Wednesday, Chronicle Page - Four FOCUS: January 11, 1989 On Civil Rights and Racism Administrator a product of Civil Rights Movement Claims struggle for rights must go on By Edward Ruiz Chronicle assistant news editor When Afesa Adams was growing up in Salt Lake City, she was a sociable and intelligent student, yet she never received any encouragement outside of her own family. But then again, Adams was a black child living in a segregated society, where blacks weren't equal to whites and they just weren't supposed to get encouragement. Now in 1989, as associate vice president of academic affairs at the University of Utah, Adams seeks to carry on the struggle for civil rights, realizing that while her personal success is a good example of progress, the struggle will not end until everyone has the equal opportunity to succeed. Adams said her success is deeply rooted in the Civil Rights Movement, the philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, because she found the motivation and inspiration to reach her potential through them. Speaking on the most significant events of the 20th century, she said, "I don't think anything has had a in. I greater impact than the Civil Rights Movement, and the struggle for social justice and economic equity that black people have carried on. One of the things that people tend to not understand is that African-America- ns have been continuously struggling and seeking power and influence and justice. "So it wasn't something that just happened during Martin Luther King's time and it wasn't something There had always that people had not known for empowerof need of the been a sense struggle ment." Adams likens the mass movement of black people out of the South to a refugee movement. "The .... movement of black people out of the South is hailed by some historians as the greatest migration of any people that we've had in modern history that there's just been nothing to equal that." The blacks who migrated out of the South were "seeking the opportunity over their own lives and to improve the opportunities for their children," she explained. Adams' own family was a part of that migration, and moved from Mississippi to Utah because her parents wanted to provide a better life for their children. Although her family shared the same values as w ... 77Tm , .. liliiBBWlii 4 mKsmi ' j I ' 'X, 111 l jf Afesa Adams, associate vice president of academic affairs, said she is a "product of the Civil Rights Movement." : there's just been nothing equal thai." eat in. Black leader Malcolm X was an important person to Adams. "He made it clear in ways that I could that others could not deny-th- at the was one of color. The things that Malcolm X said went so much to the heart of our experience that you could no longer not acknowledge it," she said. Although Malcolm X was known as a radical black Muslim leader, after making a trip to Mecca, he began moving away from his previous expression of hatred against whites and toward racial brotherhood. However, because he was killed shortly after he began his new social attitude, Adams said he is mostly remembered for his earlier ' philosophies. Yet Malcolm X helped set the stage for Martin Luther King Jr. by presenting the issues in ways that could not be denied, Adams explained, quoting one of his Dassaees: "When the shootine starts. they are going to look at your color," not how many degrees you have or how well you speak English." "I knew he was right," Adams said. "We could see that happening all over the nation. We could see it happening in our own experiences. And all of a ouuucu yuu lu uiu uu aw til uicicau Liiai. iuc wuiiU would change automatically one day. It made it clear that the issue was one of race." But it is King who has been remembered and honored, riot Malcolm X, she said, noting that King was much more socially acceptable and a "safer symbol" because he was mainstream. "He really is more than himself," Adams said of King. "He's a symbol of what the nation can be and he then becomes safe." Also, he came from a "very family" and was a "bril- strong middle class-typ- e liant orator and educated minister"-characteristhat when put together, created a man larger than himself. King was so able to "see the. relationships at a e level that many people did not relation- was between at what one ships happening place not deny--an- d tics I . Afesa Adams describes Martin Luther King Jr. as "one of the greatest orators of our time." their white, Mormon neighbors, they were still and what we stood for in another," she explained, treated differently in Salt Lake City's "very segre- - that he was able to show people the contradictions ; gated society," Adams continued, noting that she in those relationships. The Civil Rights Movement crystallized many of was forced to sit in the balcony of movie theaters, could not find work as an adolescent and grew up the things the country stood for and what can hap-no- t knowing" which restaurants she was allowed to pen when we don't protect the rights of everybody, Adams said, but after the deaths of King, and John and Robert Kennedy, the Civil Rights Movement went into remission, until the early 1980s. "The movement of black people out of Now, however, "there is a resurgence because the the South is hailed by some historians as fight has not been won," she noted. "I think it became clear that the gains had been the greatest migration of any people that and that if we did not actively seek to compenlost we've had in modern history--tha- t sate for the loss and to move beyond that, it wouldto " gj Q 1 see--th- n't happen. So I think people became is exemplified by the Part of that establishment of a holiday in honor of King and the University of Utah has been at the forefront of hon- oring King, Adams added, She said the university administration has had a e strong "commitment that the issue of race and der would be raised at the U." The U, first began to honor King with activities in 1985, a year before the national King holiday was initiated, she continued, leading to the current oneweek celebration the U. holds to honor him. These activities, which this year include panel gen-issu- - The struggle for civil rights opened people's eyes, Adams concluded.; "It motivated me to try to meet my potential in ways that I didn't think of I am definitely a product of the Civil Rights ... Movement. " , discussions and cultural events, help students understand the importance of an equal society and tiiat racism was not just a part of the South, but rather, "built into the fabrication of the nation. The struggle for civil, rights opened people's eyes, Adams concluded. "It motivated me to try to meet my potential in ways that I didn't think of. . . . I am definitely a product of the civil, rights However, she warned that now is not the time to be complacent because there's still a lot to be done. "One of the things that has happened now is that because a few black people like myself have some kindof accomplishment in the larger soci- ety-th- at many people think there's not much left to do. "But the number of people who have not had that kind of success, and that kind of support and guid- ance is enormous. And I think we have to be very concerned about those people."