The campus chapter of the NAACP is back in business after falling into debt and virtually disappearing. Thanks to the efforts of caring faculty and students, this vital organization is being rebirthed.
The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People continues to act as a "protection and enhancement of the civil rights of African-Americans and other minorities." The organization has always relied on the talents of its volunteers, such as the attorneys who dedicated their valuable time to help win Brown v. Board of Education, which banned segregation in public schools in 1954.
We have walked a long, hard road since that pivotal time. In the last six decades, great strides have been in made in the advancement of civil rights. We have seen opportunity arise for minorities and women in place of oppression. A sort of universal embracing of equality is now taught to our school children, instead of separating them and telling them they don't belong together. But the Daily Egyptian has been the first to admit that the work is not done.
From the reporting in this newspaper during the last year, a pattern emerges. Many black students believe they are unfairly targeted by a police force and legal system designed not to protect them, but to protect others from them.
Blacks do not believe that many entertainment options exist for them in this community, which can be witnessed firsthand at tonight's City Council meeting. The Black Affairs Council and the Undergraduate Student Government will protest the recommended denial of a liquor license to the Knight's Inn, a local hotel that wants to offer night life options to minorities.
Minority faculty numbers at our University continue to be incongruous with the numbers of minority students. It becomes evident that a strong and effective campus NAACP is still a necessity, rather than a "feel good" community effort to jot down on your resume.
On a recent visit to the Daily Egyptian Editorial Board, Joseph Brown, the SIUC director of Black American Studies, reminded us that it has been students who make the difference historically in the Civil Rights Movement. University students, after all, were instrumental in establishing Black Studies programs throughout the United States.
Students, he says, are always ahead of faculty opinions when it comes to social issues, and that is why they must fight for the changes they know are necessary.
But too often they are not willing to get involved.
Particularly minority students in higher education have enough to worry about in defying the odds to reach their own personal success, and may not have the time or the energy to focus on the bigger community issues.
But their contributions to organizations such as the NAACP can change the quality of life dramatically for themselves and for future generations. The NAACP has the power to make, and historically has made, communities and the nation more enlightened places to call home. It has protected and enhanced civil rights for minorities, and because of that, it has safeguarded the freedoms of all Americans.
The proverbial torch is now being passed back to SIUC students. We urge you to guard that flame, to kindle it with activism and use it to burn out the inequalities that still exist in our University community.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
