University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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Black History Week A people ' s history cannot be sole- ly presented as an academic en- deavor. It is a living account that not only narrates past events but rein- forces feelings of self-worth. It pro- vides a context wherein people see themselves as makers of history. The academic acceptance of Black Studies cannot in and of itself pro- vide this crucial ingredient. The institution itself must recog- nize its responsibility for hundreds of years of neglect towards a people that have contributed so much to the development of civilization and culture. American educators pride them- selves and their institutions of high- er learning with creating the best education that the world has to of- fer. Despite the supposed great strides made since the 1785 Com- mon School system, the 1862 Mor- rill Land Grant Act (which helped es- tablish the Massachusetts Agricul- tural College, now UMass, and the 1954 court case Brown vs. Board of Education, American education so- cializes all who are under its influ- ence to think as Europeans. Their curriculums are designed to create productive members of the free enterprise system in the European tradition. For the supposed minority popula- tions in this country, however, the overriding need is to recover from their education. To offset the self-destructive ef- fect on blacks in educational institu- tions, black instructors were forced to implement Black History Week. Black History Week was not new. Queen Mother Moore The need to re-educate blacks to the feelings of self-worth were recog- nized decades ago. In 1915 the au- thor of The Miseducation of the Ne- gro, Carter G. Woodson, created the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. By 1926 he estab- lished Negro History week. He was not alone in this endeavor. Arthur Schomburg, a black Puerto Rican who came to the U.S. in 1896 and was a regular lecturer for the Univer- sal Negro Improvement Association, founded the Negro Society for His- torical Research. He also estab- lished the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and History, opened at Fisk University in 1926. In the spirit of this tradition, the Afrikan-American Students Associ- ation at UMass sponsored Black His- tory month. The concern of the Afro-Am society was with history as a living science and presented those who lived it from every medium within our reach. Victor Goode of the National Conference of Black Lawyers reviewed the long history of legal lynching that has gone on, de spite the supposed safeguards of the constitution. Ruby Dee and Ozzie Davis utilized the medium of poetry and stories to convey the pleasures and pitfalls of black life in America. New education- al systems were reviewed by Profes- sor Hetty Fox of New York, while Na- home Nahaliel of Chicago lectured on the principles upon which rela- tionships operate. Black historical tradition was further enhanced by the arts, with a concert by UMass Professor Archie Shepp, while our experiences were masterfully con- veyed through dance by Patti O ' N- eal ' s Dusk Dance Ensemble and Eno D. Washington ' s Dance Company, featuring Pan-Afrikan dance forms. Black History Month is a people ' s memory — racism in this country has caused millions to lose the knowledge of a great past. Without that knowledge, an intelligent course for the future cannot be charted. Black History Month is a moderate medicine for an extreme illness — racism and Eurocentric education. For those who can boldly plot the future, the mandate is clear: educate with the truth or be inun- dated by the lie. Tony Crayton Ruby Dee and Ozzie Davis 25

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Mid-Air Crash A light plane flown by a student pilot collided with a commercial jet- liner 3,000 feet above San Diego ' s Lindberg Field September 25th, sending both crafts crashing into a fesidential area, it was America ' s worst air disaster. One hundred and fifty people were killed, including all 136 people aboard the Pacific Southwest Air- lines jet, the student pilot of the Cessna 172, his instructor, and 13 people on the ground. The planes collided about 9 a.m. PDT and plunged to the ground, smashing through a dozen homes in a quiet residential neighborhood five miles from the airport. Courtesy of United Press International A naming Pacific Southwest Airways Boeing 727 plunges toward the ground, moments before crashing into a residential area of San Diego, Calif The jetliner and a student pilot ' s rented plane collided in a ball of fire, with the collision and crash killing at least 150 persons. Pool picture by Frank Johnson of the Washington Post via Wide World Photos. Guyana The vat of death sits on a plank walkway at the People ' s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, vith the bodies of some of the more than 900 victims of the murder-suicide plot on the ground. The vat contained an ade drink laced with cyanide. In what was possibly the largest recorded mass suicide in history, 913 members of the People ' s Tem- ple, a religious cult, followed the or- ders of would-be messiah Reverend Jim Jones and drank from a vat con- taining cyanide laced Kool-Ade. Jones, who shot himself after his followers drank the poison both will- ingly and unwillingly, apparently felt threatened by the visit of Congress- man Leo J. Ryan to Guyana. Ryan was investigating reports of abuses of cult members. Ryan and four companions were ambushed and killed as they attempted to leave Jonestown. Jones had promised his followers a close big family that transcended both race and class barriers and lived in a celebration of God while working to transform society. Jones and his family lived in the South American jungle on a com- mune, where they raised most of their food themselves. Jones was alleged to have abused many cult members sexually, men- tally and physically. Some cult mern- bers who refused to drink the poison were held as it was poured down their throats or shot to death. The incident spurned a rash of books on the atrocity as well as new investigations into existing cults and articles on the psychology behind cults. 24

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Maroo Theodoras Divest! Early in the spring semester, a ral- ly involving about a third of the stu- dent population at Hampshire Col- lege took place, which ultimately forced the Board of Trustees to redi- vest, since the college had divested stock in corporations doing business in South Africa, only to reinvest lat- 7% Solution In the fall of 1978, with inflation threatening to run him out of office, President Jimmy Carter decided to fight back. He announced a volun- tary government program designed to slow down inflation by limiting wage and price increases. Wage raises were to be held to seven percent per year and prices were not to exceed the average of price increases over the past two years, a figure the government esti- mated at roughly 5.7%. Companies granting larger pay increases or rais- ing prices beyond the guidelines were supposed to lose government contracts. It didn ' t work. Carter ' s 7% solution was at- tacked by labor, which objected to government interference in collec- tive bargaining, particularly when it became evident that businesses were ignoring the price guidelines without penalty, yet using the wage er. At Amherst College in the fall of 1978, a large rally took place in front of the Black Cultural Center where a meeting of the Board of Trustees was going on. In spite of a number of workshops, educational forums and speakers, all of whom urged Am- herst College to divest, the trustees did not deem the issue im portant enough for them to include it as an item on their agenda. Hence, it was not the cross-burning provocation alone that subsequently precipitat- ed the take-over of the administra- tion building in the spirng, but also frustration on the part of organizers and students. Frustration which re- sulted from the stubborn attitude of the administration in light of strong demands by students that the col- lege divest more than $20 million in stocks. Similar views were expressed by a large segment of the student popu- lations at Mt. Holyoke and Smith Colleges, whose combined invest- ments totaled at least $50 million. The culminating event for the work done by the Southern Africa Liberation Support Committees of the various colleges was the South Africa Action Week, which started on April 4, continued for two weeks and featured a rally with speakers such as Prexy Nesbitt, Sean Gevarsi and U.S. Se nator Paul Tsongas, and oth- guidelines in an attempt to force un- ions to settle within the wage guide- lines. Meanwhile, every month brought a report of the rising cost of living, followed by a report of a drop in Carter ' s popularity amongst Ameri- can voters. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy fueled the fire un- der Carter when he suggested in De- cember that the future of Carter and the Democratic Party was pegged to inflation and economic stability. The situation really heated up in the Spring as the expiration of major industrial contracts drew near. The Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers In- ternational Union was the first major union to bargain on a national basis under the guidelines. Surprisingly, they settled within the guidelines. But February brought further re- ports of inflation, the worst since the 1974 recession, and although the White House refused to publicly agree, private economists began predicting a recession. Inflation was not the only thing ris- ing. The Commerce Department re- leased figures showing that corpo- ers, all of whom strongly urged di- vestiture. During the year the movement gained momentum, involving more and more students. More action was planned to be directed in particular against Amherst, Smith and Mt. Ho- lyoke colleges. It was also important that South Africa Week of Action coincided with a week commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and that both events were jointly organized. The organizers made a link between ra- cial oppression and economic ex- ploitation in the United States and Southern Africa. One example of this link is that many economic institutions such as banks and multi-national corpora- tions that take advantae of legal slave labor in Southern Africa, have for years fought unionization and have relined certain urban areas in the U.S., particularly black and His- panic neighborhoods. Evidence has shown (even by the admission of such important officials as former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Bowdler) that these economic ven- tures into South Africa strengthen, rather than weaken, the hand of facisim and racism in that country. They do virtually nothing to alleviate the economic and political plight of the black majority. Bheki Langa rate profits had jumped to 9.7 per- cent in the fourth quarter of 1978. This supported labor ' s charge that big business was cheating on the guidelines. AFL-CIO leader George Meany called it the grossest dem- onstration of profit-gouging since the opening days of the Korean War. The government ' s Council on Wage and Price Stability had written the price guidelines loosely, allowing most companies to find a way to evade them. The director of the council, Barry Bosworth, concluded, We were suckered. When even the government began to admit failure, Meany called for mandatory price controls, or at least an effective government program to monitor prices. Carter responded by asking for union help in monitoring prices, and Operation Price Watch was born. A stillbirth; no one has heard of it since. Despite widespread union scepti- cism of the program, inflation czar Alfred Kahn reported that 90 per- cent of contracts covering 1 ,000 or 26