Twenty-three years ago, a group of Delta Epsilon fraternity brothers did what many who remain on campus during the period between the end of exams and commencement do - they watched a movie and drank a case of beer.
Afterward, their discussion turned to three shanties on the Lower Quad constructed by the anti-Apartheid student group, a Coalition for a Free South Africa (CFSA).
The shanties went up in April of that year in an act of student protest. The group sought to raise campus awareness of the conditions of blacks in South Africa, as well as pressure the University to divest from any investment interests in the apartheid state.
The College Republicans erected a "Gulag" on the Lower Quad to demonstrate what they perceived majority rule would bring to South Africa.
The display was marred by sporadic acts of vandalism and violence against the shanties, which were occupied around the clock by members of the Coalition.
"My guess is that the lower quad has never since looked as colorful or generated as much political education," Patrick Bond, a past graduate student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and leader of the Coalition, wrote in an e-mail.
From the actions of the CFSA in the late 1980s, to the recent efforts of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) and numerous community initiatives, Hopkins students have remained engaged in addressing social injustice.
Past students reported that students have not always received the same level of support from faculty members.
"The Administration was becoming increasingly business-oriented, raising money to bring [Hopkins] up to the power ball rollers. They didn't care one wit where money was invested or where it came from," Kevin Archer, a graduate student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and member of the Coalition, said.
A core group of dedicated students occupied the shanties around clock, along with students engaged in similar actions across the country. All shared the goal of pressuring their universities into severing all financial ties with South Africa and companies that did business there.
It was during this time that the white-dominated government of South Africa, despite condemnation from the United Nations, had enacted martial law, serving to further marginalize and abrogate the human rights of black citizens.
At Hopkins, the struggle turned violent in May 1986. Kevin Archer was just preparing to settle into his sleeping bag in one of the shanties when it burst into flames. A molten piece of plastic sheeting landed on him, leaving third degree burns on his back.
"It could have been much more disastrous if I was in my sleeping bag," Archer said.
While some coalition members worked to extinguish the flames on Archer's body, others chased after the Delta Epsilon brothers who were running away from the flaming shanty.
One was tackled and apprehended by members of the Coalition. The other two fire-bombers were later arrested by the police.
Coalition Intensifies Protest Against Administration's Policies
The Coalition continued to increase pressure on the University to adopt a policy of gradual divestment. They also raised the implications of some of the University's investments in Baltimore.
In his graduation speech to the class of 1986, President Steven Muller condemned the perpetrators of the firebombing.
"[They are] not only criminals, they are offenders against human reason and mortal enemies of the university," Muller said.
Soon after the firebombing, the State's Attorney brought charges of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and attempted murder against the three Delta Epsilon brothers. The attempted murder charge was later dropped.
The administration acted by suspending two of the students and withholding the diploma of one of the conspirators who was a senior.
In the fall of '86, the Coalition announced that it planned to construct another shanty as part of its continuing campaign.
"We have discussed alternate ways of educating the Hopkins community, but everyone has arrived at a consensus that the shanty was our best means of communication," Bond said in a News-Letter article at the time.
In response, the administration banned the construction of shanties on campus and obtained a court order that ruled that anyone constructing or occupying a shanty on campus would be trespassing.
Undeterred, the Coalition erected a shanty in September 1986. On Sep. 30, Baltimore police, assisted by Hopkins security, arrested 14 students occupying the shanty.
"None of the protesters actively resisted arrest, although police had to carry them handcuffed to a waiting police patrol wagon," the Baltimore Sun reported.
Around the same time, a judge reduced the sentences of the three Delta Epsilon brothers responsible for the arson attack to community service and probation.
This stung members of the Coalition, some of whom now faced charges for contempt of court.
The City Paper reported at the time that upon hearing the judge's ruling, the prosecuting state's attorney was heard to call the ruling "a slap on the wrist . . . it's a double standard. Rich whites get set free."
The administration's decision to allow students to be arrested in the course of a political demonstration galvanized members of the faculty to support the students.
The decision also brought questions of students' right to exercise free speech on campus to the forefront. President Muller established a committee to examine the issue.
"In obtaining and requesting the enforcement of an injunction against a non-violent form of political expression, the University took an action that is unprecedented . . . a sharp departure from the traditional commitment of this university community to the protection and encouragement of the widest possible freedom of expression," the committee found.
A Bittersweet Success for Coalition Members
At the Oct. 1986 Trustees meeting, following Coalition protests, the board voted to adopt the Sullivan Principals to guide its investments in South Africa.
This corporate code of conduct established criteria for companies to ensure that employees would be treated equally, regardless of race.
The University thus began to gradually divest itself of what the Coalition estimated were its $70 million invested in South Africa.
The Coalition considered this only a partial victory and continued to press for further divestment. They also pressed for the Maryland National Bank to sever most of its financial ties to South Africa, an effort that later succeeded.
Additionally, it erected "gentrified" shanties to illustrate what it characterized as Hopkins's lack of upkeep on properties it owned in East Baltimore in the vicinity of the Hopkins Medical Institutions.
Reflecting on whether the Coalition was successful in achieving its goals, a leader of the group, Patrick Bond gave a definitive no.
"We lost," Bond wrote in an e-mail.
Despite the perceived loss, the Coalition's actions clearly influenced the Trustees to take a closer look at the University's investments.
"The students raised the consciousness of our trustees to take a look at our investments," Jerry Schnydman, who was head of admissions at the time and is now Executive Assistant to the President, said.
"Their influence lay in getting the board, particularly the investment committee, to take a hard look at what's in the best interest of the University," he said.
"The students caused the trustees to think along the lines of both issues. That might not have happened if they had not demonstrated."
The Coalition's actions also raised campus awareness about apartheid. At its peak, Bond estimates that the Coalition had 300 members. Both the News-Letter and Student Council voiced strong support for their cause.
The debate that the Coalition's activities raised regarding students' rights to free speech on campus caused a reexamination and reaffirmation of a basic right often taken for granted.
"Progressive movements depend on the circumstances: they do not begin as mass movements," Bill Tiefenwerth, Director of the Center for Social Concern and an Assistant Chaplain at the time of the anti-Apartheid movement, said.
"A core group of, for lack of a better term, provocateurs, got the broad spectrum thinking about things which they may not have otherwise thought of."
Although students have not recently sung "We Shall Overcome" as they faced arrest, blocked trustees from leaving a meeting by chanting and forming a human chain or staged a two week occupation of Garland Hall, Hopkins students still possess the energy, determination and idealism essential for effecting change in the community.
"Young people, by their very nature, are more open to the changing lenses of opportunity. It's a matter of consciousness-raising and having an issue to coalesce around," former Coalition member Archer said.
Next week this series will conclude by examining what issues motivate Hopkins students today and what tactics they have adopted to achieve their goals.
