Friday. September 23. l‘ibb SCARLET AND BLACK Page Fly: Grinnellians Describe leMoyne life ‘Pride and Prejudice' Plagued Exchangers' Role ED. NOTE: The following story was prepared by the ilve Grinnell students who partici- pated in the GrinneIi-LeMoyne exchange program last semes- ter. , The five participants were .lanet Poland, Amy Rossman, Pat Stern, Lynda Thumen and Rich Lance. After a summer oi readjust- ing ourselves to life in the White Power Structure, the five of us who attended LeMoyne College last semester have returned to our cocoons at Grinllell. To those of you who noticed our absence and have been asking, “How was it?” we would like to present some of our impres- sions in a bit more detail than “Great!” which is true. but somewhat oversimplified. LeMoyne is an all-Negro col- lege in Memphis, Tennessee. Under the LeMoyne-Grinneli ex- change program, which began two years ago, Grinnell sends four or five students to live and study at LeMoyne second se» mester, and LeMoyne sends about the same number here. LeMlJyne is situated deep in the segregated Negro area of the city, and most oi its stu- dents consequently have very little contact with whites. espe- cially Nortllerners. Since most White Grinnell students live in eq ually segregated environ- ments. the program aims to promote interracial understand ing. identity Crisis With this rather vague as- signment in the backs or our minds, the iive oi us invaded Memphis on an unusually snowy day last January. For the next four months we went through a sort of collective identity crisis partly because we really were uncertain as to our “role" at ~LeMDyne. If someone goes to Selma to march and to take pies tures, he knows he is supposed to march and to take pictures If a student heads for Mississip- pi to Crusade for Human Rights, he has an identity as a crusader. But our role was simply “stuv dent." Our sole specialty was in Memphis that we were highly visible in crowds. We settled down in two some- what rickety houses near the campus. Two girls shared one house with a senior LeMoyne girl: two of us lived with our most amazmg “housemother,” who doubled as a Russian and French teachers She looked about seventeen, seemed to know everyone in Memphis, and shared our belief that Grinnell girls are old enough to take care of themselves. Rich Lance and another LeMoyne student lived nearby in the basement at a large, mysterious house owned by an old, eccentric widow The iirst day ended brightly, even though the water pipes froze, our boots melted on the ancient floor furnace grates. all the doorknohs came off, and the housemolher’s tomcat, Boris, came in mangled after a street- iight. LeMoyne's neighborhood must be described as lower economic level. Across the street from our house was a Vast Federal Housing Project and one of Memphis’ innumerable grave- yards. The comer (Mississippi and Walker), nicknamed "Whis- key Corner” by Grinnell's Ned Donahoe when he taught at Le- Moyne, was described in a book or local history as the toughest corner in Tennessee in the lEGO’s. To the five of us fresh from white suburbia, the neighbor- hood was exciting. Perhaps ii We had lived there all our years and stood a good chance at spending the rest of them there, we would have seen only the sqltalori The Deluge With the beginning of classes came the deluge of people to meet and to get to know We found most of the students very friendly and as eager to get to know us as we were to meet them. Our welcome was warm. One day a group of girls ap- proached Amy and asked, “Are you one oi the Grinnell stu- dents?" “Yeah," she said brightly. “How could you tell?" MW LYNDA THOMAN, (second train right. in leti picture) ritr on the front steps of one oi the houses the Grin- nelliam occupied. The group at LeMoyne students with her includes Lois McGowan (left, foreground) who Ipent a lemester a! Grinnell in I965 and is now a teacher in Nigeria. A tier LeMayne basketball player, .tiaelionaisly known as "Bounce", hold: the house- motlm'i oat. both lripht picture). After about a week it dawned on us that we girls were meet- ing only boys, That seemed sort or segregated, so we threw a "hen party" in one oi the houses. it was a roaring suc~ cess; it was there that we be- came acquainted with the im- possible dances we miss so much now: the Philly Dog, the Duck, and the Boogaloo. At that- gathering and at sub- sequent parties we sensed a quality that differed from the [one of Grinnell social life. At Grinnell, social life implies something scheduled and self- conscious. At LeMoyne, social lite means having a good time. People dance and drink because they feel like it. not for any hidden purpose. We realize that the social dlf< ference is not an ‘eithernor‘ situ- ation where LeMoyne is all right and Grinnell's all wrong. But we were impressed with the students’ refusal to become wrapped up in self-pityi Basketball Zeal The zeal shown at basketball games is staggering. This is the racial. Grinneil is a rich, iso« iated, close-knit, secular, resi< dential college; LeMoyne is less aliluent and more southern, ur‘ ban, sectarian, and nonresiden- tial, Most of us at Grinnell are (let's iace it) middle class, have been prodded intellectually since kindergarten, and seldom go hungry except on Sunday after- noon, Many of LeMoyne’s stu- dents have unstable home situ- ations, have to contend with the attitudes of families fresh from Mississippi, and hold down full time jobs as well while they go to school (albeit probably at more than sac an hourl), Academia Academically, LeMoyne is not exactly the Harvard of the Mid- South. it is tangled up in ad- ministrative difficulties and bogged down by teachers who, thanks to tenure, have been there since Reconstmction, Yet LeMoyne does have some very good departments and some very good professors. And al- though most students' high school backgrounds fall a bit short at New Trier or Evanston. served after a month or so won that the white people looked de- pressingly pasty and ugly. w had been subtly hrainwashe by the fear and acorn oul friends felt toward the whit. community, and saw it as the did. on occasion we observ firsthand some of the experb encea which add to antiwhit sentiments (which do not no take a very militant form iii Memphis). During an NAACP attempt to integrate a rather repulsive greasy spoon joint, a repulsivg greasy drunk pulled a knife an we segregated rapidlyu We had run-ins with the police, and on occasion, the vice-squad, which took a dim view of interracial couples. We experienced tor the first. time the hate state, and we will never be the same. Pride and Preiudlco For over iour months we iam- bled our way through pride and prejudice, trying in vain to please all of the people all oi the time. We were accused of being too aloof and too patroniz- ing; too blunt and hypocriticalt as "BOUNCE" (left picture] poses with Janet Poland (left) and Amy Rossman at the going away party held for the Grinnellialls. Also at the party, a visiting economics professor. from southern Illinois University. Mr. Siolerau, lives it up with the gang (right pictutel. Big Game at LeMoyne; iootball is almost a iorgotten sport. The basketball league includes other Negro colleges as far away as Bethune-Cookman in Florida. About 600 students attend Le- Moyne in the highly significant ratio of live girls per boy. Sev- eral reasons explain lopsided proportion; one is the drait status of Negro males; another is the exodus of gifted males to Fiske, Howard or a northern school. White persons on LeMoyne’s campus in one of four cate- gories: a teacher (about half are white); 3 Grinnellian; a de— livery boy, or someone who has lost his way. Except for the ex- change students and the basket- ball team, students live at home and commute. This characteris- tic significantly influences so- cial life and the appearance (dressed up) oi the students. of course there are no hours, because there are no dorms. Parties are held in private homes. Everyone takes the bus home after School and lives a different life until school begins again the next morning. it is all too easy to compare Grinnell, a white college, with LeMoyne, a Negro college, and come up with entirely unfounded conclusions. The two colleges differ radically, but the most significant differences are not there are a number of highly ablc minds on campus, some of which will depart ior other schools. After we became adjusted to LeMoyne, we began to feel de- tached from any particular cul— tural group We could not iden- tify with White Memphis, and we would never be Negroes no matter how well we did the Philly Dog. We felt, however. kinship with a small, unique group. consisting oi four or iivo young professors, the iive at us, and the dozen or so close friends We made. We felt isolated as a group from the rest oi the world: it was in this group or irienda that the goals or the program were realized. We saw little of white Mern» phis during our stay, and what we did see was a bit distorted. a phenomenon that we all ob- We were accused of appearing like crusaders; we were as- sailed for not crusading One faction of the faculty felt we should lead LeMoyne on to a cultural renaissance The boys wanted us to party; the girls sometimes wished we would drop dead, We struggled with microbiology. Negro History. Russian, algebra, and Race Re- lations. We sutiered through personal involvements, Some- times cars would stall, parties would drag or be crashed, the cat would get sick, tests would be failedl As time went on we didn't change color, but when our iour months were up we felt quite adjusted to our envi- ronment and to our role. There were hard times and great times, and all we can say in retrospect is that we are very glad we went, é‘r @‘5 FRESH DELIC/‘oas . BAKED, 6000 THE TASTY PASTRY SHOP