Powerful letters from a professor at the University of Kentucky, Katha Pollitt of The Nation, and others about
the 7 Hampton University Students Facing expulsion for mobilizing
protests Nov.2nd.
Dear Hampton University,
I am a poet. I am a writer. I am a Black woman. I am a Full Professor
in the English Department at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. I
am a southern girl raised in a traditional Black middle class family. I
travel and read my work to students all across the country. I believe
fiercely in speaking out and activism. I believe in listening and
kindness. My parents were Civil Rights Activists. I learned from them.
I refuse to forget those lessons. I flew to Washington DC on September
24th, 2005 to protest the war in Iran. I flew to Washington on October
30th, 2005 to walk and weep from one end of the Capital Rotunda to the
other in honor of the life of Rosa Parks. I was invited to Hampton
University to speak and share my work on Thursday, November 18, 2005. I
flew to Hampton with great hope and happiness and truth in my heart.
Speaking to Black youth is what I live for. It is what feeds me.
I have spoken at universities around this country for the past 20
years. I am never more satisfied, never more full and alive with
promise and hope than when I am speaking to young Black people. I had
never spoken at Hampton University before, even though I have had
family members matriculate and graduate from its hallowed halls for the
last 100 hundred years. I had never been invited before. When I arrived
my poster was on every wall and door on campus. I was so proud. That
night the chapel was filled with hungry curious minds and hearts. I
stood in the auditorium and spoke about Rosa Parks and the honor and
responsibility of protesting what is not right in the world. I read
poetry in an auditorium filled with students sitting on the edge of
their seats. It was a powerful almost religious experience for me.
Afterwards they asked me brilliant heartfelt questions. My eyes kept
filling with water because I felt like I was home. I felt like I had
worked so hard and honed my sacred craft to be in that moment with
them. I was so glad to be there. We kept each others company for hours.
Someone had to ring the bell to get the building emptied out for the
night. I answered anything and everything they could ask. I refused to
get tired. I took some of the student poetry home with me under my
wings. I promised I would go through some of their work and give them
some feedback, just like thirty years before, when someone had gone
through my work for me to help me up the ladder. I believe life is a
relay. I believe you have to give back.
Tonight when I got home from work I found an email about Hampton
University that has broken my heart and made me furious. I read it
once, I read it twice and read it a third time. I am swimming in
disbelief. Hampton University cannot be doing this. Preparing to kick
out students over a unauthorized flyer? And all of this was going on
while I was standing there reading my truth in the middle of the
unknowing air. No one said a word to me about this while I was there on
campus for two days. No one. I even agreed to go to an English class
that next (Friday) morning where I spoke to freshman about reading and
learning and honoring themselves and their thoughts and feelings. I did
a student radio interview where I talked about the power of breath and
language. Still, no one said a word to me about what was going on. I
spoke of standing up for self and speaking out for self and being
responsible for reaching out for knowledge and not just waiting for it
to be handed to you. What were those students thinking as I spoke? I
had no idea that Hampton University had issued archaic Byzantine orders
for these brave courageous students. If I had known all of this I would
not have accepted the invitation to come. Or, would I have accepted the
invitation and brought up my support of the students in the middle of
my metaphor and simile hour? I would have said something in support of
voice and truth and passion. I would have stood up for those brave
Hampton Seven. I am standing up now for them.
I am stunned and spinning in the middle of my house as I write this.
Where would we be without protest and Rosa Parks and WEB DuBois and all
the writers and artists and college students who have been on the front
lines since the beginning of time? What is Hampton University afraid
of? Truth? Vision? Intellectual Independence? Imagination? Control of
ideas?
Why not ban me from returning to the campus with my truth and aerospace
verbs lifting into the air but don’t you dare ban these students who
were doing what they felt in their hearts and minds was right. Don’t
set up this Gestapo like standard right in the middle of the
trailblazing art of Elizabeth Catlett and John Biggers and Hampton
University history.
All students of all color and culture must have campuses where they can
discuss and disseminate, disagree and study, information without the
“Father’s Seal of Approval.” This is about Freedom. Freedom is
something Black folks know something about. This is also about Fear.
Fear is something Black people know something about. Shame on you
Hampton University. You have given into your fear. University life and
College life and the hemisphere of the Academy is about the life of the
mind not the mind of the master. You are making a grave mistake by
using the Master’s tools to rebuild the Freedman’s House. This is not
the past. This is the future. Here, now.
(Please, somebody within the sound of my voice pass this missive along
to somebody else. Please. Let those seven brave souls hear from me –
and you.)
Nikky Finney,
Poet and Professor of Creative Writing
University of Kentucky
—————————————————————————
Please add my name to the list of objectors to student arrests at
Hampton. This reminds me of my college days in the 1950s when Joe
McCarthy was very active!
-Emily, Lexington MA
—————————————————————————-
I, as one who gave over 35 years of active military service
standing or the ‘wall’ in defense of human/civil rights of ALL
America’s citizens, will be very disappointed if the expulsion of the 7
students who exercised their 1st Amendment Right and passed out flyers
to expressed themselves is carried out.
Somebody has to stop this madness – Iraq and in America – because
America’s poor people’s children are dying each day in battle because
some knucklehead misadventure.
We, self-thinking patriotic veterans, knew from the start that invading
Iraq was messed up and said so because knowing how hell-bent
politicians can cook up some mess plus we didn’t feel that we were
getting the truth. WE KNEW IT because we had and BEEN THERE! DONE THAT!
Stay Strong and Alert!
-Tim
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“Unauthorized” flyers are distributed and posted all the time of
course — it is only when they have political content that the
administration cracks down. This is a free speech issue, an issue of
students’ rights, AND an anti-war issue!
To those of us in college during the Vietnam War years, what these
students are going through should definitely ring a bell. If you want
to know more, there is local news coverage that is easily googlable (is
that a word?).
-Katha Pollitt, The Nation
—————————————————————————–
Subject: Deep concern for plight of seven Hampton students
December 1, 2005
An appeal to reason in justice’s name:
It has come to my attention that seven students at Hampton University
may possibly be expelled for participating in a nation-wide action
protesting the atrocities and corrupt dealings of the Bush
administration from Iraq to Katrina and beyond. I am appalled at the
specter of Hampton attempting to silence and expel students who in my
opinion reflect the very ideals President Harvey propounds not the
least among these: “Vision.., Team building…, Innovation…to think
what could be…,Courage… to stick to ones convictions…, to think
outside the box…” in his public statement which he ends by urging
students to stand up for what they believe, and “to lead.”
My grandfather Charles Bernard Randall, graduated from Hampton in 1898.
He was an outstanding alumnus who reflected the ideals of leadership,
commitment, deep concern for young people, and was revered by his
students who were his pall bearers when he died suddenly– too early,
in fact before my own father was born.He was lost to us for many many
years — all of my father’s life and most of mine. I was pleased then
to discover and retrieve a copy of his Hampton file not so long ago
with the wonderful assistance of your fine staff.
I wept reading about this man who believed in the mission of Hampton
and died in the process of carrying it to the community he worked in.
He personified many of the ideals articulated by President Harvey and
would I know, as the measure of the man, been profoundly disappointed
in the recent actions taken against students for their gathering to do
what they hopefully are being taught to do— enacting their commitment
to democratic citizenry, for having the courage to stand up for truth
and what is right. Surely this is part of the historic legacy of
Hampton– it is what my grandfather took from there, and in his file
replete with letters of praise for the Institute, it is how I came to
respect Hampton– a respect now quickly diminishing.
I urge all involved to rescind all charges against these students and
that they certainly not be expelled. Further I urge the University to
embrace and protect these precious few — for they may be among the
bravest of us, the conscience of our country, and a source of it’s
redemption.
Most Sincerely,
Dr. Barbara Hunter-Randall Joseph,
Associate Professor Emerita
SUNY Old Westbury