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Page Two THE SKYSCRAPER Feb. 10,1965 THE SfffSCUPEI B ' NIL '.I I I il U II 11 I 1 will grip current issues and events and 'J hold them before the campus in order that members of the Mundelein community may sense and direct history rather than bob in its wake. Baldwin Book Embitters Council, Academic World The Chicago City Council committee on education has ap proved a resolution Alderman Leon M. Depres (5th) justifia bly terms book lynching in Chicago in 1965. The resolution, scheduled for council consideration, March 10, asks for unqualified condemnation of requiring any stu dent to read the book Another Country by James Baldwin. The Baldwin controversy, initiated by an irate father's objection to the required reading of Another Country in a contemporary literature course at Wright Junior College, reached a near-hysteria pitch at an eight-hour public commit tee hearing in City Hall, Jan. 8. Book Burners Charge Filth Throughout the hearing, so-called book burners focused exclusively on the alleged filth contained in the novel. They apparently found it simpler to cry wolf at Baldwin's often bitter, sometimes offensive treat ment of Negro-white relationships in the seamy sections of the nation's largest metropolis than to recognize the much broader implications con cerning academic freedom involved in the resolution. While resolution supporters indiscriminately intei-changed sexual with perverted and equated interracial with immoral, its objectors upheld the right of a competent college instructor to choose the books or materials he feels most satisfactorily fulfill the purpose of his course. AAUP Chapter States Position The City Council would do well to heed the testimony of the objectors to the resolutions as well as the warning from the Southeast Junior Col lege chapter of the American Association of University Professors: Any external interference with the obligations and responsibilities of the fac ulty to select instructional matex-ial is a deplorable violation of the prin ciples of academic freedom. Even more important than the rather abstract concept of academic freedom is the issue of government control. There is a vast difference between government aid to education and direct governmental inter ference in student-teacher relationships. Any student may justly ques tion an instructor's judgment concerning required assignments, but no legislative body can constitutionally dictate to an institution of higher education by forbidding it to exercise its own discretion in wholly aca demic matters. College 'Parish' To Miss Favorite Bridge Partner College has been his parish for more than a decade. But last week Father William Clark was named pastor of Our Lady Gate of Heaven parish on the south side. During the past ten years Mundelein students have known Father as a teacher, companion and most-sincere friend. Father Clark's theology classes have been judged an experience in practical Catholicism. They were light, but serious, stressing the most urgent and recurrent problems facing contemporary society. These courses were not remote. They were as intimately involved with young people as Father is. Christian marriage is Mundelein's plan ahead course Father's originality has given the class its wide appeal. Panel discussions nearly always included three or four Loyola men who attempted to describe their favorite date and thereby further the timeless game, male vs. female. Many students have even discovered musical talent while sing ing As Long as He Needs Me or I'd Do Anything for You in mar riage class. But even more important than his skill as a teacher is Father Clark's ability to understand, communicate with and love others. These qualities have been exhibited in many ways. He was the college's most desirable bridge partner, even though Charles Goren would not recognize his revised convention Dinner with Father Clark was a treat enjoyed by many Mundelein students each year. His guests described such out ings as the most wonderful times ever Father Clark is a friend in another way, too. He has sacrificed in numerable free hours earnestly counseling those with problems. His friendship is not limited to the present student body alone. He has officiated at many alumnae weddings and at their children's baptisms. Father Clark's congenial symbols, a grin, hands in his pockets and the familiar greeting, How's everything going? have become as much a part of Mundelein as crowded elevators. Mundelein, the college that was his parish, will miss him, but most of all, it wishes him well. Jke Kudcraper Vol. XXXV February 10, 1965 No. 10 Newspaper of Distinction The Skyscraper is published semi-monthly, September to May inclusive except during exam and vacation periods, by the students of Mundelein College, 6363 Sheridan Rd., Chicago. III.. 60626. Subscription rate is 2 per year. Entered as second-class matter Nov. 30, 1932. at the U.S. Post Office. Chicago, HI., under the act of March 3. 1897. The Skyscraper is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Catholic School Press Association. Letter? to the editor must be signed. The Skyscraper reserves the right to cut letters in case of limited space. Editor in Chief Mary Etta Talarico Associate Editor . . Rae Paul Feature Editor Sylvia Hajek Make-up Caryl Jean Cinelli. Barbara Kubicz. Bobbie Bohan mm W fellPWl Griffin Opposes Indictment 'Against an Entire People' by Barbara Kubicz Novelist John Howard Griffin knew what he was talking about when he lectured here last week on the despairing situation of Negroes in the United States. Griffin traveled in the deep South with his naturally white skin artificially stained and pigmented by a New Orleans derma tologist. He lived and was treated as a Negro. The well-known author of Black Like Me declared, I don't know how the Negroes stand it; I couldn't. he could find a room and he re ceived specific directions. The shock was that there was no sus picion. I never expected to fool the Negro community, Griffin ex plained. But after 400 years in North America, Negroes possess every facial structure, every pig ment. The rooms he stayed in were small, thin-walled and windowless. But there were mirrors. Looking in the mirror was always a shock; I recognized nothing of myself, Griffin confessed. I did not like that face because it was the face of a Negro, he said with delibera tion. Columnist Margaret Field Staff Jean Durall. Mary Lynch, Diane Sargol. Patricia Toussaint. Nancy Vandenberg. Eileen Carroll. Eileen Jack. Marilyn Gibbs, Judy Wardwell, Pat Czapar, Barbara Mounsey, Rose Goetz, Kathy Riley Photographers Betsy Braunlin, Diane Sargol, Aldine Fs.vs.io Griffin told his audience unequi vocally that racism exists in this country, that we have drawn an indictment against an entire peo ple, paralleling the situation to that of the Jews in Germany. He predicted that the cause of justice (rather than the label of Negro cause) will resolve itself quickly or not at all. The choice of the American Negro today is either to go on being victimized or to strike back. Harms Assenters Prophetically, Griffin warned, Where racism is condoned, it ends up dehumanizing not only the vic timized group, but also the assent ing group. The novelist cited the example of a Negro woman who begged to be allowed to say a prayer when threatened with violence. The an tagonistic white retorted, It's too damn late to pray now. Griffin asked, Who is the dehumanized one? Griffin first questioned the exist ence of racism in 1959. He was working on a paper investigating the suicide rate of Negroes in the deep south. He sent question naires to whites and Negroes. Replied whites sincerely: Ne groes never commit suicide. When things are nigged, they find a place in the sun and sleep it off or Ne groes are naturally simple and con tented until outsiders stir them up. There was little response from the Negroes, who felt the question naires would be falsified. One of the few replies was, You can't help it; you think white. Another said, Some morning wake up in my skin. Quells Myth I decided I had to look beyond the myth. I no longer believed in my ability to interpret the ques tionnaires, Griffin said, and set up the criteria: Are we involved in racism? Changing only the color of his skin and cutting his hair, he walked into a land that did not love me. At the last moment, I was thinking white. I didn't know a thing in the world, where to go, how to act or live. He asked two Negroes where Griffin had kept his same name, his educational background and his qualifications. When he applied for work by telephone, his abili ties were sufficient to gain at least an interview. Yet when he made his appearance, I was tossed out with courtesy. When he caught on, he stopped Skyscraper Photo by Diane Sargol Black Like Me author John How ard Griffin, who lived in the South as a Negro to understand current crises, talks with young admirers at tea in Tearoom. applying. I began to look for a place away from whites. It is the rejection that finally destroys the spirit while whites said know ingly 'apathy keeps them from get ting any place.' The soft-spoken author men tioned two stone walls. One wall separates the Negroes from man kind and rights. The second wall is the inability of the races to com municate. There are many GWB's, Great White Buddies, who ap proach the Negro for degrading reasons. The Negro, in turn, is always apprehensively wondering. He can either answer back or re main silent. In either case, he is labeled a bad Negro or uppity. If he doesn't want to be beaten or lose his job, the Negro builds up mountains of 'yesses' and keeps grinning, grinning, grinning. Griffin told an absorbed audience, many of whom were leaning for ward in their seats, that The Sys tem in the U.S. is a set of con tradictory terms with a cruel ef fect. Negro citizens can pay taxes, defend their country and recite the 'Pledge of Allegiance' which guar antees ' . . . liberty and justice for all.' Yet the same rights that are guaranteed to the most degraded whites are withheld from Negroes. Griffin tried to explain the in comparable way his entire exist ence changed. When you wake up you have to plan and anticipate needs. The mind is imprisoned with preoccupation with the basic aspects of the animal self. Questions Himself He said the question he asked himself over and over throughout his experience was, What good does it do them to keep us like this? He found no answer. The convert-author said, Good men are remaining silent. There is a desperate need to see people identified with the Church to stand up for what the Church stands for. Griffin cited the cases of Reverend John Coffield of Cali fornia (in voluntary exile in Chi cago for speaking out on voter registration) and the nuns who demonstrated for equal rights in Chicago. They're known in every bush in Alabama. Wounded in the South Pacific in World War II, Griffin lost most of his sight as a result of brain dam age. One learns without sight to see his fellow human being for his qualities as an individual. Always avoiding the use of the word color, Griffin said, It is folly to deny rights on the basis of pigment. We must become pro- human, not pro-Negro or pro- white. Offering a challenge to this gen eration, he said, There must be no compromise. We must say 'no' to little 'yesses' that become big 'yesses' that allow this indictment against a whole people.
title:
1965-02-10 (2)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
rights:
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coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College