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Show UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY discriminating.”72 Trustees decided not to make any statement; they also wondered about avoiding all programs that called attention to minorities but concluded to continue to recognize creative minority students.73 In early March 1969, news spread that students, mostly members of the black students union at the University of New Mexico, were petitioning their administrators to denounce BYU as a “racist institution,” cancel an upcoming track meet, and drop BYU from the WAC.74 New Mexico’s student senate also recommended that the school cut all ties to BYU, a proposal that the school’s faculty also entertained. “The humiliation and anxiety suffered by the black athletes who have to participate in events against BYU,” explained New Mexico’s black forward, Greg “Stretch” Howard, “go beyond the realm of academic tolerance.”75 However, New Mexico’s athletic council announced that it would suspend athletes who refused to participate for the remainder of the season.76 At this same time, ATT executive Ramon S. Scruggs told BYU students that “white Americans are operating under a set of false assumptions. They believe that they are dealing with stupid people . . . [and] that only the hard-core ghetto black is bitter against the white man. . . . Mormons should understand, perhaps better than any other group of people, what the problems of prejudice are.”77 The next month, Wilkinson received positive news: word that BYU was in full compliance with the anti-discrimination provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and notification that the WAC refused to investigate allegations of racism and to cancel an upcoming BYU–UTEP track meet.78 On the other hand, Wilkinson had to deal with trustees who disagreed with his assessment that “for us to refuse to hire a Negro on our faculty because of his race was a plain violation of the law. Brother [Harold B.] Lee disputed this, saying that he could read the statute as well as I. I am sure he has never read the [Civil Rights] statute, and I could tell that other members of the committee were on my side not his.”79 Hoping to dispel widespread rumors of racial insensitivity, BYU’s sophomore class sponsored a special “Brotherhood Week” in May 1969. Events included a faculty panel on “Causes of Racial Prejudice and Its Political Effects,” film screenings, a book display, an art and literature 72 Wilkinson, Diary, January 24, 1969. See Board of Trustees, Minutes, February 5, March 5, and April 9, 1969. 74 “N.M. Students Seek End to BYU Ties,” Salt Lake Tribune, March 4, 1969; “Charges Refuted,” Daily Universe, March 5, 1969; “Dr. Wilkinson Denies BYU Tends to Practice in Racism,” Salt Lake Tribune, March 5, 1969. 75 “Lobo Student Senate Votes to Sever BYU Athletic Relations,” Provo Daily Herald, March 21, 1969; “New Mexico May Sever Relations with BYU,” Daily Universe, March 25, 1969. 76 “Lobo Athletes Warned about Boycotting BYU,” Provo Daily Herald, March 26, 1969; “UNM Warns Black Athletes Play or Face Suspension,” Daily Universe, March 27, 1969. 77 “Scruggs Questions White Hang-Up,” Daily Universe, March 25, 1969; see also “Blacks Contribute,” Daily Universe, April 23, 1970. 78 “BYU Complies with National Civil Rights Act,” Provo Daily Herald, April 3, 1969; “BYU Policy Study Refused by WAC,” Salt Lake Tribune, April 4, 1969. 79 Wilkinson, Diary, April 9, 1969. 73 216 |
