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We're continuing our interview with Dr. James Newton as part of our history class, history to 68, October tenth, 2021. And we're going to continue

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on with the University of Delaware. And here's the big area I'd like you to speak about, which is something you said

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to me on the phone that you emphasize to meet important to the Black Student Union and black students at Delaware and bring these issues up,

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making change happen there. So I wonder if you could tell us more about that. They were all black suit union

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and black students more generally at trying to address some of these problems that you've been talking about?

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Yes. The Black Student Union. One of the things I found with students were enrolled in courses in black American studies,

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they would bring up different issues that dealt with their significance and importance being on a campus

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such as the University of Delaware. You have to remember that these students also have fellow students who will argue

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that go into a historic black colleges where it's at. I was even told when I had friends in Greensboro,

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North Carolina, in Chapel Hill. And SCN, am I black enough? Because somehow or another, the fact that I matriculated at

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a dominant way school makes me less black. Is everyone following? Now? I'm all of a sudden left black.

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And I took that to be quite offensive. So African American students on campuses like this are proud of themselves as being from a minority,

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but they don't want to be ridiculed for it. For instance, I'm standing right on the campus with one of the brothers that I know from Carolina.

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And his buddy does say, manage is the brother. Alright. Alright. This was, this was bad.

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I went to Delaware State College the same thing. The back faculty there was since I'm at the University of Delaware is the brother.

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Alright. I got almost offensive. That's it. I noticed I went past

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the art museum but he didn't have any. Jacob Lawrence is there. When I combine the music hall, I heard, I heard Mozart

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and somebody else, but they didn't hear. John Coltrane did defend myself for being an African American professor

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and students, etc. You gotta remember, at the same time, I tried to get a passing grade in the German class,

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try to get be able to walk to the black community in Wilmington and asked him questions about etc. But at the same time someone's

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challenging your race horse. The black students at the university has to deal with this. High salt black students

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walking around on this campus and lonely Splendor by themselves. Then I asked him what seemed to be the problem.

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What seemed to be they have issues. These are personal issues of identity. Web Dubois called it the double consciousness.

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You're black in America and you're American and you're black. You have to reconcile this within yourself. Within yourself.

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You have to seek reconciliation. Who am I and what you have to do that? How do you deal with being black? Being in the University of Delaware?

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We tried to organize so that we could get black professors from Delaware State to come here to teach. Couldn't agree to it because

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somebody more money with this, with that, we could not get the exchange program going. We did have black students who

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begin to get enrolled in any courses here that they didn't offer at Dell state kind of an exchange. This was very good.

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The first time we had to basketball or football game. That was a good start for enter relations between one school and another.

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If you notice that the Maryland State University is now the University of Maryland Eastern shore.

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If you say University of North Carolina. The mother hen is Chapel Hill, but you got Charlotte, you got Greensboro, UNC at such and such.

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They are all beginning to merge and function like they're 11 government from each state has to pay for all this.

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The result is that if you don't start using resources. The University of Delaware maintains itself as this,

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but you still have some sense of how is it that you can't replicate if you have to come to the University of Delaware

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for engineering comb here. But if they have a allied health program at Dell state, you might have to go

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there if that's what you're in. This has created some problems as to the institution rates, identity. No body for you.

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The one thing I do, and this is the habit of mine. If I go somewhere, I find out who the people are, where they are.

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There was a man by Dr. Ronald Louis. He came here, he was from the University of Auckland. I had to hire

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a person dealing with African American history. Three bags that I wanted to hire would not come here because they said they

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didn't want to raise their families here. They said that Delaware was a Southern states. They didn't want to come here.

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So I hired one or Lewis who happened to be white. I had to argue in court why hired him on the list.

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There were four people. The three Blackmun said they went along column. I had to hire him according

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to the rule and the code. But there was no argument there. Why did you get that white guy? Because he was qualified in that area.

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Now if you want to know how people telling their story works, he wasn't authority on African American history.

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He was from West. They, they are, they called it width by God Virginia. He was the history of

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Appalachian whites became his story. He went to West Virginia University in Morgantown when he left here, he became an authority on wells.

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He's telling his own story, his people's own story, despite the fact that he's has some authority and has written

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several books on African American history. He and I edited a book together called the other slaves, artisans and craftsmen. So when you look at it,

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you have to look at saying that I was taught by mostly Jewish philosophers, Dr. Herman monastic.

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My art teacher was kinda net. They all told me their story about having to leave Nazi Germany to end up in America. Document nasty only could get

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a job at a all-black school. Because he was Jewish. He tells me that story to let me know something.

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Then there were others like Mr. Ness. I was a fan of Langston Hughes. If you ever hear Langston Hughes, he has a model that goes like this.

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Let me see if I can remember it now. I play it cool and dig all jive. That's the reason I stay alive. My motto as I live in Learn is

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dig and be dug in return. Langston Hughes, 1920s in New York. Mr. Nested, Jim, I'd like you to come into my office.

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And he showed me a handwritten copied from Langston Hughes on the corners of such and such in New York. He was a fan of

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Langston Hughes and he had one of his, he collected African American poetry. So I wasn't showing him anything about such and such.

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He was lending me his appreciation of and that's all we can do with each other's group and culture. Black students can learn

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a lot from white students on this campus. And the reversed be that white students also learn from Black students. You should find out, do you know that

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the first young lady that came one of the first young ladies that came to the University of Delaware had a weight room mate.

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Young lady had to get up and do something with her hair each night. Everybody know what that was. You know what that was?

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What does she do with her hair? What did she do with her hair? We don't know. Tell us tell us

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black people hot iron their hair. They straighten it with a hot cone. It goes on a plate. You've got sisters.

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I have four sisters. Don't know about this. They put it on a plate, the column gets hot and they take their hair and

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they straighten it. They straightening. Does everyone follow? Young white female who was unfamiliar with this,

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maintain that the young lady was practice in bu du. Thinks about it. She didn't understand that. It would not explain to her.

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She dealt with practice and do do and it became an issue. And so this student has to move out. I had so many cases of students moving out.

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You heard the story of Michelle Obama. The mother didn't want her in the room with this black students. And when she became the first lady,

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this woman come back and say, Oh, my daughter was yet she was the one that did not want her in her because her mother decided that she didn't

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want her being in the same room with that person. Is everyone following that? This kind of miss information

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about people's culture. Young. I had happened to be a white father, called me and said he wanted to do

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something about his daughter. His daughters had been spitting by black people. She played with them.

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She went to parties with them. She could dance like them. She taught that, so talk. Her father said that he

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was afraid that she didn't grow up like that and not being able to get a job because she was awake, general actin black.

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Has anyone ever heard that white girl actin back? So he wanted her to be what do you call it when you change

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your mind around brainwashed. He wanted her to be re programmed, reprogrammed. So she wouldn't add

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whatever that means, act black. And as she was upset by it, Does everybody understand? And you can't make

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certain assumptions around people. For instance, what would you do if a student came to you and said, I only got to see you on this test.

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I said that what you got that's what that's what it is, is a city. He said, Well, somebody's other students got B's and B pluses.

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He basically was saying that the black students couldn't have gotten a higher grade in him. He even bought his parents

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and to talk to the professor. And I sat down. I was very nice, very nice and kind, gentle. I tried to show that why you coming in here.

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He got a C on the test and it's bringing his mom and dad and just say that he had to do better than these other students

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because they were black. I say you're making an assumption. In the past when I say take me out to lunch and all that, oh, that sounds good.

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But I'm telling them that look, he might have been raised in a private school. He might have gotten everything he wanted.

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But these other students kicked his butt in the classroom when it came to that particular test. So accept it for what it's worth and

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tell them to do better next time. But don't waste my time trying to say that he had to do better than the black students.

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After Newton, would you describe as a lot of this kind of incident here and said that they are not that big things,

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but all these little things always holding. How often did you have to deal with this as a professor? In other words, students

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coming to you and acting are telling you about incidents that things that might've been disrespectful or so racial and sensitivity. Oh, for sure.

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How often was this paper which you have to do for me? I'll be frank with you. I wasn't artists.

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Despite the fact that it was academic. I just wanted to pursue art, but I had to change my occupation and become a professor.

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And when I came to University of Delaware, aside from being in the education, but when I got to the after a year-and-a-half

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clean Black Studies Director, I had to change my aspiration. There are two documentary Delaware black history.

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That's the area that I was supposed to pursue. Documentary, Delaware black history. And it's me and Dr. Ken Hancock,

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a white professor at another school taught Delaware history. Here. We combine and get

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a documentary of a thousand pages or more. Never got published. Nobody wanted to see it, et cetera. But we had the documents to show

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African American presence from 1629 when the first Black came to the 1968 Wilmington riot after Dr. King got killed.

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That was the role that I was supposed to play. But the frequency of black students would incidents about in

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sensitivity about their group was too high and too much. Every opportunity they got. The one of the rationales was because

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especially black males, especially black males. Great sensitivity. They were being picked up by security.

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Always being picked up by security. And I always had the challenge and poor the things they had young black male on the football team,

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we're going to get kicked off or something doesn't. So I had to you you're allowed to go into what they called kinda

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like a University of Delaware Court. And you go in the back for the person, you determine why the person should be given another chance.

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Students were. One of the big challenges was, you call it plagiarism. You all understand plagiarism.

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So I had to go and AS black students, do you understand plagiarism? What is plagiarism? What is plagiarism? What is plagiarism? They didn't know.

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You can't be accountable for something. You can be ignorant of something. But they didn't understand plagiarism. You can't say Professor study.

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I studied so many Dr. King's speeches. So a student comes in and says, this is their paper as a man, look, don't try to bullshit me.

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How many almost had to tell him? Point blank. Don't try to bullshit me. This is Dr. King. Have it.

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Matter of fact, I was in a class and Dr. King came there and I heard him say that. Now you're going to come and act like

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you wrote just beach. You haven't written a day, written a damn thing. Does everybody follow me?

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I'm sitting in here trying to tell us that students don't be bullshit and me, man, I know you didn't write this paper. You understand me?

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I said, Look, I see you don't like to read. You haven't read anything in the book. They called it. Haven't cracked. Say I

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haven't cracked a book or a year. That's it. That's why you're going to flunk the dam course.

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I'm going to make them and make you crack the book. As a matter of fact, what do you doing this evening?

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That's it. Way after that, go to the damn library. Go to the library, get the New York Times.

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And I want you to find any article, any that you want. And I want you to interpret and analyze it for me.

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And I want you to have it back tomorrow morning at ten o'clock. You don't get it here by ten. I'm going to drop your you're

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already at the d level, um, uh, brought me to an F and guess what? They do it. You've got that for

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some people to do something, you've got to force them to function. Do you know that I started studying African-American student background.

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How can you be an honor student at the top Catholic school in the state and end up with it gnats. Something's wrong.

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You're worried about something too much. And you put your, put your boyfriend aside and started studying the book because

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there's something wrong here at the top student in your class, almost at William Penn in high school. And you come to university, Delaware.

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You'll see mine is at best. Does everybody understand the social environment in which you live? You cannot be taught dog and wearing the ADA.

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Are the chat with whoever. They like. My art work, everybody like Malala university comes down and they won't recruit me to deal.

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And everybody jumped. You can go to Yale. I said, SEL people, how much money are you going to give me?

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Where we don't pay your scholarship p and you have to work the Western, you cannot work full-time and be competitive.

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I understand that competitive schools won't allow you to have a full-time job. And you're going to get an a, it's not going to happen.

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The students are high competition. There. I understand that you can't compete because you work in a job.

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You can't be paid duties. Working a job. You can't do it. So I said I'll stay at Chapel Hill.

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When I was at Chapel Hill, I go to pay your bill and they say, your bill has already been paid. Man, that's all I wanted to do here.

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I perform than at Chapel Hill. I was able to reach my level of academic artistic excellence. That is the distinction.

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Black students, black students. Mother. That's shown here. For university, jello or its mother.

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What's that? Is it the black student was a student at the University of Delaware. Student here.

00:20:42.650 - 00:20:53.020

He was busy romance and the girls playing ball. And his mother said, it, this boy don't get it right.

00:20:53.020 - 00:21:00.590

It will it will make it difficult for my next Sunday you get a scholarship here. And I can't work anymore job.

00:21:00.590 - 00:21:09.910

I'm only working already working three jobs. Does everybody follow? And then I had to get on him,

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had to get Street on it. I hope you know what speed means. Say Look man, your mom is going to kick your ass so you don't start acting right?

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If you don't start tracking the books, does everybody understand? And he finally woke up, almost didn't graduate. He woke up.

00:21:29.710 - 00:21:38.680

He woke up so that his younger brother could come here, meticulous, matriculate at the University of Delaware

00:21:38.680 - 00:21:46.520

and get his degree. That parents are under extreme burdens when they send their young bright students

00:21:46.520 - 00:21:51.730

to the University of Delaware. That happened. It'd be right there. Different kinds of pressure.

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Do you know when the black mother goes into her AME Church and said, This is my boy. He's at the University of Delaware. Do you know how much pride

00:22:02.390 - 00:22:12.260

and respect she gets from that? She's saying something that they don't think was ever present. Her son graduate from

00:22:12.260 - 00:22:21.240

the University of Delaware. This is big stuff. Big stuff. When they know because they know that

00:22:21.240 - 00:22:34.580

in 1881 and other time you couldn't be a firemen or policemen. You couldn't be any of that. You could not be any of that.

00:22:34.580 - 00:22:45.680

It wasn't until the 19 forties and fifties that blacks begin to emerge. You got to remember, Delaware was forced to open its doors to black students,

00:22:45.680 - 00:22:53.060

went back, students come to the University of Delaware. They're really stepping on hallowed ground. When you come to the university and you

00:22:53.060 - 00:23:06.100

happen to be black and minority, you will most deserve, deserve to make. And we made history at the same time that the kind of

00:23:06.100 - 00:23:16.540

attitude that after World War II for Blacks coming to the university was almost like a privilege. But being a privilege

00:23:16.540 - 00:23:26.420

that you also had to compete, you can't be second rate. What would you do if somebody, you've got all A's on

00:23:26.420 - 00:23:40.030

your test and the instructor gives you a B. Does everybody understand that? You got all A's? But they give you a B.

00:23:40.030 - 00:23:53.090

Student says, how come I got an a B? If I got all A's? The instructor says, just because you're here doesn't mean that you're going

00:23:53.090 - 00:24:01.990

to make it in flying colors. That they only go that an African American students can have at the University of Delaware

00:24:01.990 - 00:24:10.760

is not only to get out of here, but the biggest attempt and challenges to get out of here in flying colors.

00:24:10.760 - 00:24:21.610

But understanding in fly and colored mean that you were competitive with all students, Chinese, Asian, Black, et cetera.

00:24:21.610 - 00:24:30.750

Way. You challenge it. See, you are a challenge for some people. They have so-called privileges or preference.

00:24:30.750 - 00:24:41.180

See privileged impressions will allow you believe that you're smarter than somebody else. Just illusion allows, you know,

00:24:41.180 - 00:24:52.400

when they had get movie routes that young males were coming in telling their white classmates.

00:24:52.400 - 00:25:02.150

Master, called the master. They got it from roots. The whites were accepting this. Places like the University of Delaware

00:25:02.150 - 00:25:11.120

having minstrel shows, fraternities were having what? Slaves, how many have heard of ad buying and selling

00:25:11.120 - 00:25:20.630

of slaves to two fraternal organizations. That's how they raised a fundraiser. And this is when you are here or this earlier?

00:25:20.630 - 00:25:28.280

This is when I was here. Okay. When I was here, I was the guy you want to say? They came to me, they thought

00:25:28.280 - 00:25:37.130

because I was a kid, I don't think I was a loud mouth, but I didn't let things pay as people to easily just call it a spade.

00:25:37.130 - 00:25:46.100

A spade, you follow me, call it what it is. What I've heard about you is that you are an advocate for students.

00:25:46.100 - 00:25:54.230

Advocate, yes. Advocate for students. If students have it concern. You know that many students let things

00:25:54.230 - 00:26:02.330

path because I'm just a student. We have Professor Newton, maybe you can say something that where I became an advocate when I

00:26:02.330 - 00:26:11.660

found out that African-Americans. So what would you do if you were in an office and you listen to your professors say that

00:26:11.660 - 00:26:22.410

the black students or Remedios refer to black students, as, are you a remedial? Preparing to black students as a remedial,

00:26:22.410 - 00:26:30.230

they come and tell me, I felt it upon myself to look Professor X as I'm on a committee with you.

00:26:30.230 - 00:26:38.700

And we had a discussion in the committee meeting that the standards of the University of Delaware we're going down.

00:26:38.700 - 00:26:48.880

Wouldn't professor pronounced that the reason they were going down because of the enhanced enrollment of black students.

00:26:48.880 - 00:26:57.440

Now let me tell you something. When you sit near and you hear it, you might get ticked off. I said I probably

00:26:57.440 - 00:27:08.290

flunked every major math class that you had. But I know the difference between thousands of students versus a handful. And a handful could get all after.

00:27:08.290 - 00:27:16.930

They still can't make not going to go down. Does everybody understand it? That's it you cannot blame and the lower standards on Black students.

00:27:16.930 - 00:27:24.890

I mean, I had some pretty heated arguments sometime. We almost had a fistfight. Can you imagine yourself in

00:27:24.890 - 00:27:37.940

a fistfight to professor's leaving? He is leaving his class and I'm going in. And the professor says as loud as he could that they're letting anybody

00:27:37.940 - 00:27:46.730

in the college now. How will you take that in? The students all looked at me and I almost felt compelled to say something.

00:27:46.730 - 00:27:56.990

I had to be compelled to say, look, these students as much as here as your students. I said, they are all our students.

00:27:56.990 - 00:28:04.700

I taught white and black students and white students had to beef. That would let we'd get them benefit of the doubt.

00:28:04.700 - 00:28:15.210

You got to understand it. Black, faculty had been under the gun of a book by how crews, the crisis of the black intellectual,

00:28:15.210 - 00:28:24.740

the Black intellect is going to bind. Do you do this or do you do that? And I chose to be an advocate, but I don't choose sides.

00:28:24.740 - 00:28:34.020

C, I don't choose sides and no sides to the truth. If white students have a great, then bring it back. Students have a great.

00:28:34.020 - 00:28:44.390

I didn't ever take, I never took side however, one thing that I said that I felt like I rubbed some shoulders the wrong way.

00:28:44.390 - 00:28:54.470

I made a statement. The statement was that at the time, early on we had a committee. I was the head of the Delaware

00:28:54.470 - 00:29:05.000

State Civil Rights Commission and all those things. I was the head of the Commission here I started the Black Caucus and all in

00:29:05.000 - 00:29:12.120

the LBJ caucus here at this university. They said, Well, what are you going do about the gate? I'm not going to do anything.

00:29:12.120 - 00:29:20.200

They had their voice like everybody else has their boys. Take any sides to gaze, had their voice brands have their boys.

00:29:20.200 - 00:29:28.490

The agent had their voice. You got a caucus for all know. We all have a voice. So I took took aside

00:29:28.490 - 00:29:36.560

one time and I always felt like I got robbed the wrong way. I said, I made a statement. When you make statements, you

00:29:36.560 - 00:29:49.010

better be pretty clear where the statement was that I noticed. When your doctor Treebank presented me to be the committee on diversity,

00:29:49.010 - 00:29:59.050

I pulled it must have been cannabis. I pulled it all together and say I don't do stuff that I don't have to do. I asked them all individually.

00:29:59.050 - 00:30:06.900

Do you think we need a committee on diversity? And I get it. No, no, no, no. They all said no.

00:30:06.900 - 00:30:15.550

So as well as a committee, I'm summarily dismisses. In other words, you don't think it's worth it.

00:30:15.550 - 00:30:20.990

Don't waste my time. So I'll go back to the president of the university and tell him that I summarily

00:30:20.990 - 00:30:30.900

dismissed them because they don't believe we need it. But I stayed here long enough. 1015 years later, the same exact people,

00:30:30.900 - 00:30:41.600

all of a sudden becoming new experts on diversity. Does everyone follow? All of a sudden the same people?

00:30:41.600 - 00:30:47.700

Now, I heard them when they said there was no need for it. Now all of a sudden they're the experts in it.

00:30:47.700 - 00:30:58.730

This ticked me off and I made a statement to the university presented that time that at far as I'm concerned, there's too many new experts in here.

00:30:58.730 - 00:31:07.310

That's what I meant. New experts. Eventually, I have a theory. I go way back to my childhood,

00:31:07.310 - 00:31:17.820

my mother-in-law that always stay in your own lane. You have so many people who crossed their lane and they begin,

00:31:17.820 - 00:31:26.420

begin to profess things that did not experts in. You don't understand. So whenever somebody came to me, so Jim,

00:31:26.420 - 00:31:34.900

affirmative that because I'm not the affirmative action officer right over there in his office. Tell him about it. You don't don't expert me.

00:31:34.900 - 00:31:44.170

Come to me because I'm black or black, don't all black or not? Black history experts. Does everyone follow?

00:31:44.170 - 00:31:52.120

Because a person is black, don't mean they have intimate knowledge about their group. This creates big problems.

00:31:52.120 - 00:32:00.200

And so when you say, Well, I'm an advocate, yes, I was at, I love students. I had chances to go to Rutgers,

00:32:00.200 - 00:32:08.870

New Brunswick, tried other opportune, chance to go back. Catlin Chaplin had a chance to be the dean at Howard University.

00:32:08.870 - 00:32:16.200

But I love, believe it or not. Delaware students, for some reason, I just like them. I like them when they're freshmen,

00:32:16.200 - 00:32:23.090

when they come in, they think they know it all. And then after they realized they don't, they go in and sore,

00:32:23.090 - 00:32:32.430

they sought to higher ground. So the Delaware student is like, I used to make fun and we had blue blue hands.

00:32:32.430 - 00:32:42.770

And I'm going to tell you nobody ever liked it. I said we also have black heads. That that was one of them twist

00:32:42.770 - 00:32:54.140

things are called the brothers black hands. And say we got some blue black hands in here. But that was just my way of poking fun. But I loved I was

00:32:54.140 - 00:33:04.150

asked to leave several times, but I loved, I loved I loved Delaware students, but in particular black students. That was my attitude and philosophy.

00:33:04.150 - 00:33:12.140

And I advocated for students because I'd found in a lot of students to understand this. You are freshmen and

00:33:12.140 - 00:33:21.880

one student went to high school. Another student went to the best high school during note, by the time they're seniors, they are equal.

00:33:21.880 - 00:33:36.160

Education is the real chart for mobilization in American society. Your education, if you don't get educated, you're limited. You limited.

00:33:36.160 - 00:33:47.330

Your limitation comes from your exposure, et cetera. As a result, you function that way. I can almost, I like the feeling of

00:33:47.330 - 00:33:58.130

being educated because I can tell you if you know something or not. I always felt I was blessed like that. If you are having trouble in academia,

00:33:58.130 - 00:34:06.710

I can almost smell it. That's the look I'm going to tell you once. Go to the library, if you, if you get up at eight,

00:34:06.710 - 00:34:19.560

go to the library at nine and stay till nine. I let them know you are truly limited. But we can rectify this problem. You have to do with file this book.

00:34:19.560 - 00:34:28.900

Go to the library. And I said, What is your major? I always ask students their major. Don't let anybody fool.

00:34:28.900 - 00:34:36.830

Your major, is something that you're supposed to excel at. You suppose to reveal, we know when you take biology,

00:34:36.830 - 00:34:45.490

if you're a biologist and I know how we know, you don't know the difference between this and that. We know that.

00:34:45.490 - 00:34:56.790

So I admired that engineering students, I got a lot of engineering students that came to black American Studies. See, Engineering is not enough.

00:34:56.790 - 00:35:08.120

You have to know who and what you are. And the biggest part ever had the University of Delaware. I was the first black professor

00:35:08.120 - 00:35:16.620

to earn a Teaching Excellence Award. And I really felt good about reason. I felt good about it because that's what I was about.

00:35:16.620 - 00:35:26.900

I was an educator. I believe that I can take a, a D minus students and make them a student

00:35:26.900 - 00:35:34.380

because I'm going to educate them. I'm going to make them feel good about themselves. I'm going to make them escalate.

00:35:34.380 - 00:35:48.530

I have students who the whole time I was at the University of Delaware only received one. Now, take about it. You can try and look at them.

00:35:48.530 - 00:36:00.540

I can look at how many A's I got in college. You know what you excelled in. But when you only get one, you know, that you were marginal.

00:36:00.540 - 00:36:11.230

Does everybody follow you, reaching and soaring like you should? And a part of the education process was motivation.

00:36:11.230 - 00:36:20.040

And I say this, we adults, both past and present have failed our young people.

00:36:20.040 - 00:36:26.790

We are here so many people blame young people. The adults have failed. We had historians write things that

00:36:26.790 - 00:36:38.090

they know was not there for a true, how are you going to be an Indian hater, a Negro hater, and be glorified for in history.

00:36:38.090 - 00:36:50.480

Historians too weak. Nate made a lot of this race theory and stuff resonate. When you write things that are not truthful.

00:36:50.480 - 00:36:58.180

It's going to eventually tell on the next generation. And the next generation should not be confused.

00:36:58.180 - 00:37:06.770

They should understand the distinction that the reason you're educated is so that you can do are the only ones that are going to

00:37:06.770 - 00:37:16.660

get us to this mess we're in now, do you know that you are the ones that are going to have to clean up our mess because we failed to educate.

00:37:16.660 - 00:37:27.770

We miss informed. And your children's children will have to read somewhere that also. So education is a very powerful element.

00:37:27.770 - 00:37:38.910

The University of Delaware. And I did it. Like I say, I take, I pass out things I did. Or longitudinal study on.

00:37:38.910 - 00:37:47.120

Black students have been here for years. What was the experience like here at the University of Delaware? It got low marks and lots of things,

00:37:47.120 - 00:37:53.510

but it got high marks on the education they got from the University of death. That's the highest mark they

00:37:53.510 - 00:37:59.840

got the rest of the social relations, that connection between black faculty weight back. But how they retreat

00:37:59.840 - 00:38:09.240

it was at an all time low. But at an all time high was the education that they taught at the University of Delaware.

00:38:09.240 - 00:38:20.260

Despite all this social setbacks, we always try to make sure that resonated that the University of Delaware has at this point,

00:38:20.260 - 00:38:29.190

thousands of African American students have graduated from the University of Delaware. Thousands. And many of them,

00:38:29.350 - 00:38:37.210

in their early years didn't see the light of day. But they were able to hang on and struggles do the process.

00:38:37.210 - 00:38:53.840

And that social or your social outlook, your racial racial identity, does not determine and define who you are. That's one thing university

00:38:53.840 - 00:39:03.290

black students recognize. Before they leave this university. They have defined themselves as who they are. They understand

00:39:03.290 - 00:39:17.680

certain aspects of their identification. They, they have absorbed some of the double consciousness. I'm a black in American society.

00:39:17.680 - 00:39:26.160

I'm an American and black society and I've had reconciled this issue. I had finally recognize the university had done

00:39:26.160 - 00:39:36.240

a tremendous job of this kind of, you know, sometimes you can do things unintentionally. It happened because it happened.

00:39:36.240 - 00:39:47.810

It happened because you we're here at this institution at that, at this time. And that is the beauty of what institutions like the

00:39:47.810 - 00:39:57.320

University of Delaware can do despite all social circumstances, the educational process, it what allows plants to move

00:39:57.320 - 00:40:07.580

forward at this institution and other institutions of similar backgrounds. I want your your wife that she is going to come here 830,

00:40:07.580 - 00:40:16.910

which is in ten minutes. So I want to see if anybody here has any more questions for Dr. Newton. I asked you all to wait till the end.

00:40:16.910 - 00:40:27.540

Yes, Go ahead. You mentioned riots after his assassination. And I understand that momentum is occupied by the National Guard for a very long time.

00:40:27.540 - 00:40:37.310

Yes. I was wondering what effect that had on students on campus. It had an effect on the campus, especially of

00:40:37.310 - 00:40:45.710

Delaware State College University. Now, Delaware State College had a similar kind of thing. And they will also press by

00:40:45.710 - 00:40:56.390

the governor at that time that you are a an area that we had to take a look at because you are prospective rioters, that kind of a thing.

00:40:56.390 - 00:41:04.610

My wife was I was at the University of North Carolina at the time, and I called my wife and she happened to

00:41:04.610 - 00:41:14.180

be a teacher in a one week in schools, living in an apartment. And they were rioting outside at the time. She was ducking in case

00:41:14.180 - 00:41:23.080

some books or some something might hit her. So my experience was exact, but I became historic base and I started looking at the riot,

00:41:23.080 - 00:41:32.870

et cetera, et cetera, and what was behind it and what have you. The result Is it wasn't a riot. Riot. No, nobody was really killed.

00:41:32.870 - 00:41:41.300

Nobody does nobody that. But because it was Wilmington and a young group, young groups, a group called we

00:41:41.300 - 00:41:50.090

act Wellington Youth economic action committee. It will the young blacks that Governor Terry was leery because he

00:41:50.090 - 00:41:57.320

thought they were a part of this kind of a Black Panther Movement and all that kind of thing. But there were no Black Panthers

00:41:57.320 - 00:42:08.240

in Wilmington, Delaware. Kay, had gangs such names as the black Gestapo, the blackest blacks. These gangs did not want

00:42:08.240 - 00:42:18.860

anybody coming in and taking their thunder. The result was this group called we act Wilmington due to economic action committee. They were the ones that really

00:42:18.860 - 00:42:28.680

were what they call starting. So people thought that was starting up top, but they really were for economic accident. They understood the oppression

00:42:28.680 - 00:42:34.810

of their parents, etc. And they were the ones and we need to thank them because things turned around.

00:42:34.810 - 00:42:43.550

However, one thing that did not change what they called white flight, whites began weight. New Castle County was

00:42:43.550 - 00:42:53.000

the pastors rising county in the nation after the 1960s, eight right in Wilmington, more whites ran to get out of the city.

00:42:53.000 - 00:43:00.620

One of the irony is that I moved out in New Castle County. There are people across MEA, we're leaving the city,

00:43:00.620 - 00:43:09.750

get away from blacks and there we are, right across from them. And somebody printed in big letters in IgG ER,

00:43:09.750 - 00:43:17.250

and I went out there and break it up and everybody thought I was going to leave. I wasn't going to leave my my old die-hard from Princeton, New Jersey.

00:43:17.250 - 00:43:28.390

I wasn't going anywhere. And my wife and young daughter at that time stayed right there. And that was a reshaping

00:43:28.390 - 00:43:40.760

of the political model in Wilmington, Delaware because woman became dominantly, dominantly black. And they were Black.

00:43:40.760 - 00:43:51.620

Jim Baker was a councilman, etc. He worked with youth in the city. All of these things took place at that time. That was a booming time for Wilmington.

00:43:51.620 - 00:44:01.190

Delaware basically had problems with the police promoting black policemen and University of Delaware, under the Administration allowed myself

00:44:01.190 - 00:44:08.300

and Dr. Barry Armstrong to go in and resolve the problem they had with to promote stability of blacks and

00:44:08.300 - 00:44:19.490

women on police force. So Wilmington, Delaware, has its place. And one of the big targets of Wilmington is to assure that it's,

00:44:19.490 - 00:44:28.290

students can come to the University of Delaware and have a, a, a, a good academic experience to Wilmington rights

00:44:28.290 - 00:44:37.950

was one of the high points and low points of Wilmington, Delaware, especially with the long occupation.

00:44:37.950 - 00:44:44.540

Tell you about, I know that Wilmington had the longest occupation by the National Guard at any city in the country

00:44:44.540 - 00:44:53.350

over a year since the Civil War, in martial law, in sections, I'm going to tell you it didn't actually undo until the governor was voted out?

00:44:53.350 - 00:45:03.500

Come under Terry? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions for Dr. Dewan? Yes. Were you were you involved in

00:45:03.500 - 00:45:12.640

building a African-American youth center? In the articles that we read, that was a big talking point. What was it?

00:45:12.640 - 00:45:21.370

A youth center for African-Americans? Cultural center? Yeah, Cultural Center. I was involved with that. When I came here.

00:45:21.370 - 00:45:30.680

The first thing I did, like I said, when I ended up in Arts and Sciences, I were doing a documentary history. And a part of that was

00:45:30.680 - 00:45:35.900

Howard University man by the name of harm and Carrie's daughter, that African-American, whatever,

00:45:35.900 - 00:45:44.420

and everybody at that time, the big thing was to establish a museum or center of African-American History.

00:45:44.420 - 00:45:52.080

That was a big thing when I got out of college. Can you imagine looking for a job as difficult thing.

00:45:52.080 - 00:46:00.170

But I had no problem getting a job. I was almost being pulled off the street because I had expertise in the area.

00:46:00.170 - 00:46:06.700

They're only been one. Nick air and poured rule book on Black Studies. John bothering gained from Yale,

00:46:06.700 - 00:46:17.450

a friend of mine, passed. He wrote a book on, and I wrote the third or fourth book on black studies. And that's what I knew when I came here.

00:46:17.450 - 00:46:31.670

The history professor. Forget his name now he spoke Germany. He took courses in Nazi Germany. Well, he was a big,

00:46:31.670 - 00:46:40.900

big history professor and chairman. And he had a committee on Black American studies after the score PDB poor

00:46:40.900 - 00:46:51.550

and indicate that there was a need here. And so black American Studies was similar to promoting museums, centers and all these things.

00:46:51.550 - 00:46:58.900

And I'm part of academics, I retire. You stay on campus, right? Your books. Well, I had to go out into the community.

00:46:58.900 - 00:47:08.680

And the community was looking for an African-American Museum. It never got up in whatever because people could not agree who,

00:47:08.680 - 00:47:17.720

what, where, when, how much money, and all those things. So I'm an app, I still deal with museum things,

00:47:17.720 - 00:47:27.850

worked with Delaware Historical Society and all those kinds of things. And it was the belief that the African-Americans like Mississippi,

00:47:27.850 - 00:47:38.670

they had to, to museums down there. They got the, the National Museum at the Smithsonian. All of these things are part of

00:47:38.670 - 00:47:48.470

the revival of African-American heritage and culture. And the definition of that was that if you want to

00:47:48.470 - 00:47:59.540

understand somebody's heritage and culture, you've got to under understand their sum total of their way of life. And this is what african

00:47:59.540 - 00:48:05.840

American historians have always done. Carter G. Woodson, the father of black history, always pushed the idea,

00:48:05.840 - 00:48:16.070

the study of Afro-American History and light the stories that the civil rights men told him is how he became a historian,

00:48:16.070 - 00:48:26.310

went on to Harvard. He was the first outside of WEB Du Bois. He was the first African American doctor degree person

00:48:26.310 - 00:48:36.050

out of history whose Both parents were slaves. See, these are the kinds of things that the degeneracies

00:48:36.050 - 00:48:45.860

of the Black Studies Movement, it really part of the roots of this cultural race theory today. I experienced the same kind of

00:48:45.860 - 00:48:54.440

thing back then as what they're talking about, the cultural race theory. I came out of Illinois as a professor.

00:48:54.440 - 00:49:04.130

And my theory has always been that as long as you look at the majority of good things that any group has made to

00:49:04.130 - 00:49:12.710

American society on the right track. But if you look at the good, the bad and the ugly, if the ugly and the bad

00:49:12.710 - 00:49:21.740

outweighed the good, you're in trouble. Because you're going to have to come up with people who there's no way anyone's going to ever.

00:49:21.740 - 00:49:30.890

Let me think that Andrew Jackson at good Indian is a dead Indian. That we're not fighting a,

00:49:30.890 - 00:49:40.550

a Indian War, were fighting a Negro war. I mean, there's some things that just go below the line. But as if you're

00:49:40.550 - 00:49:46.760

going to be an object historian, you don't just overlook that. You don't include it. There are a lot of people who

00:49:46.760 - 00:49:55.740

editors can wipe out everything. You wouldn't get. I got so many would call it rejections, articles I wrote because I wrote,

00:49:55.740 - 00:50:02.210

I interpreted, and I write things that people may not necessarily agree with, but they can't say they're wrong,

00:50:02.210 - 00:50:10.610

but they want you to write a certain point of view. So the idea of having a museum or center some places,

00:50:10.610 - 00:50:19.850

is it really a slap in the face to their way of looking at history? They don't want to do. I can ask many bags and each state I go into,

00:50:19.850 - 00:50:27.950

hadn't any of you have ever seen your great great grandfather's, that means the patient papers. Most of those papers in

00:50:27.950 - 00:50:36.140

archives with rich whites, they're documented, placed it there in the National Archives. Hadn't asked or a God

00:50:36.140 - 00:50:43.820

that three-fifths of a man and asleep, they had whites would go out and write, erase things out of the books so that

00:50:43.820 - 00:50:51.210

they would not have been a part of. But we have Pitt professor Ball, who's writing about his family and the Ku Klux Klan and all of that.

00:50:51.210 - 00:50:59.030

Those persons are right and true history. Carter G. Woodson, the father Black history says that the truth,

00:50:59.030 - 00:51:07.430

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I'm guessing in response to this question that I'm guessing this. But there's a lot of energy on campus.

00:51:07.430 - 00:51:14.360

Late sixties, early seventies, people wanted more African-American, black cultural life and all that. And that's what I'm guessing is

00:51:14.360 - 00:51:20.960

that you came along, steered that energy or work with the energy to create the Black Studies Program.

00:51:20.960 - 00:51:29.540

That's kind of where that where that went. Yeah. Well, I'm the professor of history. They made me the committee. The committee.

00:51:29.540 - 00:51:35.720

Nobody seemed to know anything about black studies, not just gotten a paper in it. So I wrote the report up.

00:51:35.720 - 00:51:42.010

They have to report up. He asked me to be the director of Black Studies. I was in the College of Education,

00:51:42.010 - 00:51:49.160

had the time the Dean and him didn't want let me go. Sometimes you doing such a great job but dam for doing such a great job,

00:51:49.160 - 00:51:58.580

How come I didn't get a raise. You understand? So I come to the college in the midterm, January or February.

00:51:58.580 - 00:52:08.150

I had to learn how he can't he just can't teach your course wherever he goes to a completely in a group and it goes

00:52:08.150 - 00:52:16.440

through all of these people who may not like you. You have to learn how to get along with people who you know don't like you.

00:52:16.440 - 00:52:24.050

Does everybody understand that they don't like you? And so here I am with my, I got people who are against this.

00:52:24.050 - 00:52:35.960

So I go in like a young whip or snapper, We're discourse thing and they won't want any of it. If buying that learns from academic politics,

00:52:35.960 - 00:52:46.940

I can't teach next term unless I had this one course approve. Introduction to black American Studies. And I start getting the courses

00:52:46.940 - 00:52:55.760

approved one-by-one by the time. So my return the head, I had 30 courses of black American studies. And these 30 courses was

00:52:55.760 - 00:53:07.570

able to get us in each year. As chairperson, I asked that the unit become a chair department. They would not do it while I was there,

00:53:07.570 - 00:53:18.440

but they didn't do it after whatever. And this is the only thing that I can make claim that the course is on the books. If history has, of course on the books called

00:53:18.440 - 00:53:27.740

African Studies and nobody can teach it, but black American studies is there. Then I make sure I get to my lid, I can teach Dan course.

00:53:27.740 - 00:53:41.110

And so we had a history, had African history to the such and such, taught that. Then we have up to 1865, I taught that.

00:53:41.110 - 00:53:50.330

And F dot dr. Armstrong and he knew her. She taught that. He was a premier scholar out of University of Delaware.

00:53:50.330 - 00:53:57.440

Delaware should have kept. And she went to New Brunswick, got the same school that I would go and we recruited

00:53:57.440 - 00:54:09.700

by after I was backstage director two years. But I stayed and I was recruited, but I came back to the black students. You told me to stay here because

00:54:09.700 - 00:54:18.100

they had nobody here. That's how I became an advocate. And the result was that I had created this curriculum,

00:54:18.100 - 00:54:29.650

that was my area curriculum in Black Studies. But no one else knew because most of them were what do you call it, a specialist in the area? I'm a generalist.

00:54:29.650 - 00:54:40.790

How much generalists? Specialists, but I am a specialist, African American Cultural Heritage. See, what I did was

00:54:40.790 - 00:54:47.280

generalized it and it was a hot topic at the time. And I could articulate it enough to get somebody else's.

00:54:47.280 - 00:54:53.960

Like, I've never asked for anything black. They asked me, I had a library just like this in here, Carter G. Woodson room.

00:54:53.960 - 00:55:00.770

They said, was this just for black students always do to answer that, no, it's for all due to want to participate in

00:55:00.770 - 00:55:12.290

knowledge about African-American. I didn't see I was like I told you, I went to school primarily with all whites. Didn't know what a black teacher was until I

00:55:12.290 - 00:55:22.420

was in junior high, high school. Never had black teachers. So nice, it's put together called the D. Woodson would write on blacks.

00:55:22.420 - 00:55:28.790

In his Harvard doctor, he wrote on the Virginia rebellion. He said he wanted to information now if I'm wrong,

00:55:28.790 - 00:55:39.770

but he didn't want to get stuck with one dimension. So he understood the Virginia rebellion. You have to understand American history.

00:55:39.770 - 00:55:46.280

And the result was he became the father of black has to be taught at a black institution. I left the institution

00:55:46.280 - 00:55:54.740

because at Howard University, suddenly you might want to know some though, Howard High School in Delaware and Howard University or named gift

00:55:54.740 - 00:56:03.440

to the same person, general, General Oliver Otis Howard. He was the first white president of Harvard University.

00:56:03.440 - 00:56:12.290

He was smitten by young lady named Bancroft, married her and they named the high school, you're up to him. And they named Howard University after him,

00:56:12.290 - 00:56:18.010

after the Civil War. At Howard University is the only institution meaning to go to Congress,

00:56:18.010 - 00:56:31.510

to get into money, goes direct to cover this. So there's a lot of history. Any of you people in here? Young lady doctor,

00:56:31.510 - 00:56:40.340

wrote her dissertation on Lewis reading. She came to my office and I suggested that you need to take a look at the reading's.

00:56:40.340 - 00:56:50.350

The information is out there for you to grab. It needs to be recorded. And someone needs to sit down and look at what

00:56:50.350 - 00:57:00.460

the emphasis has been. You know what? We don't have a systematic, I argue that systematic documentary history of black students

00:57:00.460 - 00:57:07.840

at the University of Delaware could get no one to agree with it. No one. There have been people who were professors

00:57:07.840 - 00:57:14.740

who couldn't move up the line. They left. See how my die-hard I'm just going to stick with it.

00:57:14.740 - 00:57:24.160

Just keep kicking on me. He kicked it only just stick with it. But there's a need for young historians, regardless of their race, color, creed,

00:57:24.160 - 00:57:34.250

to record and document the different aspects of what they're doing. I wasn't talking to you. They're the ones who

00:57:34.250 - 00:57:41.750

are gonna be interviewing the black alumni and people like that, Well, ask them hard questions. Don't see, pity, patent around,

00:57:41.750 - 00:57:49.210

doesn't get out of them. There's some books that were written because a woman goes and it is trying to find out something that she's

00:57:49.210 - 00:57:59.150

talked to these group of older black women. Older black women don't say anything. But she remembered that they believe in it's Halloween time

00:57:59.150 - 00:58:08.810

we can talk about they believe in ghosts. And they made a group about drugs. And she wrote a book, Gladys Knight fry, take a look at it.

00:58:08.810 - 00:58:22.640

Goes riders, weights in medicine. Who went around getting black catheter to practice medicine when she turned

00:58:22.640 - 00:58:37.610

that around and she got a whole book on it. Gladys Knight Frye. She talking to older black women. In what your oral history.

00:58:37.610 - 00:58:47.270

It's in the minds of somebody in their family. Your family, you hit family. They don't say anything,

00:58:47.270 - 00:58:57.910

but they got that night. They know who begat whom, who such and such, why nobody likes uncle Howard. Uncle Howard was the drunkard in the family.

00:58:57.910 - 00:59:03.860

He's not. They know everything, but everybody thinks it's just person, but it's truly the person who did it.

00:59:03.860 - 00:59:14.620

He got a wealth of knowledge. Your, your mom's aunt or somebody there, the bookkeeper, keep things in Bibles. They write who begat whom win-win.

00:59:14.620 - 00:59:22.930

They have all that information, but guess what They won't do. I was a young man and the older people

00:59:22.930 - 00:59:29.550

won't tell anybody anything. You have to dig it out all. You have to actually go in and ask hard questions.

00:59:29.550 - 00:59:37.940

We'll try we'll try anymore questions for Dr. duty people here. Because I'm a runner mouth. Oh, no. Oh no.

00:59:37.940 - 00:59:44.830

Actually, I'm just I'm just worried about your your wife, Wendy outside when they drive people, so right.

00:59:44.830 - 00:59:51.350

So I don't want to make some dinner, retired since 2005. All right. I'm going to ask you one more question.

00:59:51.420 - 01:00:05.890

You retired 20051 thing which comes out in the documents backend, was it Scott PT report that comes out in Delaware is 1% African-Americans than 1%.

01:00:05.890 - 01:00:14.630

We have some stuff we've read the 80s at that point we've become 3, 3% percent african-american the 80s. Now the population of

01:00:14.630 - 01:00:23.310

African-Americans here is five per cent. So we've gone from 1% to 5% in the course of what? That's 50 years.

01:00:23.310 - 01:00:31.310

That's right. 50 years, which is slow progress, right? Any, any, any, any measure. And this is compared

01:00:31.310 - 01:00:37.880

to University of Virginia, which had the highest ratio for black students, but they had the highest rate,

01:00:37.880 - 01:00:45.080

graduated the most, but they were the most segregated. So tell me now, if you're not, you're not you're not in a position

01:00:45.080 - 01:00:51.570

to make this happen now, but also no one can tell you to be quiet. What would you do? What would I do?

01:00:51.570 - 01:01:00.980

Yeah, just go for a fight to double that. At least, at least it becomes the population. My focus, my focus would be on white students.

01:01:00.980 - 01:01:11.990

Why students set the agenda? At universities like the University of Delaware. If the right students wake up and put

01:01:11.990 - 01:01:21.840

forth initiatives for the future and include black students. You will enhance the number of black students.

01:01:21.840 - 01:01:28.000

The University of Virginia was able to do that, but many of the big schools do it through sports.

01:01:28.000 - 01:01:37.480

Ralph Samson, different Black Studies Program, was trying to get the University of Delaware, University of Virginia's President's ear.

01:01:37.480 - 01:01:44.230

He could not get a meeting with the president. Virginia was at the top of the line in basketball at that time.

01:01:44.230 - 01:01:51.310

He got Ralph Thompson, the common air, told the president, you'd give them a meeting. The President and gave them a meeting.

01:01:51.310 - 01:01:58.510

And all of a sudden, Virginia's population went up, not only for basketball, but for the presence of

01:01:58.510 - 01:02:09.320

the Black Student Union that created a voice. Wage students, the major boys at the University of Delaware, they're the only ones that can change

01:02:09.320 - 01:02:16.300

the environment of the University of Delaware. If you're president, doesn't take the lead, they have to take the lead.

01:02:16.300 - 01:02:24.920

I had a student come to my class, challenge in Black Studies. In everything he said, he didn't leave in

01:02:24.920 - 01:02:30.590

affirmative action, even leaving it. But guess what? He learned from my class. And later when I received

01:02:30.590 - 01:02:38.180

the teacher of Excellence Award, guess who presented it to me? The president of the student body of the University of Delaware,

01:02:38.180 - 01:02:45.570

who was reacting to black studies because it wasn't in his political mode. But he learned something.

01:02:45.570 - 01:02:58.490

I told him something about what his role was outside of disagreeing. See, in some professors at the university, we agreed to disagree

01:02:58.490 - 01:03:09.020

without being disagreeable. Weight students can pave the road for intercultural and interracial development

01:03:09.020 - 01:03:17.150

on this campus. Black students can rant and rave and Black Lives Matter and all that, that will not get it to the next level.

01:03:17.150 - 01:03:22.670

Does everybody follow? The only thing that will get it to the left level is the group that's going to be

01:03:22.670 - 01:03:29.840

a part of the major leadership at this institution and others can move this university to higher ground.

01:03:29.840 - 01:03:38.450

What you have to do is create a partnership. I got this from Dr. Ralph Duke's a Texan who came to Delaware and taught me more

01:03:38.450 - 01:03:47.650

about relationships and a lot of things. Dr. Duke was the head of the co-operative Center for Educational Development and services.

01:03:47.650 - 01:03:57.490

That's what he was and that's what I worked at. And he was able to let me believe that in Texas where he was at that time,

01:03:57.490 - 01:04:06.080

that there was an anti-black feeling. And dad, when he got the Delaware, he decided that he didn't believe in that and he was able to turn it around.

01:04:06.080 - 01:04:13.980

Do you know a black athletes, weight athletes interacting together have good, has done more to

01:04:14.380 - 01:04:20.960

promote areas like the University of Delaware, Virginia, et cetera, than any athletes. But the athletes should meet

01:04:20.960 - 01:04:32.020

at B at the head of the line. There should be other partners in this engineering students, history students. They should be at the top of the line.

01:04:32.020 - 01:04:44.060

I had to go to court against the University of Delaware history professor. Half that came out of court, came in crowd, congratulated me for what I had said.

01:04:44.060 - 01:04:51.830

I was against the University of Delaware. I wasn't against them. I just wanted to. You know, if you want your friends or

01:04:51.830 - 01:05:06.570

anybody to fess up, you got to press them. If your friend is not doing anything wrong. When I said the Kuhn's just in a Koons that we hear that you're supposed to.

01:05:06.570 - 01:05:14.970

That's what John Lewis was talking about. I knew John Lewis. That's what John Lewis was talking about. Bad trouble.

01:05:14.970 - 01:05:22.160

And that will only become more apparent in the future than you think there's going to be a minority of students who are going to

01:05:22.160 - 01:05:33.680

create bad trouble on campuses like this. Not that they want to erode the campus, but they want to promote the campus in terms of

01:05:33.680 - 01:05:42.110

its race and other relations. It's human relations. That's what it amounts to. And so I wasn't

01:05:42.110 - 01:05:52.730

doing anything that I didn't think I was supposed to do what to put in a a if you're the director of Black Studies, the whole thing dictates itself.

01:05:52.730 - 01:06:02.330

You're directing black American studies. It's called Africana studies now. But when you direct and people come with those questions,

01:06:02.330 - 01:06:10.700

you have to respond to it. And that's what I did. There, consequences to what you do. You're not going to make a lot of

01:06:10.700 - 01:06:22.610

friends, but ask yourself, if your child was going to be a, a somebody attacked me for being in diversity.

01:06:22.610 - 01:06:33.500

And I asked the parents, you have a child and your child is your child has been in a situation whereby the only way they

01:06:33.500 - 01:06:41.720

can move up is to be embracing of people. What are you going to do? A lot of parents don't want to see their child caught in

01:06:41.720 - 01:06:53.010

a mess that they can unravel. And the result is that if the education process has, doesn't, doesn't allow you to differentiate

01:06:53.010 - 01:07:05.750

between right and wrong, good and bad. You hadn't been educated. Your parents, as well as read as much as we love our parents.

01:07:05.750 - 01:07:20.630

Some are parents did lukewarm jobs. You can't tell somebody to embrace people. And then they don't like you say, embrace all humanity.

01:07:20.630 - 01:07:27.990

Dr. King, Princess Di, I had a model that I had to use to show people how you move from america.

01:07:27.990 - 01:07:40.400

Stage one is called. You go to a mom and pop stage. Everybody loves their mother and father. You know that you

01:07:40.400 - 01:07:47.810

may not like being a Catholic, but if your parents go there, That's what you end up being. The second stage is when mom pop

01:07:47.810 - 01:07:54.020

and my friends. You've got friends that, you know, they're all based, but you don't let him know anything.

01:07:54.020 - 01:08:03.950

So Becky goes to eat lunch. She only sits at the same table that basically lives. You ever noticed that when Betsy start there,

01:08:03.950 - 01:08:16.170

if Johnny comes from that's not your chair, that Jackie, the mom pop in IN stage that's captured America. But in the next stage,

01:08:16.170 - 01:08:29.810

you realize that all Chinese aren't bad. All your friends on Google. And you go through that stage of whatever. But the big stages,

01:08:29.810 - 01:08:36.350

when you become multi-ethnic, did you become by ethnic when you can embrace another culture plus your own,

01:08:36.350 - 01:08:44.750

but your multi-ethnic when you can embrace a whole host of companies and others, they're not taught that. And I kept a piece of paper.

01:08:44.750 - 01:08:52.610

They're saying that you're still in the mom-and-pop stage. You can't get over the fact that the Mom and Pop days,

01:08:52.610 - 01:09:03.130

It's really mama's girl. Mama's boy. That is girl. You can get out of that. Then you can't get out of your friends.

01:09:03.130 - 01:09:09.200

You're going to hang out with your friends. You come to the university and you've got friends that came from the Catholic school widget,

01:09:09.200 - 01:09:17.430

and you end up friends are there. You don't need to make new friends in the new school year at everybody. Wow, yeah, because you're not by ethnic,

01:09:17.430 - 01:09:25.120

but when you're by ethnic, you can embrace another culture but close your own. You can have a Puerto Rican trend,

01:09:25.120 - 01:09:33.240

but you still have your own friends. But when you become multi-ethnic, Dr. King, Albert Schweitzer, you embraced all humanity.

01:09:33.240 - 01:09:46.190

What we're trying to work for, the ability to embrace and indoors all humanity without conditions of race, creed or that, say,

01:09:46.190 - 01:09:55.990

this embracing thing is what education in college is like the University of Delaware is all about. See, you know what?

01:09:55.990 - 01:10:08.050

There are people who talk the talk and people who walked the walk. Universities and educations talk the talk. They take the funds, they have student funds.

01:10:08.050 - 01:10:17.500

Somebody, it would be a righteous act. If somebody said, take all of the student money you get unless declared a war on, hate.

01:10:17.500 - 01:10:28.730

This, say that a war on, hey, do you know that will be so much opposition to that? Just the concept and I did.

01:10:28.730 - 01:10:36.900

Have you ever asked that question, what do they do with all that money that your tuition and your mother and father pay? Lots of money, isn't it?

01:10:36.900 - 01:10:46.310

So, make use of it. Be sure that those who endorse diversity practice what they preach.

01:10:46.310 - 01:10:56.050

You see the young students and I say that University of Delaware, the only way delaware profit. Here we have today.

01:10:56.050 - 01:11:10.960

The 45th President of the United States, Joe Biden, who attended this university. Part of Biden's agenda and philosophy came out of this university.

01:11:10.960 - 01:11:20.690

Does everybody understand it? He tamed from a Catholic background. He came to this university. Does everybody follow?

01:11:20.690 - 01:11:40.750

And today, I think I advocate it. What do you call it? I advocated and award. It was called Delaware diamonds of diversity.

01:11:40.750 - 01:11:52.250

Find people who do things to advocate and promote diversity on the campus and didn't acknowledge him. As time goes on.

01:11:52.250 - 01:12:01.060

Delaware diversity diamond. Delaware is the diamond state. The Diamonds State. And nobody's going to hear that.

01:12:01.060 - 01:12:06.900

They might hear it now. Maybe they may hear that now. I'm going to shut this off here.