A long -- and sometimes bumpy -- road to racial diversity

and CHRIS LAKE Vision Staff Writer Albert Monroe Wilson – "Pomp" as he was affectionately called by the entire University – was one of the most popular people on campus in the late 1800s. He was also probably the first easily recognizable black figure on the University's virtually all-white-male campus. "Pomp" was so well-liked that the Class of 1858 made him an honorary member. And when he died in 1904, the College Hall bell rang 50 times in his memory. A brass tablet bearing his name was erected in College Hall, and an alumni scholarship was established in his memory. Both still exist today. But, as popular as he was, "Pomp" was "only" a College Hall janitor. In many ways his story was a sign of the times – there were no black students at the University for the first 25 years of Wilson's career here. It would not be until 1879 that Dental student James Brister – the University's first black student – was admitted. Brister would graduate in 1881, becoming the first black student to receive a degree from the University. A lot has changed since then. The lily white student body of old has been replaced by a virtual mosaic of ethnic and racial diversity. About 17 percent of full-time undergraduates are Asian, 5.4 percent are black and almost four percent are Latino. This transformation has not been even. Though they arrived later than blacks, Asian Americans have arrived more quickly and in greater numbers. In the last 12 years, the number of Asians entering the University has jumped from 116 students in 1981 to 489 last year. By contrast, the number of African Americans entering has risen from 115 to just 150 during that period. The changes have brought much-needed cultural diversity, enabling the campus to better reflect society-at-large. But the changes have been painful at times. Over the years, tensions between the races have produced protests, College Hall sit-ins and other similar incidents. · Throughout its history, many prominent black figures have spent time at the University, even though they spent most of their academic careers at other in- stitutions. Philosopher and educator W.E.B. DuBois was one of the first blacks to serve on the University's staff, spending 1896 and 1897 on campus. While at the University, DuBois worked extensively on a study entitled "The Philadelphia Negro," published in 1899. Low Rise North, a predominantly black residence hall on campus, was given the name W.E.B. Dubois College House in 1973. The house contains a number of plaques and tributes describing the life and times of DuBois, and this semester an Afro-American Studies course entitled "W.E.B. DuBois: Social Ideas" is being taught there. More than half a century after DuBois, civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. did some of his graduate work in philosophy at the University in 1950. At the time, he was also a theological student at Crozer Theological Seminary in nearby Chester, Pa. A plaque bearing his name still hangs in Bennett Hall. · It was not until the mid-1970s that another minority group, Asians, started making their presence known at the University. But unlike blacks – a smattering of whom were at the University at the beginning of this century – Asian Americans arrived very quickly. The number of Asian students entering the University has more than quadrupled from 116 to 489 since 1981. Albert M. Greenfield Intercultural Center Interim Director Joseph Sun attributed the rise in Asian enrollment to increased Asian immigration in the mid-1970s and an "increased number of Americans of Asian ancestry coming of college age" in the United States as a whole. "Asians are the fastest growing minority in America, in terms of the rate of increase in the population," Sun said. · Black students, though fewer in number than Asian students, have been a more politically vocal group throughout their history at the University. For example, in 1979 approximately 75 black students marched from Superblock to College Hall to protest racism on campus. The march stemmed from, among other things, an incident involving Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers wearing Ku Klux Klan robes during a costume party. "The blatantly insensitive act by this fraternity has helped to illustrate the larger issue, which is the racist atmosphere which pervades our campus," then-Black Student League Chairperson Russel Brooks said at the rally. Brooks also charged the University administration with being slow to implement agreements made with minority students during a 1978 sit-in. In February 1985, black students staged another sit-in in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, interrupting a legal studies class to read a statement to Senior Lecturer Murray Dolfman. They charged Dolfman with "harassing and haranguing black students in [his] classroom." The lecturer had called five black students "ex-slaves," and asked them to recite from memory the 13th and 14th Amendments, which abolished slavery and guaranteed due process, respectively. The students also demanded that the University administration improve black-white relations on campus. Six days later, nearly 200 students occupied then-President Sheldon Hackney's office to protest what they said was the administration's lack of sensitivity to black students. The sit-in prompted a statement from the University reaffirming its commitment to a "strong and vital black presence at Penn." · Asian American students, on the other hand, have had a quieter history, despite their larger numbers. "Historically at Penn and perhaps even socially in general, the Asian-American community has not been as active politically," Sun said. "It's not that there aren't any problems, but they just haven't entered the political system. "There needs to be new Asian American political activism in order to meet the needs of the Asian community." Still, there is no lack of Asian American student groups on campus, each with its own agenda. According to Sun, when the United Minorities Council was founded about 15 years ago, six of the 10 founding groups were Asian-related. Currently, five of nine groups are Asian-related. Those groups include the Chinese Students Association, Japan Cultural Society, Korean Student Association, Vietnamese Student Association and South Asia Society. There are also additional groups not currently affiliated with the UMC. Most of these groups concentrate primarily on Asian culture and community, rather than hot political issues. · For blacks, discontent with the coverage of and minority presence at The Daily Pennsylvanian has been the focus of a number of incidents throughout the University's history. In 1972, black students unhappy with The Daily Pennsylvanian's coverage confiscated 9,000 copies of the newspaper. They charged the paper with "irresponsible and inaccurate" reporting. Then-Vice Provost for Student Affairs Jack Russell condemned "this attempt to break the normal lines of communication." On February 26, 1982, the first of several attempts at establishing a minority student newspaper was made. The Voice, said Editor-in-Chief Lauren Rich, would concentrate on covering local, national and international events affecting all minorities. Rich was also a DP beat reporter at the time. The Voice did not last long – it disappeared by the mid-1980s – and was replaced by the first black student newspaper, The Vision, in 1989. The Vision, still in publication today, was not born out of hostility toward the DP, according to the first managing editor, Harold Ford. But, he said, there were gaps that the The Vision needed to fill. "The DP has failed to highlight and cover a lot of what goes on in the black community," Ford said in 1989. An incident similar to the 1972 removal of DP's occurred last April, as more than 14,000 copies of the paper – almost the entire press run – were confiscated by members of the Black Student League. In that protest, students said they were not willing to accept "the blatant and voluntary perpetuation of institutional racism against the Black Community by the DP" and by the University. In September, the University dropped charges against nine students charged in the incident, while saying future confiscations would not be tolerated. More than 60 students participated in the confiscation. As a result, the Confiscation of Campus Publications Policy was added to the Policies and Procedures handbook. · Other recent incidents involving minorities – specifically black and Jewish students – still remain in the minds of many current University students. In 1988, controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke on campus after 18 months of debate over whether or not he should be invited. "Your society is topsy-turvy, your values are crazy, your priorities are insane," he said in his speech, addressing the minority of white students in the crowd. The speech sparked a peaceful protest by more than 450 people outside of Irvine Auditorium, where the speech took place. But also during the speech, an isolated group of 40 black and Jewish students taunted each other outside of Irvine for more than two hours during a Hillel Foundation-sponsored demonstration. Last semester, when race relations at the University were at what seemed the worst in recent times, another incident arose involving black and Jewish students. Five black sorority women accused then-College freshman Eden Jacobowitz of violating the University's Racial Harassment Policy when he yelled at the women out of his High Rise East dormitory window, because they were making excessive noise. Jacobowitz called them "water buffalo," which the women alleged was a racial attack. Linguistics Professor Dan Ben-Amos suggested the term "water buffalo" was derived from a Hebrew word which in slang means "foolish person." But the students were still angered by the statement, because, they said, it compared blacks to animals – a common form of degradation to black people. After excessive national media attention, the five women decided to drop the charges against Jacobowitz, saying that they could not get a fair hearing. · And several recent incidents have centered around the W.E.B. DuBois College House, a predominantly black residence hall. In October, several DuBois House residents received bomb threats and racially harassing phone calls, forcing the evacuation of the building and a temporary ban on non-residents. The incident caused the University to increase security at the house, including the installation of assault alarms, better lighting and call tracers on residents' phones. Similar threats and calls have been received at the dorm since its beginning. In 1981, at least eight threatening phone calls were received by the DuBois House receptionist. One of the calls also threatened the life of a visiting black professor. The calls prompted a rally of more than 1,000 University students, faculty, staff and administrators who linked arms and rallied around DuBois House to express their concern.