AFTER DECADES CRUSADING FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, MARY FRANCES BERRY REFLECTS ON HER PAST AND CONTEMPLATES THE ROAD AHEAD

8 PENN ARTS & SCIENCES COVER STORY

Still a Lot More to Do

I WAS WALKING DOWN THE STREET WITH MY TEACHER IN NASHVILLE THE DAY BROWN V.BOARD OF EDUCATION WAS DECIDED. I SAW THE HEADLINE IN THE NEWSPAPER AND I REMEMBER SAYING,“LOOK AT THIS! THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT! STARTING NEXT YEAR THE KIDS WILL ALL BE GOING TO SCHOOL TOGETHER!” AND SHE LOOKED AT ME AND SAID, “I’M NOT SURE IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN QUITE NEXT YEAR.” —Mary Frances Berry in I Dream a World by Brian Lanker Jim Abbott

BY JOSEPH MCLAUGHLIN

ary Frances Berry has If Brown opened the door for Berry responded by accepting spent her life trying to Berry to escape the hardships of President Carter’s invitation to M uphold the promise of her youth, it was she who strode join the U.S. Commission on equality that began with Brown v. through it. Heeding her mother’s Civil Rights. Established during Board of Education. More than advice to always be overqualified, the Eisenhower administration, 50 years have passed since the she went to college during the day the commission was designed landmark Supreme Court ruling and worked in the afternoon and to investigate social-justice outlawed segregated public schools at night, earning a doctoral degree complaints, recommend changes and created fertile ground from in history and a law degree, both to the federal government and which the civil rights movement from the University of Michigan. monitor enforcement of the law. could grow. Berry, the Geraldine R. Appointed chancellor of the Berry soon earned a reputation Segal Professor of American Social University of Colorado at Boulder as one of the most tenacious Thought and professor of history, is in 1976, Berry was the first civil rights activists. Her tenure one of the fruits of that flowering. African-American woman to head stretched nearly 25 years, ending Berry experienced the poverty a major research university. She last December, and was marked by and racism that came with growing then accepted an invitation from myriad civil rights investigations up black in segregation-era President Jimmy Carter to join the and public clashes with Democratic Tennessee. She recalls opening Department of Health, Education and Republican presidents. A textbooks and reading the names and Welfare. As assistant secretary formidable one-woman force, she of students from Nashville’s for education from 1977 to 1980, took on anyone she suspected of whites-only schools. Family she was the first black woman to undermining the cause of equality hardship forced her and her older serve as a chief educational officer or shifting the commission from brother into an orphanage for a in the United States. its bi-partisan foundation. short while, where children After helping pass landmark “The commission is supposed survived on watered milk, rotten legislation that created the to be a watchdog,” she explains. food laden with black pepper and Department of Education, Berry “It’s supposed to monitor what scraps of meat from leftover bones. confided to her mother that the presidents do and tell the public “I never had any childhood, stress of upholding her ideals was when they don’t do what they’re really,” she would later say. “But I’m taking its toll. “Mama, I’m tired supposed to do. If the commission not unhappy about my life. It’s sort now. I think I’ve done enough,” believes that the administration’s of an upbeat message I give, not she said. But her mother would policy on racial profiling isn’t ‘Oh poor me. I didn’t get the right hear none of it. “Oh, what are you strong enough, as it did with food when I was little, and I didn’t going to do next? There’s still a lot [President] Clinton, it’s up to the get to read any fairy stories.’” more to do.” chair to say so.”

left: A founder of the Free South Africa Movement, Berry was arrested five times in 1984 and 1985 at protests outside the South African embassy in Washington, D.C.

SPRING 2005 9 “I decided to sue [President Reagan] Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the University of Michigan’s because he shouldn’t be allowed to fire affirmative action program for undergraduate admissions. a commissioner just because he doesn’t “Conservatives were smart like the commission reports.” enough to satisfy people’s desire for diversity and at the same time promote people who are consistent with their philosophy,” she explains.

Jim Abbott A registered Independent with became chair in 1993 under This strategy is helping Republicans a deep and abiding faith in the President Clinton. After a decade at gain the support of minorities necessity of affirmative action to the commission’s helm, she decided whose longtime loyalty to the achieve equality, Berry admits that not to seek another term. Her Democrats has not been rewarded. her uncompromising nature has departure was hastened, however, “The Republicans are saying, ‘We made her a political target for by a report released last year. The can be just as diverse as you can. those on both sides of the partisan document, Redefining Rights in In fact, we can go you one better.’” fence. She may be the only person America: The Civil Rights Record of Now 67, Berry again finds herself to draw the ire of conservative the George W. Bush Administration, at a crossroads. This time, however, pundit George Will and Village included a letter from Berry and she doesn’t need her mother to Voice columnist Nat Hentoff. Says Vice-Chair Cruz Reynoso. remind her that there’s still a lot Berry, “If people on the right and They wrote, “Your administration more to do. She will publish her people on the far left both have has missed opportunities to win eighth book this fall, My Face is bad things to say about me, then consensus on key civil rights issues Black is True: Callie House and the I must be doing alright.” ranging from affirmative action, to Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations. After the commission published fair housing, to immigration, to She is also a regular roundtable a study that favored correcting voting rights. Instead, you have participant on “News and Notes,” historic discrimination against adopted policies that further divide a National Public Radio show that blacks and women, President a deeply torn nation.” Bush tackles issues that are important to Ronald Reagan, who had spoken out responded by announcing Berry’s black America, and is embarking against affirmative action during replacement before she resigned. on a series of civil rights forums his 1980 campaign, responded by Now six months after her around the nation. removing Berry and two other departure, Berry takes a moment “Sometimes I wish I could commissioners. “I decided to sue to reflect on contemporary threats abandon principles when there’s a him because he shouldn’t be allowed to civil rights. She criticizes the lot of stress and a lot of Sturm und to fire a commissioner just because Bush administration for appointing Drang, but I’m not able to do that,” he doesn’t like the commission minorities to top posts, including she says. “There are certain things reports,” she says. “Then you could Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that I believe. I may be wrong only do reports that people liked, and Attorney General Alberto about what I believe, but I believe and why have a civil rights Gonzalez, while not supporting it. I believe in truth. I believe in commission at all?” historically oppressed groups people having a fair shot. I believe Berry won that battle in federal as a whole. I’m a purist when it comes to free district court – she was known “People of color are so eager to speech. So I’m not able to abandon thereafter as “the woman the see someone like themselves in a what I believe in order to curry president could not fire” – but may position of power and influence that favor or to have friends.” have lost the war as Congress set a we all have the tendency to applaud six-year limit on commission seats. when it happens for the first time,” She has been reappointed repeat- she says. Meanwhile, Bush refuses edly by Congress, which appoints to address the annual convention some of the commissioners, and of the NAACP and supports the

10 PENN ARTS & SCIENCES