Intersections

CONTENTS
A Dive Into the Archive
by VIBHUSHA KOLLI and CLARE ZHANG
Mitigating Harm
Through Prison Education
by GRACE LEE
by NIVA RAZIN
From Anesthesiology to Plant-Based
Entrepreneurship
Dr.Carla Hightower
"I was the force of that."
by CHINAZA ASIEGBU
Florynce Kennedy’s Involvement
in the Miss America Protests of 1968
in Atlantic City,New Jersey
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INTERSECTIONS
Lessons from the Life and
Work of W.E.B.Du Bois
by RACHEL CHIU
Interview with Aldon D.Morris
Northwestern
University: A History of
Anti-Blackness
by CATHERINE CAMPUSANO
and PRERITA PANDYA

Dear readers,
We are delighted to present Intersections, a joint issue of The Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal (NURJ)
and The Yale Historical Review (YHR). This collaboration emerged from conversations last summer on the role of
student publications in advancing social change. In sharing experiences and ideas among peers from different colle-
ges, we realized the value in uniting our voices. For this reason, we created this single volume together. Intersections
showcases the brilliance, creativity and passion of students over a variety of media.
Looking to the past to learn, NURJ editors conducted a thorough survey of Northwestern’s history of racial injustice
with Kathleen E. Bethel, African American studies librarian, and Charla Wilson, archivist for the Black experience
at Northwestern. The editors then dove into the research of Northwestern undergraduates from as far back as 2013
to further emphasize the timeless need for social justice. This flashback preempts scintillating interviews with Aldon
D. Morris, Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern, on his impactful
research about W.E.B Du Bois and Dr. Carla Hightower (NU ‘85, FSM ‘87, ‘89) on her incredible career and the resi-
liency she continuously displayed. It is important to highlight not just Northwestern’s incredible faculty, but also the
groundbreaking Northwestern Prison Education Program, where such dynamic and positive work is being done for
their incarcerated students.
Ashley Teamer, an MFA student at Yale, contributes powerful artwork from her collection Soft and Beautiful, repre-
senting how Black girls navigate through white supremacist beauty standards. Teamer’s pieces serve as companions
to Harvard junior Chinaza Asibegu’s striking essay, “‘I was the force of that.’: Florynce Kennedy’s Involvement in the
Miss America Protests of 1968 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.”
In addition to those mentioned above, editors and our two production & design teams have ensured the success of
this publication. We are grateful for their many talents and unwavering dedication.
Above all, we hope that by bringing together the YHR’s 1701 Project and the NURJ’s 1851 Project more undergra-
duates will engage in these dialogues across institutional boundaries.
LETTER from
the EDITORS
Shreya Sriram,
Editor in Chief of The Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal
2 VOLUME X ISSUE I SPRING 2021
Postscript: The publication of this issue comes at a moment when academia and politics have collided. Only a few
weeks ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the MacArthur "Genius Grant,” was denied
tenure at UNC Chapel Hill.
Our editorial boards were shocked and disheartened when we learned of this decision. This collaboration between
our two universities emerged from our deep, mutual admiration of Hannah-Jones and her work at The New York
Times. Since the inception of The 1701 Project at Yale, we have emphasized our debt to and support of The 1619
Project. Hannah-Jones's commitment to rigorous scholarship and social change serves as a model for students
such as ourselves to follow. We continue to draw inspiration from Hannah-Jones and trust that countless others
will recognize and reward her ideas.
Henry Jacob,
Editor in Chief of The Yale Historical Review
Sincerely,

ESSAY
MITIGATING HARM
THROUGH PRISON
EDUCATION
by Grace Lee
Philosophy Professor Jennifer Lackey strongly believes
in prison education and its benefits. “I think about the
impact of education on people who are incarcerated in
terms of inside and outside benefits,” she explains. “The
outside benefits include dramatically lower recidivism
rates. Re-entry [into society] is far smoother for people
who have engaged in post-secondary education, espe-
cially if they have a degree. This can help with breaking
the intergenerational cycle of poverty and incarceration.”
Indeed, studies by the Bureau of Justice Statistics have
shown that prison education can reduce recidivism
rates by as much as 43%. Other studies have also found
that recidivism rates decrease with increased educa-
tional attainment. In fact, the recidivism rate for those
who obtain a master’s degree is 0%.
Along with these tangible “outside” benefits, Lackey
stresses the importance of acknowledging the “inside”
benefits of prison education, as well. “There’s a definite
decrease in disciplinary infractions and violence on the
inside when people participate in these programs. But
most importantly, there are reports of people just fee-
ling more meaning and hope in their life because they
have a greater purpose,” she says. “I always think it’s
important to emphasize these benefits because they are
the reason why we offer our program to people serving
natural life sentences, as well.”
Despite its clear benefits, prison education is currently
only available to roughly 6% of the 2.2 million people
incarcerated in the United States. However, in De-
cember 2020, Congress lifted a 26-year ban that pre-
vented incarcerated people from receiving federal Pell
Grants. The change will not affect students of the Nor-
thwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) because
the program is fully funded and its tuition is waived.
However, Lackey still recognizes the significance of the
ban’s reversal. “The Pell Grant restoration is a huge step
because people who are incarcerated can now pursue
ennifer Lackey is the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy at
NorthwesternUniversity.SheisthefounderanddirectoroftheNorthwestern
Prison Education Program,a partnership between Northwestern University
and the Illinois Department of Corrections that is dedicated to providing
a high-quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students in Illinois.
She discusses the role of prison education in mitigating the harms inflicted on those
systematically disadvantaged by the current criminal justice system.
J
3
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SPRING 2021

educational opportunities independently of the institu-
tion where they are incarcerated.”
She still acknowledges that more needs to be done to
improve accessibility to prison education, and she ad-
vocates for more higher education institutions inves-
ting in major prison education programs like NPEP.
“More institutions like Northwestern University need to
heed the moral call to divest from the pernicious institu-
tions of over-policing, over-criminalization, and over-in-
carceration, particularly of Black and brown people, and
instead invest in the communities, structures, and sys-
tems that we know actually help people,” she says.
Lackey also notes that prison education programs are
“perfectly compatible” with abolitionist frameworks
emerging in response to recent calls for police abolition
following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor,
Ahmaud Arbery, and many other Black Americans. She
argues that these programs mitigate the current harm
of the carceral system.
“One way of looking at the movement to abolish the
police is to abolish the cause — or at least one of the
central causes — of mass incarceration in the United
States. Over 90% of our student population are people
of color. That number by itself, I think, reveals the syste-
mic racism involved in the criminal legal system. Given
all of the very concrete, tangible benefits of prison edu-
cation, we regard it as one of the most positive ways of
engaging in harm mitigation within a structure that is
oppressive and needs reform.”
Lackey believes that this process of harm mitigation has
a powerful “ripple effect” that extends well beyond the
incarcerated students. “Every single one of our students
has a home community — they have friends, family
members, children, and partners,” Lackey explains.
When the students share their investment in their edu-
cation and how it is changing their lives, “it can have a
profound impact on these home communities.”
The education of the broader community does not stop
there. NPEP provides many opportunities for graduate
and undergraduate students to get involved in the prison
education initiative. These students often take classes with
the NPEP students, teaching and learning alongside them.
“I don't think there's any better way of coming to un-
derstand incarceration than talking to people who are
incarcerated,” Lackey says. “You can look at data, you
can look at statistics, you can look at studies, you can
read political scientists, and you can read sociologists,
but unless you actually listen, talk, and bear witness to
the people who are actually living through it, I think
your education is incomplete.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges to
the NPEP initiative. The program’s faculty and staff have
not been allowed in the prison since March 2020 (as of
the writing of this article in March 2021). For a program
that relies heavily on in-person interactions, this restric-
tion has been devastating. While NPEP has been conti-
nuing classes through a correspondence-based format,
Lackey notes that this new method is dramatically infe-
rior to the face-to-face courses that used to be offered.
Despite the challenges posed by such unprecedented
times, Lackey emphasizes that the sense of commu-
nity among the program’s staff and students has been
stronger than ever. “One of our students sent a letter
saying that he is suffering and needs support. He pro-
bably received over 25 letters from the students here in
Evanston that week,” she recalls. “We have an extraordi-
narily powerful community. It’s one of the greatest gifts
— maybe the greatest gift — of my professional career
to be a part of this community.”
4 JENNIFER LACKEY
“You can look at data, you can look at statistics,
you can look at studies, you can read political
scientists, and you can read sociologists, but
unless you actually listen, talk, and bear witness
to the people who are actually living through it,
I think your education is incomplete.”

DR. CARLA HIGHTOWER
From Anesthesiology to Plant-Based Entrepreneurship
by Niva Razin
As a physician, entrepreneur, educator, and life-long stu-
dent, Dr. Carla Hightower’s life is her message. She has
led a storied career, full of degrees and multiple careers,
always guided by a desire to help others. She has thrived
in all aspects of her life despite several destabilizing ra-
cist encounters she experienced between 1983–1991 as a
student at Feinberg School of Medicine.
SCHOOLING
As a student in the Honors Program in Medical Educa-
tion, Hightower completed two years of undergraduate
studies before enrolling at Feinberg. She was excited to
“help people be well” and “have a better life.” However,
her enthusiasm quickly waned.
Within her first years at Feinberg, she was assigned
to a lab professor who she recalls was a self-described
“Aryan.” She remembers that he spent lab haranguing
students about the validity of eugenics, using 1940s re-
search to defend his criticisms of non-white races.
“Everyone was literally frozen in their seat. I felt almost
paralyzed,” she says.
Hightower’s next encounter a year later was equally
“deflating, demoralizing, and humiliating.” After a ful-
filling and encouraging general surgery rotation, she
was prepared to declare her specialty in general surgery.
She remembers that despite several supportive perfor-
mance reviews from the chief resident and other faculty,
the department chair told her she was “not the right
kind of person for the field.”This forced her to quickly
pivot in a different direction.
Then,eight years into her higher education in 1989,she
remembers two attending physicians cornering her in a
“small, dusty, windowless utility-type room.”
“They were [going to] recommend to the chairman of
the department that I repeat the [post graduate year of
training] year.…They said their reason was that I didn’t
have the knowledge.” She recalls them saying that this
decision was based on “the feeling they had when they
worked with [her].”
These experiences resulted in Hightower “feeling like
an island” as she navigated her medical education. “We
can’t really thrive if we’re isolated,” she explains.
LESSONS
Amazingly, in spite of the discrimantion, Hightower
remains “very grateful for the once-in-a lifetime
r. Carla Hightower completed her undergraduate studies (’85) at
Northwestern University and her medical degree (’87) and residency
(’91) at Feinberg School of Medicine. She practiced anesthesiology
for over two decades before opening Living Health Works, where she teaches
wellness and plant-based nutrition. She is also a vice president of the
Northwestern Alumni Association.
D
ESSAY
SPRING 2021
7
INTERSECTIONS

opportunity to be a student of such a great institution.”
She took several important social and medical lessons
from her time at Feinberg. Ever the thoughtful and
forward-looking doctor, she generously shares this ti-
mely wisdom.
“It's now an opportunity for the institution to look at
the weaknesses, to grapple with injustices. Institutions
need to be willing to do something painful and un-
comfortable in the short term. … We have to do away
with the pattern of having incidents occur and then just
moving on without actually addressing [them].”
She also notes that change starts at the top. “You need
to be able to see people who are like you in those roles.
Faculty should be diverse, and we should also see the
faculty succeeding.”
Finally,she says students can help bend the institutional
culture towards fairness and inclusivity. She encourages
them to speak up fearlessly when they witness injustice
and to build a network early on.
“Yes, there’s a risk of speaking out. But, it’s worth the
risk because it’s certainly going to make it better for
the current students, and it’s going to make it better
for future students.” She also advises, “actively cultivate
mentors … who will stand for fairness and provide the
professional support structures needed to weather the
storms that inevitably occur.”
She believes that instituting these changes would be-
nefit everyone.
“All students — from all races,ethnicities,genders [and]
sexual orientations — should feel that they belong and
don’t have the burden in their mind that they are being
treated unfairly.If we fix this,everyone can get the most
out of being a Northwestern student or faculty.”
TODAY
Since Feinberg,Hightower has spent her career helping
others — first as an anesthesiologist for 21 years, then
a physician adviser, and most recently an entrepreneur
and health coach. She has also earned several advanced
degrees along the way.
While practicing anesthesiology, she attended night
school, earning a Master of Business Administration
from Kellogg School of Management in 2002.Between
2006–2008, she served as vice chairman then chairman
of the department of anesthesiology at Good Samari-
tan Hospital in Dayton, Ohio.
During this time, Hightower had a particularly grue-
ling schedule and developed chronic health symptoms.
She explored alternatives to traditional western medi-
cine and switched to a plant-based diet. As her health
improved dramatically, her own interactions with the
medical establishment dwindled.
“The pharmacist no longer knows me by my first name!”
She continued as an anesthesiologist for several years
before briefly working as a physician adviser, where she
learned about the economics of the medical industry.
She also earned a certificate in medical writing and edi-
ting from the University of Chicago Graham School
and a certificate in plant-based nutrition from the T.
Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies at Cor-
nell University.
Then, in 2015, inspired by her success with a plant-
based diet, she founded Living Health Works. As a
health coach, she educates people about nutrition and
wellness — “self-care, really.” She no longer treats pa-
tients “right on the edge of dying.” Instead, she teaches
people how to avoid the emergency room altogether.
“[Physicians] excel in crisis management. … But, we
have not focused enough on how to prevent people
from ever needing acute care, from getting the chronic
disease in the first place.”
Additionally, as one of three vice presidents of the Nor-
thwestern Alumni Association, Hightower creates pro-
gramming to address the diverse and evolving needs of
N.U. alumni and students.
“We’re finding that, depending on where a person is in
their trajectory, [their] needs vary,” she explains. “We
want to be more inclusive.”
Hightower knows that the most valuable lessons can
come from the most difficult situations. She has used
those lessons to not only achieve personal and profes-
sional success, but also to heal, teach, and build a better
world for all.
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A DIVE INTO
THE ARCHIVE
by Vibhu Kolli and Clare Zhang
Since the NURJ’s founding nearly two decades ago, senior theses have remained the core of its annual print
publication. Here, we present summaries of 15 theses published between 2013–2021 that researched and illumi-
nated a wide range of social issues.Thus, the goal of this article is two-fold.
First, we hope to further discussions of systemic racism, inequities, and injustices experienced by marginalized
and minoritized communities locally, nationally, and internationally.This diverse compilation of theses is not
intended to provide extensive information on a particular topic. Rather, we offer a springboard for discussing
and addressing a variety of nuanced, ongoing social justice issues.
Secondly, this article provides a brief timeline of such issues which have been brought to the fore by undergra-
duate researchers at Northwestern over the last several years.This timeline is complemented by the comments of
several thesis authors who chose to share retrospective insights in March 2021.
All theses featured in this article can be found in full at thenurj.com.
The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA), or the
National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires,Argen-
tina, was founded in 1896 by the country’s ruling elite,
called the Generation of ’80, who wanted Argentina to
be seen as a white country.This elite founded the MNBA
to push working class Argentines to aspire towards a Eu-
ropean ideal. In 2005, the museum created Room 24, a
room dedicated to Argentine art. Although the museum
directors recognized that the room would play an impor-
tant role in shaping national identity, as of 2013, Room
24 only included two works of art depicting Argentines
of non-European descent: La vuelta del malón (The Re-
turn of the Raid) and La cabeza del esclavo (The Bust of
a Slave), both of which perpetuate negative stereotypes
about Black and Indigenous Argentinians.
As of January 2021, there were four rooms in the
MNBA (Rooms 19-22) dedicated to 19th century
2013-14
The Problem in Room 24: Racial
Constructions and the Making of
National Identity in the National
Museum of Fine Arts of Argentina
by Jasmine Jennings
ESSAY
SPRING 2021
11
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12 A DIVE INTO THE ARCHIVE
Argentine art. Of the 41 exhibited works, only three
clearly included Argentines of non-European descent:
La vuelta del malón, La cabeza del esclavo, and Tafá (In-
dia Fueguina), which is a sculpture of an Indigenous
woman. Thus, the “myth of white Argentina'' conti-
nues to be perpetuated.
World White Web
by Mauricio Maluff Masi
In theory, the invisibility that the Internet affords its
users can create an environment where everyone is
treated equally. In reality, however, this invisibility is
exactly what makes racism and sexism more apparent
on the Internet than in real life. Members of a racia-
lized and gendered society will instinctively assign a
race to those who do not identify themselves with any
race, and the default race in the public sphere is the he-
gemonic one.This means that online, Black people who
do not openly identify with their race can enter white
spaces where white people do not feel the need to treat
Black people as equals, as they may in real life. They
are forced to pass as white while simultaneously being
hyperaware of the Blackness of their material bodies.
Comments from the author: When I wrote this se-
nior thesis, white supremacist radicalization in online
communities was not the subject of public discussion it
is today. Now, we all know how devastating its poten-
tial can be,from Charleston,through Charlottesville,to
the Capitol riot of January 6th. Whatever I may say in
hindsight about my theoretical contribution here,or my
suggestions to combat online white supremacy, I can at
least say I was clearly right to be concerned. Whether
we'll find a way to address the problems I raised here,
while maintaining the promise of an open web, remains
to be seen.
Two of three works in the 19th century Argentine
art collection of The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
that feature an Argentine of non-European descent,
an enslaved Black man (Francisco Cafferata, Busto
de Esclavo (Bust of a Slave), 1882, Bronze, 37 cm x
37 cm x 25.5 cm), and an Indigenous woman (De Pol,
Victor, Tafá (India Fueguina), 1887, Bronze, 39.5 cm
x 23.5 cm x 23 cm, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes,
Buenos Aires, Argentina).
ON THE RIGHT
Bouie, Jamelle. Protestors with signs in
Ferguson. 14 Aug. 2014.
ON THE NEXT PAGE

Among the more than 4,000 cases of police violence
analyzed in this study,only 33% of incidents in which an
unarmed Black civilian was killed or injured by police re-
sulted in protest.This is largely the result of the disincen-
tive for an individual to participate in collective action
when they can benefit from the success of the collective
action without personally participating, as social move-
ment theorist Mancur Olsen outlines in his theoretical
model.This study also found a statistically significant re-
lationship between the percentage of a municipal popu-
lation below the poverty line and the likelihood that pro-
tests emerge in response to an instance of racially biased
police brutality. This relationship may be explained by
poor communities having less access to formal political
channels and feeling the effects of racial discrimination
more acutely through segregation and heavy policing.
Thus,protest is their only tangible recourse for influence.
Comments from the author: In the immediate wake
of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, I
started my thesis research in the fall of 2014 with
more questions than answers: Why was there nowhere
the victims of police brutality were identified? Why
did some but not all instances of police brutality gene-
rate protest? What is it about some communities that
primes them for protest?
Looking back in 2021, I still have more questions
than answers. In compiling detailed records of most
instances of police brutality since 2000, my primary
finding was that protest in response to police bruta-
lity is strongly correlated with the homogeneity and
economics of the local community where the violence
took place. Thinking about the summer of 2020, I’m
left to wonder what the value of protest is on its own
and what prevents it from turning into meaningful ac-
countability and reform.
2020’s massive movement offers a bittersweet answer to
these questions. It points to the truth behind a founda-
tional principle of social movement theory, that moral
shocks — like video of an unarmed man being slowly
choked to death while others watched and did nothing
— show people that the world is different than they
thought and drive them to act.At the same time,it raises
an important question: What is the real value of pro-
test? If a global movement against police violence and
structural racism in the U.S. isn’t enough to bring about
meaningful change, what will? What has led reform to
take hold in some local communities while other similar
communities remain unchanged?
2015-16
No Justice, No Peace: How Poverty
Leads Racially Biased Police
Brutality to Trigger Protests
by Madeleine Elkins
13
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The superheroic figure is a pop cultural force reshaping
and expanding how we envision human ability and iden-
tity in a post-industrial age.In particular,Black superhe-
roes serve as an Afrofuturist solution to the anxieties
of modernity as they are encountered by Black bodies,
arising from forces of state neglect, police brutality, me-
dical malpractice, and other forms of institutionalized,
racialized violence. The figure of the Black superhero is
surrounded by a paradox of possibility, as the liberal hu-
manist notion of human assumes a universally accessed
human state that Black people do not fit into. By as-
serting themselves as culturally bound Black bodies in a
postcolonial time-space, Black figures can reclaim histo-
ry and reframe their cultural timeline as they see fit.
Comments from the author: I hope this thesis finds
you well. I hope it finds you in an autonomous asteroid
colony on a slow glide out of the solar system. I hope
it finds you half submerged in some wetland-scape in
some parallel world with the laughter of some cryptid in
the distance and long curtains of Spanish moss waving
at you like a half-resigned lifeline. I hope it finds you
riding the wind around the tops of an urban landscape,
electricity flowing out your fingertips. I hope it finds you
sprouting from the earth on a late spring morning, your
roots building a home in the moist soil and your leaves
stretching out in the heat of the day.
I wrote this six years ago and thought about skimming
through it again but didn’t. It was about bodies and eco-
logies and the dimensions of who gets to be human and
the messiness of navigating the limits of the human itself.
It was about pop culture and speculative fiction as they
work in conversation with embodied realities and was
hopeful about how things like Afrofuturism and Black
feminist thought can open spaces of radical imagination
and world-building. It pointed to possible futures and
alternative ways of being that were maybe also humanly
workable right where we are. It was my saving grace at
the time, which is enough, and I invite you to take what
serves you and leave what doesn’t.
Electric Peoples: Toward an
Afrofuturist Body Politic
by Christian Keeve
Victor Ibanez. Storm #1 (Marvel Comics 2014).
ON THE RIGHT
Though liberal democracies claim to protect the indi-
vidual rights of all citizens, it is equally important for
a democracy to recognize the collective group rights
of marginalized communities, including immigrants.
Group rights refer to a government’s respect for mino-
rities’cultural differences in order to integrate them into
society. A majority of immigrants to the U.K. are ethnic
minorities who wish to integrate into the society they
inhabit, not gain independence from it; therefore, reco-
gnizing their legal and political group rights, as well as
promoting a national British identity, will help prevent
conflicts and improve social cohesion. Immigrants and
2016-17
Immigrants in the United Kingdom:
Integration Through Group Rights
by Shakeeb Asrar

the descendents of immigrants constituted about 14% of
the total population in the U.K.in 2015,according to the
U.K. Statistics Authority, so immigrants have significant
influence on politics and the economy,and their dissatis-
faction can undermine national stability.
Settler states such as Canada and the U.S. use Ethnic
Studies to continually reify a colonial relationship of
power obfuscated by “progressive” human rights dis-
courses and practices.Seeking recognition from the state
turns Indigenous healing into a spectacle, as opposed to
an opportunity to dismantle structures that continue to
necessitate Indigenous suffering. The value of an Eth-
nic Studies program, course, or curriculum lies in its
creation of a decolonial imaginary space in which stu-
dents engage, which allows them to develop a changing
consciousness to think of ways to disrupt the racial-colo-
nial relationship between communities of color and the
schooling apparatus, and build a different relationship.
The Third World and women of color feminist lens is
imperative to all Ethnic Studies because it is committed
to this changing consciousness.
Therapeutic High Schools: Healing
in the Age of Ethnic Studies
by Cinthya Abigail Rodriguez
Asian American representation becomes more visible as
it begins to carve out its own place in mainstream Ame-
rican media. Although the community has been able to
gain traction through television and newer platforms of
media such as streaming services and YouTube, there is
still a limited depth and breadth to which Asian Ameri-
can representation can extend,mainly due to the need to
appeal to a largely white audience.This results in various
issues such as white idealization, the creation of stereo-
types,and the perpetuation of anti-Blackness.There have
been social media movements to change these issues,but
Making Mainstream Asian America:
Productions and Representations
of Asian American Identity in
Television and Web Series
by Theanne Liu
further reevaluation and improvement to Asian Ameri-
can media depiction are needed.
Comments from the author: My senior thesis was pu-
blished with the Department of Communication Stu-
dies and with the support of my thesis advisor, Dr. Ay-
mar Jean Christian who is currently doing incredible
work with Open Television in providing a platform for
independent,Chicago-based artists and centering stories
from the margins. Much of this thesis was also infor-
med by my time in the Asian American Studies Program
(AASP), where I minored in Asian American Studies.
At Northwestern, I was involved with the Asian Pacific
American Coalition and AASP in supporting the esta-
blishment of an Asian American Studies Major, around
the 20th anniversary of the 23-day student hunger
strikes for Asian American Studies. The major was ap-
proved in early 2016, months before I graduated.Today,
AASP and the Latinx Studies Program do not yet have
departmental status but have recently received additio-
nal funding to further their goals of departmentalization,
namely hiring solely within their own programs. I am
thrilled for students today even though there is much
more Northwestern could do.
Finally,while my thesis centers on Asian American media
representation, this is not the be-all and end-all of what
Asian American “activism” should encompass, as it often
feels. It goes without saying that this comment should
acknowledge reports of increased anti-Asian violence and
the continuing state violence of this current administra-
tion in the deportations of Southeast Asian American re-
fugees.Most importantly,calls to action must look directly
to community work on the ground and realize that poli-
cing does not and will not keep us safe.
2017-18
Trauma-Informed Care:
Re-contextualizing, Depoliticizing, and
De-pathologizing the Black Experience
by De’Sean Weber
Ethnographic data collected through 120 hours of parti-
cipant observation at a permanent housing program
15
INTERSECTIONS

shows the multi-faceted nature of Black oppression that
propagates throughout social, economic, and political
means, manifesting in cumulative and repetitive trau-
ma in Black communities. Trauma-informed care reco-
gnizes the historical and lived traumas of being Black,
and admits to how biomedicine and psychiatry have
played a part in the continuation of institutionalized ra-
cism. However, beyond this, drastic and institutionalized
changes to the way the system treats and values Black
people are necessary to break their cycles of trauma.
In recent years,the National Football League (NFL) has
been riddled with controversy regarding its significant
racial discrimination, particularly in regards to the U.S.
national anthem protests.This paper attempts to explain
the varying results of past research on this topic by ac-
counting for possible omitted variables.It also focuses on
gauging racial discrepancies based on NFL Draft deci-
sions, specifically for quarterbacks, instead of on salaries,
like past work has. The NFL statistics from 2000-2018
and the NFL Draft data from 2000-2011 were used to
assign quarterback scores and map them onto a regres-
sion model. Analysis of racial influence on draft order
among drafted players and draft picks shows that there is
a visible impact of racism on lower-skilled players.
2019-20
Assessing Racial Discrimination of
Quarterbacks in the NFL Draft
by Sam Allnutt
As public exposure to Black maternal health grows,dou-
las and midwives weigh in on Black birth and maternal
mortality rates. Race has an active presence in their li-
ves, as they treat Black mothers with care and respect
in a predominantly white system that disproportionately
fails them. Black birthworkers are not only disrespected
for their career — which is considered unconventional
Racial Redress: Black Birth Workers
Respond to Maternal Mortality
by Onyinyechi Jessica Ogwumike
in healthcare — but also face racial discrimination.They
are leading the conversation and associated work of re-
dressing Black maternal care as part of a problematic sys-
tem, rather than an isolated phenomena or a lost cause.
Using a trauma-informed approach, these birthworkers
are seeking to enact change to provide justice to Black
maternal healthcare.
A screenshot of @ancientsong’s Instagram story
depicting an altar in honor of the Black mothers
recently lost nationwide to maternal mortality.
ABOVE

Historically, Black and Jewish communities have existed
as part of a greater American diaspora in which they
have used alliances to pursue mutually beneficial civil
rights movements. However, during the rise of Black
Power, Black-Jewish relations soured, sparking discus-
sion among figures such as Julius Lester, who embraced
his Black-Jewish identity. Lester’s personal life and wri-
tings challenged typical racial and cultural assumptions
as he addressed the groups’relationship in context of race,
power, and privilege. However, his influence was diluted
by his impact to anti-Semistism and anti-Blackness ten-
sion discussion being glazed by media coverage. This
left Lester and his contributions open to attack by cri-
tics, continuing to reinforce over-simplified and stereo-
type-based tensions.
“A Man With Many Faces, All Turned
in the Same Direction”: Julius Lester
on Anti-Semitism, Anti-Blackness,
and Black-Jewish Coalitions
by Jessica Schwalb
Forty-five years ago in Chicago, interns and residents at
the Cook County Hospital went on strike for 18 days,
fighting to fix a lack of baseline equipment and services
for patients. As Chicago’s sole public hospital, County
was the only hospital in the city that took in all patients
who came to its doors. Patients who were “undesirable”
to private hospitals — patients who could not pay or who
had the “wrong”color of skin — were often “dumped”at
County’s steps, bifurcating the delivery of care along ra-
cial divides. House staff at County mobilized in the late
’60s and formed the House Staff Association (HSA) in
1974, leveraging the tools of union organizing to claim
a voice in hospital decision-making. The HSA went on
to lead one of the longest physician strikes in U.S. his-
tory, yet not much changed after the strike. It became
another instance of how an attempt at reform galvanized
2020-21
A Reckoning with Medicine’s Past
by Meilynn Shi
momentum, seemed on course to reimagine social struc-
tures, but then quietly sputtered out.
However,physicians have never stopped fighting.Since the
’60s,medical students have been grappling with how to re-
main “radicals in the professions,” how to not lose sight of
what happens on the ground from the high office windows
of the M.D. With the Medical Committee for Human
Rights,Student HealthOrganizations,PhysiciansforaNa-
tional Health Program, White Coats for Black Lives, and
more,physicians have written their own history of rising up
against the status quo and taking the gavel into their own
hands to try to bend the arc towards justice. During the
summer of 2020,in the days following the deaths of George
Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed,Tony
McDade, Rayshard Brooks, and too many more, medical
students rallied alongside Black Lives Matter, urging for a
re-examination of the medical curriculum,the construction
of race,and the physician’s voice.
Despite its unique position within Kerry James
Marshall’s (b. 1955) celebrated body of work, the public
mural Knowledge and Wonder (1995) has received little
scholarly attention to date. It was loaned for exhibition
only once and was featured in just a brief footnote in
the artist’s now-definitive 2016 monograph before it
was embroiled in controversy in October 2018, when
then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel attempted to
sell the work as a municipal asset at auction, resulting
in major media coverage and widespread public out-
cry. Ultimately, this thesis endeavors to demonstrate
that Knowledge and Wonder presents a formal anomaly
within Marshall’s broader body of work, one that can
be accounted for by the fact that it was forged within
a network of relations for a specific community, not
a museum industrial complex comprised of galleries,
collectors, curators, and other institutional actors. This
mural’s eventual confiscation from West Garfield Park
marks a particular, and perhaps irreparable, violence in
that it emblematizes the exploitation of Black labor and
Knowledge‌ ‌and‌ ‌Wonder’s‌ ‌Place,‌ ‌Policy,‌
‌and‌ ‌Publics:‌ ‌Kerry‌ ‌James‌ ‌Marshall‌
‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌Henry‌ ‌E.‌ ‌Legler‌ ‌Library’s‌
‌Percent-for-Art‌ ‌Commission‌
by Meghan‌ ‌Clare‌ ‌Considine‌
17
INTERSECTIONS

extraction of value from Black communities that is, and
has been, a constant feature of American life.
Comments from the author: The renovated libra-
ry has since reopened; in December 2020 Knowledge
and Wonder was quietly reinstalled. This case study is
notable for the way it illuminates the distribution of
power in local arts landscapes, as well as the ever-trou-
bling simultaneous dynamic of the art object as cultu-
ral heritage and as commodity (or luxury good). Mu-
seums and municipalities selling, or deaccessioning,
their collection objects is not unheard of, but is near-
ly always controversial. This story and the advocacy
that changed its trajectory is worth remembering as
we enter into a new phase of the COVID-19 pande-
mic, where institutions will be increasingly concerned
Oklahoma! was written with the intention of boos-
ting morale and celebrating the strength of a unified
“Territory Folks Should Stick
Together”:The Role of the Law and the
“Other”in Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma!
by Taris Hoffman
with their bottom line and facing financial pressure to
make drastic decisions.
I am grateful for the many cultural workers involved who
took the time to speak with me for this project, and the
NURJ for their support.

Kerry James Marshall, Knowledge and
Wonder, 1995. Acrylic on paper and canvas,
10 feet by 23 feet. Henry E. Legler Regional
Library, Chicago, Illinois.
Photo provided by the
City of Chicago for the
New York Times.
ON THE LEFT
United States of America post-World War II. This
thesis analyzes the role of the law in Daniel Fish’s re-
vival of Oklahoma! in order to discern how the pro-
duction portrays the legal repercussions of violence
towards the “other” and to examine how legal procee-
dings are represented in contemporary pop culture. By
subverting traditional interpretations of Oklahoma!,
Fish uses a piece about the greatness of an idealized
America to implicate audiences in and express dis-
pleasure with the corruption in the American legal
system, a directorial stance not often taken in artistic
renderings of court cases.
What is Political Ontology
by John Sweeney
This paper aims to enter into a complex and ongoing
conversation among critical theorists regarding Black so-
ciality,antiblackness,and political ontology.Black studies
has participated in an “ontological turn,”often expressed
in the afropessimist versus Black optimist debates. This
paper first engages with Black nihilist and afropessimist
works — including those of Frank Wilderson and Jared
Sexton — to tease out what is actually being discussed
and then engage their work in conversations with pro-
gressive critical theorists — particularly Oliver Mar-
chart, Fred Moten, and Enrique Dussel — to open up
the philosophical terrain of political ontology.This paper
argues that the terms of political ontology are opened up
by a robust engagement between different traditions that
all maintain a certain critical attitude towards the current
political ontology.
19
INTERSECTIONS

INTERVIEW
LESSONS FROM THE
LIFE AND WORK OF
Interview with Aldon D.Morris
by Rachel Chiu
Tell us a bit about yourself and your research.
Over my career, I’ve studied race, social inequality,
social movements, and how knowledge is distributed,
especially within universities and various kinds of uni-
versity presses. I most recently wrote an article for the
March issue of Scientific American about how social jus-
tice movements can succeed.
You recently wrote a book on W.E.B. Du Bois in
which you argue that he should be considered the
father of scientific sociology. Tell us more about this
book and how you developed a personal interest in
Du Bois’ work.
My latest book is The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois
and the Birth of Modern Sociology. I’ve had a long in-
terest in Du Bois. I was first introduced to Du Bois’
writings in college, and at that time, much of what I
learned was about the rivalry between Du Bois and
Booker T. Washington. Washington was a conserva-
tive major leader of African Americans at the turn
of the 20th century. He and Du Bois clashed over the
ways in which Black people could free themselves
from the oppressive Jim Crow regime. Washington felt
that Black people should address this oppression not
through seeking higher education but instead an in-
dustrial education (i.e., being able to work with one’s
hands as a farmer or carpenter and becoming econo-
mically independent). Du Bois said that people nee-
ded a liberal arts education and full citizenship rights.
That is what I was introduced to — that political strug-
gle that they had.
ldon D. Morris is the Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African
American Studies at Northwestern University. He has had a long and storied
career, holding various faculty positions at Northwestern and winning many
prestigious awards for his scholarly work, including the John D. McCarthy
Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements and Collective
Behavior and the New York City Council’s Award for Outstanding Leadership in Social
Activism, Community Organizing, and Scholarly Teaching. He shared with the NURJ his
current work and his thoughts on social movements in academia.
A
SPRING 2021
W.E.B. DU BOIS
21
INTERSECTIONS

“Du Bois was doing
scientific sociology
long before the
white scholars who
were credited with
scientific sociology
in America had.”
It was only later after I read more Du Bois that I disco-
vered that he was a sociologist, a social scientist, a histo-
rian, journalist, philosopher, novelist, poet — I could go
on and on. Du Bois was a prodigious scholar. From the
age of 15 to 95, he published an article, essay, or book
every 15 days. It’s very staggering when you think about
how he was denied a job at major white universities and
had work that was marginalized and erased.
I was interested to learn that Du Bois was a sociologist
because at that time, I wanted to know about the role
that Black scholars had played in sociology. As I started
to read deeply into sociology, I realized that Du Bois
was doing scientific sociology long before the white
scholars who were credited with scientific sociology in
America had. (Scientific sociology is the development
of the empirical methods through which one gathers
evidence to support or reject hypotheses and theories
in sociology).
At that time, Black people were commonly considered
to be inferior to white people, and it was also claimed to
be backed by science. Du Bois knew that Black people
were not inferior to white people, and he set out to prove
that. He developed various kinds of scientific metho-
dologies to collect data. There were no other American
sociologists doing that kind of empirical work when Du
Bois set out to do it. A couple of decades later, the so-
ciology department at the University of Chicago started
engaging in empirical research, so the white male so-
ciologists at the University of Chicago were given cre-
dit as the founders of scientific sociology. Du Bois was
ignored; he was marginalized.
The reason for this erasure had to do with the fact that Du
Bois was African American, as he was marginalized be-
cause of his race. At that time, African American scholars
could not get a job from any white university. His only
choice was then to work at a historically Black univer-
sity. He started out at Atlanta University and conducted
empirical studies along with other researchers and stu-
dents, using all of these methodologies that he pionee-
red to prove that Black people were not inferior. He had
the naive belief that white people oppressed Black people
out of ignorance because they didn’t know that Black and
white people were equal. Du Bois was erased because in
that era, he had what were seen as dangerous beliefs —
ideas that Black and white people were, in fact, equal.
Those ideas were not advanced by the mainstream.
Du Bois said that if Black people were not intellectually
inferior, then they shouldn’t be oppressed. By his radi-
cal reasoning, if Black scholars were just as capable of
producing scholarly work as white scholars, then why
were they being denied jobs at white universities? Du
Bois also said that races aren’t biological entities but are
socially constructed by human beings for the purpose of
exploitation. Therefore, if racial hierarchies are socially
constructed, then they can be overturned. This was not
the view of the mainstream at all. The idea that races
are socially constructed and races are built by human
beings had very important political implications, such
as that racism existed because of white privilege and ra-
tionalization and lies about the very nature of race.
Through undergraduate and graduate school as a major
in sociology, I was never taught Du Bois. I asked my
dissertation mentor about that. He told me that it was
because Du Bois did not use any theoretical systems, so
he was not producing legitimate sociological work. So, I
made the decision that I was going to do the research to
show the entire profession that they were wrong about
Du Bois. I then found that not only were they wrong
but that Du Bois was actually the founder of scientific
sociology in America. It’s now being accepted that Du
Bois was a great sociologist; we are rewriting the canon
in sociology. My work along with a few others have
given rise to young sociologists now who study Du Bois
and take him seriously because prior to that, students
would be told that Du Bois was a propagandist and was
not a social scientist. We’ve turned a tide, and Du Bois
is now a legitimate object of study. The Scholar Denied
22 ALDON MORRIS

is really trying to rewrite the history and origins of
American sociology.
It goes beyond sociology, too. This is not just a story
about Du Bois. It’s a story about the many, many scho-
lars who lived and were marginalized for various rea-
sons (e.g., women sociologists, sociologists from other
parts of the world, etc.). This work is also a study on
who gets to be accepted as part of the academy. Whose
knowledge gets to be institutionalized, legitimated, and
distributed? It’s a critique on how racism has shaped
what has come to be known as accepted knowledge.
Are there more systems in place to ensure that the
erasure of scholars such as Du Bois does not happen
in academia today?
There are safeguards in place to prevent this from
happening exactly the same way as it happened back
then. However, there is still deep-seated racism wit-
hin the modern academy. There is an insufficient
number of scholars of color working in these major
institutions of learning. They are still seen as inferior
in many ways, and often their white counterparts be-
lieve that they’re at those institutions because of affir-
mative action and not because of their merits. White
scholars are still the gatekeepers in terms of who gets
hired, who gets tenured, who gets promoted, whose
articles will be accepted to elite journals, etc. Whene-
ver you try to make a case that there should be more
diverse faculty, the reaction from the gatekeepers is
to say, “Oh, we have standards, and such a move will
compromise our standards.” It’s assumed that if you
diversify the faculty and student body, this will be an
affirmative action move and that these people would
not be at the university otherwise because they don’t
have the abilities or the credentials to be at these
institutions. There are still various forms of racism,
sexism, and classism within the modern academy,
but it operates in more subtle forms than in the days
of Jim Crow.
There was recently this case where Cornel West, a
world-renowned scholar of race and philosophy, was
denied tenure at Harvard University. Rather than to
stay home as an untenured professor, he decided to
move on to Union Theological Seminary. How could
Harvard not tenure this African American scholar
who had already previously been tenured at Prince-
ton and Harvard itself, and why would you not tenure
him now? It’s inexplicable in terms of merit. Cornel
himself says that it’s because he spoke up for the rights
of Palestinians and that Harvard denied him tenure
because they didn’t want to give him that platform to
push the agenda regarding how Palestinians are being
treated in Israel. If that is true, then it means the same
thing as it meant for Du Bois. It means that to Har-
vard, Cornel West has dangerous ideas and was the-
refore denied tenure. How do you justify denying him
tenure at Harvard? Therefore, it’s clear that racism is
alive in the contemporary American academy and ins-
titutions of higher learning. The racism has just mani-
fested itself in much more subtle forms.
What can students do at institutions of higher lear-
ning to help prevent, end, and/or bring attention to
racism in academia today?
First of all, they need to know the history. Students of
the 1960s at universities were the ones who changed
the intellectual landscape at these institutions. In 1968,
there was no African American Studies, very few Afri-
can American faculty, and the student body consisted
of very few African Americans and people of color. The
students at Northwestern said they were being cheated
of a quality education by not having different points
of view at the University. So, they organized a protest
movement and took over the Bursar’s Office, where
Northwestern’s administrative activities were. Black
students and some white allies demanded that there
be more Black students and faculty and that a Depart-
ment of African American Studies be created. It was
only through this protest that those demands were met,
though not fully. This was the origin of African Ameri-
can studies on campus.
More recently, in the early 2000s, Asian American stu-
dents did the same thing at Northwestern. They had no
24 ALDON MORRIS
“Whose knowledge
gets to be
institutionalized,
legitimated, and
distributed?”

Asian American studies program to speak of. The Uni-
versity had a very significant amount of Asian Ameri-
can students enrolled. They asked the University for an
Asian American studies department, and the University
essentially didn’t see a need for that. So, they went on a
hunger strike. When those students became successful
and the University agreed to develop an Asian Ameri-
can studies program, there were so few Asian American
faculty available that the Asian American faculty came
to me and asked me if I’d be the director of Asian Ame-
rican studies. I was shocked, but they told me that I’d
done a lot of work that was relevant to Asian American
studies, such as work on the civil rights movement. So,
I agreed and became the first director of Asian Ameri-
can studies at Northwestern for three years. I consider
that period to be one of the most rewarding that I’ve
had at the University because it stretched me out of my
comfort zone. I ended up interacting with a large nu-
mber of Asian American students and faculty, going to
conferences, and doing much reading on scholarship
about Asian Americans. I learned so much.
All of this history shows that students are not powerless
when they see injustice or exclusion — they can have
a voice. That is what the Asian American students at
Northwestern did 20 years ago during their hunger
strike. The students had a much broader intellectual vi-
sion than their teachers, provosts, and presidents. The
students were the ones who saw the need for the acade-
my to expand and for all voices and perspectives to be
represented. So, they were the ones that in many ways
engineered the change. Students were the innovators
who risked their educations and futures by protesting
to bring about change.
I would say that students today who don’t know of the
history and the role of students in social change are not
living up to their historical responsibility to educate them-
selves about the struggles that made their presence pos-
sible. These changes are made possible not just through
students engaging in protest on campuses; it’s also having
a voice on committees and speaking out in their student
newspapers, and so forth. There are many different ways
in which they can influence the University to make it more
inclusive where all ideas are put on the table, especially be-
cause knowledge grows when you have different perspec-
tives together. Let them clash, and out of that struggle of
ideas, you get a synthesis of new ideas.
I would highlight that students are very important to
universities, not only financially but in determining the
very nature of the academy in terms of its intellectual
and social activities and practices. This can be veri-
fied simply by them studying the history of change at
the university and seeing the major role that students
have played. There is no need for students to think of
themselves as just coming to the university, learning,
and then leaving. Learning is an interactive process
between students, faculty, and administrators, so stu-
dents should never think that they don’t have anything
to say; they should never think that they don’t have a
voice. What is very clear is that the history of universi-
ties teaches that [students] can very much have a voice
and be leaders at universities.
“All of this history shows
that students are not
powerless when they see
injustice or exclusion —
they can have a voice. ”
25
INTERSECTIONS

“I WAS THE FORCE OF THAT.”
Florynce Kennedy’s Involvement in the Miss America Protests
of 1968 in Atlantic City,New Jersey
by Chinaza Asiegbu
May 12, 2019
Harvard University
Expos 20: Respectable Ladies, Rebellious Women
Since 1921, the Miss America pageant had been cherished as the pride of American beauty and wo-
manhood, but this was not the case in the year of 1968. From black people’s perspective, the pageant was yet
another representation of the discrimination that refused to acknowledge black women as participants of the
American tradition. In fact, the first African American contestant in the Miss America Pageant would not
grace the stage until 1970.1
During the Tumultuous Sixties, a watershed period for social justice movements,
the youth were challenging widely accepted American traditions and rupturing the status quo. Trading in
Boardwalk Hall for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Atlantic City, black community organizers led the fight for
recognition and inclusion by creating a new pageant: Miss Black America. On the Atlantic City Boardwalk,
a slew of white Women’s Liberation protesters assembled in front of the Convention Center to fight for
revolution and transformation. Yet, on the front lines, there stood two black women: Bonnie Allen, a “negro
housewife from the Bronx”2
and Florynce Kennedy, “an African American lawyer, feminist, and civil rights
activist noted for defending Black Power radicals and instigating inventive political protests.”3
Staring down
judgement from black and white activists of both protests, Kennedy chained herself to a grand cardboard
effigy that was fashioned to sport blonde hair, pale skin, satirically long eyelashes, and a red, white, and blue
bathing suit with gold stars over the breasts.
During the Miss America Protests of 1968, in choosing to stand with the predominately white Wo-
men’s Liberation Movement rather than standing with her black brothers and sisters in the formation of
the first Miss Black America pageant, Kennedy may initially seem like she is turning her back on the Black
1 “It Happened Here in New Jersey: Miss America.” It Happened Here in New Jersey: Miss America. Kean University
and the New Jersey Historical Commission, 2015.
2 Georgia Paige Welch. "“Up Against the Wall Miss America”: Women’s Liberation and Miss Black America in Atlantic
City, 1968." Feminist Formations 27, no. 2 (2015): 68.
3 Georgia Paige Welch. “Up Against the Wall Miss America”: 71.
INTRODUCTION
ESSAY
SPRING 2021
27
INTERSECTIONS

Pride movement. However, the crucial role Kennedy
played in both the feminist and civil rights move-
ments sings an entirely different tune, demonstrating
not an allegiance to one facet of her identity and be-
trayal to another but instead an innovative flexibility
that allowed Kennedy to unify the oppressions faced
by those at the intersection of racism and sexism in
the United States.4
Her influence expanded beyond
bridging movements to bridging stratifications wit-
hin communities, such as in the case of Atlantic
City. As a fervent activist in civil rights, consumer
rights, black nationalism, and second-wave femi-
nism, Kennedy galvanized people to expand their
approach to oppression beyond their respective
marginalized groups to broader, more collaborative
ranges of radical activism. In a society that strug-
gled to comprehend the potential for collaboration
and instead pitched movements against each other,
Kennedy’s involvement illustrated how these move-
ments did not necessarily have to compete for the
public’s attention. Even though her unorthodox style
was often misunderstood, Kennedy insisted that “we
understand feminism [and sexism] better because of
the discrimination against Black people.”5
n September 7, 1968, the veiled dicho-
tomy between race and gender came
alive through two distinct protests that
contested the Miss America Pageant in
Atlantic City, New Jersey—one cried for death to the
pageant, and the other called for rebirth. While the se-
cond-wave feminist movement criticized the pageant
for its sexism and promotion of oppressive beauty stan-
dards, the black nationalist protest created a black rival
pageant called Miss Black America that challenged the
4 Dow, Bonnie J. "The Movement Meets the Press: The 1968 Miss America Pageant Protest." In Watching Women's
Liberation, 1970, Watching Women's Liberation, 1970, Chapter 002. University of Illinois Press, 2014.
5 Gore, Dayo F., Jeanne. Theoharis, and Komozi. Woodard. Want to Start a Revolution? : Radical Women in the Black
Freedom Struggle. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
6 Gallagher, Julie. "Sherie M. Randolph. Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical." The American
Historical Review 122, no. 1 (2017): 209-10.
lack of black female representation within the pageant
franchise itself. Given the tension between both move-
ments, lack of recognition in the media, and the discri-
mination faced on the mainstream women’s rights front,
Kennedy’s contributions to the white liberationists’
Miss America protest become perplexing.Why did Flo
Kennedy choose to be involved in the predominately
white feminist protest when there was a Miss America
protest led by black people? We can understand why
Flo Kennedy did not involve herself in the black pa-
geant by exploring the black pageant’s preservation of
beauty standards and white American traditions that
sharply contrasted Kennedy’s radical and liberal style.
As a result, she envisioned the Women’s Liberation as
a gateway and platform for questioning other forms of
oppression, such as the intersectionality black women
faced. Kennedy was not choosing womanhood over her
blackness, but rather choosing “primarily white femi-
nist spaces”6
that had the potential to fundamentally
challenge racism and sexism alike without having to
perpetuate one hegemonic structure as a means of top-
pling the other.
Examining further the distinctions between the
predominantly white feminist protest and the black na-
tionalist protest is crucial in understanding the disparity
in objectives that affected Kennedy’s participation in
the protests. These differences elucidate the point that
the exclusivity and lack of representation in the Miss
America pageant were universal grievances shared by
both movements, but their approaches in rectifying this
problem diverged. Feminist groups fought the image of
Miss America itself,while the alternative Black pageant
fought the exclusion from that image. Its “visibility as
a recurring referendum on American womanhood”7
at-
tracted activists from both protests.
The friction between these two protests can be
explained by historical underpinnings between the
women’s liberation and black nationalism movements.
Firstly, the Black Power movement’s tendency to tri-
vialize the plight of black women reflected the sexist
A Tale of Two Protests:
The Miss America Pageant
Protests of 1968
O
29
INTERSECTIONS

oppression that black women faced from not only out-
side the black community but also within.8
The black
community instead glorified the ideal black woman to
be one who supported the radical black man and resi-
liently subjected herself to the cause as a selfless auxilia-
ry character.9
There was an inherent resentment towar-
ds feminism from the Black Power movement, as it was
downplayed as distracting in the fight against racism.
The equivocation of historical slavery to sexism through
feminist propaganda, which had been designed to in-
centivize participation in the Miss America Boardwalk
protest, further agitated that tension. To black people,
rhetoric such as “slavery exists” and “keep women off
the block”10
underscored the privilege of white women
to ignore the prior systematic slavery of African Ame-
ricans, and dispelled the sentiment that the oppression
that white women faced was comparable to slavery,11
8 Simien, Evelyn M., and Danielle L. McGuire. “A Tribute to the Women: Rewriting History, Retelling Herstory in Civil
Rights.” Politics & Gender 10, no. 3 (2014): 413–31. doi:10.1017/S1743923X14000245.
9 Simien, Evelyn M., and Danielle L. McGuire. “A Tribute to the Women: Rewriting History, Retelling Herstory in Civil
Rights.”.
10 Slavery Exists: Miss America is a Slave, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library,
Duke University
11 Simons, Margaret A. "Racism and Feminism: A Schism in the Sisterhood." Feminist Studies 5, no. 2 (1979): 384-
401. doi:10.2307/3177603.
12 Handwritten and typed drafts of protest songs for the 1968 Miss America protest, Robin Morgan papers, David M.
Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
13 Georgia Paige Welch. "“Up Against the Wall Miss America” 78.
which the civil rights movement believed diminished
the value of their cause.
Despite how problematic this analogy was,
Kennedy partook in public demonstrations that exacer-
bated the parallels between women and slavery.To em-
phasize how women were enslaved to beauty standards,
Kennedy chained herself to a giant caricatured puppet
of Miss America. Meanwhile, another demonstrator
conducted the scene like a slave auction, announcing,
“Yessiree boys, step right up! How much am I offered
for this number one piece of prime American proper-
ty?” Kennedy’s presence as a black woman within the
Women’s Liberation enabled them to make these bo-
dacious parallels through posters,live displays,and even
parodied slave songs like “Down by the Riverside.”12,13
One might claim that the way that the feminist move-
ment capitalized on Kennedy’s race for its own agenda
"I WAS THE FORCE OF THAT."
A Giant Miss America Puppet with Florynce Kennedy, in a white pantsuit, on the right [1]
30

created an unusual platform that made white feminism
alienating to black women.Even so,Kennedy addressed
the analogizing of black people and women, deeming
it “too perfect to ignore.”14
The sole distinction that
Kennedy made between women and the black commu-
nity in activism was that women “didn’t see themsel-
ves as oppressed,” whereas black people would respond
with a “shuffle and a ‘S’cuse me, boss’.”15
Here, we see
emerging the distaste Kennedy had for the submissive
and roundabout way that the black community fought
oppression.
From Kennedy’s viewpoint, in this instance,
the passive approach that the black community took
was staging a “positive protest”16
by creating the Miss
Black America pageant, which conformed to the same
white beauty standards and respectability politics that
diminished the black identity and undermined the po-
tential to change the white institutions that governed
black people’s lives. Its conception mirrored “the turn-
the-other-cheek bullshit”17
that Kennedy criticized.
In contrast with Kennedy’s perspective, the organizers
of the Miss Black America called it an “affirmation of
pride in Black Beauty and womanhood”18
and made it
clear that “we’re not protesting against beauty.”19
The
only distinction between both pageants was race—the
pageant would be held in the same location—Atlantic
City, New Jersey—with the same general guidelines.
The black organizers emphasized that “we want to be
in Atlantic City at the same time the hypocritical Miss
America contest is being held. Theirs will be lily white
and ours will be black.”It neither changed the fact that
judges scavenged for “crooked teeth, heavy thighs, and
crossed eyes,”20
nor the fact that feminine beauty was
showcased for public consumption. Thus, the orga-
nizers of the pageant asserted the need for the beauty
14 Morgan, Robin. Sisterhood Is Powerful : An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement. Vin-
tage Book ; V-539. New York: Vintage Books, 1970.
15 Morgan, Robin. Sisterhood Is Powerful,1970.
16 Georgia Paige Welch. "“Up Against the Wall Miss America”
17 Morgan, Robin. Sisterhood Is Powerful, 1970.
18 Georgia Paige Welch. “Up Against the Wall Miss America”: 74.
19 Curtis, Charlotte, "Along With Miss America," The New York Times, September 9, 1968, pg. 54.
20 Cohen, Bonny. American Beauty, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library,
Duke University
21 Charlotte Curtis special to The New York Times. "Miss America Pageant Is Picketed by 100 Women." New York
Times (1923-Current File) (New York, N.Y.), 1968.
22 Cohen, Bonny. American Beauty, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke
University
23 Bronner. “Why Blacks spend billions to look good” Jackson Advocate, December 11-17, 1968.
of the black woman to be “paraded and applauded as a
symbol of universal pride,”21
which they hoped would
empower black women to achieve a femininity that was
traditionally inaccessible to them.22
Respectability Politics and
Beauty Standards in
Black Womanhood
I
n the black community, hair was the
epitome of beauty—a crowning indi-
cation of class, especially for women.
Upon further examination of black hair,
it is evident that Miss Black America played a role
in a set of politics that reinforced white beauty
standards. While there was an insurgence of Black
pride in the 1960s that was reinforced by the emer-
gence of the Afro and natural styles, black beauty
products that emulated white beauty standards were
still popular outside of the realm of political activism.
Substantial numbers of black women were switching
to natural hairstyles, yet black people were still spen-
ding 30 percent of their salaries to satiate “their de-
sire to look good, feel good, and smell good.”23
In fact,
African Americans contributed to one-fifth of Ame-
rican beauty industry, meaning that they collectively
spent $2.3 billion on their appearance. Appearance in
the black community evoked messages about perso-
nal identity and even political affiliation. The majo-
rity of black Americans experienced the Civil Rights
and Black Power movements through media and te-
levised images, which idolized stylistic gestures and
postures as reflective of political movements. There-
fore, for black women, Afro and natural styles became
31
INTERSECTIONS

synonymous with black militancy and “real defiance.”24
By virtue of the militancy and politicization of the
Afro, young people who were committed to the ci-
vil rights movement sought this style. Contrarily, “the
fraternities and sororities of the black elite” contested
the Afro as a threat to the respectability they received
from being apolitical and conforming to white stan-
dards.These visions of femininity and beauty were not
created for black women, yet they strived in their be-
havior and appearance to emulate a countenance that
warranted respectability.
Even with the media’s popularization and
welcoming of natural black styles, upon closer ins-
pection, we can see that the stigma projected from
these styles was undesired by many black women, es-
pecially those who understood that apoliticism was a
requisite for earning respectability. This reluctance to
24 Craig, Maxine. Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race. New York: Oxford Universi-
ty Press, 2002. Oxford Scholarship Online, 2011. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152623.001.0001.
25 Craig, Maxine. Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race.
26 Curtis, Charlotte, "Along With Miss America," The New York Times, September 9, 1968, pg. 54.
27 Klemesrud, Judy, "There's Now Miss Black America," The New York Times, September 9, 1968, pg. 54.
28 Klemesrud, Judy, "There's Now Miss Black America,"
embrace the radical wave of natural hair from black
women who wanted access to these spaces suggests a
strong connection for black women between beauty
and respectability politics. Apart from sisterhood
and empowerment, women who wore unstraightened
hairstyles still encountered derision in their work-
places, schools, and even homes. An overwhelming
majority of women wore their hair straightened be-
cause women with long and wavy hair were prized
for their “femininity.”25
Described as “curvy” and “hazel-eyed” with a
hairstyle that was natural but not an Afro, Miss Black
America Saundra Williams was presented in the me-
dia as “what the new black woman is all about.”26
This
emphasis on Williams’s lighter eyes highlighted how
the pageant celebrated black beauty with respect to how
much it conformed to whiteness. Miss Black America
expressed that: “With my title, I can show black women
that they too are beautiful even though they do have large
noses and thick lips.” In spite of her intentions, the way
Williams framed her statement suggested that the phy-
sical aspects of black women that veered from society's
white definition of beauty needed to be overlooked and
redeemed by qualities black women possessed that were
proximate to white contours of beauty.
Similar to the way white beauty standards
infiltrated black communities, respectability politics
encouraged black women to mimic white-appro-
ved behavior in order to overcome racist stereotypes.
Looking more carefully at Miss Black America spea-
king in her interview about the Women’s Liberation
protest on September 9, 1968 in The New York Times,
it is evident that she embodied this apolitical persona
of the black elite. When asked a political question, she
responded: “I hate to talk about this. It’s so contro-
versial.”27
Later in the interview, she appeared “bored
when asked about the 100 women demonstrators,
mostly white, who had picketed the Miss America
Pageant,” commenting that “they’re expressing free-
dom, I guess . . . to each his own.”28
This reaction to
the Women’s Liberation movement bears similarities
to an opinion piece published on the same day in the
Miss Black America 1969, Saundra Williams [2]
32

New York Post by Harriet Van Horne, a white wo-
man who denounced the “tasteless, idiotic behavior”
of the Miss America feminists.29
Van Horne justified
the behavior of protestors by asserting that they had
never been made to feel “utterly feminine, desirable,
and almost too delicate for this hard world.”However,
black women had also never historically been made
to feel this way. In fact, the stereotypes against black
women solicited the exact opposite sentiments. So
why did black women still feel like buying into these
standards of beauty? It was an attempt to achieve a
femininity that was inaccessible to them, particularly
in an American society where femininity was the pri-
mary pathway to respect, inclusion, and second-class
citizenship for women.
Black women’s pursuit of the unattainable
standards of beauty attributed to white women ex-
plains Miss Black America’s skepticism when asked
about the Women’s Liberation of pageants. These vi-
sions of femininity and beauty were not created for
black women, yet they strived in their behavior and
appearance to emulate a countenance that warranted
respectability. Quite frankly, black women could not
operate in both spaces. They could not both abide by
respectability politics that would afford them femini-
nity while also fighting against the very standards that
precluded them from that realm of femininity made
exclusive to white women. The Miss Black Ameri-
ca pageant inadvertently encouraged black women
to prove themselves respectable by conforming to
the behavior outlined by white women, even though
those standards diminished their own identity and
undermined their ability to change those stereotypes.
Conformity was “the key to the crown” and means
to power, but this power was superficial because it
relied on the approval of men and was restricted
to a feminine context. 30
Through drawing parallels
between comments regarding the Miss America pro-
test from Van Horne and Williams, we can identify
a sense of skepticism and seemingly innocent but
invalidating speculation of the motives behind the
29 Female Firebrands, by Harriet Van Horne, Sept. 9, 1968, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book &
Manuscript Library, Duke University
31 Female Firebrands, by Harriet Van Horne, Sept. 9, 1968.
32 No More Miss America!, Florynce Kennedy Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
33 Kennedy, Florynce. Color Me Flo : My Hard Life and Good times. Englewood Cliff, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976.
protesters’ objectives.31
Miss Black America’s di-
sinterest with the Women’s Liberation pro-
test distanced her from the radicalism that was
looked down upon when in the process of earning
respectability and femininity.
The Fluidity and Flexibility of
Florynce Kennedy’s Activism
R
egardless of the inclusion of black women
into a standard not previously made for
them, the Miss Black America pageant was
endorsing a white beauty culture that “epi-
tomized the roles we are all forced to play as women.”32
In the eyes of Kennedy, the Miss Black America pa-
geant was a racially bounded microcosm of the white
beauty standards that upheld the institution of Miss
America. Indeed, it accounted for racial exclusion, but
the transgressions of feminine respectability were not
only maintained but reinforced through the genesis
of Miss Black America. It validated the institution it
placed in the Miss America protest, which was eradi-
cated once the media removed Kennedy from the picture.
Indeed,Kennedy was the voice for black women.Howe-
ver,the novel methods she introduced to white feminists
were distinguishable to the media as being adopted from
radical black nationalist strategies. Therefore, albeit the
public actively worked to erase her image,her impact not
only influenced the movement but built it to be as effec-
tive as it was. Kennedy’s awareness of being overlooked
by the media, who she called “such clumsy liars”with “tit
focus,”33
emboldened her flamboyant style in protesting
and retaliating against the repressive forces that tried to
silence her and pacify her intentions. Being involved in
the Miss Black America pageant would have also ar-
guably made Kennedy more invisible, primarily because
the organization was male-dominated. But secondly, the
novel radical activism methods that illuminated her in
the Women’s Liberation movement, such as boycotts of
33
INTERSECTIONS

advertisers and guerilla theatre protests, would not have
rendered her as influential in the civil rights movement.
Through Kennedy’s devotion to intersectiona-
lity and refutation of beauty standards and respecta-
bility politics, we can see that Kennedy was unafraid
of braving an unconventional atmosphere for a black
woman and revolutionizing it to do more for people
like herself. Kennedy marched on the Atlantic City
Boardwalk because the issue was larger than the fact
that black women were not included in the perception
of the ideal American woman. The problem was that
there was an ideal American woman. Even though the
Miss Black America pageant outwardly addressed the
plight of black women specifically, the intersectionality
of black women was not fully accounted for through
the pageant’s methods because the solution still relied
on beauty standards and white male hegemony.
By virtue of this reliance, the black nationalist
protest was just not radical enough. This perpetua-
tion of beauty standards and maintenance of respec-
34 Randolph, Sherie M. "Alliance of the alienated": Florynce "Flo" Kennedy and black feminist politics in post World
War II America. Dissertation Abstracts International. 69-01.
35 Miss America Goes Down, by Robin Morgan, Oct. 3, 1968, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book &
36 On Freedom for Women, by Robin Morgan, from Liberation, October 1968, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Ruben-
stein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
37 No More Peace Teas, by Suzanne Giddens, Sept. 26, 1968, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book &
tability politics was simply not Kennedy’s style as a
woman who was known to “challenge the establish-
ment” with “street theatre and shock tactic.”34
There-
fore, Flo Kennedy departed from that movement and
worked towards ameliorating the standards in which
women were viewed, acting as a voice for black wo-
men in a movement where they were an anomaly. The
Women’s Liberation Group aligned with Kennedy’s
ideals by recruiting “Movement women” who were
tired of “playing home-fires to their revolutionaries”
or being called frivolous “when more serious revo-
lutionary problems are at stake.”35
This space provi-
ded solidarity for sexism, acted as a union of women
under a common oppression, and had potential for
Kennedy to leverage advocacy for black people as well.
Kennedy emphasized how “the Women’s Liberation
Movement can function as the cutting edge of a lar-
ger movement...to mobilize an oppressed majority”36
because “empathy for other oppressed groups is ma-
gnified when it’s your own thing.”37
Miss America Pageant Protestors marching on the Atlantic City Boardwalk [4]
34

U
ltimately, Kennedy partook in the Women’s
Liberation movement protest because it
provided her greater opportunity to radical-
ly reject normative beauty standards,respec-
tability, and racism. Albeit the public actively worked
to erase her image, her impact not only influenced the
movement but built it to be as effective as it was. As
a byproduct of her influence, protestors unaccustomed
to black culture in South Jersey were forced to be im-
mersed in the formerly invisible and silenced presence
of the black community in Atlantic City. Despite the
existing tension and competitiveness between the Civil
38 Kennedy, Florynce. Color Me Flo : My Hard Life and Good times. Englewood Cliff, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976.
Rights and Women’s Liberation movements, Kenne-
dy served as a liaison for alliances between both mo-
vements. She believed that they both fundamentally
struggled in an oppression that “hurt like crazy.”38
Pe-
rhaps this engagement of movements through intersec-
tional organizing can be applied to the way racial biases
are reflected within the #MeToo Movement and the
way black women operate as the bedrock of the Black
Lives Matter protest while seldom receiving credit or
recognition for their efforts. Kennedy’s reasons behind
choosing to operate within one movement may seem
personally derived, but they can serve as a lens in un-
derstanding how race and gender movements manifest
themselves in today’s public consciousness.
Conclusion
35
INTERSECTIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bronner. “Why Blacks spend billions to look good”
Jackson Advocate, December 11-17, 1968.
Charlotte Curtis special to The New York Times.
"Miss America Pageant Is Picketed by 100 Wom-
en." New York Times (1923-Current File) (New
York, N.Y.), 1968.
Cohen, Bonny. American Beauty, Robin Morgan pa-
pers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manu-
script Library, Duke University
Craig, Maxine. Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Wom-
en, Beauty, and the Politics of Race. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2002. Oxford Schol-
arship Online, 2011. doi: 10.1093/acprof:o-
so/9780195152623.001.0001.
Curtis, Charlotte, "Along With Miss America," The
New York Times, September 9, 1968, pg. 54.
Demonstration information for Miss America pro-
test, Sept. 7, 1968, Robin Morgan papers, David
M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library,
Duke University
Demonstration information for Miss America pro-
test, Sept. 7, 1968, Robin Morgan papers, David
M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library,
Duke University
Dow, Bonnie J. "The Movement Meets the Press: The
1968 Miss America Pageant Protest." In Watch-
ing Women's Liberation, 1970, Watching Wom-
en's Liberation, 1970, Chapter 002. University of
Illinois Press, 2014.
Female Firebrands, by Harriet Van Horne, Sept. 9,
1968, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Ruben-
stein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke
University
Flo Kennedy Miss America Goes Down, by Robin
Morgan, Oct. 3, 1968, Robin Morgan papers,
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript
Library, Duke University
Gallagher, Julie. "Sherie M. Randolph . Florynce “Flo”
Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radi-
cal." The American Historical Review 122, no. 1
(2017): 209-10.
Georgia Paige Welch. "“Up Against the Wall Miss
America”: Women’s Liberation and Miss Black
America in Atlantic City, 1968." Feminist For-
mations 27, no. 2 (2015): 70-97. https://muse.
jhu.edu/
Giddens, Suzanne. Atlantic City is a town with class,
they raid your morals and judge your ass, Robin
Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book
& Manuscript Library, Duke University
Gore, Dayo F., Jeanne.Theoharis, and Komozi.Wood-
ard. Want to Start a Revolution? : Radical Wom-
en in the Black Freedom Struggle. New York:
New York University Press, 2009.
Grant, Jacquelyn. "A Black Response to Feminist
Theology ." In Women's Spirit Bonding, eds.
Janet Kalven and Mary Buckley. New York: The
Pilgrim Press, 1984.
Griggs, Brandon.“The Most Turbulent Time in Mod-
ern American History (It's Not Now).” CNN.
Cable News Network, May 18, 2018.
Handwritten and typed drafts of protest songs for the
1968 Miss America protest, Robin Morgan pa-
pers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manu-
script Library, Duke University
Hill Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought:
Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of
Empowerment. 2nd edition. London ; New York,
New York: Routledge, 2014.
36

“It Happened Here in New Jersey: Miss America.” It
Happened Here in New Jersey: Miss America.
Kean University and the New Jersey Historical
Commission, 2015.
Kennedy, Florynce. Color Me Flo : My Hard Life
and Good times. Englewood Cliff, N.J.: Pren-
tice-Hall, 1976.
Klemesrud, Judy, "There's Now Miss Black America,"
The New York Times, September 9, 1968, pg. 54.
Lane, Bettye , 1930-2012, “Matriarchy conference
with Ti-Grace Atkinson, Flo Kennedy, Gloria
Steinem, and Kate Millett,” Catching the Wave,
Schlesinger Library.
Letter from Robin Morgan to Richard S. Jackson,
Mayor of Atlantic City, Aug. 29, 1968, Robin
Morgan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book
& Manuscript Library, Duke University
Morgan, Robin. Sisterhood Is Powerful : An Anthol-
ogy of Writings from the Women's Liberation
Movement. Vintage Book ; V-539. New York:
Vintage Books, 1970.
Newsreel (Firm). 2000. Up against the wall, Ms.
America. New York, NY: Third World Newsreel.
No More Miss America!, Florynce Kennedy Papers,
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No More Peace Teas, by Suzanne Giddens, Sept. 26,
1968, Robin Morgan papers, David M. Ruben-
stein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke
University
On Freedom for Women, by Robin Morgan, from
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Randolph, Sherie M., Robin D. G. Kelley, Beverly
Guy-Sheftall, Adam Green, Lisa Duggan, Mar-
tha Hodes, and Barbara Krauthamer. 2007. "Al-
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and black feminist politics in post World War II
America. Dissertation Abstracts International.
69-01.
Sherie M. Randolph. Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: The
Life of a Black Feminist Radical. Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
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Simien, Evelyn M., and Danielle L. McGuire. “A
Tribute to the Women: Rewriting History, Re-
telling Herstory in Civil Rights.” Politics &
Gender 10, no. 3 (2014): 413–31. doi:10.1017/
S1743923X14000245.
Simons, Margaret A. "Racism and Feminism: A
Schism in the Sisterhood." Feminist Studies 5,
no. 2 (1979): 384-401. doi:10.2307/3177603.
Slavery Exists: Miss America is a Slave, Robin Mor-
gan papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book &
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[1] Kennedy, Florynce. Color Me Flo: My Hard Life
and Good times.
[2] Dow, Bonnie J. "The Movement Meets the Press:
The 1968 Miss America Pageant Protest," 40.
[3] Lane, Bettye , 1930-2012, “Matriarchy conference
with Ti-Grace Atkinson, Flo Kennedy, Gloria
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Schlesinger Library.
[4] Griggs,Brandon.“The MostTurbulentTime in Mod-
ern American History (It's Not Now).”CNN.Cable
News Network,May 18,2018.
37
INTERSECTIONS

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY:
by Catherine Campusano
and Prerita Pandya
This article is by no means an exhaustive account of Northwestern University’s history of anti-Blackness. We
recognize the personal and prolific injustices that thousands of students, faculty, staff, and alumni have faced
and worked to correct in the institution's long history. Rather, we present examples when anti-Blackness has
permeated institutional structures and the measures students have taken to combat them.
We extend our sincerest thanks to Kathleen E. Bethel, African American studies librarian, and Charla
Wilson, archivist for the Black experience at Northwestern, for their assistance in curating materials for
this piece.
NOTE
ESSAY
SPRING 2021
A HISTORY OF
ANTI-BLACKNESS
39
INTERSECTIONS

n order to understand the history of an-
ti-Blackness at Northwestern University
(N.U.), one must begin with an interroga-
tion of the context of its founding. N.U., which began
classes in 1853, was not free of the political and social
influences of the time period in which it was foun-
ded. Although Illinois was a free state when it attained
statehood in 1818 — in an effort to maintain the pre-
carious congressional balance of free and slave states
— slavery was far from outlawed. Rather, as Mark W.
Sorensen highlighted in a 2003 Illinois Heritage maga-
zine piece, “In 1810, Illinois had 168 slaves; in 1820, it
had 917, making it ‘the only Northern state to show an
increase in slave population’ during that time.”1
By 1845, the population of enslaved people in
the “free” state had grown to nearly 5,000, and while
there was an increased presence of free Black people,
the state instituted strict Black codes that restric-
ted their movement and actions. It is clear that while
the majority of Illinoisans, as members of the Union,
supported the call for soldiers in the Civil War in the
1860s, anti-Blackness remained rampant even in the
face of growing abolitionist sentiments. It was under
these circumstances that the foundations of the nascent
University were laid.
Northwestern University received its charter
on January 28, 1851 from the Illinois legislature.2
The
University was established to serve the Northwest Ter-
ritory, which today includes Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin,
Michigan, Illinois, and part of Minnesota.3
John Evans
was one of the three leaders of the initiative alongside
Grant Goodrich and Orrington Lunt, and he is the
namesake of Evanston, the town in which N.U. was
built. Evans later became governor of Colorado from
1 Tara McClellan McAndrew, “Illinois Issues: Slave State,” accessed January 27, 2021, https://www.nprillinois.org/post/illinois-is-
sues-slave-state.
2 Sammi Boas, “On Jan. 28, 1851, Illinois Chartered Northwestern University” accessed March 19, 2021, https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=NnLu71mRXdE.
3 Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia, "Northwestern University," Encyclopedia Britannica, November 12, 2020, https://www.
britannica.com/topic/Northwestern-University-Evanston-Illinois.
4 “Sand Creek Massacre: History & Culture,” accessed March 19, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/sand/learn/historyculture/index.htm.
5 “John Evans and the Sand Creek Massacre,” accessed March 18, 2021, https://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/fall2014/cam-
puslife/john-evans-and-the-sand-creek-massacre.html/
6 “Celebrating the Earliest Black Alumni at Northwestern,” accessed January 27, 2021, https://www.alumni.northwestern.edu/
s/1479/02-naa/16/interior.aspx?sid=1479&gid=2&pgid=30883&linkId=64189200.
7 “Celebrating the Earliest Black Alumni at Northwestern,” accessed January 27, 2021, https://www.alumni.northwestern.edu/
s/1479/02-naa/16/interior.aspx?sid=1479&gid=2&pgid=30883&linkId=64189200.
1862–1865. During his tenure, U.S. volunteer soldiers
under the command of Colonel John M. Chivington
killed 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians — mostly
women, children, and the elderly — in what became
known as the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre.4
A report
by a committee of eight senior scholars from both
inside and outside N.U. found that Evans had no
advanced knowledge of the massacre. However, the
report concluded: “The University should recognize
that, just as Evans profited from the development of
the western and national economies in the late 19th
century, so did Northwestern.”5
Such a legacy can be seen in even the acknowled-
gement of Northwestern's first Black students.Consen-
sus currently holds that Lawyer Taylor, who graduated
with an undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1903,
and Naomi Willie Pollard, who graduated in 1905, are
the first Black Northwestern alumni.6
However, this
record does not account for Black students who may
have attended Northwestern before prior to 1903 but
did not graduate, thereby dismissing the hardships they
may have had in completing their degrees. Such infor-
mation remains unknown, as records of these students’
efforts to break down institutional barriers were lost to
history. As such, although “several black students at-
tended the University in its first few decades,”7
the year
in which the very first Black student was accepted to
Northwestern remains unclear.
n the early years of the 20th century,
during the tenure of Pollard and Taylor,
five decades after the University’s esta-
blishment and six decades before the civil rights
movement, racial tensions arose around the issue of
EARLY HISTORY
I
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: A HISTORY OF ANTI-BLACKNESS
TIMELINE
40
I

student housing. At the start of the 1902 school
year, two Black women were denied on-campus
housing as a result of a decision made by the Wo-
men’s Educational Association (WEA), an organi-
zation that overlooked the women’s residential halls.
The WEA stated that, “After discussing the
matter for more than a year, the Women’s Educational
Association of Northwestern University has decided to
bar colored coeds from college women’s dormitories.”8
This decision was concurrent with dormitories like
Chapin Hall refusing to house the two students.In the
previous academic year ending in spring of 1902,one of
the two applicants, Isabella Ellis, had lived in Chapin
Hall and expected to live in the dormitory again in the
fall.However,the only reason she was offered that hou-
sing was because it was not known that she was a Black
student. In the spring of 1902, many of the white stu-
dents objected to a Black student being allowed to live
in Chapin,declaring they would not return to campus if
Black women were allowed to live there. This situation
surrounding Chapin Hall also influenced the decision
to deny the two Black students housing on campus,
alongside the other female students. This decision by
the WEA drew a racial line on student dormitories at
the school for the foreseeable future.
In the decades preceding the civil rights move-
ment, Northwestern University continued to uphold
these racial standards with policies that prevented
Black students from completely integrating into
the University's community. There were instances of
Black students being denied access to student swim-
ming pools, Greek life activities, and on-campus hou-
sing. Moreover, “[students] also experienced being in
a space where blackface minstrel shows were an ac-
ceptable part of campus culture.”9
Many students had
spoken to the University’s deans about such issues,
but no substantial change was made to improve their
experiences. For many students, these injustices and
lack of social change led them to leave Northwestern.
8 “Evanston,” September 15, 1902, Mabel Ellis.pdf, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois, https://northwestern.app.
box.com/s/s32dyqbqbz58p578el3ier9y9lmqgyl4/file/653096791945.
9 “Why Students Made Demands – They Demanded Courageously,” accessed January 27, 2021, https://sites.northwestern.edu/
bursars1968/history/why-students-made-demands/.
10 Seungmok Baek, “Black Student Housing Until 1968: Achilles Heel of Northwestern University History,” Medium, March 13, 2019,
https://medium.com/@sbaek11/black-student-housing-until-1968-achilles-heel-of-northwesternuniversity-history-4c4487084bc4.
11 “On the Same Terms: Housing Northwestern’s Women, 1872-1993 – LIBRARIES | Blog,” accessed January 27, 2021, https://sites.
northwestern.edu/northwesternlibrary/2020/05/22/on-the-same-terms-housing-northwesterns -women-1872-1993/.
12 Jim Davis, “NU Housing Poll Draws ‘Color-Line’ Seventy-Three Per Cent Veto Negro Room-mates,” Daily Northwestern (Febru-
ary 20, 1947), Records of the Department of Aftican American Student Affairs, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston Illinois.
https://northwestern.app.box.com/s/s32dyqbqbz58p578el3ier9y9lmqgyl4/file/653096796745
With a limited number of Black students on campus
and enrolled in the University, the social pool for these
students was greatly reduced, as well.
In 1939, efforts were made to reform the dis-
criminatory housing regulations which had kept Black
students from creating their own spaces and living on
campus in a community with other Northwestern stu-
dents. An “Inter-racial House Committee” was for-
med and created a plan for dormitories in which stu-
dents of all backgrounds could live together and build
a community undivided by race. But the University
president at the time, recently elected Franklin Sny-
der, refused to look at the housing plan.10
The Univer-
sity administration, once again, failed their non-white
students. While Northwestern had offered housing
to women since the establishment of College Cot-
tage and the Women’s Educational Aid Association
in 1872, Black women were not given proper housing
facilities on campus until 1947.11
It took many years of campaigning by students
in order to have this housing project be established
for non-white women attending the University. A
survey conducted among female students in the win-
ter of 1947 showed that 72 percent “opposed Negro
roommates.”12
As a result of this, the International
House, which was able to house 16 students, only had
12 residents. Even though many students had shown
interest in living in an interracial residence,and faculty
fought for the establishment of this housing project,
those female students did not take action, leaving
the International House partially empty while there
was overcrowding in other dormitories for women
on campus. This was seen as a lack of interest by stu-
dents for such a housing project, and the International
House, the only residence for non-white female stu-
dents on campus, was discontinued the next academic
year. The University one again failed to provide Black
women and other women of color a place on the cam-
pus. In contrast, Asbury Hall, an interracial housing
41
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