, that's Daddy King. 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.640 We've locked in here and he's not doing too well. 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:52.160 There is no too far. 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:53.520 We're here. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:54.960 We need action. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:01:02.440 Now, everybody, please, you can't expect us to give in 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.360 to your demands by force. 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.760 Once the students had taken over the boardroom, tension ran high. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.480 Negotiations were falling apart. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.880 One of the board members fell, silence struck the boardroom, 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:21.360 reality sank in. The students were locked in with dick chains, 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.120 and one of the board members was having a medical emergency. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.399 That board member was Martin Luther King Senior. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:32.240 We'll go to this moment a little later, but for now, 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.800 let's flash forward to the twenty first century. Let's go 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.400 to a time of twenty four hour news and social media. 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:41.319 Let's go to Howard University. 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.520 Well, students who took over the Blackbird Center at Howard 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.480 University last week are still fighting for answers tonight. 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.000 Our university students sit in continues into day five today. 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.560 In twenty twenty one, some students begin to share photos 0:01:54.600 --> 0:02:00.279 of poorlythic conditions on campus, mold, rodents, and several other issues. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.880 That would create a campus wide firestorm that would make 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:05.240 international news. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.359 Do we understand that it is not a normal college 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:12.480 experience to be living with molds and having resperratory issues 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:17.960 and safety hazards in our living spaces? Stories with videos 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.079 like this one just an example of. 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.079 What students have been living in at Howard University. 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.080 There was a cracks pipe that had been there since 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.720 my mom went to school here and living in these dorms. 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.200 Howard holds a very unique position in higher education. Over 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.280 the years, Howard has been a major center for black 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:42.040 intellectual and cultural life, producing influential alumnis such as Thurgood Marshall, 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.720 the first Black Subpene Court justice, and Vice president Kamala Harris. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:52.480 The university has excelled in law, medicine, business, and the arts. 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.960 Contributing significantly to the civil rights movement and social justice. Today, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.320 it remains one of the most pristige this HBC used 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.920 in the US, maintaining a strong reputation for academic excellence 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.280 and leadership in diversity. 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.120 In the age of social media. The images went viral 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.360 and the students demanded improvements to their living conditions. These 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:20.280 protests were a sore spot for an institution very aware 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:21.760 of its public image. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.920 Unlike the student uprising at Moorhouse in nineteen sixty nine, 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.720 Howard was led by a young president, an alumni, a 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.480 leader aware of new technology and the waves of social media. 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.920 Wayne Frederick served Howard University as president from twenty fourteen 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.520 to twenty twenty three. His MS, NBA, and medical degree 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.400 were all earned at Howard. He knows the school inside 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.320 and out. At the time of these protests in twenty 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.320 twenty one, he was only forty nine years old. 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.600 Despite this, his initial reaction felt a little old school. 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.440 He released the statement in response to the sit in 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.040 protest at Blackburn Center on campus. 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:05.960 He writes, there may be areas where we agree to disagree. 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:11.240 That's the nature of a vibrant community. However, Howard university's 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.320 proud tradition of student protest has never been and can 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.919 never be invoked as a justification for tactics that harm 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.560 our students. The current occupation of the Armour J. Blackburn 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.080 Center is a departure from past norms. There is a 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.400 distinct difference between peaceful protest and freedom of expression and 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.479 the occupation of a university building that impedes operations and 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.240 access to essential services. 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.840 The students responded in kind to the president's letter. They 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.840 felt unheard or even worse chastised. Like the logne the 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.240 Moorhouse in nineteen sixty nine, the students at Howard needed 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:51.719 another way to draw attention. The students pitch tends outside 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.160 the dorms, a bold, visual and symbolic gesture. 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.559 So, as we said from the beginning, we're not leaving 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.119 until our for demands are met. There's no comprom They're easy. 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.760 You know, no school wants to be protested against. But 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:05.640 it's not like we're out here because we want hot 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.560 tubs in our dormitories. It's because we want double commisions. 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:10.520 We are going to be calling for the resignation of 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:11.679 Wayne Ai frederation. 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.560 These images would draw even more attention to the university. 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.800 President Frederick's attempt to keep the issues in house would backfire, 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.640 and this protest would grow into a national story. Similar 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.480 stories in the national media would travel about the lock 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.799 in at Moorhouse in nineteen sixty nine. A consistent word 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.120 would fill the headlines militant. 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:35.360 What else is there? 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.360 What else is there? Why are you talking like that? 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:39.719 We didn't do this? 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:45.400 They did this. Malcolm is dead, Martin is dead. 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:46.440 What are we doing? 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:48.640 What risk are we taking? 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:51.279 Think about the shoulders we stand on. 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:53.800 Listen, I understand all that. 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.360 Okay, we're talking about the trustees. We're talking about losing everything. 0:05:59.000 --> 0:05:59.960 You're about to graduate. 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:01.880 You ready to give up all that? 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:08.200 Listen to yourself, lose everything more than Malcolm, more than 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:08.800 doctor King. 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.719 What did they lose? What did their families lose? 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:14.760 Atlanta is going to. 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:15.560 Get left behind? 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.000 But the world, the world is going to keep moving 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:20.720 faster and faster. 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.359 Which side you want to be on, doctor King? Huh? 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.120 But you want to lock up his daddy. Here's doctor 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.560 Cornell West on the legacy of doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.840 Taken from a c SPAN interview with Khalil Gibrad Muhammad. 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.840 He's one of the great moments in the tradition of 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.320 a grand people who, in the face of terror and 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.400 trauma and stigma, was able to generate levels of love 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:50.119 and vision and unbelievable high quality service to the least 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.000 of these. He is a Christian minister first and foremost. 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:54.000 That is his calling. 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.560 You and I know that Brother Martin gets deodorized every January. 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:03.160 He gets sanitized and staillized every classified. Yeah, they said 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.320 to classify the old man with a smile, toys in 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.240 his bag, handing out gifts. Everybody got a smile on 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.560 their face. And the FBI is saying he's the most 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:14.240 dangerous man in America. 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.880 In the wake of m OK's assassination, this black leader 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.400 who's viewed by the FBI as the most dangerous man 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.880 in America. The More House students were planning their own response. 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.240 The more House board meets after the Spellman one. 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:29.480 We have to take that one over. 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:31.600 We'll lock them in and we won't let them out 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:33.320 until our demands are met. 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.360 I'll talk to Sam and the guys. They're down with it. 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:37.440 Sam is down. 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:39.880 Where is he He's coming. 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.040 He's getting the brothers together from Moe Brown. Why do 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:44.920 you ask no reason? 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.640 Welcome back to the A building. Here's former More House 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:00.000 alum and civil rights activist James Early on his own 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.160 experience of the Locke In and his relationship with Samuel L. 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:07.360 Jackson. So take us like this from your point of 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.240 view into the events of the of the lock in. 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.360 So first quick question, did you did you know or 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.400 do you know at that time? Did you know Sam 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:17.680 Jackson personally? 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:18.080 Oh? 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:22.040 Yeah, so yeah, Sam, Sam is I think a year 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:22.520 behind me. 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.080 Okay, this is a subjective read on my let me 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:26.360 let me Understroy that. 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.800 I haven't seen Sam probably in thirty years, but I'm 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.079 in touch with his major running buddy. So they were 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:42.000 a year behind me. He and Clark White, doctor Clark White. 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:43.920 Refa marijuana had hit. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:45.440 So you know we rather we were. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:50.200 We ran the streets trying to find REFA and and drinking. 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.920 Wine, hanging out on that corner. That's how I know Sam. 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:53.760 You know we were. 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:59.560 We were not thuggish, We were just not fully status quo. 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.840 His wife was actually trained as a youngster in the 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:09.240 arts by Brandis Johnson Wagan, And so I know Sam 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.439 from that context. After the takeover, I think during that 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:18.079 summer we hung out at the. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.640 Rat Brown Center. You were telling a story about cars, though, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:21.840 is there's something well. 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.200 Sam, let's see Clark White Grizznoid. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:28.160 He had a Volkswagen, as I remember, you know, we 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:32.400 could probably get ten twelve guys to a Volkswagen trying 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.960 to find that reefer, trying to pick up some spell 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.559 mcgirls to go to a house party. You know, some 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:42.800 guys were get together and rent an apartment, find mattresses, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.240 take rugs out of the cafeteria and put them on 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:52.760 the floor. No electricity running sometimes probably no running water. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.480 We would throw these house parties and whatnot. And so 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.400 I know Sam in that context. And so my only 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.559 engagement with him posts more has really been when he 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:04.760 hits me up maybe three or four times a year. 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:06.280 I do a lot on Facebook. 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.840 So he makes a note and he always refers to 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.040 me by my meddle name as Counts. So that's you know, 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:18.400 Sam went through a deep period of drugs and rehabilitation, 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:19.959 and I. 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.480 Suspect I don't know this that you know. 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:27.160 Part of the rehabilitation process is I understand it from drugs, 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.280 is you don't really want to engage with people you 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.680 used to do drugs with and Sam I think has 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.400 a he has a work addiction. You know this guy, 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.600 he is never not working, Yeah, always, I mean he 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.920 is never now And you say, wow, does he do that? 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.600 I mean he has something that that interior motive and 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:47.840 I think it's probably to fill his life. 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:49.560 So in that. 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:54.880 Period, then heroin hits, and fortunately the first time I 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.120 did it it was a dud. And fortunately the second 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.080 time I did it, I realized, Wow, this high is 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.920 something that is so exhilarating that I think I want 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.120 to go as fast as I can in the opposite direction. 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:14.120 So, you know, I was lucky because Centron. 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:15.520 Died of a heroin overdose with a lot of my 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.160 buddies in the house when it happened. Somebody took his 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.720 shoes and morehouse covered all of these things up, you know. 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.920 But again, these are indicators of a changing society and 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.320 more House as an institution, as a very Valian institution. 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:35.520 I don't any way want to undermine the significance. 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.440 And the products, but they were status quo oriented. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.520 So so tell us like how you first hear about 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.480 the lock in, how you end up in there, and 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:47.520 what happens when you get in there? 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.199 So I don't know. 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.439 Who mentioned it to me the evening before the takeover. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:56.960 I'm not even sure I knew that there was a 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.800 Board of trustees meeting. Somebody says, you know, there's a 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:02.680 meeting tonight and we're going to go to the board 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.199 and trust see tomorrow. I don't know how they framed it. 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.040 I don't think the word like we're going to go 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.360 take over was there. And the meeting was over at Spelman, 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.440 and I always made my evening rounds at Spelman. You know, 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:17.960 I had several dormitories I needed to visit. Then I 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:21.280 had my main squeeze that I needed to finally end up. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.160 So I went over to the meeting. I left the meeting, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.280 I know, probably after thirty minutes, and made my rounds. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.160 The next day I hear, you know, I'm not even 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.960 anticipating or looking forward to this. The next day I 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.760 hear me and they have taken old administration building and 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:39.240 locked the doors. 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:44.160 Another former more housealone, Aaron Stephen Brown, recalls how he 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:45.280 heard about the lock in. 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.760 All of a sudden one day, standing out on the 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:54.440 campus talking to doctor Whalem Wendle Whalem, I saw somebody 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.520 run by me, running toward the Administration building talking about 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.319 there at the lock in that happened to be a 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:04.280 Sam Jackson. He was running saying they were lucking in 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.200 people at the Administratives and building. Come on, come on. 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.880 And I had just gotten there shortly, so I wasn't 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.959 taking any chances of getting involved in something that might 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:18.439 have me kicked out before I got there. 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:18.680 Good. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.160 I watched as some people followed and they went down 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.520 to the Administration building and there was that lock in. 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:30.800 I did know though, that the senior doctor King was 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.080 one of those I was locked in and he wasn't 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:38.679 having it. He was telling them, you could do what 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.319 you want to, but you're not locking me in. And 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.920 they respected that because out of everybody else, they let 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:46.200 him go. 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:48.439 And now back to James Early. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:54.000 So my interior evolving self hits another level that I 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:54.800 had not planned. 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:55.160 The hit. 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.040 I wesht over, climbed up a tree on that south 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.520 side of the a build, that side that faces the library, 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.800 and there was a tree that ran right up the 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.160 side of the building. I climbed the tree into the 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.160 second floor because the doors had been locked. 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:11.720 I go in. I'm in the hallway. 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.040 The hallways packed Abdullah Khalai Matt and a few other 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.520 students were inside the conference room with the board. 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:26.240 And I go in the room. 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:27.800 Welcome back to the A building. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.480 Here's former More House alum and civil rights activist James Early. 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.360 And I go in the room and Abdullah is running 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.920 Adula Klai Mott, who is a great agitational artor who 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.520 knows a lot of global. 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:48.000 History and jazz music and all of that, and he. 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:49.320 Was really browbeating them. 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.680 I can't remember the particulars, but they were like, you know, 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.760 they were like shocked. I remember Daddy King saying, I 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:57.360 got to get out of here. I have a heart condition, 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.680 and so they ushered him right away. And I remember 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.720 doctor may is just sitting very very quietly. I remember Gloucester, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.040 you know, it had a just unsettling look on his face. 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.240 I mean it was it was like shocking to them. 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.560 And I'm trying to remember the Merrill Lynch guy. I 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.320 used to know his name. He was on the board. 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.440 He may have been chairman of the president of Merrill 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.160 Lynch at that time. The man James Early is referring 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.280 to here is Charles E. Merrill, co founder of Merrill Lynch. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.160 He was a big donor to Morehouse. 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.080 Judge Tuttle from the fifth District Court was was on 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.600 that board, Daddy King. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.320 So there was some real heavy hitters, oh, heavy heavy 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.280 hitters right right, and Abdull I. 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.520 Mean he was beating them to death with rhetoric, and 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.520 you can imagine it was just shocking. I mean, these 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.920 principles in the black community and their white alliances and 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.680 their donors, and no one had ever propped up in 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.520 seen anything like this. And you get then you got 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:03.040 these students out in the hallway. He's really bombarding this room. 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.320 And I remember that the guy from Merrill Lynch very 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.120 quietly at the end of the first day, I don't know, 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.480 around six thirty seven o'clock in the evening, he takes 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:14.680 off his suit jacket. He fows it up and puts 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:16.640 it under the conference table and then gets under the. 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.680 Table and then goes asleep. And the next morning it's 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:20.640 so surreal. 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.200 I know, it was you know again in the moment, 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:30.400 you know, I'm twenty one years old. 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.760 You know it was our hearts beating, all right, this. 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.880 Is kind of an open wound was happening. 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.560 And this contextual change going on in society, and I 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.000 think like a lot of young people are certainly trends 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:47.440 of young people. My anti establishment kind of sentiment. It 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.480 was not like any real formed ideology. It was that 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:52.280 I didn't fit. 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.480 But the next morning, this guy from Meryl gets up. 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.560 At some point he announces he would. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.600 Give ten thousand dollars for extudiast department when you went 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.880 in there, because you were a senior. 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:10.679 Correct. Yeah, so we're talking weeks away from graduation. So 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.240 are you thinking to yourself, Okay, what's the ramification? 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.280 Like, Am I gotta get in trouble for this? No? 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.359 No, no, because I think it was a crowd mentality. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.920 You know, we're caught up in the wow that they've 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.320 taken over the administration building and you know, some of 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.520 our pizza in there, so let me you know. And 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.600 you know, there were guys making long distance phone calls. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.879 So it was not a very disciplined organized grouping. On 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:43.880 that second day, some agreements were written up, I think 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:48.640 about black studies, and and then this term of exoneration. 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.240 There's another term. It says escaping me. Now I never 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.399 heard the term, so that had never they say that 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.160 they weren't going to punish you. 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:59.400 No, no, no, no, they didn't say anything. 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.639 It may have been Abdullah came up, Okay, wow, this 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:04.640 is going to be now. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:07.840 Our response to this a punitive response. 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.480 And so this term of impunity or whatever, I forget 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.720 the term we put into the written document. I think 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.720 I sent you a copy of my letter of my suspension. 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:21.040 Dear mister Early, as a result of your participation in 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.240 the lock in of members of the trustee boards of 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.520 Morehouse College and Atlanta University, along with representatives of the 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:32.199 Morehouse College Student Government Association on April eighteenth, nineteen nineteen 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.960 sixty nine, the Advisory Committee has taken the following action. 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:40.840 You are hereby suspended from Morehouse College effective May thirty, 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:45.000 nineteen sixty nine through May thirty, nineteen seventy. You will 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.199 not be eligible for graduation from Morehouse College until the 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.919 period of your suspension has expired. The members of the 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.560 Advisory Committee sincerely regret that the seriousness of your offense 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.000 made it necessary to take this action, and we trust 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.440 that this action will have a positive influence upon your 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:07.879 life and will help you build a better future. Sincerely, yours, 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:12.720 Edward B. William's, Chairman the Advisory Committee, and so. 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.560 The others may have letters, they will all say the 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:15.960 same thing. 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:17.679 I suspect we were brought. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.400 In for punitive evaluation, and I think we were brought 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:23.320 in in different groups. I don't remember who was in 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.280 there with me, but I do remember Sam William saying 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.120 something to the effect about me, you have to take 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:30.360 this guy kind of seriously. 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:31.399 He didn't elaborate. 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:34.080 I don't know if that was the saving grace of 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.560 that my degree was only suspended for a year, rather 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.600 than I don't know, taking a more drastic measure of 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.280 not conferring a degree on me. One other thing that 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.200 happened to me in the context of this directly tied 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:47.920 to the takeover. 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.480 My favorite teacher contacted me. 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:53.479 She says, I have been told that you have to 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:55.920 take a comprehensive exam. 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.280 I'd never heard of this. She was crying. Oh and 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:01.040 she she's. 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.120 A tiny, little serious Cuban scholar. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:10.399 She was she was torn, and so I went in 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:11.720 in a drug stupor. 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.040 And she gave me this comprehensive exam. It took like 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:16.320 three hours or so. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.680 As I recall, I was never told I needed I 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.359 would have to take a comprehensive exam. 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:21.800 And the way she called me. 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:23.320 It suggested that neither did she. 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.879 Know that, but somehow they had. Anyway, how'd you do 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:27.480 on the exam? 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.040 I probably didn't do very well on the exam, would 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:30.560 be my guest. 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:32.320 But I don't think it was I don't think it 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.840 was probably even a question of how that was to 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:36.720 be evaluated. 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:37.359 I think it was. 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.679 I suspect it was a kind of punitive, and I 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.280 think I probably told you all I can tell you 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.439 about what happened inside and what I'm aware of what 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:53.520 happened afterwards. I heard that students were banned, that letters 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.320 were sent out to Black College's banning students from transferring 0:20:57.720 --> 0:20:58.680 from transferring. 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:00.560 Yeah, yeah, And I don't know. 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.520 In the case of Sam, I think they went back 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:04.480 to Morehouse. 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.560 Maybe two years later. Years later, Yeah, he went back 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.919 to Morehouse. It was, And because what happened to the 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.439 students who were expelled was that they then had to 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.240 just reapply and they were admitted back to the institution. 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:20.080 So some it was a year, some it was two years. Yeah. 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:20.360 Yeah. 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:22.960 And because then I go off to the ends. 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.040 Of the Black World and and to that arena, and 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:31.280 then you know, off to Howard and I'm on another trajectory, 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.320 but that trajectory is of my personal and professional life 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.679 is tied directly to the takeover. And then Vincent Harding, 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.480