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BY ASHIA TROIANO

In print | Published February 12, 2009 — Updated February 17, 2009 21:45

Correction Appended

This article is the second of a four part series celebrating Black History Month. Accompanying this article is a 1969 Phoenix editorial defending the members of SASS and supporting their cause.

Perhaps one of the most memorable events to occur on Swarthmore’s campus is what eventually came to be known as “The Crisis of 1969.” In January of 1969, a group of over 40 black students, led by then-president of the Swarthmore Afro-American Student Society Clinton Etheridge ’69, staged a sit-in in the Admissions Office to protest the lack of attention they felt they were being given as students clearly in the racial minority. Seven days after the sit-in had started, then-president of the college Courtney Smith died of a heart attack.

Between the years of 1953 and 1956, there was an average of two black students in each class. By the time of the graduating class of 1969, that number had risen to nineteen, but with the 1968 matriculation of only eight black freshmen, black upperclassmen questioned how committed the college was to increasing black admissions. “There were maybe 10 black students before my class. With my class, there were maybe seven or eight who came in that year,” Joyce Baynes ’68 said. At Swarthmore, Baynes was one of the Seven Sisters, a group of seven women who, according to Baynes, “were the most passionate and active about black student power and recognizing our history.” The other Sisters included Aundrea White Kelley ’72, Myra Rose ’70, Marilyn Holifield ’69, Jannette Domingo ’70, Bridget Van Gronigen-Warren ’70 and Marilyn Allman Maye ’69.

In October of 1968, Etheridge and Don Mizell ’71, vice-chairman of SASS, expressed these concerns in a letter that was sent to then-Dean of Admissions Hargadon and The Phoenix.

Unsatisfied with the administration’s response, SASS then issued a report to The Phoenix, including a list of demands they had for the college, which was supported by the Student Council. Included in that list was the creation of a Black Interest Committee and a SASS Recruitment Committee to promote outreach to black students. Because then-President Smith asked for clarification of the demands, SASS released another report, this one calling for two black Deans to be hired and enrollment of 100 black students within the next three years. Smith distributed these demands to the entire student body with his response, but SASS felt he had not given sufficient attention to the matter.

“We decided to make demands to institutionalize the things we had done before we left … we weren’t looking for attention or a grand standing,” Marilyn Allman Maye ’69 said.

One of the main things black students wanted was increased representation on the campus. “We were generally not happy with the support system for us … we were pushing for black faculty — people we could talk to and relate to,” Baynes said.

According to Maye, “all of the black workers were maids or janitors. There were no black white-collar workers.” She was most angered that black adults were called by their first names and started addressing them more formally. “We weren’t accustomed to calling grown folks by their first names. It was offensive to us. The class and culture [of Swarthmore] started to hit you.”

By Jan. 9, 1969 the sit-in had started. And as the days passed and the sit-in continued, almost all 47 black students joined. “More black students joined us over time probably because they saw three things: 1) the administration did not call the police on us, 2) the administration did not move to expel us, and 3) the moral legitimacy of our position emerged over time, the kind of moral legitimacy Martin Luther King and other non-violent protesters summoned,” Etheridge said in an e-mail.

And of the black custodial staff, Maye said, “They were for us. Maybe they couldn’t say it out loud, but they would bring us soap, toilet paper, food. They weren’t militant people with afros; they were at the grassroots level.”

Even with all the support, the members of SASS do not deny that there was much concern among the students by taking so big of a risk. “[Students] struggled with whether to join or not … There was a lot of anxiety. People had scholarships. But you have to decide what risks you are willing to take. Most decided they would rather be with us inside than be on the outside,” Maye said.

Maye said that she did not know what to expect once the sit-in was well underway.

“Even then, I knew I did not want to be a moral coward, if I could help it. I’ve lived long enough to realize also that, sometimes, the things we regret the most are not the things we did, but the things we didn’t do,” Etheridge said in an e-mail. “In Jan. 1969, my parents were scared to death for me: that I would be expelled from Swarthmore, or beaten by the police, or arrested. However, over the years, I came to realize how proud of me they were for what I did in Jan. 1969.”

When Smith died on Jan. 16, the SASS takeover reached national coverage and the sit-in was called off. Many blamed SASS for Smith’s death, but Ellen Schall ’69, then-president of Student Council, released this statement to the college community: “There is no question in our mind of blame or guilt; there is room only for sorrow, not bitterness.”

Still, there was huge backlash from the community directed at SASS. “I heard so many veiled threats and so many unjust statements by members of this community that my faith in Swarthmore was shaken,” Asmarom Legesse, visiting professor and African anthropologist, said in an open letter.

Members of SASS remembered having to be taken to neighboring black churches until things settled down. “I was saddened by [Smith’s] death and that they blamed it on students,” Baynes said.

After the sit-in, a liaison committee was formed to address the situation between SASS and the faculty. “This was by far the most worthwhile experience being on a committee I’ve ever had. Not that there wasn’t tension, but everyone worked constructively,” said Steven Piker, Professor of Anthropology, who had joined Swarthmore in 1966 and served as a member of this liaison committee.

By the time of the sit-in, SASS had existed for three years. The group involved in the sit-in was among the first cohort of SASS members with Sam Shepherd ’68 as the chairman. “Sam was very eager to advance this fledging organization which, after some discussion, the black students decided to name the “Swarthmore Afro-American Students Society,” Etheridge said in a letter to Vice President of Community and College relations Maurice Eldridge ’61.

SASS, as an entity, was very community-oriented. “We participated in anti-war activities and became involved with Upward Bound and voter registration in Chester. We became quite active,” Baynes said.

Though she had graduated by the time of the sit-in, Baynes was very involved in black student life in other ways.

“We did some kinds of radical things,” Baynes said. Remembering one incident in which the college invited a white South African to speak to the students in a mandatory assembly on the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, Baynes said, “We walked out — not all blacks, but those of us who were really committed to the movement. We felt it was insensitive of the college to bring a white South African, and I was proud we could do this. Nobody knew how many would actually get up and walk out.”

Maye looks back on the SASS takeover as “necessary because we felt like we didn’t have a voice. When there’s nobody in power to help you, you have to be activists. Now, you don’t necessarily have to take over the building anymore.”

When she returned to Swarthmore years later and saw the BCC gospel choir perform, she said she was filled with joy. “It is rare in your life that you do something so risky and you get vindicated,” Maye said.
Etheridge has written his memories of the SASS sit-in in an article entitled “The Crucible of Character: A Personal Account of Swarthmore’s Crisis of 1969.” In it, he writes, “On the surface, the crisis was about black admissions at Swarthmore. However, at a deeper level, it was really about the relationship of Swarthmore College to black America and the American dream.”

Correction: Feb. 17, 2009

Correction: This article incorrectly quotes sociology and anthropology professor Steven Piker as saying that his work on the liaison comittee was “by far the most worthwhile experience being on a committee [he’s] ever had.” While Professor Piker asserts that he did, in fact, find his work with the liaison committee fulfilling, this quote was actually in reference to his work, in a later period, with the Black Studies Committee.

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