“Variations in Black”: Eureka’s Stories – February 9, 2008

“I have a dream that some day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – August 28, 1963, a rendering of Isaiah 40:4 ~

History provides us with singular moments that transform us as the urgency of a call to action crystallizes the purpose and meaning of our lives. For many, the March on Washington of August 28, 1963, was such a moment as an estimated 250,000 Americans came together for common purpose and sanctified the calling for justice in our troubled society. Whether it was the eloquence of the moment or the massive numbers that provided inspiration we will never know, but for many who had been previously silenced by what Dr. King termed the “degenerating sense of nobodiness,” the March on Washington provided the impetus to voice long-harbored beliefs that needed to be spoken. In this transformational moment, the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement was essentially shared among those who became the “foot soldiers” of the cause in communities all across the nation. Eureka was no exception to this revolution.

It is unknown if any then-current students, faculty, or staff actually attended the March on Washington, but it is possible that some may have done so. What is clear is that immediately following the August 1963 event, a compelling dialogue began on the Eureka College campus about the cause of civil rights for African Americans and the principles upon which such a movement needed to be grounded. This discussion was initiated in the pages of The Pegasus, the campus newspaper, and must likely have prompted debates in classes and late-night discussions in campus residence halls. It seems apparent that civil rights was a cause that was right for Eureka College as it embodied the fullest meaning of learning, service, and leadership that the institution has long cherished.

The Pegasus of September 27, 1963, was the first issue to appear in fall semester of 1963, and it was published just one month after Dr. King’s inspirational “I Have a Dream” speech had been delivered at the March on Washington. In that issue, Lorenzo A. Forbes (Class of 1966) wrote an article entitled “An Analysis of the Negro Revolution.” This essay, which may well have been the first civil rights article to appear in the pages of The Pegasus, provided a detailed and systematic analysis of the ideological forces that were propelling the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Subsequent issues of The Pegasus demonstrated that there existed a range of thought within the African American community as to what forces were more dynamic in inspiring and animating the cause of civil rights. Forbes’s article prompted a letter to the editor from Ronald J. Temple (Class of 1964), who challenged some of the assumptions that had been stated in the initial article. A healthy back-and-forth exchange followed throughout the fall semester as each issue of the college newspaper appeared.

Forbes had argued that the example of decolonization that was sweeping Africa and much of the Third World was the key force that was inspiring the “Negro Revolution” in the United States. Temple’s position was that Africa’s effect upon the movement was not as significant as the home-grown American impetus by blacks to see the promises of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” made real. The intellectual bantering between Forbes and Temple was compelling, and it reflected many of the then-current debates among scholars of African American history and culture. Leading sociologists and anthropologists of the day like Melville Herskovits and E. Franklin Frazier were debating the extent to which so-called “Africanisms” had survived the “middle passage” to America during the days of transatlantic slavery and whether or not the African American experience was a new hybrid phenomenon that was disassociated with anything connected to Africa either past or present. Forbes and Temple may have been familiar with the key arguments of this debate from the classes that they had taken at Eureka College.

Dr. King’s writings make it unclear as to what side he supported in this intellectual debate. There are elements of both camps that can be found within his work. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King wrote “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.” This might indicate a degree of support for the decolonization argument that Forbes was making. Yet, in his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King spoke the words: “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.” As such, it would seem that the civil rights movement was rooted in the American Dream—something similar to the argument that Temple was advancing.

The debates that took place at Eureka College in the wake of the March on Washington were based upon compelling intellectual distinctions and they were civil. They reflected Dr. King’s desire that “all flesh shall see it together” as we move to a new day where justice reigns triumphant.