OMA and OSQA Blog

In honor of Black History Month 2014, the OMA collaborated with the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) and OSU Athletics to host an event regarding the desegregation of college football and specifically the story of the OSU football team!

Check out the recording of the event that is available online!

The event featured various speakers including: football historian Dr. Michael Oriard, author Herman Brame, OSU Sociology Professor Dr. Dwaine Plaza, and OSU student athlete Evan Bany, along with featured guests Earnel Durden, OSU football player 1956-1958 and Ken Simonton, OSU football player 1998-2001.

The evening began with Dr. Oriard and Mr. Brame sharing the national and Oregonian history of collegiate football desegregation and Dr. Plaza and Bany telling the OSU story. Then Mr. Durden and Mr. Simonton shared their specific experiences of their time as student athletes here at OSU.

Brief Outline of the Event:

• Introduction of each of the event and panelists [00:00:00 – 00:06:15]
• Panelists Dr. Oriard [00:06:15-00:28:15]; Mr. Brame [00:28:15-00:49:30]; Dr. Plaza and Mr. Bany [00:49:30-01:09:00]
• Guest Speakers Earnel Durden [01:09:00-01:35:20] and Ken Simonton [01:35:20-02:00:15]
• Question and Answer Session [02:00:15-02:10:07]

We are very excited to share that Dr. Plaza conducted an oral history with Mr. Durden and it is now available online; here is the information:

Earnel Durden Interview Audio and Interview Transcript

Date: February 18, 2014
Place: Corvallis, OR
Length: 01:20:00
Interviewee: Earnel Durden
Interviewer: Dwaine Plaza
Transcriber: Desireé Gorham

Earnel Durden (b. circa 1937) attended OSU from 1955-1959 as a football player and a student studying physical education and science for a teaching degree. He played on the 1957 Rose Bowl team under Coach Tommy Prothro, and in his sophomore year, Durden was selected as “Joe College.” He was one of the few, first African American students to attend OSU—prior to OSU having their first African American female student. Due to this, Durden had many experiences dealing with cultural differences in Corvallis regarding a lack of knowledge and interaction with African American people.

In the interview Durden discusses his high school years in Los Angeles as an African American and rising football player; recruitment and experiences as a student, African American, and athlete at Oregon State University; his relationship with Tommy Prothro as a player and assistant coach; his various coaching experiences at Compton Junior College, Long Beach State University, UCLA, and for the Rams; and a brief description of his children’s sports careers.

Also, as a special component to the event, OHS collaborated with Dr. Darrell Miller to curate a traveling exhibit to showcase the histories of the U of O, PSU, and OSU football teams in an exhibit titled “Black Power Disrupting White Supremacy” and hosted by the OSU Valley Library.

All four panels are available as PDFs via the OHS Website: Exhibit Panels

OSU Barometer Article, Feb 8, 1964

Fifty years ago, the city of Birmingham became a focus for the civil rights movement.  A small minority college in Alabama became the focus of Oregon State University students, with a goal to do something significant. 1964 is a pivotal year in the United States in the struggle for civil rights.  What could a school in Oregon do that could make an impact on the other side of the nation?

In a November 8, 1964 article in Times magazine, the plight of a small Black college in Birmingham, Alabama was chronicled.  The article stated that:

“Miles College is the only four-year college available to most of the 2,000             youngsters who graduate each year from the area’s 17 Negro high schools.  It           produces 60% of the city’s Negro school teachers.”

Students at Yale University collected 6,000 books for the Miles College library and delivered them personally.  The school was still in need, risking accreditation due to an inadequate library.  The Beavers could do better than this, and a goal was set to collect 10,000 books for Miles College.  The “Books for Birmingham” project was born!

The OSU YMCA-YWCA Round Table planned the project through the newly built Kerr Library (another golden anniversary…).  Student volunteers conducted the drive from January 20^th through February 2^nd, 1964.  John Wooster, the YMCA Round Table student chairman is quoted, “This project has been undertaken as a way for OSU students and faculty to express their concerned interest in the struggle for human dignity and equal opportunity for all.”

Miles College President, Lucius Pitts travelled to OSU to speak on January 22, 1964.  He expressed gratitude to OSU students and explained the tenuous position that the small college was experiencing.  Pitts stood before the student body and said, “God Bless your efforts to bless us here in Birmingham and thus bless our whole world.”

The Books for Birmingham project was an overwhelming success, OSU collected over 14,000 books for Miles College.  The student’s goals were exceeded, and a significant contribution to a struggling school was achieved.  This project challenged other institutions across the nation to get involved, and make a difference in some substantial way in the struggle over civil rights.

Books for Birmingham Brochure

The next problem to tackle would be: how do we get them there? A delegation of nine OSU Students and advisors traveled at their own expense across the US to personally deliver the donation to Birmingham.  Two vehicles packed with books, arrived during spring break 1964. The Corvallis Gazette Times reported on April 20^th that,

“All 800 students at Miles College, Birmingham, Ala., gave an emotional   standing ovation to Oregon State University when the 14,000 books collected on this campus were presented formally to the southern school at a general assembly.”

OSU Students who made this epic journey were, Mike Koch, Linda Driskill, Carol Anderson, Nikki Kephart, Robert McDermott, Carlton Olson, Jeanne Fryer and John Wooster (who remained at Miles to teach on their staff). Also on the trip was a young Kerr library student worker, Alice Elle, without whom this story would have never been retold, some fifty years later.

Alice Elle, 1966 OSU Yearbook

Alice Elle Raden, class of 1967, lives in Pennsylvania, but receives the OSU Valley Library newsletter, The Messenger, by mail.  She noticed an article about student workers in the current issue and it reminded her about her time as a student worker and her involvement in the Books for Birmingham project. She contacted us with this story, and this important historical event lives again. There is a small file in SCARC’s  Memorabilia Collection (MC), folder “Miles College – Book Drive. 1963-1964” with some newspaper articles and correspondence.

As a special added bonus, Alice will be visiting her library once again in late March.  We will have the opportunity to get her story about the trip and the book drive first hand, in an oral history interview. Look for more about the Books for Birmingham project in the coming months!

~ Mike Dicianna, OMA Student Worker

This year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration events at OSU showcase Dr. King’s values, vision, and legacy and act as a call to action to us all to unite our powerful voices.

One of the goals of these two weeks is for us to reflect on the past and to look toward the future to think about the impact that we can have in our own communities. The OMA was honored to be a part of the reflection to the past by participating in two celebration events. On Monday the 20th the annual Peace Breakfast featured the OMA’s newly published campus tour guidebook “Histories of Students of Color at OSU” and on Tuesday the 21st the Special Collections & Archives Research Center hosted the event “50th Anniversary of MLK Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture: “The Quest for Peace and Justice.” Various OSU community members read the lecture in which his words linked racial injustice, poverty, and war.

And, we had archival materials on display for attendees to see the connections between Dr. King and Linus Pauling as well as to feature the campus tour guidebook.

Speech Readers:

MLK Jr. Celebration Events 2014 Poster