My Brothers and Sisters,
My name is Carl Darnell and I am the Education Chair for BGSA. As such, I aim to enlighten and educate the community on Black History, both locally and worldwide. First I would like to introduce you to a fellow member of BGSA then provide you with history fact about Black at IU.
BGSA Member “Under the Blacklight”
Family, please welcome Blair Chance. Blair is one of the few, very few, Black medical students at IU Bloomington (there are only two in the class of 2016 cohort). Blair is relatively new to IU Bloomington, but she frequently attends BGSA meetings and social events. Moreover, Blair has been an active participant in IU Recreational Sports, playing intramural basketball on weeknights. BGSA welcomes and salutes Black Historymaker, Blackademician, Blair Chance.
Black at IU
1. The Little 500 Sit-In
On May 8, 1968, around 50 African-American students gathered in the stadium where the little 500 bike race was to take place the next day. They were demonstrating mainly to show their dissatisfaction with the discriminatory clauses in fraternity charters, but also to protest the discrimination elsewhere on campus and the low numbers of African-American students and faculty members. They barricaded the stadium and wrote a list of demands, stating they would stay put until each fraternity proved they had eliminated the discriminatory clauses or until the university ceased to recognize those organizations that failed to comply. Indiana University’s president, Elvis Stahr, and other members of the administration worked with the students to appease the demonstrators. The University was later applauded for its swift and effective way of working with the protesting students (http://www.cardinalstage.org/slideshows-good-behavior-bad-behavior/).
On Friday, May 8 a group of around 50 black students set up camp inside the stadium where the Little 500 was to be held the following day. The group was led by Rollo Turner, Robert Johnson – president of the Afro-Afro-American Students Association (AAASA), and IU basketball player Kenny Newsome, and the main issue was discriminatory clauses in the national charters of fraternities on campus. The students barricaded themselves within the stadium and let it be known that they would block the Little 500 race from taking place unless all involved fraternities provided proof that such clauses were either eliminated or would no longer be honored at IU. Armed and armored with sticks, helmets and improvised shields for defense, the students remained non-violent throughout the three day sit-in.