Cornell '69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University

PARTICIPANTS

PARTICIPANTS Listed here are individuals who played major roles in the events leading up to the crisis or the crisis itself, as well as others who were involved and went on to achieve national prominence. Members of the Afro-American Society Zachary Carter. Carter was the vice chairman ofthe Afro-American Society (AAS). Today he is the U.S. attorney for the eastern district ofNew York, appointed to the position by President Clinton. He was called on as district attorney in Brooklyn a few years ago to respond to a student takeover of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn . He declined to be interviewed for this book. Paul Du Bois. Today Du Bois is a nationally known community activist and media entrepreneur (and husband of Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet). He was a graduate student in government at Cornell, an activist for integration , and the creator ofthe initial black studies program that AAS militants displaced in 1969. During the year ofthe Straight crisis he experienced considerable pressure from more militant students. Today he is still active in interracial movements. Harry Edwards. Edwards is now a professor ofsociology at the University ofCalifornia , Berkeley and was the founder ofthe discipline of sport sociology. He is currently the National Football League's top consultant on race relations. He was the organizer ofthe 1968 boycott by black athletes ofthe 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Edwards was working on his Ph.D. at Cornell during the 1968-69 academic year. At Cornell he played an advisory role to the AAS during the conflict. He did not respond to my request for an interview. John Garner. Garner was the leader ofthe revolutionary faction ofthe AAS in 1968 and 1969 and was probably the main force in the militarization of the AAS in the 316 year leading up to the Straight crisis. A superb engineering student from Dayton, Garner left Cornell just before the Straight takeover to do political work in the ghetto. Eventually he went to medical school. He died of a kidney ailment during his residency. Stephen Goodwin. Goodwin is now a Wall Street investment broker and winner of several awards for his ideas and contributions to minority advancement. Goodwin came from Harlem and was the AAS treasurer. He belonged to a white fraternity and had connections with numerous individuals and organizations at Cornell. Goodwin wrote the checks that paid for the guns the AAS ultimately brought into the Straight. RobertJackson. Jackson was president ofthe AAS in 1967-68 and a key player in the group's political and ideological development. Key administrators considered him a mature person with whom they could reason. Today he is a professor in nutritional ·science at the University ofMaryland. He declined to be interviewed. Thomas Jones. Jones emerged as the leading AAS militant during the Straight takeover. He came from a middle-class background-his father was a corporate physicist and his mother a teacher-and he moved deftly in both black and white domains at Cornell. He had been elected freshman class president in fall 1965, was named to the student judicial board, and joined a white fraternity before becoming active in the AAS. During the crisis he made the most inflammatory speeches against the university. Jones is now chiefexecutive officer ofthe Smith Barney Asset Management division of Traveler's Group. He was also a member of the Cornell Board ofTrustees and President Clinton's Social Security Council of 1996. In 1995 he donated $100,000 to Cornell to establish an annual "James Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony" for a student whose work has made a significant contribution to race relations. He and Perkins shook hands at the ceremony that inaugurated the prize. In 1997 black activists confronted Jones when he presented the award, calling him a "traitor to his people." Jones declined to be interviewed for this book. Alan Keyes. Keyes was a candidate for the presidential nomination of the Republican Party in 1996. A graduate student in government and a disciple ofAllan Bloom, Keyes dissented from the AAS's militancy. Before the Straight takeover an unidentified person threatened his life and that ofhis white girlfriend at an AAS meeting , according to a Security Division document. Like his mentors in the Government Department, Keyes left Cornell in the wake of the crisis. He completed his graduate work at Harvard. Keyes did not respond to my requests for an interview. Andre McLaughlin. Today McLaughlin is a professor of African-American and...