Black Student Life at Harvard

When the Harvard Glee Club performed on television in Birmingham, Ala., as part of their 1961 spring break tour of the South, one Black singer was asked not to sing with the group because of bomb threats.

The singer, a third-year student at the Divinity School named Archie C. Epps III, agreed to sit out but insisted the Glee Club adopt a policy of performing only where all its members are welcome.

Epps, now in his 22nd year as the College's dean of students, says much has changed for Black students at Harvard since he first came to Cambridge in 1958.

"Because the Black group has grown, it has become more diverse and there are more varieties of Black experiences at Harvard," Epps says. "One is less noticed because of your race."

Since the first Black student graduated from the College in 1870, the undergraduate Black student population has grown sporadically, numerous clubs primarily for Black students have been formed, and a full department is devoted to Afro-American studies.

Despite this progress, students of both the past and present say a subtle racist attitude pervades the Harvard campus leaving many Black students feeling like, in the words of one student, "second-class citizens."

Frank S. Jones '50 says he only recently has been able to confront the racist attitudes--both subtle and overt--that he faced as one of only three or four Black students in his class.

"I wore blinders," says Jones, who in 1989 took a sabbatical from his post as a professor of urban affairs at MIT to teach at the Morehouse College, a historically Black university. "It's only now that I've taken the blinders off."

Jones recalls one incident from his undergraduate days he thinks was an example of racism. While waiting in line at the Union one day, a server singled Jones out of a rowdy, mostly white line of students and said accusingly, "What is wrong with you?"

"I wasn't making any more noise than anyone else," says Jones. Now, more than 40 years later, Jones says he wishes he had asked, "Is it my blackness that causes you to single me out?"

But Black undergraduates interviewed last week said they have not experienced overt incidents of racism. Still, some say racism persists.

When Donald D. Lewis '95 was walking alone at night from Quincy House to Mather House last year, he says Harvard police officers asked him to stop and empty his pockets.

Lewis says that although he suspects the police officers' actions were racially motivated, he filed no formal complaint. "You can put up a fight and protest," Lewis says, "but you can't do anything to change their nature."

Ignorance, not intention, fuels most facially biased actions, agrees Ahmed A. Yearwood '95. "Most cases involving race issues do not involve someone carrying a KKK flag and wearing a hood over their head," he says. "They simply don't know what they're saying."

Despite these perceived racist attitudes. Black students at Harvard advanced to the upper echelons of campus organizations even when their numbers were few.

William S. Timmons '52 was elected the first--and only--Black president of The Crimson. Aryee Quah (George) Armah '63 led students in forming the Association of African and Afro-American Students (AAAAS), a forerunner of today's Black Students Association (BSA). Jones became the first Black head manager of the football team in the late '40s.

Today Black students remain successful in extracurricular organizations.

As one of the few Black prefects in the Prefect Program and the only Black member of Citystep's steering committee, Allison S. Bryant '94 says she is concerned about increasing the diversity of campus organizations.

"As an executive now [on Citystep], I'm always looking to recruit people so there can be more diversity," says Bryant, also the Winthrop House Committee treasurer and a member of the Kuumba singers, a diverse group which performs primarily African-American music styles.

Some Black students have even joined the inner sanctum of the white, Old Harvard establishment: the all-male final clubs.

"In terms of the stereotype that we are not diverse or that our members are discriminatory--that is not true," said Jonathan D. Quander '93, the first Black president of the A.D., a final club.

Quander, like other Black student leaders interviewed last week, says he has taken on a recruiting role in his organization. "In terms of the A.D., I've tried to make it more diverse," he says. "And we've come a long way." Of the club's 45 members, five are Black, according to Quander.

But interest in trying to counteract the subtle pall of racism, which students interviewed say pervades the campus, sometimes becomes a burden, many Black students say. Dispelling stereotypes and disproving claims that many Black students earned admission because of affirmative action are constant--and exhausting--endeavors.

"It is tiring after a while," says E. Franklin Miller '94, the BSA represenative to the Minority Students Alliance. Miller feels the burden is placed on the Black students to prove themselves and be on the lookout for racist incidents.

"I should put on my resume 30 hours a week for being a Black student at Harvard," says Natosha O. Reid '93, a class marshal, and former co-chair of the Harvard Foundation's Student Advisory Committee. "There is a lot of pressure on Black students, especially Black student leaders. I have put so much time in to make the environment more comfortable."

One way Black students have coped with such pressures over the years has been the formation of all-Black organizations. The AAAAS developed in the spring of 1963 amid racial tensions on campus and around the country.

Ernest B. Attah '66, who came to Harvard as a Nigerian international student the following fall, says AAAAS had to adopt creative membership policies to meet University guidelines for student groups.

According to Attah, organizations were not allowed to adopt racially exclusive membership policies. But groups, like the final clubs, could to operate on an invitation-only basis. Thus, the AAAAS became an exclusive club--open to all Black students.

"We all knew the kinds of people that would get invited," Attah says.

Attah, now an associate professor at Clark University, says the fledgling group lacked sheer numbers to be a major force on campus, but still served an important purpose for the fairly small Black population.

"I've always thought of it as living on the racial frontier," Attah says.

The group's latter-day counterpart, the BSA, has occupied a larger place in campus politics. Last year, the BSA sponsored a lecture by controversial City University of New York professor Leonard Jeffries and distributed a flyer entitled "On the Harvard Plantation" listing grievances against The Crimson, the Harvard University. Police Department, the Law School and Peninsula.

"A house security guard deliberately ignored the cries of two Black Harvard-Radcliffe women who were being accosted by five naked, white boys yelling sexually explicit comments," read one of the grievances against the HUPD in the flyer. "One of the frightened victims was then falsely accused of possessing a knife and subsequently, frisked."

Critics of the BSA have said the group, by inviting controversial speakers to campus, has only inflamed race relations. But BSA leaders consistently maintain that criticism is unfair and that the group plays a positive role on campus.

"We do not feel welcome," said BSA President Zaheer R. Mi '94 in an interview earlier this month, "and then when they see us clumping together for support, they call us separatists."

But some Black alumni criticize the formation of groups like BSA, saying minority students may be better served by being forced to get by without race-based organizations.

"In some ways it's more difficult for the students there now." Jones says, "because the Blacks in some ways tend to isolate themselves." George A. Dines '58 expresses disapproval with Black students who "form their little cliques and don't really interact with other people." When he was a student, he says, "if you were going to do anything, you had to mix with everybody. You had no choice."

Students interviewed last week say that while they have chosen not to be involved with BSA, they still feel a part of the Black campus community. Some say they are not interested in the group's political goals, while others say they simply don't have the time.

Bryant says her affiliation with the Kuumba singers is sufficient to keep her in touch with her Black heritage. And Lance E. Gravely '94, the lone Black member of the Porcellian, traditionally considered the most exclusive final club, says he gained a "racial awareness" because of recent events like the Rodney King verdict, not from the BSA, of which he is not a member.

Some Black students say that while formal organizations maintain a high-profile on campus in advocating an improved atmosphere for Black students, they draw support primarily from other Black students.

Reid, who was Student Advisory Committee co-chair during a tumultuous spring, speaks of a "double consciousness" that she believes most Black students face, in which they must balance life in a predominantly white world with the after-hours support of primarily Black friends, with whom they have the most in common.

A disproportionate number of Black undergraduates live in the Radcliffe Quad compared to the river houses, members of the Committee on House Life have acknowledged.

"Many times I feel I am an ambassador of the Black race. In class discussion, when they talk about Black issues, the discussion seems to turn to me," Reid says. "It would be tiring to be an ambassador every day and then come home, eat dinner and be an ambassador again."

Black student leaders have expressed dissatisfaction with the number of Black undergraduates and faculty. In order for Black students to enjoy a sense of community, leaders say the number of Blacks at Harvard must increase.

In this year's first-year class, only 94 Blacks matriculated, representing the lowest Black enrollment since the Class of 1972, when affirmative action guidelines for admissions were first implemented.

The class admitted in 1969 was what Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons '67 calls "the first of the modern era." That year's 121 Black matriculating students nearly doubled the 63 students in the Class of 1972. Fitzsimmons attributes the dramatic jump to heavy recruiting prompted by "an institutional concern for the dearth of African-American students on this campus."

While complete statistics are not available for years prior to 1970, Dines says his class of '58 contained 10 Blacks and Jones says the class of '50 had only four or five Blacks.

Most of the classes which entered in the late 80s have contained about 130 Black students.

Still, Fitzsimmons says efforts to attract minority students of all ethnic backgrounds--including an undergraduate recruitment program which sends minority students to targeted high schools around the country--have been largely successful.

In January, the admissions office reported that 45 of 714 students accepted early this year are Black--an unusually high number and an increase from last year's 28.

Still, the problem has not been admitting a high number of Black students, but rather getting them to accept the offers. Only 54.7 percent of admitted Black students chose to matriculate in the Class of 1996. Fitzsimmons said earlier this week that the number of Black applicants has increased dramatically this year.

Both Fitzsimmons and Epps say the low yield is partially caused by large scholarship and financial and packages offered by other schools.

But students say that campus racial tensions, especially of the kind manifested last spring, also play a part in keeping potential students away. They also say that classes with fewer Black students, such as the Class of 1996, perpetuate the problem.

"We can't endure too many more classes like the Class of 1996," says Alvin I Bragg '95, BSA vice president. "Harvard does not realize that by strengthening the Black community it strengthens the community as a whole."

A Black students at Harvard struggle to cobble together a community, student faculty committees on race relations commissioned by Epps are meeting to develop a comprehensive plan to improve race relations at Harvard.

But while the committees will probably draft reports and outline long-term goals, student leaders say the answer is simple: broadening and increasing the dialogue about race relations. They say only through greater understanding of the differences between Blacks and whites will the fault lines in the community disappear.

"As a student. I sometimes think that I shouldn't have to be concerned with these things that make feel like I'm hitting my head against the wall, wondering when things will ever change," says Reid. "But I am still an idealistic person. There are better things here and with greater dialogue, we can begin to deal seriously with these problems and try to overcome them."

Since the first Black student graduated from Harvard in 1870, resources for Afro American studies have increased and numerous organizations for Black students have been formed. Despite these advances, many Black students still complain of a subtle kind of racism that pervades the campus. As the University struggles with a dearth of Black faculty and a drop in the number of Black students in the first-year class, some students say they feel forced to act as...Courtesy of Tapyab WalkerStudents demonstrate at a Columbus Day protest last fall.

Ignorance, not intention, fuels most facially biased actions, agrees Ahmed A. Yearwood '95. "Most cases involving race issues do not involve someone carrying a KKK flag and wearing a hood over their head," he says. "They simply don't know what they're saying."

Despite these perceived racist attitudes. Black students at Harvard advanced to the upper echelons of campus organizations even when their numbers were few.

William S. Timmons '52 was elected the first--and only--Black president of The Crimson. Aryee Quah (George) Armah '63 led students in forming the Association of African and Afro-American Students (AAAAS), a forerunner of today's Black Students Association (BSA). Jones became the first Black head manager of the football team in the late '40s.

Today Black students remain successful in extracurricular organizations.

As one of the few Black prefects in the Prefect Program and the only Black member of Citystep's steering committee, Allison S. Bryant '94 says she is concerned about increasing the diversity of campus organizations.

"As an executive now [on Citystep], I'm always looking to recruit people so there can be more diversity," says Bryant, also the Winthrop House Committee treasurer and a member of the Kuumba singers, a diverse group which performs primarily African-American music styles.

Some Black students have even joined the inner sanctum of the white, Old Harvard establishment: the all-male final clubs.

"In terms of the stereotype that we are not diverse or that our members are discriminatory--that is not true," said Jonathan D. Quander '93, the first Black president of the A.D., a final club.

Quander, like other Black student leaders interviewed last week, says he has taken on a recruiting role in his organization. "In terms of the A.D., I've tried to make it more diverse," he says. "And we've come a long way." Of the club's 45 members, five are Black, according to Quander.

But interest in trying to counteract the subtle pall of racism, which students interviewed say pervades the campus, sometimes becomes a burden, many Black students say. Dispelling stereotypes and disproving claims that many Black students earned admission because of affirmative action are constant--and exhausting--endeavors.

"It is tiring after a while," says E. Franklin Miller '94, the BSA represenative to the Minority Students Alliance. Miller feels the burden is placed on the Black students to prove themselves and be on the lookout for racist incidents.

"I should put on my resume 30 hours a week for being a Black student at Harvard," says Natosha O. Reid '93, a class marshal, and former co-chair of the Harvard Foundation's Student Advisory Committee. "There is a lot of pressure on Black students, especially Black student leaders. I have put so much time in to make the environment more comfortable."

One way Black students have coped with such pressures over the years has been the formation of all-Black organizations. The AAAAS developed in the spring of 1963 amid racial tensions on campus and around the country.

Ernest B. Attah '66, who came to Harvard as a Nigerian international student the following fall, says AAAAS had to adopt creative membership policies to meet University guidelines for student groups.

According to Attah, organizations were not allowed to adopt racially exclusive membership policies. But groups, like the final clubs, could to operate on an invitation-only basis. Thus, the AAAAS became an exclusive club--open to all Black students.

"We all knew the kinds of people that would get invited," Attah says.

Attah, now an associate professor at Clark University, says the fledgling group lacked sheer numbers to be a major force on campus, but still served an important purpose for the fairly small Black population.

"I've always thought of it as living on the racial frontier," Attah says.

The group's latter-day counterpart, the BSA, has occupied a larger place in campus politics. Last year, the BSA sponsored a lecture by controversial City University of New York professor Leonard Jeffries and distributed a flyer entitled "On the Harvard Plantation" listing grievances against The Crimson, the Harvard University. Police Department, the Law School and Peninsula.

"A house security guard deliberately ignored the cries of two Black Harvard-Radcliffe women who were being accosted by five naked, white boys yelling sexually explicit comments," read one of the grievances against the HUPD in the flyer. "One of the frightened victims was then falsely accused of possessing a knife and subsequently, frisked."

Critics of the BSA have said the group, by inviting controversial speakers to campus, has only inflamed race relations. But BSA leaders consistently maintain that criticism is unfair and that the group plays a positive role on campus.

"We do not feel welcome," said BSA President Zaheer R. Mi '94 in an interview earlier this month, "and then when they see us clumping together for support, they call us separatists."

But some Black alumni criticize the formation of groups like BSA, saying minority students may be better served by being forced to get by without race-based organizations.

"In some ways it's more difficult for the students there now." Jones says, "because the Blacks in some ways tend to isolate themselves." George A. Dines '58 expresses disapproval with Black students who "form their little cliques and don't really interact with other people." When he was a student, he says, "if you were going to do anything, you had to mix with everybody. You had no choice."

Students interviewed last week say that while they have chosen not to be involved with BSA, they still feel a part of the Black campus community. Some say they are not interested in the group's political goals, while others say they simply don't have the time.

Bryant says her affiliation with the Kuumba singers is sufficient to keep her in touch with her Black heritage. And Lance E. Gravely '94, the lone Black member of the Porcellian, traditionally considered the most exclusive final club, says he gained a "racial awareness" because of recent events like the Rodney King verdict, not from the BSA, of which he is not a member.

Some Black students say that while formal organizations maintain a high-profile on campus in advocating an improved atmosphere for Black students, they draw support primarily from other Black students.

Reid, who was Student Advisory Committee co-chair during a tumultuous spring, speaks of a "double consciousness" that she believes most Black students face, in which they must balance life in a predominantly white world with the after-hours support of primarily Black friends, with whom they have the most in common.

A disproportionate number of Black undergraduates live in the Radcliffe Quad compared to the river houses, members of the Committee on House Life have acknowledged.

"Many times I feel I am an ambassador of the Black race. In class discussion, when they talk about Black issues, the discussion seems to turn to me," Reid says. "It would be tiring to be an ambassador every day and then come home, eat dinner and be an ambassador again."

Black student leaders have expressed dissatisfaction with the number of Black undergraduates and faculty. In order for Black students to enjoy a sense of community, leaders say the number of Blacks at Harvard must increase.

In this year's first-year class, only 94 Blacks matriculated, representing the lowest Black enrollment since the Class of 1972, when affirmative action guidelines for admissions were first implemented.

The class admitted in 1969 was what Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons '67 calls "the first of the modern era." That year's 121 Black matriculating students nearly doubled the 63 students in the Class of 1972. Fitzsimmons attributes the dramatic jump to heavy recruiting prompted by "an institutional concern for the dearth of African-American students on this campus."

While complete statistics are not available for years prior to 1970, Dines says his class of '58 contained 10 Blacks and Jones says the class of '50 had only four or five Blacks.

Most of the classes which entered in the late 80s have contained about 130 Black students.

Still, Fitzsimmons says efforts to attract minority students of all ethnic backgrounds--including an undergraduate recruitment program which sends minority students to targeted high schools around the country--have been largely successful.

In January, the admissions office reported that 45 of 714 students accepted early this year are Black--an unusually high number and an increase from last year's 28.

Still, the problem has not been admitting a high number of Black students, but rather getting them to accept the offers. Only 54.7 percent of admitted Black students chose to matriculate in the Class of 1996. Fitzsimmons said earlier this week that the number of Black applicants has increased dramatically this year.

Both Fitzsimmons and Epps say the low yield is partially caused by large scholarship and financial and packages offered by other schools.

But students say that campus racial tensions, especially of the kind manifested last spring, also play a part in keeping potential students away. They also say that classes with fewer Black students, such as the Class of 1996, perpetuate the problem.

"We can't endure too many more classes like the Class of 1996," says Alvin I Bragg '95, BSA vice president. "Harvard does not realize that by strengthening the Black community it strengthens the community as a whole."

A Black students at Harvard struggle to cobble together a community, student faculty committees on race relations commissioned by Epps are meeting to develop a comprehensive plan to improve race relations at Harvard.

But while the committees will probably draft reports and outline long-term goals, student leaders say the answer is simple: broadening and increasing the dialogue about race relations. They say only through greater understanding of the differences between Blacks and whites will the fault lines in the community disappear.

"As a student. I sometimes think that I shouldn't have to be concerned with these things that make feel like I'm hitting my head against the wall, wondering when things will ever change," says Reid. "But I am still an idealistic person. There are better things here and with greater dialogue, we can begin to deal seriously with these problems and try to overcome them."

Since the first Black student graduated from Harvard in 1870, resources for Afro American studies have increased and numerous organizations for Black students have been formed. Despite these advances, many Black students still complain of a subtle kind of racism that pervades the campus. As the University struggles with a dearth of Black faculty and a drop in the number of Black students in the first-year class, some students say they feel forced to act as...Courtesy of Tapyab WalkerStudents demonstrate at a Columbus Day protest last fall.