Black History Month: Truth and Reconciliation
April 19, 2024 marks the 55th anniversary of the Afro-American Society’s (AAS) takeover of Willard Straight Hall. The event brought national scrutiny to Cornell’s struggles over race relations and set forces in motion that has resulted in Cornell’s current ethnic and racial tensions.
The Republic of South Africa faced an even more difficult history of race relations, yet managed to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to receive confessions and provide amnesty for the wrong-doers on both sides. Perhaps a similar approach would work at Cornell rather than having Cornell put so much effort into glorifying one side’s narrative as the pure truth.
Cornell has a strong moral core that can subject itself to an objective reexamination without fear or favor to the political left or the right.
There have been two objective, scholarly previous efforts at reporting the truth, but both faced severe limitations because the key players were not willing to be forthcoming. Donald A. Downs wrote about the events in Cornell ‘69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University, published by Cornell University Press in 1999. As part of Cornell’s 150th anniversary, Prof. Isaac Kramnick and Prof. Glenn Altschuler, Ph.D. ’76 co-authored Cornell: A History, 1940–2015, which included the 1969 events. Kramnick and Alschuler had full access to the Cornell archives, while Downs relied upon voluntary interviews of some of the key players. They point out that the Africana Students and Research Center (ASRC) was approved and provided with space prior to the Straight Takeover.
On the other hand, Cornell and its ASRC have worked hard to produce a narrative that absolves the black students and faculty allies of any blame and characterize all of their actions as heroic. There were retrospective stories in the Cornell Chronicle, the Sun, and even a documentary film. This counter-narrative paints the AAS as fighting for a “black studies” program and using the building takeover as a last resort in response to a cross-burning at the Wari Coop. Arming the AAS was a response to a surprise attack from Delta Upsilon brothers.
Yet, there are so many unanswered questions that still require answers to fully understand the motives and sequence of events. Following South Africa’s model, perhaps a Reconciliation Commission could finally clear the air at Cornell.
- Why did the AAS occupy 320 Wait Avenue in December 1968 instead of waiting for its occupants to move out as scheduled and why did a black student beat up the Sun reporter watching from across the street?
By December 6, 1968, Cornell had appointed Prof. Chandler Morse Acting Director of the “Afro-American Institute” and had arranged for the new program to move into 320 Wait Ave. at the start of the Fall 1969 semester. That building housed professors and graduate students in the then-CALS Education Department. On Friday, Dec. 6, six black students ejected three white occupants of the building and posted a note that they would take over the building the next day. The CALS faculty and students were not given an opportunity to remove their belongings that day. On Saturday morning, Dec. 7, faculty cleared out irreplaceable records and equipment. C. Barton Reppert ‘70, a Sun reporter, was watching the building from across the street, yet was physically attacked by a black student.
By the next week the occupation was completed and some items were never returned to CALS. Appeals by CALS faculty for access to their offices fell on deaf ears at Day Hall, None of the AAS students were run through the conduct process for their actions.
- Who and why did two black students attack three white students on March 14-15, 1969?
Without provocation, Joel Klotz ‘71 and Winthrop Byers ‘71 were attacked on the Arts Quad, and Michael Neal was attacked near Triphammer Bridge. Downs wrote that two of the students reported that their attackers were black. The third, “Joel Klotz, remembered nothing about the attack; he was beaten unconscious, remained in a coma for several days, and suffered brain damage,” according to Downs. President Perkins condemned the attack, but the attackers were never identified.
- Why the sudden rush to complete the judicial cases on April 18, 1969?
On December 12 1968, five members of the Afro-American Society demonstrated and overturned vending machines. They were cited for violating the conduct code and brought before the then-existing judicial system. Because the accused refused to appear, despite multiple hearing dates, the judicial board finally decided to try them in absentia. The black students did not recognize the legitimacy of the judicial system and denounced it as “racist.”
The representatives of the accused students appeared to do everything possible to delay the process for months. However, another hearing was held on March 13, and 150 students showed up to protest, so the hearing was adjourned, to evaluate the claims that the conduct system could not fairly judge the AAS members.
Finally, the case was set for a hearing on April 17, with deliberations dragging out to 2 a.m on April 18. Although there were several motions to adjourn because of the late hour, the black students insisted that the hearing panel reach a final decision that night. The panel found the accused students guilty of misconduct and issued reprimands. In response, false fire alarms were set off in a number of dorms in the hour following the decision.
Conspiracy theorists claim that the AAS had already decided to take over Willard Straight Hall on Parent’s Weekend, when the residential rooms would all be rented out to visiting parents. Bringing the judicial hearing to a sudden conclusion on the eve of Parent’s Weekend may have been a planned feature rather than a coincidence.
- Who burned the cross in front of the Wari Coop at 3 a.m. on April 18, 1969?
As Michael Knowles stated in his recent talk:
According to the armed protesters, the takeover was the response to a burning cross at the Wari student center the night before. White supremacists threatened the black students. So the black students threatened back.
But, as it turned out, the whole thing was fake news. It was Jesse Smollett the prequel. It was all a big hoax. The Ithaca Police never tracked down those elusive cross-burners, and they suspected that the black students themselves set the blaze in order to justify further protests. This thesis was not the result of knee-jerk prejudice. One member of the Afro-American Society later seemed to confirm it.
Steven Goodwin, a Cornell student who was the Treasurer of the Afro-American Society called the cross burning “a setup.” The Society had contrived the setup according to Goodwin “to bring more media and attention to the whole thing.”
A 2009 Sun panel discussion also confirmed this view. The idea that a white person would burn the cross on the eve of Parent’s Weekend (one hour after the hearing panel reached its decision) is too much of a coincidence.
- Where did the guns in Willard Straight Hall come from?
The AAS narrative is that after brothers from Delta Upsilon broke into the Straight, the AAS felt the need for protection, so they smuggled guns in at that time. But where and when did AAS purchase the large number of rifles and bandoliers of ammunition? The AAS purchased the guns with a check written by Steven Goodwin. The decision to purchase the guns was made in advance of the DU break-in, indicating an event planned in advance rather than a spontaneous reaction to a cross burning and a confrontation with conservative students following the start of the takeover.
The real motive for the Straight Takeover was unclear because the main demand of the AAS to form the ASRC was already granted by the Board of Trustees on April 10.
- Who burned down the ASRC building on April 1, 1970?
Over spring break 1970, an arsonist set fire to the then-current ASRC at 320 Wait Avenue. The arsonist has never been identified, and could be either black or white.
At the time, James Turner had already been selected as the Director of the ASRC and classes were being held, with more faculty being recruited. Rather than race relations, the big political issues on campus were the Vietnam War and a proposal to establish a University Senate (the precursor of the University Assembly.)
Turner was a PhD candidate at Northwestern University when Cornell hired him to lead the ASRC. His employment was conditioned upon his completion of his doctorate dissertation. Unfortunately, the fire destroyed all of his research notes and dissertation drafts. Turner never completed his Northwestern dissertation. However, he earned a PhD from Union Graduate School in Cincinnati in 1975.
We do not know whether the arson was an act of racial hatred or a strategic move to further the black political agenda.
In 1969, the campus was debating whether violent protests by armed students should be granted amnesty. Today, with the Interim Expressive Activities Policy, the campus is once again debating whether there should be any bounds or regulation of campus protests. The events of 1969 still echo on the Cornell campus today.
Cornell Review’s prior Black History Month offerings include highlighting non-Woke black Cornellians and the unfair treatment of Dean Pearl Lucas.