From the building of “shantytowns” in front of North College to the founding of the Mary Wollstonecraft House, activism at Wesleyan has taken many different forms over the years.
Last Thursday, University Archivist and Head of Special Collections Suzy Taraba and Assistant University Archivist Valerie Gillispie presented “A History of Wesleyan Student Activism.” The presentation chronicled the highlights of activism at the University, but, given only an hour, could not capture everything.
In 1831, the University’s first president, Wilbur Fisk, proclaimed that the purpose of education was two-fold, “for the good of the individual educated and the good of the world.”
During its first 75 years, the University’s religious activism stemmed from the principles of its founding body, the Methodist Church, and took the shape of missionary work.
Also during the 1830s, students and teachers became vocal advocates for abolition. Student Richard Sutton Rust of the class of 1841 compiled a book of abolitionist poetry and essays entitled “Freedom’s gift, or, Sentiments of the free,” published in Hartford in 1840. Rust later became one of Connecticut’s first antislavery lecturers.
Many of the University’s first students furthered the cause of temperance, and renounced alcohol. In 1888, about 50 students formed a Prohibition Party Club.
These students, however, did not view themselves as particularly extremist. Still, in 1935, New York Rep. Hamilton Fish derided the University as one of the ten most “radical” colleges in the United States.
Anti-war protests at the University began not in the 1960s, but rather the 1930s, with student opposition to U.S. involvement in World War II. In the ’60s, anti-war protests continued with strong opposition to the Vietnam War. In May 1969, for example, 160 students occupied President Edwin D. Etherington’s office to protest military recruitment.
The issue of divestment pushed activism to the forefront in 1977. Students in the South African Action Group exhorted the Univeristy’s Board of Trustees to divest its holdings from all companies who had business with or in South Africa. In Feb. 1986, a South African “shantytown” was erected in front of North College and remained standing for four months. Hundreds of graduating seniors wore black sashes at Commencement 1986, in solidarity with victims of apartheid.
Students also advocated for social reforms during the Civil Rights Movement of the ’50s and ’60s, organizing voter registration drives, community schools, and marches. Black and white Middletown citizens and University students and faculty joined forces in many of the marches. In the spring of 1965, a civil rights protest of over 400 demonstrators marched on Main Street.
Some faculty members were notably vocal as civil rights supporters. Professors of Religion John Maguire and David Swift, for example, joined the Freedom Riders, a group of activists who traveled to the South to help integrate public transportation and other public spaces that African Americans had been prohibited from using. Maguire and Swift were arrested in 1961 for their involvement in a mixed-race sit-in at a lunch counter in Montgomery, AL.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the University many times in the early 60s. In May 1964, he delivered the University’s baccalaureate address and received an honorary degree.
As the Black Power movement gained popularity, University students, like much of the nation, at times cast aside King’s nonviolent approach. In February 1969, African American students occupied Fisk Hall, demanding that the administration cancel classes in recognition of the death of Malcolm X.
Along with anti-war and anti-apartheid activism, the Civil Rights movement spawned a rise in identity politics. Efforts to end oppression of all people led to student organizations such as the Wesleyan Jewish Students Organization, Ujamaa, the Organization of Native American Students, and Ajua Campos, all founded in the late 1960s or early 1970s. A plethora of activist groups around Asian/Asian American and gay and lesbian identities emerged by the mid-1970s. Around the same time, program houses, many of them focused on identity politics or reformist causes, came to be important centers of activism at Wesleyan. Often, a focus on updating and broadening Wesleyan’s curriculum has been a key component of identity politics activism as well. Activist students have worked to establish courses, programs, and departments in African American studies, women’s studies, queer studies, and ethnic studies.
Feminism came to Wesleyan with the 1968 return to coeducation. Women on campus approached the administration with a proposal for Wesleyan’s first high-level female administrator and got results: Sheila Tobias was appointed as an assistant provost in 1970. Annual women’s weekends, which mixed consciousness-raising, solidarity, and theater with other activities, began in 1974. These feminist celebrations brought nationally prominent women to campus, including Gloria Steinem and Rita Mae Brown.
Mary Wollstonecraft House, a feminist living and gathering place, opened in 1975.
In the women’s movement, as well as other activist movements based on identity politics, opportunities for socializing have often shared the spotlight with reformist causes. Sometimes these dual, or multiple, missions have led to tensions within or among groups. In recent years, some activists have begun to work more closely together through such programs as the Queer Retreat and Awareness Days.
Erik Rosenberg ’08, who attended the presentation, thinks that Wesleyan’s view of activism has changed since the days of Wilbur Fisk and his belief in “two-fold” education. Rosenberg remarked that in a WSA meeting he attended two Sundays ago, one student representative felt that the WSA didn’t have a place in taking action off the Wesleyan campus in addition to on.
“This is an example of how activism at Wesleyan has diminished, and I find it disturbing that someone who is supposed to represent the community has this belief,” Rosenberg said.
On a similar note, Lauren Valentino ’10 believes many of her friends were drawn to Wesleyan because of its reputation for activism. However, she thought that many people have found the activism, or lack thereof, disappointing.
“I feel like activism as a norm in student life has fallen out of habit. It seems like you have to seek out activism on campus, whereas awareness through lectures and speakers is everywhere,” Valentino said. “But activism is a completely different entity and is not as accessible as it should be.”
“Activism at Wesleyan varies a lot depending on who you talk to,” said Mollie McFee ’10. “I think that people have a tendency to think that Wesleyan is universally radical, but there are people here who are active in radical ways, conventional ways, and people that just don’t really care.”
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