Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

conferees attempted to eject white
faculty members . One observer said
the selection of who was `black'
enough got a little ridiculous . A
black former Howard student who
came on his own said he was put
out because he happened to work
for a white newspaper. He said
there was a dude, a holder of a
black belt in karate, at the door to
Cramton Auditorium threatening to
hurt him if he was caught inside .
"The dude had a list of folks he
was going to chop up," the former
student said .
The local media reacted with anger.
White Americans perhaps
more than any other people on
earth get really disturbed when
they are discriminated against . Radio
station WWDC broadcast an
editorial which started off by saying:
"Officially approved discrimination
is) supposed to be a thing
of the past." And ended up with :
"Howard University, chartered by
Congress, supported in large by
public money, has ro right to permit
discrimination on its campus
(emphasis added) ."
The administration was in a dilemma
. It was caught between
white money and black students . A
spokesman for the University said
the administration did nothing . Organizers
of the conference said the
University closed certain facilities
to the conference, forcing it to hold
most of it's last workshops in the
gym . Several outsiders said, at the
end, that there were so few people
remaining that all the workshops
NEGRO DIGEST Morc6 1969
could fit into the gym . Perhaps all
of the reports are partially correct,
or perhaps none of them are .
Some participants complained
that the conference did not get
much support from the community
. This may have been because
the conference was not well advertised
in Washington . By barring the
Washington press-which, though
overwhelmingly white-owned, is
nonetheless the least segregated
and the fairest of any large city
press establishment in the country
-the organizers assured that very
little news would come down from
Howard hill to the rest of Washington
.
But the conference survived ali
this . Mid-way through, a major reorganization
was necessary to keep
all the participants from attending
the workshops conducted by the
big names and neglecting the ones
where a lot of the bread and butter
work was being done .
A small group of hard working
students planned and made the
major decisions at the conference .
All of them I interviewed said there
were many things they would do
differently if they had it to do over
again, but all agreed it was a good
first step .
Joey Mit;.hell, a Howard junior,
who is in charge of reprinting the
official results of the conference,
rated it a success despite the bumpy
road it traveled . He has in hand 15
resolutions and about 75 papers
that deal not only with the Black
University's role but also with the
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