Comments on: Much pain, one big gain, from being an African American student at EMU in 1962-63 /now/news/2014/much-pain-one-big-gain-from-being-an-african-american-student-at-emu-in-1962-63/ News from the ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø community. Tue, 11 Feb 2014 20:30:56 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 By: Doug Hostetter /now/news/2014/much-pain-one-big-gain-from-being-an-african-american-student-at-emu-in-1962-63/#comment-80328 Wed, 29 Jan 2014 20:20:21 +0000 http://emu.edu/now/news/?p=19036#comment-80328 Grandison Hill,
Thanks so much for sharing what it was like for you during your year at EMC. I would have been in your class back in ’62, but I didn’t live in the dorm, and didn’t make the varsity team, so I don’t remember that our paths crossed, but helped to bring back the memories of EMC of that era. My impression at the time was that most of the students of color on campus were international students. I do remember that there was a “whites only” sign over the water fountain at the Rockingham County Court House, Harrisonburg High School was segregated, and there was a separate Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg for the “negro” Mennonites. When I look back on my years at EMC, 1962- 1966, I realize that it was at the height of the civil rights movement, yet I do not remember having a single lecture or class discussion on Civil Rights or racism. I do remember learning after the fact that Professor Harry Lefever had secretly attended the Martin Luther King, Jr. March on Washington in 1963, but if he invited any students to join him, I was not one of them.
That era was also at the beginning of the Vietnam War, and EMC did an excellent job of teaching that war was wrong, and that the followers of Jesus used only the “weapons” of love and truth in responding to violence and war, and I ended up doing my alternative service to the military with MCC in Vietnam, doing literacy work with Vietnamese children who had lost their schools due to the war. As to why we were not better educated about Jesus’ radical acceptance of people of all races, and Mennonite agencies were not offering voluntary service positions doing voter registration in Harrisonburg and across the South, or working with the Poor People’s Campaign, perhaps others can explain.

]]> By: The Funster /now/news/2014/much-pain-one-big-gain-from-being-an-african-american-student-at-emu-in-1962-63/#comment-80202 Fri, 24 Jan 2014 22:10:59 +0000 http://emu.edu/now/news/?p=19036#comment-80202 What a great article! Grandison Hill went through a very challenging time. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must have been at times. But as the article points out, as Mr. Hill maintained his integrity “…Hill felt his anger rise to within a scintilla of striking back. “I thought how disappointed my parents would be if I was kicked out for fighting. I calmly laid my fork on the tray. I locked gazes with the guy, neither of us said a word. Eventually he looked away. I picked up my fork and continued eating…..”, Mr. Hill prevailed!

Living in Washington, D.C. I actually met Mr. Hill though very briefly and even though he wouldn’t remember me, I remember him as being a man who carried himself with dignity and confidence.

Great post, I enjoyed reading very much!

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