MXI Celebrates 50 Years

INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT FELLER SEE PAGE FIVE NOVEMBERNovember 13, 13, 2020 2020 MXI Celebrates 50 Years LIAM GRENNON ’24 | STAFF WRITER of Wabash and Crawfordsville in the • The Malcolm X Institute of Black realities of Black life in America. The Studies has been an integral part of building, therefore, was a combined campus life at Wabash since 1970. academic/social center. The first The fiftieth-anniversary celebration floor had a classroom with portable for the groundbreaking institution blackboard, a library of books about that was planned for April 2020 had Black history and culture, and an office to be postponed as a result of the for a future Director more appropriate ongoing pandemic. The MXI intends to than White me. I taught both the Black commemorate the milestone in-person History course and a C & T discussion with current members and alumni section in that classroom, thus bringing sometime in the Spring of 2021. in White students to learn and interact The MXI has a storied history and with Black students. The second floor stands in tribute to the academic success was primarily a social refuge for Black of its former members as well as their students, with a lounge to hang out in advocacy and service to the community. and for meetings, a pool table, kitchen, The Afro House, which predated the and barber chair; it was a small island MXI, was originally a residential space of Black comfort in a sea of campus students lived in. Established after two whiteness.” Black students with Afros refused to In its early years, the Institute shave parts of their heads at Chapel provided a place for Black students to Sing, the Afro House signaled the united come together in a safe environment, interests of Black students at Wabash. holding art classes, barbeques, and other The upstairs of the house was home to events, as well as being a common space several Black students, including Charles where students could speak freely with Ransom ’72, who The Bachelor spoke to one another. about the Afro House’s beginnings. Professor Fredrick also worked closely “My freshman class had nine Black with students on the creation of the students in it, which was at the time Malcolm X Institute. the biggest class of Black students The decision to name the Institute Wabash had ever had,” Ransom said. after Malcolm X was a matter of “There were probably around twenty controversy on campus. Just five years of us on campus and we started to talk after his passing, members felt like about forming a black cultural center. Malcolm X was the right person to Myself and Victor Ransom traveled to commemorate, in large part because of several different GLCA schools that had his emphasis on educational achievement cultural centers, and we started putting and his own gritty and heroic self-taught a proposal together for a cultural center education in prison. The administration at Wabash. Sophomore year, we were opposed the decision to name the able to get a house which stood where program after Malcolm X, which further the new Phi Delt house now is. Four of affirmed the choice for the members. COURTESY OF RAMSAY ARCHIVES us lived upstairs while the Black Student In the words of Malcolm X, “Education Union was running out of the downstairs is the passport to the future, for Pictured are two early members of the Malcolm X Institute. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the area.” tomorrow belongs to those who prepare Black student organization. Ransom remembered having to for it today.” Malcolm Lang ’21 agrees that academics think the MXI has benefited the Wabash track down guys who had made calls The concept of being a lifetime learner have always been the foremost focus of community by providing a place of cultural to girlfriends from the house so they is at the core of today’s MXI. “Malcolm X the MXI. enrichment for all students, particularly for could pay the fee that came with long- was, and as we try to emulate, a lifelong “The major goal here is to graduate in those seeking to understand.” distance calls at the time. Professor learner,” said Malcolm Lang ’21. four years, or eight semesters,” Lang said. Captain Mills’ sentiment was echoed by Peter Fredrick was hired in the Fall of “The ability to learn consistently but “I feel like the MXI has done a really good most alumni when asked what the role MXI 1969 for a one-year position to teach also educate others on academics but job encouraging people of color, who aren’t members should aim to play on campus and Afro-American History and became an also life and different perspectives and familiar with this place or aren’t familiar in the greater Crawfordsville community. integral part of the formation of the backgrounds take us one step closer to with being in a predominately white The consensus seemed to be that the MXI. According to Fredrick, he was hired one another.” institution more comfortable and more simplest way to enact this kind of change in (in the words of the dean that hired Bringing speakers to campus who can equipped to graduate.” a community is to show others who you are him) “To help tame the militant Black address issues of race and inequality is Other instances of activism led by the as a person. students at Wabash”. just one of the ways they work towards MXI are scattered throughout the history of Current member Johnathan Coleman ’22 “Well, I’d been teaching Black achieving that goal. the organization, including protests about described the role MXI members play in the Panthers in Oakland, California in The MXI began its long history of the lack of Black history taught at Wabash greater Crawfordsville community today. the late 1960s; so I have to say that giving back to the Crawfordsville in the late ‘80s. An annual Halloween party “The City of Crawfordsville and as intensely activist as Wabash Black community at this time, running summer for the kids of Crawfordsville, the creation community of Crawfordsville has embraced students were in 1969 (young men like camps out of the Institute for local high of the KK&Q Mentoring program 1989, and what the MXI has to offer, whether it be Chuck Ransom, Vic Ransom, Preston school and middle school students. They various protests of Ku Klux Klan marches getting to know the members or including Green, Keith Nelson, Tony Partee, Jack hosted competitions at Wabash Stadium in Crawfordsville are other examples the organization in different community Johnson and Dock McDowell), in no way for the kids, competing against local of the MXI’s activism. Members would initiatives,” Coleman said. “Whether it be could they be called ‘militant’ except youth centers in athletic events. protest restaurants and establishments in us just showing up or us serving food or in the eyes of fearful white Hoosiers,” Some of the first instances of advocacy Crawfordsville that wouldn’t serve Black just sitting down and having a conversation Fredrick said. “In the spring of 1970, from the MXI stemmed from the college’s students and faculty. This year the MXI with people who otherwise would not be the end of my one year, in the midst of refusal to reinstate Professor Campbell. organized a peaceful demonstration to show interacting with African American men, or Black Power, Human and Civil Rights and Members of the organization came to support for victims of police brutality in the African Americans in general.” anti-Vietnam War protests, six or seven Campbell to offer him a role within the United States. The long lasting relationships between Black students came to my home and institute as a tutor and support staff for “I felt like us showing our presence on faculty and current and former members asked me to stay a year or more longer students, which the professor accepted. campus this year was very monumental, fostered by the MXI continue to set and help them create a Black Union “President Seymore said ‘Nope.’ and us engaging in a peaceful protest to graduates up for success. Steven Jones center of some sort in a College-owned He resigned and he was not going to show what we are going through is serious, ’87, the current Director of the Malcolm house at 416 West Wabash Avenue.” come back under any circumstances’,” and isn’t just a moment or temporary,” X Institute, also serves as Dean of Professor Fredrick would go on to stay Campbell said. “That led to a big march Lang said. “It’s something that has to be Professional development. Being able to at Wabash for over thirty years. walk out with students skipping class in subsided, and not just by us but by all ensure opportunities for all students beyond Dr. Finley Campbell was a Black support of me and this plan.” people. At the end of the day, if you’re their time at Wabash is another goal of the Associate Professor of English at the A resulting meeting was held at the going to consider everyone at Wabash your institute. College who helped create some of the Chapel, which led to Seymore stating Wabash brother, then the problems that The Malcolm X Institute’s role on campus original Black Studies courses at Wabash. that if Campbell were to come back to people of color go through, that’s your has never been assured. The MXI continues “It would be open to all students, the college, he would leave. Finally, problem as well.” to have a profound impact on members, the but it would have a focus on being a an agreement was reached: So long as Captain Houston Mills ’85, a member Wabash community, and the community of supportive service primarily for Black Dr.

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