Segregated Soldiers: Military Training at Historically Black Colleges in the Jim Crow South

6. Keep Our Black Warriors Out of the Draft: The Antiwar Movement at Southern University, 1968–1973

139 6 KEEP OUR BLACK WARRIORS OUT OF THE DRAFT THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT AT SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY, 1968–1973 D uring the late 1960s and early 1970s, the antiwar movement gained momentum and introduced a new wave of protests and demonstrations throughout the nation. Antiwar demonstrators clashed with law enforcement officials, university administrators, and working-class hawks. At many colleges and universities, military training programs were discontinued or in jeopardy of losing their appeal. Many individuals associated with the antiwar movement used the opportunity to denounce numerous social and economic inequities that existed in American society.1 Although antiwar protests occurred at black colleges and universities, they were quite different from the front-page confrontations at the University of California, Berkeley, and Ivy League institutions. In large part, there were no sit-in demonstrations, marches, or clashes with state police or the National Guard. Most of the protests were rhetorical, in the form of a speaker addressing small gatherings or newspaper debates. Much of the violence that did involve students on black campuses directly related to civil rights protests or demonstrations involving administrative policies, not military training. Compulsory ROTC was only mentioned in addition to other civil rights issues and university complaints. Black institutions with a history of military training, such as Southern, Tuskegee, Prairie View, Hampton, Virginia State, and Howard, did not witness any violence as a direct result of the antiwar movement.2 140 SEGREGATED SOLDIERS THE CALL TO ABOLISH COMPULSORY ROTC AND THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT INTENSIFY In 1968, the antiwar movement at Southern University and other black college campuses was generally subdued in comparison to their white counterparts throughout the nation. Russell L. Honoré remembered being confronted on only a few occasions by student demonstrators as his ROTC unit marched through the campus. Honoré remarked, “When we marched across the campus, people [students] who were active in the movement would on occasion line-up across the bridge as we walked in formation. They would have signs or yell out, ‘Why are [you] going into the Army?’ I think that it was an extension of the protest that was happening across the country on university campuses. As cadets we were trained to ignore it and focus on what we were doing. I don’t believe it was personal. That was a normal part of campus life at that time.”3 The contradiction of fighting for democracy abroad while African Americans continued to experience racism and discrimination at home buttressed the antiwar rhetoric of Black Power leaders. Many African Americans criticized the federal government for sending hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fight for South Vietnamese freedom while only a few hundred law enforcement officers were assigned to protect black American citizens in the South from brutal attacks and murders when attempting to vote.4 Numerous African American soldiers questioned why they were serving in the military and became less tolerant of racism and discrimination within the ranks. Wallace Terry believes that in 1968 and 1969 a new black soldier emerged in Vietnam: “The war [had] used up the professionals who found in military service fuller and fairer employment opportunities than blacks could find in civilian society, who found in uniform a supreme test of their black manhood. Replacing the careerist were black draftees, many just steps removed from marching in the Civil Rights Movement or rioting in the rebellions that swept the urban ghettos from Harlem to Watts. All were filled with a new sense of black pride and purpose. They spoke loudest against the discrimination they encountered on the battlefield in decorations, promotion and duty assignments.”5 Attitudes of African American soldiers were also reflected in the black community and on college campuses during this period. According to a KEEP OUR BLACK WARRIORS OUT OF THE DRAFT 141 Newsweek poll of African American attitudes on the war in 1969, blacks considered the war to be a source of many of their social ills. Unlike previous military conflicts, in which African Americans benefited from their participation and support, the war in Vietnam redirected black youth from addressing problems in their communities and siphoned away billions of dollars originally allocated for national social uplift programs.6 The late 1960s also witnessed an increase in campus antiwar organizing. In 1968, antiwar demonstrations occurred at over one hundred college campuses and high schools. At many Ivy League universities, including Columbia University, black nationalists and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS...