“Variations in Black”: Eureka’s Stories – February 19, 2008

“Have you grown to the point where you can unflinchingly stand up for the right, for that which is honorable, honest, truthful, whether it makes you popular or unpopular? Have you grown to the point where absolutely and unreservedly you make truth and honor your standard of thinking and speaking?”

~ Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) ~

What does it mean to be an abolitionist-founded institution in modern times? Some would say that since slavery was outlawed in the United States in 1865 that the spirit that animated the Founders was satiated, and as a result, our reform impulse should be quenched or at least stymied. Others might argue that the necessity of standing up for justice is ingrained in the essence of Eureka College and we, the fifth generation since the Founders, must conduct ourselves in a fashion that is worthy of our noble inheritance. Even in the dawn of the twenty-first century, slavery persists (yes, it does) as does evil in diverse shapes and forms. If we desire to live in the spirit of the abolitionist Founders, then we too must be willing to take a stand and be agents of change however difficult that path might be.

Morris Dees, the Executive Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) spoke at Eureka College on September 22, 1999, as part of the Arts and Lecture Series. Through the sustained efforts of the SPLC, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, Dees and a team of civil rights attorneys have worked for nearly forty years to fight hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Skinheads, Neo-Nazis, and White Aryan Nation. They have achieved major successes through court victories that have effectively put many hate groups out of business by seizing their assets and turning them over to families of the victims of hate crimes.

Security for the event was heavy because of the then recent Fourth of July 1999 shooting spree in the Midwest in which Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, an associate of Matt Hale's World Church of the Creator [an East Peoria-based organization], had carried out a series of hate crimes against specific targets. Smith’s drive-by shooting spree had taken place across Illinois and Indiana where he had selected his victims on the basis of religion, ethnicity, and race. In Chicago, Smith had wounded six Orthodox Jews—he killed Ricky Byrdsong, an African American basketball coach, in Skokie—he wounded an African American minister in Decatur—he killed Won-Joon Yoon, a Korean graduate student at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana—and then Smith finally took his own life.

The event was held in the Regan Center before a packed house of 900 who attended. Seventy-five security officers, both uniformed and undercover, from seven jurisdictions ranging from the FBI to the Eureka Police Department were present for the event. All who attended the lecture had to go through metal detectors to enter Reagan Center (a pre-9/11 security measure that was deemed necessary for the event).

Responding to a question about why he was presenting an address at Eureka College, Dees commented, "...this isn't an economic issue - - let me tell you, justice in not a political issue, justice is not an issue of Republican, conservative, or liberal - - deep in the hearts of people throughout time eternity, justice has been the goal."

Dees’ visit to the campus drew national and international attention as it was broadcast in its entirety on C-SPAN, the only event in Eureka College history to receive such media coverage. The text of Dees’ remarks was later transcribed and published in the February 2000 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day.