the first to guard the rear door. Far away from the rest of the group, it felt dangerous back there because of the possibility of a surprise invasion by the administration, most likely in the middle of the night when people would be asleep, scattered around the carpet. Black students in a non-violent protest in the South had been attacked and killed less than a year before. We couldn’t rule out that some rogue elements in this community might attempt vigilante actions.
Everyone tried to wait until the designated times to use the restroom, which required the guard to unchain the back doors and ensure that no outsider was near the stairs to the lavatories on the lower floor where there was little traffic. We had tipped off the custodial staff the day before that something was about to happen and, once they realized we were staying, they had surreptitiously re-stocked the restrooms with extra toilet tissue, paper towels, and powdered soap each day for as long as we would be there.
The black janitorial staff may have put their jobs at risk by alerting us to security procedures so that we could use the toilets regularly and safely during off hours. The relationships that we had built with them and other black service employees paid unexpected benefits. We had always treated them with respect. After all, they were the only black adults around.
Once daylight came, and we made it through the first night of the Takeover without anyone charging the premises and trying to remove us, we exhaled.
Keeping an eye on the one accessible window was the much more interesting guard assignment. With a ledge about a foot-and-a-half wide and four feet above ground, whoever was on guard could actually sit on the windowsill and observe campus goings and comings when the sun was up. If someone approached, the guard would lift the window. If any admissions office occupiers needed something from their dorm rooms, they could slip in and out, climbing through that window, so we wouldn’t have to unlock the doors unnecessarily.
By the morning of day two, a Friday, we got a clearer idea of just how far the news of our action had spread. We had seen members of the local press show up on campus later in the afternoon of the day we took over the admissions office. But, heading into the weekend, the national and regional papers already had us in headlines.
After only twenty-four hours inside, the window guards began making frequent announcements that supporters were approaching and signaling that they wanted to communicate with us.
We didn’t realize until later how word about our protest spread like wildfire. SASS founding Chairman Sam Shepherd had graduated, and the founding Co-Chair Clinton Etheridge had assumed the mantle. He and Co-Chair Don Mizell spoke to a group of reporters and community organizers who appeared on campus on the first afternoon we entered the building. Four days later, the Washington Post would claim, incorrectly, that black militant outsiders were directing us and other students at “known liberal colleges” in what “had all the earmarks of a revolutionary conspiracy.”13
They had no idea that the so-called militant outsiders who laid the foundation for the action were really a small group of young women, dubbed the Seven Sisters, and a Brother who understood how to build a family to get a difficult task accomplished. Not a conspiracy to destroy.
Not in Kansas Anymore— Myra’s Story
Myra e. Rose
Flood Gates of Memory
After my father died in 2008, I was going through his things and found a letter that I had written to our family. Although the year was 1969, the letter is incorrectly dated January 31, 1968 and starts out:
January 31, 1968
Dear Everybody,
I finished my last exam yesterday so now I finally have time to write to you. I know you were all concerned over my actions and their possible consequences in the past month, so I am writing this letter to try to explain.
When I first entered Swarthmore College, I did not know what to expect. True, I had gone to a white high school before coming here but somehow I expected it to be different. For about two months my roommate and I went everywhere together, the whole bit strictly “integrated.” I saw other black people on the campus but did not associate with them. Although [she] and I did have a few things in common I never really felt comfortable and felt very lonely. Then I met Bridget, Aundrea, Janette and other black girls who were freshmen. Being with them was just like being at home and things began to look up. Also, during this semester SASS (Swarthmore Afro-American Students Society) was formed. I believe I wrote you all about that. Since that time (Fall 1966) SASS has been trying to effect changes on campus for black students. Nothing really radical like a black dorm or things like that, just simple things like course(s) in Afro-American history, literature, philosophy, etc., that would benefit the whole school. When we bring speakers to the campus, white students come in droves, they even outnumber us. SASS also asked that they be consulted about anything on campus that affected black people. The school did not do this. Last year they had a South African (white) speaker that everyone was supposed to hear. Black students staged a peaceful walkout on the speaker at that time and still the school refused to listen to our requests and continued to walk over us. We were called “militants” and given all kinds of labels—even in the national news because we refused to listen to that man.
This year things really came to a head.… The Admissions Policy Committee, headed by Dean Hargadon, issued a report on black admissions…did not consult any black students when writing the report…and proceeded to write a very subtle racist document. What I mean is he used confidential information about our family backgrounds, incomes, etc., which really served no purpose and put them in the report (we could all identify each other).… Needless to say, all the black students on campus were very upset. An expert in black admissions, a woman from NSSFNS (a Negro scholarship group that helps black students get into white Ivy League colleges) offered to come down from New York to talk to the committee about the problem—they refused to see her. Their behavior indicates that they do not respect us enough to consult us on basic issues that concern us. They were ignoring our requests. Finally, we issued a set of demands in November about our grievances. The Student Council even endorsed our demands. The Dean of Admissions wrote them a scathing note saying in effect that he was sorry that he had let them into Swarthmore. President Smith asked for a further clarification of our demands… just one of their techniques to stall us. The final re-clarification was made just before Christmas and presented to the administration as non-negotiable demands. We still were given no answer. Two days after the deadline we held a meeting with the whole school to further express our grievances. The next day an effigy of the school was burned. The next day we occupied the admissions office…
Our occupation did what it was planned to do. We had finally shocked them into some action. Faculty meetings were held every day—an unprecedented fact. Administration efforts to alienate white students from us failed. Most students were in agreement with our demands. Others saw that the success or failure of our efforts had definite implications for student power. People from the black community helped tremendously and brought food and anything else we needed especially the moral support. …[Through] the news media we have been called everything from extremist black militants and murderers (as if we had control over Smith’s heart) to being a part of a Communist conspiracy. They will do whatever they can to discredit you and make you seem like an extremist when in reality SASS is one of the more conservative black student groups. I am enclosing a copy of the Phoenix, the school newspaper. It has the most accurate coverage of what really happened.
At any rate, we have not given up our objectives and we continue to press for them. The faculty is meeting at least twice a week now to bring about a settlement of the issues. I will tell you if anything new develops.
Our scholarships are not in jeopardy.
