Class Officers, The 60th Reunion: Good Weather, Good Talk 2013–2018 Co-Presidents: Class Donates Record $477,154 to Brown Annual Fund Sandy McFarland Taylor The 60th reunion of the Brown Class of 1958 was marked by a sizable band of and Jim Moody enthusiastic homecomers. They enjoyed mostly good weather while attending Co-Vice Presidents: lectures from classmates and academics, conversing with old friends and learning more about attendees who previously may have been little more than faces in the Jane Bertram Miluski returning crowd. and Stan Dobson The reunion drew 75 Class of 1958 members and their 37 guests, and members of Secretary: the class gave a record $477.154 to the Brown Annual Fund (see Page 42). Jill Hirst Scobie Here is a quick look at the rousing annual commencement march down the hill on Treasurer: Sunday. Check 25 seconds into the video for a familiar face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOYHqQ1bQww] Bob Wood The weekend began with check-in around 3 p.m. Friday at the Wriston Quad You can find their and—for classmates staying on campus—dropping off bags in a residence hall at contact information the Keeney Quad. The hall, built as part of the Quad during our era, was recently in the renovated. It has elevators, separate bathrooms for men and women, and hotel- Brown Alumni type safes in the closets (though apparently not for alumni.) Directory Between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., classmates had a choice of a reception for 25th to 75th (login required). reunions in the courtyard outside the residence hall, and a private reception for Newsletter Co-Editors: 1958 at the Cornell Courtyard of the nearby Faculty Club. Jim Furlong The tireless photographer Jackie Labovitz (with husband Dave ’58) took pictures John Reistrup throughout the weekend, as she has done at numerous class gatherings. Also [email protected] active with a camera was Lois Dean ’58. Our class met for a reception and dinner in the Hutter Room of the Faculty Club. The twin focusses of the after-dinner Links to Class Website, activities were Martha Sharp Joukowsky ’58, and James Gerald (Gerry) Alaimo’58. Reunion Photos Gerry, a basketball star and former Brown basketball coach, died just weeks before and Social Media the reunion, on May 10. (Continued on page 38) on last page Inside This Issue: The Revolution Just Behind Us ………………………….…….2 Tribute to Gerry Alaimo………….……….….……21 When Everything Changed……….….……….….……….….…5 Breaching Racial Barriers in Atlanta………….24 Warriors of the Woods………………………………………......8 President’s Welcome to Alums …….………….29 Fulfilling a Dream of Blueberries ……….…...……….….…14 Brown Daily Herald’s Disgrace……………….…32 A Cold War English Major……………..…………......……….19 Thanks to Our Contributors…..…….……….….36 Gerry Alaimo Leaves Us Laughing……………..…………...20 Final Report on Giving………………...……….….42 Brown ’58 Newsletter July 2018 Page 1 Keep those notes and emails coming, The Revolution Just Behind Usclassmates! The Readings That Changed Our Way of Life by Jill Hirst Scobie ’58 Oh, regrets, regrets, regrets! How I wish I’d asked for a show of hands at the class luncheon during our 60th reunion. My question: How many of you read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique either at the time of its publication (early 1963) or later? What about Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex? Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics? The list could go on and on. And did such reading change the way you thought about yourself or the way you lived your life? This is Friedan’s opening salvo: “The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning… Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night—she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question—“Is this All?’” For me it was de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex that was the call to arms. But, for many, many women, most especially middle class, well-educated, Caucasian women, The Feminine Mystique was their “wake up” moment. Friedan had written many articles on this subject that were published to great acclaim in popular women’s magazines, McCall’s, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Good Housekeeping, prior to the publication of her book. She identified this “aching dissatisfaction,” not as psychopathology requiring therapy or Miltowns (tranquilizers), but as “the need to grow and fulfill their potentialities as human beings.” She located the problem in the social order that told women that their fulfillment would and should come solely through staying within the domestic sphere (“a woman’s place is in the home”), caring for her husband, children and abode. The first wave of feminism had secured the vote and strove to enact the Equal Rights Amendment, but in the 1930s many women redirected their efforts to establishing a social safety net (such as Social Security) and opposing the rise of fascism. With the advent of WWII, many women, including mothers, went to work in support of the war effort. Yet, even during this very challenging era, there was controversy about the establishment of day care centers at work sites and about the appropriateness of mothers doing any sort of work apart from defense Photo by Lois Dean work (see J. Edgar Hoover). And for those who did stay home full-time, Jill Hirst Scobie they were criticized roundly (see Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers) as frequently emasculating or smothering. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. In the immediate post-WWII era, there was a collective hunkering down: the nuclear threat, the nuclear family, consumerism, McCarthyism, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, the suppression of dissent, the suburban sprawl. However, for those of us who actually came of age in the 1950s we no doubt also remember the beginning of the civil rights movement, the Beatniks, the crack in the picture window, the emergence of rock and roll (thanks, Chuck, thanks, Elvis). So the notion of a June Cleaver-suffused, monolithic society is not really the case at all. Brown ’58 Newsletter July 2018 Page 2 Keep those notes and emails coming, At the beginning of the ’60s, legislation was enacted that provided the underpinningsclassmates! of monumental change. After JFK’s assassination, LBJ supported the passage of a strengthened Civil Rights Bill that protected black voting rights, banned racial discrimination in employment, housing, and schools. Title VII of this bill forbade discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, color, or national origin. Through the skillful political maneuvering of Rep. Martha Griffiths and Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, discrimination on the basis of sex was also banned. The agency established to administer the new law, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), continued to allow sex segregation in job advertising. African- American civil rights lawyer and feminist pioneer, Pauli Murray, called out the chair of the EEOC around the issue of sex- segregated ads as a violation of Title VII and suggested the need for another “March on Washington,” for women’s equal job opportunity. At this juncture, Friedan contacted Murray, an acquaintance; Murray introduced Betty to “the feminist underground” in government circles. This network of very capable women proved to be the basis of the emerging women’s movement; and they had been discussing the need for a women’s AP File Photo organization similar to the National Association for the Betty Friedan speaks in New York's Central Park Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which would promote on August 26, 1971, after some 5,000 marchers women’s rights. Because Friedan was not a government employee, paraded up Fifth Avenue in the women’s march for equality. she did not risk losing her job, and she had already become a very high-profile spokesperson for women’s issues. Therefore, in June 1966, she was tapped to lead the National Organization for Women (NOW). It behooves us to remember that the opportunities open to us and to our daughters and our granddaughters were not provided by the generosity and largesse of men, although there were always male allies along the way. Our gains were hard fought and hard won by grinding, extensive political work and litigating, mostly by women. One case that serves as an example: In 1958, there were only 387 female graduates from 72 medical schools in the United States, as opposed to 6,469 men. In 2017, there were 9,119 women and 10,135 men. Interestingly, of the graduates of Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School, 69 were women and 52 were men. Ta-dah! What happened? The Women’s Equity Action League, a “spin-off” of NOW, brought a class action suit against every medical school in the United States that was receiving federal funds, claiming that schools had discriminated in the recruiting and admission process. Two years later the federal government passed an amendment to the Higher Education Act, the renowned Title IX, which prohibited any education program (receiving federal funding) from discriminating against any person on the basis of gender. By 1976, the number of women admitted to medical schools across the board had risen by 300 percent (compared to 1960 admission rates). Now close to half of all medical students are female. Looking back at our contemporaries, one cannot help being enormously impressed with any of them who did become doctors, considering the tremendous barriers they faced. And we all salute you, our foremother, Elizabeth Blackwell. So how was all this political and social ferment affecting individual lives? Well, you’ll be glad to know that after I read de Beauvoir, I screamed at my husband for four straight days.