M ILESTONES The Michigan Daily - Orientation Edition 2004 - 7
Brown sisters recall roles in legal civil rights battle
January 13, 2004 The sisters told their sto- my tears to freeze upon my
By Farayha Arrine ries and answered audience face."
and Karen Schwartz questions about their fami- Cheryl spoke about Brown
Daly StaifReporters ly's involvement in the v. Board as the "beginning of
Brown lawsuit, which over- the end" of racial segregation
Her mother was at home ironing and turned the 1896 Plessy v. that started a dialogue in the
listening to the radio and her father was Ferguson, "separate but United States about race rela-
working at 12:52 p.m. on May 17, 1954, equal," precedent. tions. She added that fear is
when the landmark Brown v. Board of "I know probably you've . one of the roots of racism, a
Education ruling was announced, seen me, sometimes in your fear student panelist Paul
declaring segregation in public schools history books with that little Spurgeon said is often used to
unconstitutional. coat on," Thompson said. further misunderstandings
As Thompson made the long trek "But I want you to sit back and manipulate people.
home from school, she said, she thought and relax and think back "We have to understand
about how her sisters would not have to with me some 50 years to 1that fear can be corrupted,"
make the same long walk in the fall. Brown v. the Board of Edu- Spurgeon, an LSA junior,
Instead, they could attend the nearby and cation, and my family's part BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily said.
formerly all-white neighborhood school. that we played in that very Linda Brown Thompson stands with a sign-language interpreter in Cheryl charged students
Linda Brown Thompson and her sis- historic case." Rackham Auditorium. Thompson and her sister, Cheryl Brown with the responsibility of
ter Cheryl Brown Henderson spoke with She recalled her father's Henderson, spoke about the landmark Brown v. Board decision. being active and involved citi-
student panelists and the crowd that failed attempt to enroll her zens as well as informing
filled Rackham Auditorium last night in in the all-white elementary school four only make half of it some days because future generations of the struggle for
"A Conversation With The Brown Sis- blocks from her house and the anger the cold would get too bitter for a small equality in education.
ters," the University's kickoff event for black parents felt about the "inaccessi- child to bear," Thompson said. "I can Cheryl emphasized the impact young
the 17th annual Reverend Dr. Martin bility of the neighborhood schools." still remember taking that bitter walk people have on making change, and the
Luther King, Jr. Symposium. "I can remember that walk, I would and the terrible cold that would cause need for youth to make their voices
Renovated Hil Auditorium dazzles
audience with return to 1913 interior
heard with regard to "anything that
smacks of injustice." She said she was
particularly impressed with the young
people who spoke out about the
Supreme Court cases last year regarding
the use of race as a factor in University
admissions policies.
"The average age of the people in this
country that have changed this nation
was about 16, 17," she said, talking
about the dedicated actions of ordinary
people in the Civil Rights Movement
that made a difference. "They are you all
sitting in this room and it's clearly the
challenge we issue for this evening."
She also discussed the value of educa-
tion and its role as a foundation of the
nation's democracy.
"The bottom line is ... Brown v.
Board was never about sitting next to
white children. It was about having
access to the resources that white chil-
dren had access to, the resources were
following those children and I'm sorry
to say they still seem to be following
those children," Cheryl said.
January 9, 2004
By Andrew Kaplan
Daily Staff Reporter
Even when the sun shone briefly over a
frigid State Street yesterday morning, its
brightness was no match for the golden halls
of Hill Auditorium.
Nearly two years since closing its doors
for renovations, the legendary auditorium -
which housed such greats as opera virtuoso
Luciano Pavarotti and impresario Leonard
Bernstein in past years - reopened yester-
day to University students and thousands of
members of the Ann Arbor community. What
they encountered was a structure prodigious-
ly different from the aged, graying theater of
the.last five decades.
"It's just brighter," said Jennie Lombard,
an Ann Arbor resident who graduated from
the University in the class of 1959. Visitors
wandered the auditorium, following musical
performances and a ribbon-cutting ceremony
by University President Mary Sue Coleman,
administrators and architects.
Lombard recalled concerts she attended in
the auditorium during her days as a student,
when the theater wore coats of gray and
beige paint that concealed hundreds of
opalescent lights.
Today, the pale colors have been stripped
away. The highest points of the ceiling now
don sashes of blue and gold setting into
gleaming bronze arches above the stage.
"I've been ina lot of auditoriums and this was
amazing," said Jessica Chaise, an LSA senior.
"I've never seen a hall so beautiful," Cole-
man said before participating in the ribbon-
cutting ceremony on stage.
But as project coordinators quickly pointed
out, the auditorium's new look - which carries
a $40 million price tag the University covered
partly through donations - is more of a con-
servative transformation than a metamorphosis
into anything radical and untried. The renova-
tion, which spent more than 10 years in the
planning phase, restores Hill to its early-20th
century "Arts and Crafts" decor. The University
masked the original design during a 1949
remodeling project.
"Because it's a restoration, we did it so it
looks like it's always been here," said Henry
Baier, associate vice president for facilities
and operations for the University, who over-
saw the auditorium's latest makeover.
There are now, however, some amenities
- artistic, acoustical and practical - that
were absent from the hall when workers orig-
inally completed its construction in 1913.
With regards to the auditorium's interior,
project coordinators brought back the
house's gold, blue and bronze color scheme,
illuminated more than 300 "medallion" and
"necklace" lights on the hall's vaulting walls.
They also hand-painted the yawning glass
laylight that gazes down upon the audience.
But whereas longtime patrons of the
auditorium may remember seeing blue
painted organ pipes on stage, workers
leafed those pipes in gold.
"They were very simple colors," Baier
said, referring to the hall's 1949 motif.
"They would be kind of a light beige, a
light gray, where now you look it is very
warm - very elegant."
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