Seymour Society's Programs Seek to Educate Local Blacks

In an attempt to increase Black political and social awareness, a small Black religious group is sponsoring a series of campus teach-ins on topics ranging from nuclear disarmament to national social spending.

The Seymour Society, hoping to educate Black area communities, will repeat several "teach-ins" that it held this summer in local churches.

The group hopes "to mobilize the Black student population to take morally responsible positions on [social and political] issues," Eugene Rivers '84, a spokesman for the society, said yesterday.

It will also hold several fall "teach-ins" at other colleges, including Wellesley. Duke University and Roxbury Community College.

Turnout for each of the summer's programs ran as high as 40 people, though some attendance was "pretty sad," said member Brian Weber '84. As a result of the summer's teach-ins, about 40 people, including students from other schools, have signed up to help with this fall's programs, Rivers said.

In addition, a "grassroots organization" with about 60 members will meet every Thursday to discuss political issues, said Jacqueline Cook '83, former president of the society and director of the summer program.

Other Black organizations, including the Black Ecumenical Church, the World Council on Churches and Harvard's Black Students' Association, have said they will back the society's fall plans, Seymour Society officials said.

The Seymour Society also hopes to organize a mass rally to protest drug trafficking in the Roxbury community in Boston.

The Seymour Society can help reduce drug activity by putting "our intellectual resources at the disposal of the Black community through the churches," said Rivers.