Archie Epps

As the only Negro dean at Harvard, Archie Epps is an obvious target for impossible expectations. Everyone has his own vague stereotype of what a Negro leader should be, and Epps is neither black enough for the Negroes nor white enough for the whites.

Many who would like him to be Harvard's symbolic link with Negro movements find his style pretentious and his activities aimed only at egotistic goals. But Epps, despite his sometimes superficially prep-schoolish style, is largely responsible for the initiative behind a number of important organizations at Harvard, and remains constantly motivated to aid all efforts toward social change.

Epps lives with controversy. "I've seen the explosive materials in Negro communities," Epps says, "and have come to the conclusion that the radical position is the most practical solution--if you don't have it you have your head in the sand."

Rating himself on a liberal-radical-militant scale, Epps opts for radical. Harvard has applied no pressure on him to conform to the conservative stereotype of a college dean. "I do what my conscience leads me to do with the knowledge that I will accept the consequences of my actions," he says. "Some say now that I'm a dean I should work to consolidate my power and work on Negro affairs, but that is not my moral philosophy. I will support all movements for social change because there is not much hope of moving the Negro into the twentieth century if there aren't changes in the structure and outlook of society."

Negro movements today, Epps contends, are much too narrow in their approach to reform, because they concentrate exclusively on racial questions. "They should move towards improving the economic conditions of the lower classes in general, instead of just protesting Negro unemployment."

In a historical perspective, Epps discerns two main Negro movements in the U.S.: the traditionally radical branch and the conservative faction. The radicals started with the DuBois Clubs and moved to NAACP and its sub-groups which are supported by the Negro intellectuals and leaders, while the Conservatives centered around the Urban League and the National Negro Business League. The Conservatives, Epps says, are the descendants of Booker T. Washington and feel that they must prove themselves worthy before they can enter white society.

Inspite of his seemingly obvious role as a Negro figurehead at Harvard, Epps insists that he is not "Dean of Negro students," but that he remains interested in their activities "because I know the pain one goes through upon encountering new, integrated situations." One of the "hang-ups" of Negro students at Harvard is that they suspect all whites of being anti-Negro. It is difficult to learn, Epps explains, that this is not usually true.

Along with his duties as assistant dean and tutor in Leverett, Epps is a man of surprisingly diversified extra-curricular interests, many of which involve a large number of Negro students. Advisor to the Association of Afro and Afro-American Students, Epps feels that it provides a forum for discussion between African and American Negroes where they can examine the "useful aspects of negritude." Primarily, he says, it helps form a Negro identity, "but I do not think that the forum should exclude whites who are interested in the same issues."

The Harvard Journal of Negro Affairs, to which Epps brought financial aid and moral support, grew out of a feeling that AAAAS needed a voice. Instead of a voice, the journal has become a chorus of opinions with different intonations for every opinion within the political spectrum of AAAAS.

Epps is also the author of a number of articles on Civil Rights and Malcolm X. An American Member of the Signet Society, he is currently writing a book entitled Malcolm X at Harvard which will include his own introduction and Malcolm X's three speeches at Harvard. This series, Epps points out, is indicative of the major phases Malcolm X went through. The first lecture given in 1961 at the Law School Forum, when he appeared as the disciple of Elijah Muhammad, was "rigid and fanatic and filled with Black Nationalist rhetoric."

The second speech at Harvard came at the end of '64 when Malcolm X spoke on a panel with Martin L. Kilson and James Q. Wilson. "This was his muck-raker phase when he had just broken with the Black Muslims and was critical of everyone. Three months later, after another trip to Africa, Malcolm X returned to the Law School Forum to give a very introspective, self-critical speech.

"He was a decent man and I'm sorry he's dead." Epps says, "but the only speech I sympathized with was the last one because it is only through developing this self-critical approach that the Negro will break out of the Conservative pattern." "Although I can't go along with his earlier voodoo Nationalism," Epps adds, "Malcolm X freed my mind of self indulgent bourgeois concerns. Before my mind was critical, but after having listened to Malcolm X, I became self-critical."

As Harvard's Peace Corps representative, Epps is involved in the promotion of Peace Corps projects and the selection of finalists for these programs. Always at the center of controversial issues, Epps recently negotiated with Shriver in an effort to elicit deferments for members of the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps is perhaps the best example of Epps' philosophy that all forms of social change must be promoted in order to help the Negro enter the twentieth century.

In his fifth year with the Harvard Glee Club, Epps is Assistant Conductor and a magnificent first tenor. But only last year, activity in the Glee Club led to an ugly incident while the Club was on tour in the South. Epps, one of the best singers in the Glee Club, was scheduled as one of eight members to perform over a Southern TV station. The management of the station refused to let Epps sing, and Epps quite legitimately cried discrimination. But his musical penchant has had a brighter side also, and Epps is advisor of the Leverett House Opera Society which produced Cosi Fan Tutti last year and is now presenting Don Giovanni.

Epps also entertains an active interest in student political movements which he feels the University should allow a maximum of flexibility. He is specifically concerned with political organizations such as SDS which he says has become an important element in Harvard's present make-up. As for the University's approach to racial questions, Epps says that Harvard is in the difficult position of having to promote integration and afford students as much liberty as possible at the same time. The problem was illustrated last year, Epps says, when a number of Freshman Negroes were told by their proctor that they shouldn't be so cliquish and sit at the same table at the Freshman Union. It is in precisely this kind of situation, Epps contends, that students must be left alone.

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Epps tells how his father was a high school teacher until he was blocked from becoming headmaster. Quitting the school, Epps senior first ran an ice cream route and then built up a cleaning store business. "But my father left me a legacy of radical politics which I will never forget," Epps says.

Epps went to a Catholic high school and then received his A.B. at Talladega College in Alabama. His academic interests are as diverse as his activities outside the classroom. He studied religion at Harvard, is presently a teaching fellow in Middle Eastern Studies, and, at twenty-seven, soon plans to finish his Ph.D. in Social Relations.