Point of Reckoning: The Fight for Racial Justice at Duke University by Theodore D. Segal (review)

Theodore D. Segal's Point of Reckoning: The Fight for Racial Justice at Duke University examines the history of racial desegregation at Duke University. The book focuses on the first generation of Black students at Duke and the reactions of university administrators, trustees, alumni, faculty, and white students. Segal began researching this story in 1978 as a graduate student at Duke before leaving the university to pursue a career as a corporate attorney. Decades later, in retirement, he returned to the project and completed Point of Reckoning. The result is a highly readable and well-researched account of Black campus activism at Duke in the 1960s that sheds new light on Black campus activism in the United States more broadly, along with the development and role of Black student organizations and the desegregation of other historically white colleges and universities.

Point of Reckoning is composed of nine chapters, an introduction, and an epilogue and is organized chronologically. The story begins with the creation of Duke University in the 1920s and concludes with a discussion of contemporary racial issues at Duke; however, its principal focus is the 1960s. Duke admitted its first Black graduate and law students in 1962 and its first Black undergraduates the following year. However, Segal clearly establishes that the university failed to make substantive efforts to accommodate these students or to move beyond long-standing racial attitudes. As the number of Black students at Duke grew, so did their frustrations and concerns, along with their belief that the university was not adequately responding to their grievances. The creation in 1967 of the Afro-American Society (AAS), the first Black student organization at Duke, marked a turning point, as thereafter the AAS played a crucial role in campus events. The bulk of Point of Reckoning focuses on two protest events that occurred at Duke in the late 1960s—the 1968 occupation of University House and the subsequent Silent Vigil, and the 1969 takeover of the university's Allen Building. The former, undertaken primarily by white students, and the latter, undertaken primarily by Black students, generated markedly different responses from Duke's administration.

Segal analyzes a wide variety of primary and secondary sources in Point of Reckoning. The former include university records and publications, community and campus newspapers, and, importantly, oral history interviews. These interviews allow Segal to focus on the "human dimension" and effectively tell the story from the perspective of its participants (p. 4). The use of relevant secondary sources enables the author to provide important national and regional context to the happenings at Duke.

Point of Reckoning makes clear that race and racial issues have been a central conflict at Duke since its inception. Rejecting a narrative of racial progress, Segal argues that Duke failed to prepare adequately for racial desegregation in the 1960s and did little to eliminate widespread racial attitudes and norms predicated on racial prejudice thereafter. This situation, unsurprisingly, fueled the Black student activism documented here. Segal maintains, "Change, when it did occur, came very slowly because racial inclusion was never a core value of the university" (p. 4). Importantly, this conclusion applies to many other colleges and universities in the United States. Individuals who are interested in higher education, race and education, civil rights, social movements, and Black history will greatly benefit from a careful reading of Point of Reckoning. Regarding Duke, the author concludes, "true greatness will only become possible if the university is able to create the diverse and inclusive culture it seeks" (p. 285).