Nonviolent Protest Anniversary - Howard Students Told Atwater No!

Something smelled funny as soon as it was proposed -- the union of a proud black university and a top Republican strategist and troublemaker credited with one of the most racist presidential campaign schemes of recent memory.

But there it was in news accounts carried across the nation: Howard University names Republican Chairman Lee Atwater to its board of trustees. Atwater had just engineered the 1988 presidential victory of George H.W. Bush and had crafted the racist Willie Horton ad that helped seal his win. ...

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March 1, 1927
Legendary singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte was born in New York City. His 1956 album 'Calypso' was the first LP ever to sell one million copies.

March 2, 2005
"On this date in 2005 Jackie Robinson was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. This happened more than half a century after he broke baseball's color barrier. President George W. Bush gave Congress' highest honor to Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson." (The African American Registry)

March 3, 1991
Rodney King was beaten on this date by officers in the LAPD. This shocking event was captured on video, causing international outrage, and the infamous LA riots a year later.

March 4, 1921
America's first black owned and operated record label, Black Swan Records, was founded in New York City by Harry Herbert Pace. Ethel Waters, shown here, was one of the first successful artists on this label.

March 4, 1944
Music great Bobby Womack was born in Cleveland, Ohio. According to Wikipedia: "On January 14, 2009 Womack was announced as one of the 2009 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

March 6, 1972
Actor, rapper and NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal was born in Newark, New Jersey. IMDb.com states: "Shaquille O'Neal is regarded as one of the most dominant athletes and arguably the most gregarious personality in sports history."

March 6, 1857
"The United States Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott Case. In March 1857, the court ruled in a 7 to 2 decision that Scott was still a slave and therefore not entitled to sue in court [for his freedom.] His case, however, remained an essential issue in American politics and law until the outbreak of the Civil War." (The African American Registry)

March 7, 1917
Ballet dancer Janet Collins was born in New Orleans. The New York Times says: "Ms. Collins... was best known as the exquisitely beautiful dancer who was the first black artist to perform at the Metropolitan, four years before Marian Anderson sang there."

As a journalism student at Rutgers University, the news hit me and every black student I knew on campus like a ton of bricks. We were already a little depressed that Bush won and would likely continue the backward politics of the Reagan administration. But why, we wondered, would Howard University sell out and give Atwater a platform for his policies?

Luckily, the Howard student body came to the rescue.

A small protest of Atwater's appointment turned into a firestorm as Howard students took over the school's main administration building for a sit-in. After a tense four days, and with campus police threatening a violent takeover of the building, Atwater resigned.

Later that year, Howard President James E. Cheek, who hatched the failed Atwater appointment, also resigned.

Atwater died in 1991 of a brain tumor.

The Howard University Alumni will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the student protests March 26 and 27 at the Blackburn Center on the Howard University campus. And it is an event well worth remembering.

Those were days when university students seemed far more interested in providing a moral compass for school administration and government leaders than is the case now. Whether the issue was divestment of university holdings in apartheid South Africa or the appointment of a suspected racist to a leadership position at a black university, students wasted no time in making their voices heard.

One hopeful sign was the overwhelming support President Obama received on college campuses across the country. Maybe that burst of activism will ignite another wave of student action like the one that saved Howard University from Lee Atwater 20 years ago.

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