The Black Experience at Grinnell College Through Collected Oral History and Documents, 1863–1954

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Elizabeth Turner Beyene: My parents were graduates of Northwestern‚ my father‚ and the University of Chicago‚ my mother. I'm from Chicago‚ was born and brought up there. My father was a physical education teacher in the Chicago public schools‚ and my mother was a librarian for the Chicago public library system. At the time I was growing up‚ Chicago was completely segregated by neighborhoods‚ racially‚ ethnically‚ religiously‚ all those things. For a long time‚ my family‚ my brothers‚ my parents‚ and I lived with my grandmother because my father even though he had the money‚ was not able to buy a house in what he considered a nice neighborhood. So we all lived with my grandmother until things in Chicago‚ housing segregation‚ eased somewhat. I attended Hyde Park High School‚ which was a large variagated high school‚ but at that time the majority of the student population was probably middle class and upper middle class Jewish students from the Hyde Park area.

Beyene: My family's background as far as religion is concerned was sort of mixed. My father and his family were long‚standing‚ long term Catholics although I never knew my father to go to church. My mother was from Tennesse‚ an only child‚ and from a background that was Congregationalist. My brothers and I were baptised Catholics‚ but my mother in an effort‚ I think to promote religious tolerance‚ enrolled us about every other year in a different church school‚ and we attended services‚ at all different types of reld.gious groups--Baptist‚ Catholic‚ Congregationalist‚ Presbyterian‚ Quaker.

How did I choose Grinnell? Well‚ I'll tell you. My family was as I say now‚ I wasn't so sure about labelling it then‚ but was a really strict family which kept very close tabs on what children were doing‚ where they were‚ times to come in in the evening‚ that kind of thing. My family did allow my brother and I to go to parties‚ but we both had to go together‚ and I don't think that I had any permission to date or have company in the household until I was over 16‚ and by that time‚ I was a senior in high school which gives you some idea of the strictness involved. Actually it looks strict now‚ but most of my friends were undergoing the same kind of act and just thought of that as the norm. And that has something to do with my parents who expected that I would either go to the U. of Chicago or Northwestern and live at home‚ and I was silently determined to get out of Chicago and get out of my house. By the senior year in high school‚ I was considering these to be very restrictive circumstances. I think a counselor‚ a guidance counselor‚ or a teacher‚ at my high school gave me a list of schools she felt would suit me‚ and she suggested that I apply to some of them‚ and Grinnell was on that list. I had never heard of it. And so it was purely circumstance that I attended Grinnell because Grinnell was the first school of all those I applied to which responded to my application with a commitment for scholarship assistance and admittance‚ and without waiting to hear from any of the others‚ I sent back an acceptance letter.

My friends and parents' reaction to all of this was dismay‚ I think. You know the phrase‚ Grinnell‚ where is that? In Ohio? Who ever heard of it? But I saw it as an avenue of escape from home and from restrictions at home and sent in my acceptance. I'm sure there were Grinnell alumni in the Chicago area at that time. I never spoke to any of them. There wasn't or there did not seem to be that kind of formalized process‚ that students go through now. It was all kind of done in a vacuum. I didn't visit Grinnell. There were a couple of pictures in the catalog‚ but it was really an unknown.

As far as personal and occupational goals‚ I think those for me were pretty much in place before I got to Grinnell. I had worked with the American Friends Service Committee since I was a freshman in high school on their weekend work camps‚ their seminars‚ their teen councils‚ their social programs for being involved in depressed communities and being helpful to groups of people who were in dire circumstances‚ and I had pretty much made up my mind by the time I was a junior in high school that I was going to be a social worker and continue doing that kind of thing. The AFSC really made a big impression on my formation of goals and my philosophy. And Grinnell probably helped build on that‚ but I was pretty much set in that direction before I ever got there.

So my primary concerns as a student after reaching Grinnell? Freedom‚ freedom‚ have a good time‚ and fight against restrictions. The academic part really--I did my work‚ I had never had any academic problems in high school. There wasn't any‚ you know‚ concern on my part about doing well in classes. I was pretty cocky about stuff like that.

Political concerns were just beyond the pale for young college students in those days. I think my primary concerns were to have a good time. I pretty much did. I don't think living previously all my life in an urban environment made it difficult to adjust to Grinnell and a rural setting. I enjoyed it. I had had enough of Chicago‚ and Grinnell was new and different and to me very exciting. I often wonder now how it affected the students from rural areas who would leave the sam@ kind of setting and move to Grinnell and be there for the four years. I wonder often if they didn't feel that they were missing something by not having gone to some kind of school that was somewhat different. But it was great for me.

When I lived in Chicago as a pre-teen and a teenager‚ I used to spend all my money from babysitting‚ horeseback riding in Washington Park at four dollars an hour and ... don't remember experiencing homesickness or wishing had never come or any of that kind of freshman‚ sophomore slump at Grinnell.

How many other black students attended Grinnell? Well‚ not many. I think there couldn't have been more than teh all together the whole time I was there... and I remember Don Steward. I think he must have been a year behind us. And some men‚ black men‚ who were seniors at the time I was a freshman and not many more people. I can't remember any other names except that once a year in the spring semester‚ we would get visiting students who were there for a semester from Hampton on some kind of exchange program‚ who would come for the spring semester and would never show up again‚. I don't remember any of their names‚ but I think that they provided a kind of jolt to both black and white stud·ents at Grinnell out of that complacency that most of us were in about social and political events outside Grinnell and outside of Iowa.

What kind of interaction with those other few black students? Well‚ we certainly didn't organize. You can hardly organize three people into a group but‚ and we all lived in different halls. But the interaction was there. You know‚ you give the hi sign to each other when you're crossing campus‚ and you go by their room a couple of times a week so you can let down your hair and talk things amongst yourselves that black people don't talk aboutto white people. We knew a lot about each other‚ but we didn't hang together as the kids say now. But we were aware that we were a minority‚ and we were aware that we had probably more in common with each other than we had with most of the white students on campus. It's kind of that underlying Black consciousness‚ and we certainly didn't talk abou Black consciousness then‚ but it was a factor. It was there. We recognized it.

I had the same roommate for four years. A whie student. from New Jersey‚ Patricia Ann Prior‚ now Becker‚ whose parents and‚ she‚ herself‚ had written to the college requesting either a foreign student or a black student‚ or any other minority student as a roommate prior to her coming to Grinnell as a freshman. And low and behold‚ didn't the Dean of Women's office write her parents back and say to them‚ Now we have this nice claan student from Chicago of a nice well-educated family‚ and we're going to assign her to your daughter as a roommate. If there is any objection to this‚ any reason why you would not like this assignment to go through‚ please just write back and we will quietly change it. And Pat was kind of ahead of her time. She had been involved in a black community center in New York City for years as a teen volunteer and a camp counselor during the summers‚ and she had a wide circle of friends of ail.l kinds of nationalities‚ ethnic‚ racial‚ and religious groups. And was a very cosmopolitan kind of person. Her mother saved the letter and sent it to my parents‚ indignant that this should be something that Grinnell did. Mrs. Prior also wrote to the Dean of Women and expressed that indignation as well. But the incident points up that the problems that I had as a student at Grinnell were not problems of relating to other students or feeling uncomfortable in dorms and in dorm life‚ but my problems as I try to recall them and call them up and talk about them end up being problems with the faculty‚ problems with the administration‚ around racial things. And this is a good example of that. Pat and I are friends for life. We were roommates for four years. She is a godmother to my oldest child. I'm godmother to one of her kids and whenever I'm anywhere near where she is (she's moved around a lot more than I have)‚ we visit each other and the friendship is probably in better shape than it was when we were Grinnell students. So I can't say that roommate adjustment difficulties were any part of my Grinnell experienee‚ unless you count bein roommates with someone who is messy when you're neat which I don't think can be even counted‚ not in this context anyway.

I wasn't aware until that letter was sent to me by the Prior's that there was any policy that Grinnell had about housing for black students or roommate assignments or anything else of that sort. The catalog and the letters from the college to me and to my family seemed to be stressing that there were no problems like this at Grinnell. It means that the administration certainly had a different idea about the definition of problem from their side than from let's say a set of balck parents might be worrying about what would happen to their child away from home for the first time.

White students generally reacted in a friendly‚ open‚ helpful‚ and sometimes curious way in the sense of curiousity about black students. Let's face it‚ Here you have a situation where in the majority culture‚ the media‚ the press‚ television‚ movies‚ books‚ curriculum‚ black people just didn't exist. Everywhere from commercials and magazines to news in the newspaper‚ unless it was news about crime. You had this white student body who are intellectually bright‚ well adjusted‚ middle class and upper middle class teenagers from segregated‚ sheltered environments living in a culture which pays no attention to the presence of minority groups‚ at that time. I am‚ under those circumstances‚ really you know encouraged by the response of people from this background carrying their stereotypes with them‚ who‚ because they were good people‚ were able to overcome those stereotypes very quickly and both emotionally and intellectually realize ideas about similarities between groups of people‚ which were contradictory probably to what they had absorbed from the general culture. I had many good friends‚ close friends‚ while a student at Grinnell. And these white students had never had any contact or prior experience with black people on a personal level and as I say they certainly didn't have any experience of black people on even an abstract level. Maybe that made the difference. I'm not sure. But as I said before‚ my problems at Grinnell tended to be problems with faculty and administration‚ not with other students. Sure white students would read something in the Raper or read some assignment for class and come and ask you‚ It'says here black people do this‚ than‚ and the other thing‚ do they? Or why do they‚ or can I touch your hair? That was for the first month or so when I was a freshman‚ that was common. But that phase with the class that entered with me lasted a short time‚ and if there are 800 students aib the school‚ you certainly aren't good friends with all of them‚ but I had many good friends‚ and maybe there were people walking around thinking fascist thoughts abour racial purity in the student body‚ but they kept it to themselves or as far as I know‚ or at least they kept it from ‚e because I didn't have the feeling 6f being in a hostile environment.

As far as cultural identity is concerned‚ I don't think I considered myself to have a separate cultural identity. Sure‚ I came from a family where my mother encouraged and brought home books by black writers particularly Arna Bontemps. She had gone to school with him. We had Langston Hughes books lying around the house. But it was never a primary focus in my family. The focus was and it was even put this way--be excellent‚ Do better work than everybody‚ Be on top. Commit yourself to academic excellence and meet that commitment‚ That was the primary and factors of cultural identity and feeling of separatism was not stressed in my family in conversation or in parental lectures or things of that sort‚ That's not to say that there was any attempt to sweep under the rug the effects of discrimination‚ for example‚ against black people and black individuals. In fact‚ one of the recurrent topics that my father would discuss with us was why he never got a promotion in the Chicago public school system‚ because it was based on race. He was a teacher for 45 years and became a supervisor and got a promotion only in the last 10 years that he worked for the Chicago Board of Education. So it's not‚ what I'm saying is that‚ it wasn't that there was an unawareness of what it meant to be black in the society but that it was reallydiscounted in my family‚ that the key as far as my parents were concerned was that you be as good as your potential and you won't have any problems.

Social interaction was mostly for me at least on an intermural kind of level. You stayed friends and you did things with the people that lived in the same dorm as you did. If you weren't ready for the pinning‚ and pre-engagements and serenades from the front of the house by the Glee Club and all that boy meets girl and immediately hooks up with the girl for life kind of think‚ most of your activities would be athletics‚ and hanging out with a bunch of people from your hall‚ from your dorm. I dated a black student who was a senior when I was a freshman‚ But after he left‚ until I was a senior‚ I didn't date anybody else on campus‚ and yet I was always busy doing things. I was a lot younger than a lot of the students in my class‚ having skipped a couple of grades‚ and I really was kind of maturing‚ or trying to‚ the first couple of years at Grinnell‚ By the time I was a senior‚ I began dating a student‚ a white student‚ who was __ -9-lso a sociology major in my class‚ At that time‚ in my senior year‚ was when the other quote big incident about racial things occurred. He was in the process of getting ready and making applications fo.r graduate school and the chairman of the department‚ John Burma‚ called him in and said‚ Hey‚ quit. Stop doing that. If you keep going out with her‚ you're getting me very worried‚ and I don't think I could write recommendations for you for graduate school. There you are‚ you think that you have thought all along that you are an integral part of this community‚ you're doing well academically‚ you're involved in extra-curricular activities‚ track and volleyball and hanging out at the student union and you know‚ Yea‚ yea Grinnell almamater. And bam‚ something like that his you‚ and you just aren't prepared to handle it because you lived in this fantasy environment all this time. When that happened‚ I can still recall those feelings that I had‚ and in essence‚ they were panic‚ rage‚ and fear. Ok? Because I was in no way prepared to fight back against something like that‚ and the guy involved certainly wasn't and rage because of being in that position and getting slapped in the face‚ literally and fear that if I didn't stop dating him‚ that I would literally ruin his career. I think it's correct to say that‚ oh‚ wait a minute. Let me back up a bit. After the end of that side‚ you probably want to know‚ what did you do in that situation. I quit dating the guy. I told him to get lost. I didn't want to go out with him anymore‚ because I didin't want to feel responsible for you know mucking around with his career. I guess I'm still made about it. OK.

On to something else. Grinnell was insulated and isolated from the quote read world at that time. I don't know if it's any different now. Students in general in college tend to be isolated in this day from interaction with the worlds outside their campus‚ even if their campus is in the middle of a big city. I don't think Grinnell can be faulted for that except on the academic level. Somehow‚ somewhere along the line‚ I think professors should have been saying‚ Read the New York Times. Read this particular book‚ it has something to say. There was one professor who was like that that I can remember--Thomas Laswell‚ who was in sociology and who later ene.ed up going to California after a few years at Grinnell. But he used to prod us‚ the sociology majors‚ and tell us‚ You can not just read so and so's text and think you know something. You've got to read current events. You've got to know what's going on. But hisotry professors didn't say that. I mean‚ we were really concerned about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire‚ which is good‚ which is part of a liberal arts education‚ but while you are emersed in the rise and fall of the Roman Empire‚ and you don't think abou‚ say‚ what was going on at the time‚ the rise and fall of the British Colonial Empire‚ then you're missinK something. That isolatiori‚I don't know‚ I would assume that most of my classmates and I caught up with it shortly after leaving the campus‚ after graduation. But maybe we didn't. I don't know. Maybe that void or that vacuum is something you can't ever catch up with‚ I don't know. I think we were aware of national events‚ f1ltered through the De.s Moines Register. Is that the name of that newspaper? I hope that's accuarate. Very parochial‚ very unaware of some of the big movements that were gathering themselves at that time. The little bit of attention that the media paid to the Civil Rights movement and national events of that kind‚ at that time‚ that's what we knew and mostly through local media. I think that has something to do with going back to the social environment and the kinds of interests of the student body as a whole with having a good time‚ getting a paper done and what not. But I think it was heightened by where Grinnell was and how Grinnell operated as a-part from the rest of the world. The typical Ivory Tower. I do believe that I‚ by the kind of summer employment that I had‚ I worked in a camp in New Hampshire which was a camp for underpriviledged children from New York City run by James Robinson's Church of the Master in New York City and which drew as staff college students from all over the country from very diverse backgrounds and places and so these summers were these big contrasts for me. Coming from Grinnell‚ going home to Chicago for a week or so to gather together my camp things and my summer clothes and then off to New York City and New Hampshire‚ and I did that for four summers to be a part of this really‚ to me‚ radical environment of political activists and people concerned about what was happening in Africa‚ and African students who were also recruited by Reverand Robinson to be staff. I don't know what other students did‚ But I had a feeling that they weren't doing those kinds of things anyway‚ And so my life was really divided between these two really different kinds of existence‚ there was school‚ and then there was summer. There didn't seem to be any meshing of the two through me. I just thought of the summer as a special kind of time and place and went back into the usual routine at Grinnell when I got back in the fall‚ every year.

I don't recall being assigned black authors in any of the classes that I took at Grinnell‚ and I was an Engligh Lit minor. But that was Yates‚ Eliot‚ and Stevens‚ and Shakespeare‚ and Bronte. When Grinnell wrote in the catalog English Lit.‚ it was English Lit. There was a course in American writers‚ but I don't think it included any black writers. They should have becuase those were professors who were good. I know now how it works. Somebody gets a PhD. working on the collected works of T. S. Eliot‚ and that's their topic‚ and they're just not goinr to have known‚ possibly‚ black writers. That was probably very esoteric ‚

The question about what reaction did white students have to Civil Rights activities? Muted would probably be a good answer to that. Their reactions were like mine. I think I was probably a lot more interested in looking through the paper to see what was going on. But these things were not discussed openly‚ and students weren't actively involved. You know‚ I was just thinking·‚ there was a black family living in Grinnell at the time I was there. Once black family in the town‚ and the man was active in the VFW or the American Legion--one of those two. One of those two‚ because one of those two was the organizations that did all the social stuff other than church organizations in the town of Grinnell. There was this big scandal‚ I think when I was a junior‚ where this black guy who was the treasurer of the American Legion or VFW abscounded not only with the funds of the organization but with somebody's white wife and Grinnell‚ as the town of Grinnell‚ was really‚ you know‚ on its ear for a long time about that. That was the topic of the day‚ week‚ month‚ .‚ and maybe a couple of months. That brings back some things talking about that‚ remembering that. This family lived in this‚ you know‚ beaten up and broken down house on the outskirts of Grinnell‚ and the black students would find them and be invited to their home‚ to their house. We would go over there maybe once every two months to have dinner the three of us‚ Ceci‚ Alphanette‚ and I. There wasn't any kind of conscious thing you know‚ solidarity forever or racial togetherness. I think we talked about it on the basis of-this is a chance to get some home cooking that tastes better than that stuff in the dining hall. With all the corn that grows in Iowa‚ there wasn't much cornbread.

I think the most positive personal experience that I had at Grinnell was the forming of friendships and dorm life with this small group of people that I was very close friends with for the whole time I was there. Especially my roommate and especially the things that my roommate kind of introduced me to through this New York City community center and camp that I got involved with. Even now when I'm certainly more aware and prickly about discrimination‚ say both racial and gender discrimination‚ I have warm and fond memories of the close ties that I had and maintained with people during those years at Grinnell‚ other students. The most negative kind of think‚ I think‚ would be that administrative and faculty ignorance and avoidance and indiffderence to black life in this country at that time and black culture and me as a black person‚ not to mention the experience of what happened with the Chairman of the Sociology Department‚ John Burma‚ about inter-racial dating. I've often wanted to encounter that professsor now within the last ten years and take it up with him. I certainly know what I would say now. I would know what my stance was and how I would handle it. But he's probably dead. I think as I said before‚ that my roommate had the most personal influence on my life as a student and academically Thomas Laswell as a professor.

I think because they were different from the bland‚ usual‚ insulated person that I was and the over all ambiance of the Grinnell campus was at that time. I can't say or remember that I had any bad personal experiences in or with the town of Grinnell when I was a student there. My roommate and I‚ rather than go to chapel‚ had joined the Congregational Church of Grinnell and taught in the Sunday School and for a year and a half ran the junior high youth group. All white families in that church. That was an enriching experience to me and I felt well accepted. Maybe I was kidding myself. I don't know. No problems going to movies‚ shopping in Grinnell‚ riding the bus to Des Moines or the train. No‚ no bad experiences with the town. We used to laugh at the quote 'farniers'. You know‚ feel elitist because we were college students‚ but either we weren't arrogant enough or it just was a more tranquil time‚ I don't know. I did now know about any other black alumni at that time except Andy Billingsley. I learned through some of the people that I had worked with in the AFSC about him. I knew him first through the AFSC‚ and it was only later that I found out that he had been a student at Grinnell. I hope you have gathered from all that I've said before on this tape that I was happy at Grinnell. My senior year‚ there was this personal unhappiness about breaking up with someone that I cared about a lot. That had racial connotations‚ but that unhappy experience took place initially in the middle of the senior year‚ and so my last semester at Grinnell‚ I could say that I really was disturbed and unhappy about what had happened and was looking forward to getting out of the place. But that was a new factor. It could be that those summers that I spent in New Hampshire and New York City had made me more aware. But as I recall‚ it was pretty much focused on that particular framework‚ and that particular problem and that particular professor rather than a generalized kind of thing.

Since leaving Grinnell‚ where have I been and what have I done? I didn't go to graduate school from Grinnell. That same department chairman‚ good ole John B.‚ told me that I probably couldn't get into graduate school. I had something like a 3.5 or 3.6 average and higher than that in sociology. That's what the man said‚ and when the chairman says that‚ you believe it and he advised me to get a job‚ and said he would be glad to write a reference for me for employment. I should have gone to graduate school right from Grinnell because guess what‚ I just finished graduate school this year. I spent the last two years in graduate school at Syracuse University after having done things like working as a welfare worker‚ and a community organizer and a recreastion supervisor in a community center in Boston and a nursery school teacher for about ten years. I think that the racism and sexism of the particular department chariman that I had‚ skewed up you know‚ my time table. But I have a feeling that that happened to a lot of white female students too because of the time. Then I didn't consider it unusual to be receiving that kind of advice. Now‚ I'm mad about it. I feel in retrospect that it should not have happened that way. But I don't think that it was unique to Grinnell or that particular professor. I just focus on him and on that setting because that's what was happening to me.

My first marriage ended in divorce and that was a marriage to a Grinnell alumnus. I married an Ethiopian national after that whom I met when he waf;l here as a student. He died two years ago of leukemia‚ at which time I realized that nursery school teaching was not going to support my three children‚ and I went back to graduate school. As of this day‚ I am an unemployed person with a masters in public administration and an on-going application with the state department to join the foreign service. I am sitting out this thing‚ biting my fingernails‚ waiting to pass the security clearance and expect within the year‚ the comming year‚ to have an appointment in the foreign service.

I have three children‚ one just graduated flfrmn Dartmouth with a major in Spanish and went on to graduate school in biochemistry because she wants to go to madical school and needs some more science‚ hours in science‚ in order to get into medicatl school. My other two children are 16 and 17 years of age. They're both seniors in high school‚ and probably will be going to Princeton next fall and the other one to Oberlin. That's how it stands today‚ but you know with teenagers‚ you never can tell. So that's all tentative. I'm still a registered Democrat. I voted in every election since I was eligible to vote--local‚ state‚ national. If they had international elections‚ I'd take part in those too. I teach church school at the Episcopal church. I go door-to-door getting people to sign petitions so my particular candidate at the moment can get on the ballot‚ and I'm a radical conservationist‚ a card carrying mmmber of the Audubon Society‚ but also a card carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union. I live in an integraged neighborhood‚ probably 60% white and 40% black. My last job as a nursery school‚ pre-school teacher was in a day care center in the university community‚ but we bused children into our schools from all neighborhoos‚ and we had a predominately black student population at the center. I feel very strongly that at the time I majored in sociology at Grinnell‚ that that major did not address the issues of race and the black experience. But neither did any other major and neither did the total culture of this country. It paid no attention to any kind of awareness of black people and their experiences either past‚ present‚ or possibly for the future. Some of my most upsetting moments academically were in sociology classes which were entitled‚ courses that were entitled SociarI Problems and the courses were taught as if it were minority groups that were the problems rather than any kind of background or investigations of what kind of factors had historically happened in this country to put black people and other minority groups in the position they are in. I hope it has changed. But overall‚ Grinnell has had a good‚ strong‚ solid impact on my life academically. I returned to graduate school after almost 25 years out of college in fear and trembling‚ and I found out that that background at Grinnell was still there‚ and it was better than what other people had had. Graduate school could then and because of that‚ plus my other experiences‚ be a piece of cake. I'll always thank the college for sticking to its standards of excellence and making people like me who had the potential and could easily slid through in another kind of school‚ made me work and get it together.