Shockley Flees U. of Kansas After Hecklers Protest Speech

Protestors at the University of Kansas disrupted a speech on Thursday by William B. Shockley, Professor of Engineering at Stanford and a Nobel Laureate, forcing Shockley to continue his speech off campus.

The protestors, who were primarily black, interrupted Shockley as he spoke to a History of Science meeting of about 20 graduate students and teachers, and they chanted, "Shockley is a lackey of the ruling class."

Norris Heatherington, assistant professor of History at the University of Kansas, said yesterday that he invited Shockley to speak after an earlier debate, scheduled in Kansas, between Shockley and Richard Goldby, professor of Chemistry at the University of Maryland, was cancelled because of concern expressed by black students.

Controversy has centered on Shockley in past years because of Shockley's stance that differences in intelligence are primarily genetic in origin, and because he has advocated a voluntary sterilization program for individuals with low intelligence quotas.

In a telephone interview last night, Shockley cited statistics showing that what he termed the lowest economic class--black rural farm women--have the highest fertility rate. Shockley claimed this statistic indicates that more low IQ children will be born, and thus place a burden on the welfare system.

Who Pays?

Shockley said, "The taxpayer will suffer, but the genetically disadvantaged babies will suffer most. In effect they are genetically disadvantaged, enslaved in miserable environments from which they do not have the mental power to escape."

In 1973 the Harvard Law Forum cancelled a debate between Shockley and National CORE director Roy Innis because of "expressions of displeasure within segments of the Harvard community" and fear of disruptions, a Law Forum spokesman said at the time.