SIDEBAR: Sunday's threats reminiscent of 1981 incident at the dorm

Sunday night was not the first time DuBois College House residents have received racially harassing phone calls or even bomb threats. On the evening of October 25, 1981, DuBois House receptionist Jackie Brown received at least eight threatening phone calls. Brown said in 1981 that the caller asked her – among other things – if she "liked dead niggers." One of the calls also threatened the life of Dennis Brutus, a South African-born professor who was visiting the University from Chicago. According to Brown, the caller said he wanted to "blow that South African back to Africa." The incident prompted then-President Sheldon Hackney – along with 21 other University officials – to issue a strongly-worded statement condemning bigotry and racial harassment. "The University can function properly only if all people are viewed on their merits as individuals, not through the distorted prism of intolerance," the statement said. "[We solicit] the help of all, individually and collectively, in promoting a campus environment that rejects intolerance as wholly unacceptable." Two days later, then-Vice Provost for University Life Janis Somerville called for a student rally on College Green. More than 1,000 University students, faculty, staff and administrators linked arms and rallied around DuBois House to express their concern. Speakers addressing the DuBois rally spoke of their outrage at the incidents and the need for the University community to band together to avoid reoccurrences. "Racism is not acceptable anywhere, but particularly not acceptable at the University of Pennsylvania," then-Faculty Senate Chairperson Phoebe Leboy told The Daily Pennsylvanian after the rally. "This is a threat against the entire University, a threat against the principles of tolerance and unity." Several student leaders have planned a similar rally for October 21, 1993 to protest the recent harassing phone calls and bomb threats received by DuBois College House residents last Sunday.