The Michigan Daily -Tuesday, January 22, 1991 - Page 3
Classes, events
mark MLK day
*at other universities
by Melissa Peerless
Daily Higher Education Reporter
While University students en-
joyed a break from clases , and an
event-filled day to commemorate
Martin Luther King Day yesterday,
students at other colleges experi-
£nced a somewhat regular day.
At Michigan State University,
clases were conducted as usual
yesterday.
"There are several national hol-
idays throughout the year and it
has not been our policy to take
classes off," said Moses Turner,
vice-president for Student Affairs
and Services at Michigan State.
"It's been a long-standing tradition
At Michigan State to have classes
on Martin Luther King Day.
"However, this holiday was not
overlooked. There were special
events around campus so there is
awareness. We simply do not take
the day off," he added.
In Virginia, Martin Luther King,
Jr. is commemorated along with
Stonewall Jackson and Robert E.
Lee on a single holiday.
At the University of Virginia in
Qharlottesville, classes were also
in session yesterday. However, the
University organized a series of
events to mark the holiday.
"There were three events start-
ing last Tuesday, Dr. King's actual
birthday on the 15th," said Lincoln
Lewis, director of Equal Opportu-
nity and Affirmative Action at the
*Vniversity of Virginia. "We had a
worship service at the university
chapel. It was well-attended,
mostly by students. Yesterday,
Reverend Otis Moss, director of
PUSH (People United to Serve
Humanity) in Cleveland, spoke to
students. Last night, he addressed
a group from a local church."
Arizona voters' refusal to make
Martin Luther King Day a state
holiday left Arizona and Montana
as the only two states in the nation
without a day commemorating
King.
At the University of Montana in
Missoula, anti-war activism over-
shadowed yesterday's holiday.
"We had classes yesterday,"
said Mark Jones of the Montana
Kaiman, University of Montana's
student newspaper. "There wasn't
really anything that happened. No
events were scheduled."
Sharon Kha, director of Public
Information at the University of
Arizona in Tucson, said that while
classes were conducted yesterday,
there was a significant amount of
commemorative activity on
campus.
"There was a march yesterday
starting at 8:30 a.m. led by the
mayor of Tucson and the Tucson
MLK Day Committee," she said.
"It began on campus and ended at
a local park. About 1,500 people
took part in the week-long celebra-
tion which began last Tuesday
with a kick-off rally.
"The events were sponsored by
a partnership of the University and
other organizations."
Kha said she was impressed
with student support of and partici-
pation in the events.
"Students have been wearing
ribbons, t-shirts, and sweatshirts.
One rally last week had 400 peo-
ple," Kha said. "At U of A, we do
not have to celebrate MLK Day
more than they do elsewhere be-
cause in Tucson we have been
celebrating this holiday for years.
Tucson is very supportive of Mar-
tin Luther King. The proposal to
adopt a state holiday passed in
Tucson."
The remains of the anti-war monument remain jumbled on the Diag grass. Students who demolished the structure said it sent a bad message, to
U.S. troops.
Students destroy Diag monument
by Melissa Peerless
Daily Staff Reporter
At 2 a.m. Monday morning, a
group of students destroyed the
anti-war monument that had
stood on the Diag since last
week.
"We had the idea ever since
we saw the wall," said one
member of the group. "We were
appalled by it and we wanted it
down."
The group members wished to
remain anonymous because two
of the six are varsity athletes at
the University. They have no
affiliation with any campus
organization.
Members of the student group
Support Our Soldiers (SOS) have
condemned the action.
The group of students opposed
the monument because they felt
that some of the symbols on the
wall were "too graphic and un-
necessarily violent." They also
thought that it wasn't built by stu-
dents and therefore had no place
on the University campus.
"We asked the people guard-
ing the monument who put it up
and who paid for it," said the
student. "They said they did and
they were not students. They also
failed to obtain a permit from the
University to erect a shanty on
the Diag."
He also felt that anti-war ac-
tivism gives the wrong kind of
message to U.S. soldiers fighting
in the Persian Gulf.
"This kind of dissention is bad
for morale," he said. "We don't
want the troops to see that the
University of Michigan doesn't
support them."
"The students tried to take
down the monument on several
other occasions," the anonymous
source said. "Every night, there
were people guarding the wall,
but (Sunday) night, it was cold so
we didn't think they would be
there. We didn't want a fight, so
we wanted to go when it wasn't
being guarded. Many passersby
stopped to help us."
Jeff Hinte thought of the idea
for the monument and led the
group that built it.
"I'm a second-year grad stu-
dent and a member of the Michi-
gan Student Assembly from
Rackham ... The monument was
built by students. Although we are
not a student group, we are a
group of students," he said in re-
sponse to the claim that the wall-
was not student-supported.
"I don't recall anyone asking
me for a permit," he added. "The
monument was an expression of
our freedom of speech and the
University has no right to restrict
it. However, if it were a rule that I
needed a permit, I would have re-
quested one.
"I believe that the people who
tore down our monument ex-
pressed an important American
value that has been expressed
during this war, the value of in-
tolerance," Hinte said.
,I
I
Speaker
by Ian Hoffman
Daily Staff Reporter
:
King would protest Gulf war
ante told the crowd of more than King would have advocated had he without a pair of shoes on
. 600. not been assassinated 23 years feet and without any land,"A
"He would say, 'You now have ago. said.
SMART missiles that can be sent "He would have decried the He added that recent su
to targets hundreds of miles away murder and violence in South have shown the average
and yet have dumb men who in Africa, against Blacks and whites family's wealth to be eight
building those systems believe alike," Asante said. "He would times as large as that of the
Martin Luther King, Jr. would
have opposed war in the Persian
Gulf if he was alive today, said Dr.
Molefi Kete Asante yesterday.
Asante, founder of the Afrocen-
tric philosophical movement and
chair of the department of African
American Studies at Temple Uni-
versity, delivered the closing ad-
dress for the University's Martin
Luther King Day activities at
Rackham auditorium.
Asante used the civil rights
leader's legacy to reflect on the
war in the gulf.
"Today King would have spo-
ken out against the forces of strug-
gle in the Arabian Peninsula," As-
their
Asante,
urveys
white
to 10
aver
1
they can solve problems," Asante
added.
Later he quoted figures on the
racial make-up of the U.S. troops
in the Persian Gulf.
Asante said 30 percent of all
troops and 48 percent of all women
participating in Operation Desert
Storm are African Americans
compared to only thirteen percent
of the country's general population.
The Philadelphia-based profes-
sor listed other stances he believed
have championed the cause of the
homeless."
Asante began the speech with a
brief synopsis of African-American
history in North America. He said
that Blacks played a major role in
creating the wealth in the U.S.
"It was our blood, sweat, tears
and lives that made it possible for
whites to have their advantage,"
he said.
Blacks were declared free at
the end of the Civil War, but they
were free "Without a penny, free
age Black family.
Asante concluded that all peoj-
ple must rededicate themselves tq
making King's dream of racial
equality a reality.
People must ask themselves,
"How long will prejudice blind the
vision of humanity," and they must
answer, "Not long," he said.
Rackham student Barbara
Ramsey was awarded a plaque for,
her "untiring fight in a struggle fors
social justice," Moody said.
, I
KENNETIH SMOLLER/D~aily
Pressing the message
Jamal Young, a graduate student in the School of Education, speaks at
the Unity Rally.
Corrections
The Daily misreported the date of the Iraqi bombing of Israel. It occurred
Jan. 17.
Elise Bryant is not the founder of the Black Action Movement.
The Daily misreported the progress in the GEO negotiations. Several
items will be discussed in subsequent talks.
Psychiatrist addresses
issues of racial identity
as source of tension
THE
What's happening i
Meetings
Kaffeestunde, weekly German
conversations. MLB third floor con-
ference room, 4:30-6.
German Club, weekly meeting.
MLB, Rm. 2004, 7-8:00.
Anthropology Club, weekly meeting.
This week featuring Prof. Crisca
Brierwert speaking about her research
on North American Indians. Dom-
inick's, 7:30.
Time & Relative Dimensions in
Ann Arbor, weekly meeting. Call
971-2072. 2439 Mason Hall, 8:00.
Latin American Solidarity Com-
mittee, weekly meeting. Union 4th
floor, 8:00.
Transfer Student Network, spon-
sored by SODC. South Quad West
Lounge, 7-8:30.
Undergraduate Law Club is hosting
a student law panel for members only.
LIST
n Ann Arbor today
Speakers
Bharati Mukherjee, Hopwood
Fiction Reading. Rackham Aud., 3:30.
"The Barbarism of Istoria,"
Gregory Stone of LSU, speaker. MLB,
4th floor Commons, 4:30.
"Social and Anti-social Forces in
the Human Being," Michael
Holdredge, speaker. Rudolf Steiner
Inst., 1923 Geddes, 8:00.
"The Civil Rights Movement in the
1950s and 1960s," weeklong lecture
series by Dr. James Forman. RC-East
Quad Aud., 3-4:30.
Furthermore
Safewalk functions 8-11:30 Sun.-Thurs.
Call 936-1000 or stop by 102 UGU.
Northwalk functions 8-11:30 Sun.-
Thurs. Call 763-WALK or stop by
2333 Bursley.
ECB Peer Writing Tutors avalible
tol he1n with vouir ravers ~Sundav-
by Michelle Clayton
Daily Staff Reporter
Amid cheers from the audi-
ence, Frances Cress-Wellsing
wrote on the chalkboard "Black-
Stay Back, Brown-Stick Around,
Yellow-Mellow, White-All
right."
Cress-Wellsing, a psychiatrist,
gave a speech entitled: "Resisting
Assimilation: The Psychology of
Self Identity" at the Power Center
yesterday.
People who are not comfortable
with their identity are the root of
racism, she said. Because racial
identity is key to racism, she
called on Blacks to embrace their
own identity.
At the same time, Cress-
Wellsing stressed the need to not
be hateful: "I'm not talking for the
purpose of hating people who clas-
sify themselves as white."
Racism is a global system to
keep the power of the world in
white hands in such areas as eco-
nomics, education, entertainment,
labor, politics, sex, and war,
Cress-Wellsing said. She added
that whites make up only one-tenth
of the global population.
their neighborss(Jews in Nazi
Germany)." She said they "all just
hung their heads and said
'nothing."'
Cress-Wellsing said this form of
racism was incongruous since "the
Semites of the Jewish religion
have been in Europe for almost
2,000 years."
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a
genius, a prophet, a great political-
scientist, and a humanitarian, she
added.
"He said love and he was killed
April 4, 1968 by a person who
classified himself as white," she
said.
0E Burnham Associates
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