RALLY for DUBE Protestors Demand Justice & Academic Freedom by Sandra Danielle Dixon an Eyewitness Account by One of the March 2
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"J B EuckworldE Publbhed bi-weekly by students at SUNY Stony Brook A SUNY STUDENT PUBLICATION-UNIVERSITY AT STONY BROOK Week of March 2, 1987 Vol. XV No. 2 RALLY FOR DUBE Protestors Demand Justice & Academic Freedom by Sandra Danielle Dixon An eyewitness account by one of the March 2. It was at this point that demonstrators. some students decided to stay in On the 4th of March 1987 at the Administration building until Dr. Marburger showed. 11:00am, students and faculty gathered in the Union's Fire Side Unfortunately some students in- Lounge to commence the rally, flicted minor damage to the lower "Tenure For Dube." After leav- right wall of the Presidents door. ing the Union the crowd marched Public Safety was called in, and toward the Administration build- they came with batons out, and ing, which was guarded by Public some dressed in bullet proof Safety. The crowd was not allowed vests. Some students were physi- to enter the building, but this did cally harrassed by officers who not deter us. The crowd marched were closing the doors in order to chanting, "Tenure For Dube, Just- keep students out. One young tice For Dube, and Marburger You lady got her contacts knocked oul, Can't Hide. You Support Apart- by a member of Public Safety, heid." who later denied any knowledge Representitives of various stu- of the incident. dent organizations and the Black During the night the media was faculty staff shared their thoughts notified as to what was taking and emotions concerning the Dube place here at SUNY Stony Brook. issue. Professor Dube also ex- Dr. Marburger apparently got wind changed words of wisdom and en- of the news because he called couragement to his supporters. Fred Preston and agreed to meet One could unmistakably conclude with twelve students on Friday, that the rally was indeed a suc- February 27, at 5:00pm in his cess. The demonstration was a office. The students within the peaceful one and the people said Administration building received what was needed to be said. Mar- campus wide support in terms of burger you really can not hide be- food, sleeping gear, spreading the cause their is tremendous support news and calling in the media. on and off campus for Professor At 10:00am Friday morning Dube. another demonstration by the stu- The first phase of the demon- dents went on in front of the Ad- stration began last week Thursday ministration Building. The crowd at a forum held in the Union Fire- then went through the javits lec- Side Lounge. The focus of this ture Halls where we were met by forum was on South Africa today. both support and hostility. Unfor- The speaker Themba Ntinga is a tunately a few students took it member of the African National upon themselves to make personal Congress, and a former Stony statements by using spray paint. Brook student. According to This behavior was met with great Themba Ntinga it is the Univer- hostility by the majority of the sity students who have the power crowd who felt this act would only to influence change. hurt Professor Dube. To make is a briet sum- is a The following Dr. Marburger: This is a personnel Professor Bruce Hare, who matters worse, students who had mary of what Marburger had to Black faculty member within the case and I am not allowed to give nothing to do with the spray paint- say to the group of students. out information. Sociology department also spoke to ing in javits and other areas of cam- to the student audience. According pus were accused of it. We can Students: Why did you deny Dr. Marburger went on to tell the Bruce Hare, "Professor Dube is an only hope that such personal state- students that he is not an expert on has been tenure to Professor Dube? "extraordinary man who ments stop here and now. Dr. Marburger: To teach at Stony Dube therefore committees were dealt an extraordinary injustice, The students then went over to show that you set up to view Professor Dube's to Brook you have to and he should not be banished the Africana Studies Library to have great influence in teaching... publications, and on that is what a four year homeland." discuss more organized and logi- Scholarship and services. Some- his decision was based. In other The forum was to be followed cal means of achieving our goals. is weak in the area words Dr. Marburger denied Prof- by times if one by an organized rally supervised The group collectively came up of teaching but has strength in the essor Dube tenure on something he Professor Owens of the Africana with a list of questions to present area) he gets knows nothing about. Owens publications (scholarly Studies Program. Professor to Dr. Marburger later on that day. If I thought Dube had the The meeting lasted two hours, the students tenure. was not present, and Throughout the day rumors balance in teaching and scholarly with Dr. Marburger agreeing to took the rally into their own hands. have given him ten- meet with the students again. and were spreading on campus about area I would Approximately one hundred violence The deficiency in the scholar- On Monday, March 2, at 7pm the Ad- within the rally. Upon ure. fifty students marched to reaching Dr. Marburgers' office the ship area was too great to over- there was a community meeting ministration building chanting, rumors became apparent. The hole come the areas of teaching and held in the Cultural Center in Tabler "Tenure For Dube," and "justice service...Professor Dube absolutely Cafeteria. Present at this meeting. marched in the wall was increased twenty For Dube." The students times its size, and places not dam- said things that were offensive to was Professor Amiri Baraka, Prof- to the office of Dr. Marburger and some members of the Long Island essor Bruce Hare, Dr. Bagley, Al The aged were patched. This is not to demanded to speak with him. say that I am excusing the actual community." Jordan and various campus based President's aides were unaware of damage, but one must not believe Students: Can you cite for us continued on page 10 where the President was and what everything he/she hears especially if some of Professor Dube's publica- he was doing. However, they knew he/she was not there. tions? he would be back on Monday, On Black History and concealed to justify Statement by the late Reverend Dr. Once more, we read of tortures in is added the fact that the USSR has arrested Martin luther King, Jr. at a meeting white jails with electric devices, suicides indicated its willingness to partici- supremacy. The American at Hunter College, New York City is proper to Negro's ancestors were not only on Human Rights Day, 12/10/65. among prisoners, forced confessions, pate in a boycott-it while in the outside community wonder how South Africa can so driven into slavery, but their links defy the civilized world. with their past were severed so that AFRICA has been depicted for ruthless persecution of editors, re- confidently conclusion is inescapable that it their servitude might be psychological more than a century as the home of ligious leaders, and political oppo- The of its own power, but more as well as phy lal. In this period Black cannibals and ignorant primi- nents suppress free speech and a free is less sure the great nations will not tives. Despite volumes of facts press. sure that and profit to oppose contraverting this picture, the stereo- South Africa says to the world: sacrifice trade effectively. The shame of our type persists in books, motion "We have become a powerful in- them it is objectively an ally of com- dustrial economy; we are too strong nation is that pictures, and other media government in its munication. to be defeated by paper resolutions of to this monstrous own Black people. Africa does have spectacular savages world tribunals; we are immune to grim war with its is all the more grievous and brutes today, but they are not protest and to economic reprisals. Our default one of the blackest pages of Black. They are the sophisticated We are invulnerable to opposition because was our participation in white rulers of South Africa who from within or without; if our evil our history African slave trade of profess to be cultured, religious and offends you, you will have to learn to the infamous The rape of Africa civilized, but whose conduct and live with it." the 18th century. substantially for our philosophy stamp them unmistakably Increasingly, in recent months this was conducted the growth of our as modern-day barbarians. conclusion has been echoed by sober benefit to facilitate its commerce. We are in an era in which the issue commentators of other countries nation and to enhance in human of human rights is the central who disapprove, but nevertheless, There are few parallels in which question confronting all nations. In assert that there can be no remedy history of the period branded this complex struggle, an obvious but against this formidable adversary of Africans were seized and holds the American Negro is giving little appreciated fact has gained human rights. like animals, packed into ships' when into leadership and inspiration to attention-the large majority of the Do we, too, acknowledge defeat? like cargo and transported moral nation, he must find the human race is non-white-yet it is Have we tried everything and failed? chattel slavery.