By Elliot Boswell
At a campus as ethnically homogeneous as ours, where events like "Black History Month" fly under the radar of most students, somehow it doesn't seem redundant to say, believe it or not, that UP has its own racial history. Although it may not be as high profile as, say, the University of Alabama, it is certainly worth examining, especially during our current celebration of "Black History Month."
The inception of "Black History Month" on The Bluff began almost 15 years ago as part of a larger, nationwide celebration of our country's African-American legacy. According to English professor John Orr, the celebration was initially in partnership with the Bridge Builders program, which used to help organize black history events on campus, such as the African-American read-in that took place on Feb. 4th of this year.
"For the first three years or so, we used to have it (the read-in) in the middle of the day, so anyone could just drop by," Orr said. "Everyone came and read on their own schedule, so it was much broader in terms of the different groups that could participate."
This year, however, the read-in was coupled with a dinner of traditional soul food, like chicken and collared greens, and featured readings from a wide range of African-American literature; there was a place for everything from Toni Morrison to Talib Kweli
Now I admit, as a good muckraker I was hoping for to find a sordid and segregated racial tale here on The Bluff, but I was gently surprised to find a consistently open, progressive-minded policy regarding race at the University.
For example, there was never a policy barring African-Americans from attending, even in the early part of the 20th century when many other universities nationwide did have such policies. Admittedly, there was only the occasional black student on The Bluff up through the Second World War, but it was primarily because the populations of both Washington and Oregon were predominantly white and Asian-American. But with the return of American GIs from the war and the ensuing increase in college affordability, higher education nationwide became more stratified and minority groups began to have the chances to gain a foothold.
The first instance of a black student in the UP archives was Richard Lawrence in the 1944 Log, but there was no evidence of him ever graduating. The class of '49, however, brought former Tuskegee Aviator, WWII veteran and noted Portland resident Carl Deiz, who earned a B.A. in business and whose brother Robert logged more than 90 missions over Italy in the later stages of the war.
In 1951, four years before the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision rendered segregation unconstitutional, the UP student body elected a black student, Bob Herndon, to the position of ASUP vice president at a time when many other universities had yet to admit a black student.
From the post-war era on, UP veritably cranked out high-profile black figures, both on a local and sometimes even national level.
William McCoy, class of '50, was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a Democrat in November of 1973 after a long record of community service in the Portland area, and was the first African-American to be elected a house representative in the state of Oregon.
Later in 1973, Paul Winfield, class of '61, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his moving role as a black sharecropper in the 1972 film "Sounder," only the third African-American to have been so honored. He is remembered at UP for his serious dedication to the theatre arts and as a committed cellist in the university orchestra.
In addition to producing notable African-American figures, UP also has a long history of working closely with local race-related organizations like the Urban League and more recently, Bridge Builders. In 1986, two black students, Tina and Mark Garlington, lost their parents, the Rev. John and Yvonne Garlington, in a fatal accident, and, through efforts of the Urban League working in close conjunction with University officials, were guaranteed funding for their continued education on The Bluff.
Not everything, however, has been so rosy for race relations here at UP. In 1991, two students shouted ethnic slurs at the visiting Cal-Poly men's soccer team, an action that understandably offended people in the vicinity and was denounced by the Association of African-American Students, as well as in a staff editorial in The Beacon.
In 1964, at the apex of the Civil Rights Movement, black enrollment at the university was more than 2.5 percent, with an involved Black Student Union that sponsored numerous campus functions. Fast forward to 1986, when a column in a newsletter named "On the Bluff" is written lamenting the drop in black students, which by then had fallen to 1.5 percent. Ten years later, in 1996, an editorial in The Beacon reported similar statistics for the previous fall. Currently we have 39 black undergraduates out of a total undergraduate population of 3,027, or about 1.3 percent.
In all fairness, though, UP draws the majority of its students from Washington and Oregon, two states with relatively low African-American populations, so it can be understood that the university community is a reflection of the larger regional community.
But the consistently low black enrollment at UP causes events like "Black History Month" and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to go somewhat unnoticed, and events like the read-in suffer accordingly.
Orr noted that the read-in has now become self-sustaining as it is seen as a chance for people to read their favorites, but admitted that it has had to undergo a couple different manifestations.
"There's been a few transitions," he said.
But one black UP alum kept race in perspective. In 1981, Ulysses Tucker, Jr., class of '79, was named one of the nation's 25 most eligible bachelors of the year by Ebony magazine, which described him as an active, community-minded bachelor who "is attracted to sensitive, politically aware women."
His response? "My next goal is to make the cover."
