Cultural Heritage Administrator

It began--I began to channel that in a more focused way and then that radicalism with the takeover of the university [Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia] and locking up Daddy King [Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr.] and Judge [Elbert] Tuttle of the Fifth District Court and somebody from the MacGregor Sporting Goods family and Dr. [Benjamin E.] Mays was in that lockup and distinguishing myself for myself from the students who were in the takeover. I had not been a part of the organizing group. They had invited me to a meeting the evening before. I went and stayed at the meeting all of fifteen minutes and then I went to see my main lady friend, who later became my wife, still is my wife after thirty years and the next day when I heard that they had actually taken over the place, I climbed up a tree, went through a second floor window and went in the building and got up there, walked into the conference room where this debate was going on and when I came out of the conference room, some doors had been shut and chained by the students. And there I was, and because I was independent minded, it was easy for me to find my own voice and perspective; although it was a tense situation. And so I was with the crowd but I was really not a part of the crowd. And coming out of that, our group was called--formed--this was SOBU, before SOBU, out of North Carolina, it was called Students Organizing for Black Unity and we met at A. B. Spellman's [HM] house and I was elected chair. And I remember Abdul Alkalimat said we will be watching you and I said, and I'll be watching you. And there I was so I was off into activism. And we were kicked out of school and--for moral interpitude [sic, turpitude]--I never get the term right but it increased my--almost increased my vocabulary.$$Well, what was the, what was the takeover about. I mean, what was it actually about, who took over? I mean the students took over the administration?$$The state--students took over and, of course, A. B. Spellman and Abdul Alkalimat, Abdul was really sort of the pivot, I don't--hesitate to say leader, in many ways he was the leader. You know, 'cause he was defiant and he was quite articulate, this University of Chicago PhD, you know in sociology. And he took on all these people in the Board of Trustees, anything they said, he could run history around 'em and reference books and what not and firebrand and that regard. In the takeover, some of the issues were, we wanted, we called for the consolidation of all the schools in the University Center to call it the Martin Luther King University and we had a very material outlook on this, that it would economize, you know, rather than having multiple gyms and, and pools or whatever at student centers. We wanted more black history courses. So there were some legitimate things there, black studies courses we wanted. And what is the term I'm looking for--I've got a cold today and I'm a little tired but the term amnesty--I'd never heard the term amnesty. I didn't know what--and at the end--I know we were in there two and a half days, three days, we worked out that we would leave and let the people out and then somebody said, what about amnesty. And I'm thinking what in the hell is amnesty, you know, but as the conversation went on, I realized (laughter) that--but we were summarily tried by university courts and suspended and, I think I was one of one or two seniors. Sam Jackson talks a lot about this. I'm not sure that Sam was as actively involved as certainly in my memory as I remember. I know Sam well. He's an old friend, the big time actor now.$$Samuel L. Jackson?$$Samuel L. Jackson, yeah, he was (simultaneous)--he was a year, at least a year behind me but my degree was suspended and the debate was whether or not I would--the degree would be conferred on me.$I, and I'm sort of isolated by nature in the sense that I'm an independent thinker so I'm always, I move across sectors. I'm not up, out in the margins from people but I'm sort of my own axis in that regard. And, but at a certain point, I began to talk about that. I, it was liberating for me and I thought it was instructive for younger people coming through that these are the kinds of weights and burdens that you're going to bear. 'Cause, not only had we contributed to opening up and democratizing this institution. It was then a general movement in the society where a lot of people were coming that had no particular relationship to what my work had done over the particular things that me and some other colleagues had been involved in. And my main reference points was young Latinos who would often say, well, why do I--I'm not a translator. I'm an anthropologist. I'm a historian. And I'm saying, you know, if your generation does not take on the responsibility of helping get things out in your language, you're putting the next generation that further behind. Their paradigm was I want to be just--not just as Latinos but a lot of blacks and other people and women and so forth, I want to be just like the white people in the solution following my own individual field. Well, we're not just like them. We are trained like them. We have the same abilities in many instances but we can't get through the door like them. So we do have to do translations. We do have to do community outreach in addition to being historians and botanists and biologists and administrators, that's a double, triple duty that history has put before us. We either will own up to it or we will be narrowly individualistic. So my talking about the pains that I went through and the self-revelation and being able to, to heal myself and/or to recognize my wounds and some that I still carry. That's an important benefit that I can offer and it also helps heal, continues to help me heal myself. So, it took me a while to settle in here and I still live sort of on the margins of this center. Although I'm at the center of anything I want to be at and I get a lot of positive respect. I also get a lot of differential respect 'cause I am known as somebody who will battle and take you on. I don't care about your status and how many degrees you got. If I think I understand something or contribute something, know in this institution I got into a big spat with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who in my view, is racist. He's the Chancellor of the Smithsonian Board of Regents and got into it over an issue of Latinos, access of Latinos. And people said but you're not Latino and I said but you know there were no Latinos in the room to speak for themselves and when the late [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan said that's what's wrong with a group think communities and he used another term. I said I felt like somebody had said nigger but he had--that was--he was not talking about blacks. Now Moynihan is a bright man, great--but I didn't mind taking him on in a point of principle and, you know, I argued with secretaries of the Smithsonian. People said you can't do that. And I said sure I can. And you can too. And there happened to be one secretary, Bob McCormick Adams who came in just after I was hired. You know, he and I fought quite a bit and he would say to me, Early sometimes I don't think you make any sense and other times I find you quite illuminating. And I felt like fair enough. And when I was quite illuminating, he moved. And when I could not convince him, he did not move but he never used his authority to say you have no right to speak. You know he would say to me often, you are useful bearer under these people's saddle. They would go to him and complain. Other assistant secretaries, you know Early is challenging this and he's arranging across the institution and my view was, I live in the whole institution and until I see people who look like me and from different communities and the mainstream community here, then I'm going to range rather than just stay pigeon holed.