Friday. September 23. l‘ibb

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Fly:

Grinnellians Describe leMoyne life
‘Pride and Prejudice' Plagued

Exchangers' Role

ED. NOTE: The following
story was prepared by the ilve
Grinnell students who partici-
pated in the GrinneIi-LeMoyne
exchange program last semes-
ter. ,

The five participants were
.lanet Poland, Amy Rossman,
Pat Stern, Lynda Thumen and
Rich Lance.

After a summer oi readjust-
ing ourselves to life in the White
Power Structure, the five of us

who attended LeMoyne College
last semester have returned to
our cocoons at Grinllell. To
those of you who noticed our
absence and have been asking,
“How was it?” we would like to
present some of our impres-
sions in a bit more detail than
“Great!” which is true. but
somewhat oversimplified.

LeMoyne is an all-Negro col-
lege in Memphis, Tennessee.
Under the LeMoyne-Grinneli ex-
change program, which began
two years ago, Grinnell sends
four or five students to live and
study at LeMoyne second se»
mester, and LeMoyne sends
about the same number here.

LeMlJyne is situated deep in
the segregated Negro area of
the city, and most oi its stu-
dents consequently have very
little contact with whites. espe-
cially Nortllerners. Since most
White Grinnell students live in
eq ually segregated environ-
ments. the program aims to
promote interracial understand
ing.

identity Crisis

With this rather vague as-
signment in the backs or our
minds, the iive oi us invaded
Memphis on an unusually snowy
day last January. For the next
four months we went through a
sort of collective identity crisis
partly because we really were
uncertain as to our “role" at
~LeMDyne. If someone goes to
Selma to march and to take pies
tures, he knows he is supposed
to march and to take pictures
If a student heads for Mississip-
pi to Crusade for Human Rights,
he has an identity as a crusader.
But our role was simply “stuv
dent." Our sole specialty was

in Memphis

that we were highly visible in
crowds.

We settled down in two some-
what rickety houses near the
campus. Two girls shared one
house with a senior LeMoyne
girl: two of us lived with our
most amazmg “housemother,”
who doubled as a Russian and
French teachers She looked
about seventeen, seemed to
know everyone in Memphis, and
shared our belief that Grinnell
girls are old enough to take
care of themselves. Rich Lance
and another LeMoyne student
lived nearby in the basement at
a large, mysterious house owned
by an old, eccentric widow

The iirst day ended brightly,
even though the water pipes
froze, our boots melted on the
ancient floor furnace grates. all
the doorknohs came off, and the
housemolher’s tomcat, Boris,
came in mangled after a street-
iight.

LeMoyne's neighborhood must
be described as lower economic
level. Across the street from
our house was a Vast Federal
Housing Project and one of
Memphis’ innumerable grave-
yards. The comer (Mississippi
and Walker), nicknamed "Whis-
key Corner” by Grinnell's Ned
Donahoe when he taught at Le-
Moyne, was described in a book
or local history as the toughest
corner in Tennessee in the
lEGO’s.

To the five of us fresh from
white suburbia, the neighbor-
hood was exciting. Perhaps ii
We had lived there all our years
and stood a good chance at
spending the rest of them there,
we would have seen only the
sqltalori

The Deluge

With the beginning of classes
came the deluge of people to
meet and to get to know We
found most of the students very
friendly and as eager to get to
know us as we were to meet
them. Our welcome was warm.
One day a group of girls ap-
proached Amy and asked, “Are
you one oi the Grinnell stu-
dents?"

“Yeah," she said brightly.
“How could you tell?"

MW

 

 

 

 

LYNDA THOMAN, (second train right. in leti picture)
ritr on the front steps of one oi the houses the Grin-
nelliam occupied. The group at LeMoyne students with

her includes Lois McGowan

(left, foreground) who

Ipent a lemester a! Grinnell in I965 and is now a
teacher in Nigeria. A tier LeMayne basketball player,
.tiaelionaisly known as "Bounce", hold: the house-
motlm'i oat. both lripht picture).

After about a week it dawned
on us that we girls were meet-
ing only boys, That seemed sort
or segregated, so we threw a
"hen party" in one oi the
houses. it was a roaring suc~
cess; it was there that we be-
came acquainted with the im-
possible dances we miss so
much now: the Philly Dog, the
Duck, and the Boogaloo.

At that- gathering and at sub-
sequent parties we sensed a
quality that differed from the
[one of Grinnell social life. At
Grinnell, social life implies
something scheduled and self-
conscious. At LeMoyne, social
lite means having a good time.
People dance and drink because
they feel like it. not for any
hidden purpose.

We realize that the social dlf<
ference is not an ‘eithernor‘ situ-
ation where LeMoyne is all right
and Grinnell's all wrong. But
we were impressed with the
students’ refusal to become
wrapped up in self-pityi

Basketball Zeal

The zeal shown at basketball
games is staggering. This is the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

racial. Grinneil is a rich, iso«
iated, close-knit, secular, resi<
dential college; LeMoyne is less
aliluent and more southern, ur‘
ban, sectarian, and nonresiden-
tial, Most of us at Grinnell are
(let's iace it) middle class, have
been prodded intellectually since
kindergarten, and seldom go
hungry except on Sunday after-
noon, Many of LeMoyne’s stu-
dents have unstable home situ-
ations, have to contend with the
attitudes of families fresh from
Mississippi, and hold down full
time jobs as well while they
go to school (albeit probably at
more than sac an hourl),
Academia
Academically, LeMoyne is not
exactly the Harvard of the Mid-
South. it is tangled up in ad-
ministrative difficulties and
bogged down by teachers who,
thanks to tenure, have been
there since Reconstmction, Yet
LeMoyne does have some very
good departments and some
very good professors. And al-
though most students' high
school backgrounds fall a bit
short at New Trier or Evanston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

served after a month or so won
that the white people looked de-
pressingly pasty and ugly. w
had been subtly hrainwashe
by the fear and acorn oul
friends felt toward the whit.
community, and saw it as the
did. on occasion we observ
firsthand some of the experb
encea which add to antiwhit
sentiments (which do not no
take a very militant form iii
Memphis).

During an NAACP attempt to
integrate a rather repulsive
greasy spoon joint, a repulsivg
greasy drunk pulled a knife an
we segregated rapidlyu We had
run-ins with the police, and on
occasion, the vice-squad, which
took a dim view of interracial
couples. We experienced tor the
first. time the hate state, and we
will never be the same.

Pride and Preiudlco

For over iour months we iam-
bled our way through pride and
prejudice, trying in vain to
please all of the people all oi
the time. We were accused of
being too aloof and too patroniz-
ing; too blunt and hypocriticalt

 

 

as

"BOUNCE" (left picture] poses with Janet Poland (left) and Amy Rossman at the
going away party held for the Grinnellialls. Also at the party, a visiting economics
professor. from southern Illinois University. Mr. Siolerau, lives it up with the gang

(right pictutel.

Big Game at LeMoyne; iootball
is almost a iorgotten sport. The
basketball league includes other
Negro colleges as far away as
Bethune-Cookman in Florida.

About 600 students attend Le-
Moyne in the highly significant
ratio of live girls per boy. Sev-
eral reasons explain lopsided
proportion; one is the drait
status of Negro males; another
is the exodus of gifted males to
Fiske, Howard or a northern
school.

White persons on LeMoyne’s
campus in one of four cate-
gories: a teacher (about half
are white); 3 Grinnellian; a de—
livery boy, or someone who has
lost his way. Except for the ex-
change students and the basket-
ball team, students live at home
and commute. This characteris-
tic significantly influences so-
cial life and the appearance
(dressed up) oi the students.

of course there are no hours,
because there are no dorms.
Parties are held in private
homes. Everyone takes the bus
home after School and lives a
different life until school begins
again the next morning.

it is all too easy to compare
Grinnell, a white college, with
LeMoyne, a Negro college, and
come up with entirely unfounded
conclusions. The two colleges
differ radically, but the most
significant differences are not

there are a number of highly
ablc minds on campus, some of
which will depart ior other
schools.

After we became adjusted to
LeMoyne, we began to feel de-
tached from any particular cul—
tural group We could not iden-
tify with White Memphis, and
we would never be Negroes no
matter how well we did the
Philly Dog. We felt, however.
kinship with a small, unique
group. consisting oi four or iivo
young professors, the iive at us,
and the dozen or so close friends
We made. We felt isolated as a
group from the rest oi the
world: it was in this group or
irienda that the goals or the
program were realized.

We saw little of white Mern»
phis during our stay, and what
we did see was a bit distorted.
a phenomenon that we all ob-

We were accused of appearing
like crusaders; we were as-
sailed for not crusading One
faction of the faculty felt we
should lead LeMoyne on to a
cultural renaissance The boys
wanted us to party; the girls
sometimes wished we would
drop dead, We struggled with
microbiology. Negro History.
Russian, algebra, and Race Re-
lations. We sutiered through
personal involvements, Some-
times cars would stall, parties
would drag or be crashed, the
cat would get sick, tests would
be failedl As time went on we
didn't change color, but when
our iour months were up we
felt quite adjusted to our envi-
ronment and to our role. There
were hard times and great
times, and all we can say in
retrospect is that we are very
glad we went,

 

é‘r

@‘5 FRESH DELIC/‘oas .

BAKED, 6000

THE TASTY PASTRY SHOP

 

