Black Alumni Weekend

To the Editors of The Crimsons:

Attending the Black Alumni Weekend three weeks ago. I was impressed by the many changes at the College since my tenure (1957-61): the coed College, the dramatic increase in the numbers of Blacks from Seven in the class of 1961 to well over 100 in the class of 1985, the increase in total student numbers and cultural diversity, the flourishing of several significant Black institutions the increased focus on technology, was also happy to find a sense of sameness in the intense search for excellence.

In attempting to grasp a sense of the new realities of Harvard, I was reminded of a quintessential insight stated at the turn of the century by the Harvard philosopher Henry Adams: that a dynamic of human history appears to be a constantly increasing rate of change. Attending the Black Alumni Weekend increased my awareness that in this amplified technical age, where human energy appears strained merely to deal with the proliferation of new events, the importance of history is increasing as a rudder in the four dimensional voyage of humanity. The Harvard Black students and faculty who organized the Black Alumni Weekend appear also to have grasped this important perception. One of the hardest tasks of today's education, and indeed in any aspect of life today, may be to place the welther of current human actions, Information, moods and crises into the perspective of time, the historical perspective.

By reaching into the time dimension to add meaning to their Harvard experience, the current Black students have tapped into a rich wellspring from which they can draw great resource in arranging perspective; for the history of Harvard Black him is replete with examples of positive inspiration: Richard I. Greener, William Monroe Trotter, W.E.B. DuBois, Ned Gourd in, Leo Hansberry, Edwin Jourdain, William Hastic, Bob Moses, Barry Williams, Theodore K. Lawless, Ralph Bunch, Robert Weaver, Whitney Young, Arthur Mitchell, Mondedcia Johnson, John Hope Franklin, Countee Cullen, Eve B. Douglass (Radcliffe)--the list goes on and on. It would be a rewarding experience for students to become even more aware of the phenomenally high ratio of Black Harvardians who have made major contributions to the advancement of Black people and indeed, to all aspects of civilization as a whole. In fact, the weekend produced two very fine cases in point: Dr. Fitzhugh ('30), who has been a pillar of assistance to Blacks who have aspired to compete in the economic arena and Mr. Gibbs ('17), who offered a rare glimpse at the strength of the early Harvard Black tradition.

In that same spirit Black students should also never forget that Harvard has repeatedly emerged as a bastion of a uniquely American drive for increased human free an and dignity. Despite the inevitable shortcomings of any institution, it would be a loss for Black students to spend four years at Harvard and not sample and draw inspiration from the phalanx of non-Black Harvardians who dedicated their lives to the furthering of universal freedom. Black Harvardians have an opportunity to share the tradition of John Quincy Adams who defended the Black liberation, Cinque, of the absolutionists Emerson, Longfellow and Thoreau. Robert could Shaw volunteered to lead the Black 54th Massachusetts regiment into battle and was killed in a bloody assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina. Shaw was buried in a mass grave with his slain troops. His family wrote. "He could have no finer honor."

As Black Harvardians you are definitely at an intellectual center of the planet, renowned since 1636. It is important to know its history and to view yourselves as one more of an endless line of marching men and women who are marked by the singular characteristic of an intense capacity to explore that great enigma, Verities. You are surrounded by positive symbols of gigantic intellectual and moral accomplishment. The challenge to the mind and will is to immerse yourself in, and identify boldly with, the positive aspects of those symbols. Never let the ever-present negatives of this world define your relationship to Harvard. This does not mean you avoid them and submit. Simply overcome them, see through them, and by your very equanimity, remold them, rather than have them define you. Remember, whatever shortcomings are there, they are nothing compared to what you will since in the world beyond Harvard.

Above all, you are there much more to absorb than to emit. Absorb the riches and inaximize the character. Everyone is assimilating your dynamic music, hip language, new perspectives: your culture, Do not be afraid to ingest a quantum of James Russell Lowell, John F. Kennedy, or An Wang without fear of losing your identity. Engage in endless positive dialogue both with those whom you wish to shape and those by whom you wish to be molded.

Again, I along with the other alumni who made it back, honor you for your self-evident achievements and your bold creativeness to take the initiative to create these new linkages between past and present Harvard. Don't let that fade away. Nurture it. It has great potential. Spencer C.D. Jourdain '61