Usher Urges Harvard to Promote Integration at Boyden Observatory

Peter D. Usher, a post-graduate student at the Harvard Observatory, said yesterday that the University should bring pressure to bear on alledged segregation at the Boyden Observatory in South Africa.

Harvard has held substantial interest in the Observatory since 1927.

According to Usher, the Observatory continues to practice the following segregationist policies:

* There are no non-white astronomers at the Observatory and, to his knowledge, there have been no attempts to encourage non-white students to do research there.

* No non-white visitors are allowed to tour the observatory.

* Canteen and rest room facilities are segregated.

* Non-white, menial laborers are paid the traditionally low South African wage.

Harvard could insist that the Observatory hold public lectures to which both Negroes and whites are invited, and it could encourage qualified Negro students to do research at the observatory, Usher said. "We have a number of cards up our sleeve which we haven't used," he added.

Original Owner

Harvard was the original owner of the Boyden Observatory when it was moved, in 1927, from Peru to Bloemfontein, in the Orange Free State -- what one South African described as the Mississippi of South Africa. In 1955 a cooperative was formed in which Harvard shared the Observatory with Northern Ireland, Ireland, Sweden, West Germany, and Belgium. On July 1, 1966 Harvard transfered its administrative and logistic responsibilities to the Smithsonian Astro-Physical Observatory which is closely linked with the Harvard Observatory.

Carlton W. Tillinghaft, assistant director for administration at the Smithsonian Observatory, said that advice on racial issues came from the State Department. "If they asked us to pull out, we would, but they have not instructed us to put pressure on South African apartheid," Tillinghaft said.

Open Question

Usher may be right, Tillinghaft admitted, "it's an open question, but I don't think that we could play an active role in these matters." Tillinghaft said that although apartheid was a topic of debate at the council of Boyden affiliates, "we have done nothing to try to change South African social policy."

There are no plans to change this policy of non-intervention towards South African apartheid, Tillinghaft continued, "but this is up to the State Department, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a change in policy."

Tillinghaft explained the transfer from the Harvard Observatory to the Smithsonian Observatory was based on pragmatic, not racial reasons. "Even though the Smithsonian interest in the Boyden Observatory is quite light right now, Harvard gave us the administrative and logistic problems because with some 40 observatories all over the world we have a network can handle these problems," he said.

But even if Harvard has transfered its logistic responsibilities to the Smithsonian Institute, both of them will continue to be represented at policy making meetings of the Boyden council, Tillinghaft said, Harvard has not severed its affiliation with Boyden Observatory through the transfer and will continue to send research teams to the Observatory.

Useful Link

One of the issues which emerged from the conflicting opinions of Usher and Tillinghaft was what the possible reaction of the South African government might be if the Observatory made any attempt to desegregate. Usher said that "they probably wouldn't kick us out because the Observatory is a feather in the cap of the local government. the Observatory is a useful link with Europe and the United States."

Although Tillinghaft said that this was a possible interpretation, it was important to retain an intellectual link with South Africa; the implication was that if desegregation was pushed too hard, the astronomers would be expelled from the country entirely