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Show January Wednesday, Chronicle - Page Five 11, 1989 FOCUS On Civil Rights and Racism '60s Sailt Lake City was 'mo place for mrQDinioirD'D03v Panel .Discii! es Civil Riffht: In Editor's note: The following is based on excerpts from editorials and stories which appeared in the Daily Utah Chronicle during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. By Ken Southwick Approaches Within The Civil Rights Movement yjt Chronicle administration reporter During the turbulent years of the Civil Rights Movement, writers at the University of Utah's Daily Utah Chronicle were outspoken when it came to the riehts of minorities. f The following are a portion of the views expressed by Chronicle writers. v Tn fl Vi nn eo oriitrrial Tlon Q 1QRQ tl-i- i or ratrjp ftjf 8t timp of con- fctwxk tt I tern mutual wto- - regard to human rights and equality for minorities. To the first question, the editor responds: "We must put much blame on all the citizens of Utah for being apathetic and for refusing to acknowledge that a problem exists. It is very common" in Utah to hear sucn phrases as 'we don't have a civil fights problem here' and 'there aren't many Negro people in Utah anyway.'" ; As for the second question: "The Negro in Utah cannot find housing because the law won't let him discrimination . . . it is not uncommon fight against - XT xl f a nome man a zo percent more ior iu see a iegro pay rf white would have to pay., "A Negro has no guarantee that he can eat in the 1 A . restaurant of his choice nor does he know if the mntel sion that savs 'varanrv' means he ran stav there. "If you want to be a shoe shine boy or a domestic and you're a Negro there may be work for you in Utah.: If you. choose law, medicine, or business and you're a Negro you'd better plan on moving to another state because there will be very little demand for your services nere. Amme cause ior acuon r vve minK so. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by c , tfco i UtM m. tt I ka. xn Aawnr gov- ernor) done nothing?" The second question addressed the reasons for the governor to act in . tm&psmmm m& -t critical of George Clyde's lack cern for civil rights in Utah. The writer posed two questions: "Why has (the then-Govern- imksm. tt tVio TTnitorl ftlio PnlVi't! nn final cnlnti States' race problems." Ahead of the country are still manifold problems of enforcement." The article went on to say that even though Salt Lake City is small, the Negro minority is ignored and many of the city's problems are as serious as the rest ' of the nation's. . "While there is no law forbidding certain areas of tne city to .Negroes, it is impossiDie ior a iNegro.to "Tt v icte i&m$ md- - Parking ts s I tomtom- !Bt Si s!i. Mat ASws 4, TSns ! toft jf tteit psS5E Iccioii International Nsy- t? Akr Tarn."' Cs $wt(Wt 9s During the Civil Rights Movement, issues such as housing discrimination, racism and riots plagued the . University of Utah campus. buy a home east of 10th or 11th East. "A Chronicle survey last fall showed that nearly half of the landlords who were listed with the University openly admitted that they would not accept Negroes as tenants . . ." The following year, Gov. Calvin Rampton signed into law the first civil rights bill in Utah's history. n v "We, too, have seen discrimination rear its head in the wrong race our own communities with those-oor religion shunted to the sidelines and deprived of the spirit of liberty guaranteed by our constitution," the bill said. . of the the Chronicle bill, Following passage observed, "the Governor's words and the passage of such a bill are a welcome wind of change after years in the doldrums of indifference and passivity . f . . towards minority discrimination in Utah." The editorial cited a report that had appeared in a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, of some 50 blacks who had graduated from the U. in the preceding 20 years, only one was still to be found living in the state. Also, there was not a single' black lawyer or doctor in Salt Lake City. '.; According to the Chronicle, the report also said of the 2,500 blacks living in Salt Lake City, most lived in a "West side 'ghetto' distinctive by . . . 'listless folks . . . who seem to be waiting for something that never happens.' "That something happened . . . when Utah passed its first Civil Rights Act. All Utahns should be proud of it and uphold it." Goal of U. liberal ed course to sensitize students to racism By Michael Allsop Chronicle staff writer One year ago, white law officers in town of Hemphill, Texas beat a black man, Loyal Garner Jr., to death while he was jailed on suspicion of drunken driving. Garner had no criminal history and witnesses said he did not provoke the senseless beat- - the small-iustic- e " The officers were acquitted by a jury that had only one black member. For. most of the town's blacks, the acquit- tal was an odvious injustice, am me former Mayor Ronnie Felts said, "It was kind of like an industrial accident. It shouldn't have happened, but it did." Overt arts nf irmistice and racial dis crimination are not confined to backward small towns, a University of Utah like : dean said. Racial discrimination are forms other this and replicated on the university everywhere-ev- en 11111 I ,f ' r- - it p . campuses. Howard Ball, dean of the U. College of Social and Behavioral Science, said cases of racial discrimination against ; , 270 Winter Quarter, is taught by both Ball and Coleman. Students of the course, however, will also hear lectures given by U. faculty members who have specialized in political science, history, journalism, ethnic and women's studies, philosophy and law. "When we take the legal approach to discrimination in class, we will discuss how constitutional rights are broken and how people do not receive equality in the sense of equal justice and equal protection to the law," Ball said. "We will discuss how people have intentionally acted to deprive others of their fundamental rights solely on the basis of the neutral factors of race, religion and sex." The cultural and psychological reasons behind how racial stereotypes develop will also be examined from a cultural and psychological standpoint, he explained. ' The thought of racial discrimination on university campuses is extremely concerning, "because you would think people using intelligence and reason would obliterate racism," Ball said. Ball hopes the course on racism, in conjunction with the educational environment of the U., will bring students students and faculty have recently Chronicle photo by Aaron Ashcraft .... occurred at .the Universities of Ronald Coleman, director of the U. Ethnic Studies Program, (left) and Howard Ball, Massachusetts and Michigan. At dean of the of to an College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, said the understanding of the nation's Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, racism them to teach a class on racial discrimination. . . racism was perpetrated by the college's student-ru- n newspaper, he said. Concerned with an apparent growth of racism in the and Ronald Ball United States, U. ethnic studColeman, director of the ies program, decided to teach a class on and provoked American racial discrimination. The. course, American Race Dilemma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, explores in depth the issues of equality and racial discrimination in America, Ball said. . In the exploration of these themes, the course will examine political, legal, ethical and even logical perspectives of discrimination, he said. The class, listed as Liberal Education socio-psych- . o- racial dilemma and why it is wrong. "Students can be educated to address the prejudices socially and those within themselves," he said. "The overall goal of the class is to sensitize students about racism and how society tries to deal with the evils of racism." |
