Fuller and Afros at Baldwin [Howard Fuller and African-American Students at Baldwin Auditorium], part 2
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- | But never think of the truth of what you are. | 0:02 |
(applause) | 0:05 | |
The fight you have here at Duke University | 0:11 | |
is just a continuation of the fight that we have | 0:13 | |
in the great adorned. | 0:15 | |
Because here at the University feel that | 0:19 | |
father knows best. | 0:22 | |
In the downtown area, they feel the same way. | 0:26 | |
But I'm not here to tell you those things | 0:30 | |
that you already know. | 0:32 | |
I'm here to let you know that we are ready | 0:34 | |
and willing to support you in any way | 0:37 | |
that we possibly can. | 0:39 | |
Thank you. | 0:41 | |
(applause) | ||
- | Thank you, Brothers Clement and Potter. | 0:45 |
No program or nothing would be complete | 0:49 | |
with black people involved unless we heard from | 0:53 | |
our outside agitator. | 0:59 | |
(laughter and applause) | 1:02 | |
So now I give you our local outside agitator, | 1:11 | |
Brother Howard Fuller. | 1:17 | |
- | Thank you very much. | 1:20 |
My distinguished black brothers and sisters. | 1:23 | |
Other friends and supporters, enemies, undecideds, | 1:27 | |
and active neutrals. | 1:34 | |
(laughter) | ||
No harm. | 1:38 | |
You know, it's been a long day. | 1:42 | |
I had a chance to go over and visit | 1:45 | |
Bob Scott's other plantation. | 1:49 | |
(applause) | 1:52 | |
Over on Chapel Hill and I understand that he's invited | 1:57 | |
some of his boys out to make sure that his eating facilities | 2:02 | |
on his plantation will continue to be open. | 2:06 | |
You know, I didn't really get a chance | 2:11 | |
to thank old honest Bob for letting me be over there | 2:12 | |
but I hope someone will pass the message onto him | 2:16 | |
how much we appreciate the opportunity | 2:19 | |
to stand on the steps of your hall | 2:21 | |
and talk to people about how he is. | 2:23 | |
Somebody pass that on to him. | 2:27 | |
But the day is not finished yet. | 2:29 | |
Here he is over here again on Duke's campus. | 2:32 | |
(laughter) | 2:35 | |
You know, I've had an opportunity to speak on Duke's campus | 2:38 | |
a number of times in the past three and a half years. | 2:42 | |
Really in a number of different kinds of capacities. | 2:46 | |
I have talked with various classes. | 2:50 | |
In fact, I even had an opportunity to actually run | 2:53 | |
a non-credit seminar two years ago. | 2:57 | |
Of course, that was when I was only characterized | 3:01 | |
as a moderate negro. | 3:05 | |
Now I'm totally characterized as a non-militant, | 3:09 | |
moderate, radical negro. | 3:14 | |
(laughter) | ||
And I don't know which one of them I is. | 3:19 | |
But in any event, you know, here I am again. | 3:23 | |
You know, many times I have given what you might call | 3:28 | |
emotional speeches on behalf of Duke employees, | 3:31 | |
black students, and frankly, on behalf of white students. | 3:37 | |
(applause) | 3:44 | |
Tonight, what I want to do is to forgo my emotions | 3:47 | |
as much as possible. | 3:54 | |
Of course, I'm sure that all of you realize | 3:56 | |
that I'm a very emotional individual. | 3:59 | |
And I hope you also realize that my whole self | 4:02 | |
is tied up in the demands of the black solidarity | 4:08 | |
committed for community improvement. | 4:12 | |
The demands of black people all over this country | 4:14 | |
and of course, the demands of the black students | 4:18 | |
here at Duke because all of us must realize | 4:22 | |
that these demands are an integral part of my whole self. | 4:27 | |
Because my whole self is that of a black man | 4:33 | |
and that of a human being. | 4:37 | |
I do, however, want to try and be somewhat more low key | 4:40 | |
than I normally tend to be. | 4:46 | |
My reason is that the black students and myself | 4:49 | |
are getting a little tired of being emotional. | 4:53 | |
We're getting a little tired of talking to people | 4:57 | |
in loud tones so that we can be heard. | 5:01 | |
And trying to really, in essence, pour our guts | 5:04 | |
out to people. | 5:07 | |
We reached the point where we feel that we are going | 5:09 | |
to express our thing to you and we want to express it | 5:12 | |
in very serious ways. | 5:16 | |
So that tonight what I seek more than applause | 5:19 | |
is listening power. | 5:24 | |
I want to be heard for what I will in fact say, | 5:27 | |
not what it would start that I was going to say. | 5:31 | |
And I admit from the offset that I am not free, | 5:34 | |
but I am black and I am over 21 | 5:39 | |
and I am of sound mind and sound body. | 5:43 | |
And no one is using me tonight, administration. | 5:47 | |
The SLF, they told me that tonight I could be my own man. | 5:53 | |
And that they weren't going to use me. | 5:59 | |
(applause) | 6:00 | |
I know if Mr. Harvey was here, he would tell you | 6:10 | |
that they also agreed to let him be his own man. | 6:13 | |
Because obviously a lot of you still have not | 6:17 | |
gotten to the point that you can realize | 6:20 | |
that black people can think for themselves. | 6:24 | |
That black people can decide for themselves | 6:27 | |
and that we need not have a group of white people | 6:30 | |
either pull the strings or act as a ventriloquist. | 6:34 | |
My voice is my own, my emotions are my own, | 6:39 | |
and the strings are not there so that tonight | 6:43 | |
I am talking strictly from this base | 6:46 | |
and I want to make one very crucial point | 6:50 | |
from the beginning: the black students from Duke | 6:54 | |
are some of the most dedicated and courageous individuals | 7:00 | |
that I know. | 7:06 | |
I put them in the same... | 7:08 | |
(applause) | ||
I put them in the same category as black people | 7:15 | |
that I've worked with in Greensboro, in Fayetteville, | 7:19 | |
in Raleigh, in Rocky Mountain, in Bertie County, | 7:24 | |
Hartford, and of course the people that are probably | 7:29 | |
the most close to me, the black people in Durham. | 7:32 | |
And I would say that you have before you tonight | 7:37 | |
people who have consistently put everything that they have | 7:40 | |
on the line in order that black people | 7:46 | |
might in fact be free within this society. | 7:49 | |
And so that what I do is I severely and categorically deny | 7:53 | |
that we are a part of any so-called national conspiracy. | 7:59 | |
(applause) | 8:06 | |
We are a part of a conspiracy only to the point | 8:12 | |
that black people collectively throughout this nation | 8:17 | |
are demanding their dignity. | 8:20 | |
I have nothing but contempt for anybody, | 8:23 | |
chaplain not withstanding, who would cast | 8:27 | |
these black students in the worst possible light | 8:32 | |
because they have the nerve to stand up and demand | 8:36 | |
participation in the events governing their lives. | 8:40 | |
(applause) | 8:45 | |
How long will it be before this society gives leave | 8:53 | |
of worn out phrases to describe the centers | 8:58 | |
from this outrageous, racist, and poverty-ridden society | 9:03 | |
that exists within our country. | 9:08 | |
How long will it be before we eliminate McCarthyism | 9:10 | |
from our thought patterns. | 9:15 | |
We are not communists. | 9:17 | |
Ain't nothing red on any of us. | 9:19 | |
We are black, through and through. | 9:22 | |
We are not communists. | 9:25 | |
We are not anarchists. | 9:26 | |
We are black people. | 9:28 | |
We are black, and we are people. | 9:29 | |
And we believe that the society at this school | 9:33 | |
which is merely an extension of society must either change | 9:37 | |
in a manner to allow for the development of our humanity | 9:41 | |
and your humanity or it will ultimately perish. | 9:46 | |
(applause) | 9:52 | |
We take our stand and we don't apologize. | 10:00 | |
We take our stand here, at Duke, and we take our stand | 10:04 | |
in a constructive manner. | 10:10 | |
It is odd to me that in days past the people who now shout | 10:12 | |
the loudest about hippies and yippies and black students | 10:18 | |
and anarchists are the same ones who in their college days | 10:23 | |
participated in childish panty raids. | 10:29 | |
And these panty raids destroyed a hell of a lot more than | 10:33 | |
a lamp and a few markings on the wall in Allen Building. | 10:38 | |
These things were of course nothing more | 10:42 | |
than blowing off steam. | 10:45 | |
And this is how college men are supposed to act. | 10:48 | |
Now college students are fighting for meaningful things | 10:53 | |
and getting panties in the way they should've been gotten | 10:57 | |
by consent. | 11:01 | |
(laughter and applause) | ||
So to the righteous ones, old honest Bob included, | 11:24 | |
our Lord ought to save you. | 11:31 | |
Our liberal governor. | 11:34 | |
I know you're uptight, Bob. | 11:37 | |
But to the wall, MF, to the wall, Bob. | 11:41 | |
(applause) | 11:45 | |
And all I can say is be prepared to stay uptight, chaplain, | 11:53 | |
because the battle is here and it's going to stay. | 11:59 | |
The battle is here and it's going to stay. | 12:05 | |
Now what about the Duke situation? | 12:09 | |
And what is really at stake here? | 12:11 | |
There are a number of things that you must really begin | 12:13 | |
to understand or else you'll never really be able | 12:17 | |
to dig on what's going down. | 12:20 | |
Number one, why the African Afro studies program. | 12:24 | |
As Brother Potter said, black people have been denied | 12:32 | |
an education. | 12:40 | |
You have been denied an education because you have been | 12:42 | |
lied to all of your lives. | 12:46 | |
And even now, some of you have feelings of superiority | 12:49 | |
based upon your unawareness as to what you really like. | 12:54 | |
And so all we're saying is if black people | 13:00 | |
are going to survive, then we must have a program | 13:02 | |
that has as its rationale, the development of black people | 13:06 | |
who will move so that other black people might survive | 13:12 | |
within this society. | 13:16 | |
This is why we have to have an African studies program. | 13:18 | |
We have to have a de-Uncle-Tom-izer. | 13:22 | |
And that is what an Afro studies program is going to be. | 13:26 | |
We're tired of the educational system producing Uncle Tom's. | 13:29 | |
Uncle Tom's, white and black. | 13:36 | |
So that the African studies program is a beginning | 13:40 | |
to bringing a community into the school and the school | 13:43 | |
into the community because they are both interrelated. | 13:50 | |
Second, some people say well, you know we gave y'all | 13:54 | |
a barber, and he's going to cut y'all's hair now. | 13:59 | |
And we're working on y'all a dorm. | 14:06 | |
And we told y'all we was going to have a summer program. | 14:09 | |
And right on down the line. | 14:13 | |
But what about the African studies program? | 14:15 | |
Without the African studies program, the barber ain't going | 14:17 | |
to do us any good because we ain't going to be here. | 14:21 | |
(applause and yelling from the crowd) | 14:24 | |
And evidently, the barber can't cut your hair | 14:30 | |
so he ain't going to do you any good. | 14:33 | |
So he just going to be out here. | 14:35 | |
And then there's going to be a man without a job. | 14:37 | |
So that we got to have the Afro studies program | 14:40 | |
or if we can't have that, how in the world | 14:43 | |
can we have an Afro-American studies living and learning | 14:45 | |
dormitory if we don't have the Afro studies program to live | 14:50 | |
and to learn about in the living and learning dormitory. | 14:54 | |
(applause) | 14:58 | |
And to us, an Afro studies program is not | 15:04 | |
an academic program, it is a way of life. | 15:09 | |
And when it becomes a way of life, | 15:13 | |
then it's much more meaningful. | 15:15 | |
(laughter) | 15:20 | |
Yeah, okay. | 15:32 | |
The other point is... | 15:35 | |
(laughter) | 15:36 | |
Y'all want to know... | 15:39 | |
I mean like I'm not criticizing this cat, | 15:41 | |
I want y'all to understand, I don't criticize people. | 15:43 | |
Normally. | 15:46 | |
We had a meeting with that guy today. | 15:48 | |
I didn't really think the guy was, maybe he was sick. | 15:50 | |
But you know what he told us? | 15:53 | |
He said, I can't understand why y'all are on | 15:54 | |
this point of control. | 16:00 | |
I mean, that's not important. | 16:02 | |
The thing that's important are the courses. | 16:05 | |
And I said like, do you really believe that? | 16:08 | |
And he said yeah. | 16:11 | |
And I said, nah, you jiving. | 16:13 | |
(laughter) | 16:16 | |
And so, you know, why are we asking for meaningful | 16:19 | |
participation in the control? | 16:23 | |
Because all of our lives, black people have been told | 16:25 | |
you can take part on the sub-committee, but you can't be | 16:30 | |
on the committee that's going to decide nothing. | 16:35 | |
You can do anything that you want to do | 16:38 | |
except be involved in the committee | 16:40 | |
that's really going to decide something. | 16:42 | |
And we've been told that all our lives. | 16:44 | |
That's the same thing weasel-nose Wentz | 16:46 | |
run down to us in Durham. | 16:48 | |
That's the man. | 16:50 | |
The one with the red carnation. | 16:52 | |
And so how are black people ever going to learn | 16:55 | |
to control their own destinies when every committee | 17:02 | |
that's set up to control our destiny | 17:06 | |
we're prevented from taking part in? | 17:09 | |
Where is the sense to that? | 17:12 | |
There is no sense and we cannot accept it. | 17:14 | |
Why we cannot at this point accept what has been submitted? | 17:19 | |
First off, here is what we are being asked to accept. | 17:27 | |
They are saying to us the provost will select the committee, | 17:32 | |
but we will allow y'all to consult with us | 17:40 | |
and you can tell us what faculty members you would like | 17:46 | |
to have on the committee then we will decide | 17:50 | |
which faculty members to put on the committee. | 17:55 | |
Now of course we going to consult with y'all. | 17:59 | |
So can you dig what's happening? | 18:03 | |
Like we're going to say put this man, and that man, | 18:05 | |
and that man, and they're going to say, beautiful. | 18:08 | |
And then they're going to put two of them on there | 18:11 | |
and then they're going to put four of those other | 18:13 | |
kinds of people on there. | 18:16 | |
Now wait a minute. | 18:18 | |
And then the four other kind of people and the two our kind | 18:19 | |
of people going to get together then they're going to decide | 18:23 | |
whether they ought to include us! | 18:25 | |
Now, can you understand that? | 18:29 | |
First of all, they're not going to put us on the committee. | 18:31 | |
But then they're going to say you got sense enough | 18:35 | |
to consult with us and you elect some people | 18:37 | |
who are going to represent you who don't represent you. | 18:41 | |
And then after you do that, then we'll have them meet | 18:46 | |
together and then decide whether you should be | 18:48 | |
on the committee that don't represent you. | 18:50 | |
(applause) | 18:53 | |
Now other than the fact that this is utter stupidity, | 19:01 | |
let's run it down and assume that that's even | 19:07 | |
within the realm of reason. | 19:10 | |
And then let's say okay, that's okay we're going to do that. | 19:14 | |
Now what does that negate? | 19:19 | |
It speaks against two points. | 19:23 | |
One, that our expertise is not needed in the beginning. | 19:26 | |
In other words, can you see, can you see, | 19:33 | |
that they're saying we're going to have a group | 19:36 | |
of white people sit down, talk about a black studies program | 19:38 | |
and decide whether you black people can be involved | 19:43 | |
in deciding about your black studies program. | 19:46 | |
So y'all's expertise are not needed. | 19:50 | |
We might let y'all come in. | 19:52 | |
But you know what the important fact is? | 19:54 | |
You know what they're telling us now? | 19:56 | |
And the cat ran this down to me today. | 19:57 | |
Have faith. | 19:59 | |
Have faith! | 20:03 | |
Faith, hope, and charity. | 20:05 | |
I said faith in who? | 20:09 | |
And he said in us. | 20:14 | |
And I said okay, let's run down that faith bit. | 20:17 | |
And then let's run down that us bit. | 20:21 | |
Do you know who you're asking us to have faith in? | 20:24 | |
You're asking us to have faith in people who have | 20:27 | |
already indicated that we can't have faith in them. | 20:31 | |
Now let me give you concrete examples. | 20:34 | |
I ain't for no BS. | 20:36 | |
I'm going to give you concrete examples. | 20:37 | |
When we were at Knight's house, after we got through | 20:41 | |
drinking the man's Pepsi's. | 20:44 | |
Of course, at that time, there weren't no Cokes allowed. | 20:46 | |
After we got through drinking the man's Pepsi's | 20:51 | |
and eating his peanuts | 20:55 | |
(laughter) | ||
and I had my shoes off on his floor, | 21:00 | |
he said, this has been truly wonderful. | 21:05 | |
And he said, what we're going to do is that tomorrow morning | 21:11 | |
I am going to appear with you and we are going to | 21:17 | |
read a joint statement. | 21:21 | |
I said, are you going to be there, I'm going to be there. | 21:22 | |
Okay, the next morning, you know because my wife got into | 21:27 | |
this having a baby thing, I couldn't make the meeting. | 21:32 | |
So I called Dr. Knight, I said look, man, I can't make it. | 21:39 | |
And then we went through this whole bit about like | 21:42 | |
I hope the baby is alright and okay. | 21:44 | |
And then he said oh, there is one little minor change. | 21:46 | |
I said, what's that? | 21:50 | |
He said some of us got together and decided | 21:51 | |
that I should not make the appearance, | 21:56 | |
what do you think? | 21:58 | |
I said you just told us that you were going to be the one | 21:59 | |
that was going to make the appearance. | 22:03 | |
He said I know that I told you that. | 22:04 | |
He said I don't want to do anything wrong | 22:06 | |
and go against what I said and you know, | 22:08 | |
I hope the baby do fine. | 22:10 | |
(laughter) | ||
And he didn't come. | 22:14 | |
Now that was after he had given us his word | 22:15 | |
that he was going to come. | 22:17 | |
Secondly, any of you who went to Page recall | 22:19 | |
that I said that we are not going to make a statement | 22:22 | |
about victory because we have an agreement | 22:26 | |
that this was a thing that we worked out together, right? | 22:29 | |
Within two days of that, this man comes out and says | 22:34 | |
that they did not achieve anything, we held the line. | 22:39 | |
He said that, that's in print. | 22:45 | |
And Kerckoff followed him with the same thing in print. | 22:48 | |
A third point, they told us that the retreat | 22:53 | |
was going to be a joint effort, a joint effort. | 22:57 | |
We get in the retreat, we say this is what we think | 23:02 | |
and they say that's fine, now let's go home. | 23:06 | |
We going to do a joint thing. | 23:11 | |
We ain't had no vote, ain't nobody voted on nothing. | 23:13 | |
And then when we present a point, they go outside | 23:18 | |
and talk about it and then come back | 23:21 | |
and say yeah, this what we done decide. | 23:23 | |
Now what is that? | 23:25 | |
How joint is that? | 23:26 | |
What is the joint-ness of that? | 23:29 | |
Alright, so these are the people that we are to trust | 23:33 | |
and have faith in that they will decide to have | 23:41 | |
a committee that will in fact invite us to sit on | 23:45 | |
the committee that we ought to be on in the first place. | 23:49 | |
We'd have to have an extraordinary amount of faith to buy | 23:54 | |
that and we don't have an extraordinary amount of faith. | 23:59 | |
(applause) | 24:05 | |
Now let me in with what the key issue is. | 24:11 | |
Do y'all know what the key issue is? | 24:13 | |
Let me tell. | 24:16 | |
Do y'all know really? | 24:17 | |
Do y'all really know why the black students will, | 24:18 | |
at this point, not be involved in supervising the committee? | 24:22 | |
Because they are worried about capital Y, capital O, | 24:26 | |
capital U, W, H, I, T, E, S, T, U, D, E, N, T, S. | 24:32 | |
They are worried about you white students. | 24:45 | |
They have said to us that the problem is not | 24:51 | |
the black students, the problem is what will | 24:55 | |
the white students do? | 24:58 | |
Will they start asking us to let them have something to say | 25:01 | |
about their program too? | 25:07 | |
(applause) | 25:10 | |
Man told me today, he said, if y'all say that you got to | 25:27 | |
be included in the beginning, then 99.9% of our faculty | 25:34 | |
will say close it down, rather than to let | 25:41 | |
those students be included from the beginning. | 25:44 | |
Now that's where Duke is. | 25:47 | |
And let me tell you, I'm not jiving. | 25:51 | |
I'll tell you this was said. | 25:52 | |
This wasn't inferred, this was said. | 25:54 | |
A man in 1969 said I should run your program | 26:00 | |
instead of you because I am older, wiser, | 26:05 | |
and more mature than you are. | 26:09 | |
A man in 1969 when asked to tell what kind of black studies | 26:13 | |
material will be in the library, told us about | 26:20 | |
how many copies he had of books about the plantation system. | 26:23 | |
The man said that don't you see what would happen? | 26:34 | |
Students would be demanding to be included | 26:39 | |
and I'm unwilling to let students have anything to say | 26:42 | |
about their education. | 26:46 | |
That is not their right, why? | 26:49 | |
Because that's no their right, why? | 26:53 | |
Because we have always acted without having that. | 26:55 | |
The reason given to us so far is that this is not how | 27:01 | |
the university has traditionally operated. | 27:06 | |
On Monday, if this university refuses to meet | 27:15 | |
what I think are exceptionally reasonable requests | 27:20 | |
concerning the black studies program. | 27:25 | |
They have made their decision and they were beautiful. | 27:28 | |
They jived a little bit but then they got together | 27:31 | |
and they made it. | 27:33 | |
So y'all are going to have to make some decisions. | 27:35 | |
Y'all are going to have to make some decisions. | 27:37 | |
And all of that stuff that you've been studying about | 27:40 | |
and you've been reading about, it'll come down to it. | 27:43 | |
It'll come down to now. | 27:47 | |
Y'all are going to have to make some decisions right now | 27:50 | |
about where you're going to stand with the black students | 27:53 | |
and most importantly, with yourself. | 27:56 | |
And you cannot vacillate any longer. | 27:59 | |
Because the fact is very simple. | 28:02 | |
We cannot accept the notion that this will be | 28:05 | |
the way that the Afro studies program will be constructed. | 28:12 | |
And the decision is simple, either Duke really wants | 28:17 | |
black students here or they don't. | 28:22 | |
Either you are ready to stand up and assert yourself | 28:26 | |
or you are not. | 28:32 | |
And as always, when you are getting ready | 28:35 | |
to make a decision, concerning your participation | 28:39 | |
in the struggle, as I have said many times | 28:43 | |
and I always try and close with it, | 28:46 | |
the words of Frederick Douglass, that if there is | 28:51 | |
no struggle, there is no progress. | 28:56 | |
And those of us who profess to favor freedom, | 28:59 | |
but yet deprecate agitation are men who want the cross | 29:03 | |
without the plowing up the ground. | 29:08 | |
We want the rain without the thunder and the lightning. | 29:10 | |
We want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. | 29:14 | |
The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one | 29:18 | |
or it may be both a moral and a physical one, | 29:23 | |
but it must be a struggle because power concedes nothing | 29:27 | |
without a demand. | 29:31 | |
It never did, and it never will. | 29:32 | |
And people are oppressed because they allow themselves | 29:35 | |
to be oppressed. | 29:38 | |
Show me the exact amount wrongs and injustices | 29:41 | |
visited upon a people and I will show you | 29:44 | |
the exact amount of wrongs and injustices | 29:47 | |
endured by the people. | 29:50 | |
These wrongs and injustices must be fought. | 29:52 | |
Either with blows or with words or with both. | 29:55 | |
People are oppressed because they allow themselves | 30:00 | |
to be oppressed. | 30:03 | |
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance | 30:04 | |
of those whom they oppress. | 30:09 | |
The black students have decided where they are. | 30:11 | |
Now the decision is yours. | 30:15 | |
Thank you. | 30:18 | |
(applause) |
Item Info
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