The Nigger Factory (16 page)

25

Calhoun Moves

At five o'clock the auditorium bell had summoned virtually all sixteen hundred members of the Sutton community. The dorms had been cleared of their thirteen hundred occupants, eight hundred female residents and five hundred males. The commuting students had been sitting in the lounge area of the Student Union Building waiting for word from Earl or Baker as to what they should do. The administrative staff had been completing a day's work at their posts in Sutton Hall. In the entire community only a few faculty members had already left campus for the day. They would learn of Calhoun's statement at six o'clock when the news was broadcast statewide.

The MJUMBE members sat in the first row talking softly to one another. Baker had already prepared a statement in reply to Calhoun's expected ultimatum. Earl, Odds, and Lawman, caught totally by surprise in the canteen, stood near the rear door with a group of MJUMBE enforcers who planned to hold students inside long enough for them to hear Baker's counter-statement.

The SGA representatives had been working intensely on a statement that they had planned to read at the Friday faculty meeting. The last thing they had wanted was a political reprisal from the president so soon.

When Calhoun stepped up to the microphone conversation and chair scraping ceased. The enforcers blocked the paths of all who were not inside to that point. Flashbulbs popped from directly under the podium.

‘There is much about the job of president that one likes,’ Calhoun began, ‘and then there are those aspects one is not so fond of. I have been at Sutton for nine years and I suppose I have had it easier than most men who have held
my position. Nevertheless I am always hurt when situations of today's nature come about. I am hurt because it indicates a lack of communication. It indicates a breakdown between my office and the students who make up Sutton University. It indicates a lack of understanding on both parts.

‘Sutton has had a Student Government Association for over seventy years. It has had responsible leadership from members of the student community for over seventy years. It is of the utmost importance that this leadership be chosen with the most critical eye possible. It is important because it indicates a political understanding of the nature of campus government.

‘When I received the demands last evening I went to work immediately to do as much as I could on so short a notice. I looked into every demand with thoroughness. I replied to each of the demands as I saw fit. I did, in short, as much as I could. But it seems as though my best was not enough for your student leadership. I offered to sit down and negotiate the demands with them. This too was insufficient.

‘Based on this, I have decided to close Sutton University until such time as the university can institute a readmission program to make sure that the community is able to function at one hundred per cent efficiency.

‘We will begin to take new admission requests next Tuesday, October fifteenth, and will reopen on November first. Our school year will last until June ninth instead of May twenty-second.’ There was a dramatic pause. ‘Are there any questions?’

His audience was stunned. More flashbulbs popped. The roar from the assembly erupted as though provoked by electric shock. The members of MJUMBE were on their feet screaming at the president, but no one was able to hear above the noise. It was then that people realized there were armed security guards at almost every exit and standing at both stairways leading to the stage.

Calhoun shouted into the microphone, ‘I can't possibly handle the questions that I am sure are on everybody's mind unless there is silence. Mr Baker, you'll get your chance!’

There was a question from a female student: ‘As of what time is the university officially closed?’

‘As of right now, Miss,’ Calhoun replied. ‘We are giving students until six o'clock tomorrow evening to leave the dorms.’

‘What'll happen then?’ Baker shouted.

The security guards looked to Calhoun for instructions, but the president said nothing. The newsmen were scampering for the exits to get their stories in. They turned in shock when the audience screamed and the five MJUMBE men were leaping directly onto the stage. Baker squeezed in front of Calhoun and grabbed the microphone. The crowd was on its feet in a veritable frenzy. The guards were blocked by Ben King and Cotton from one side and Abul Menka and Fred Jones at the other. The guards were shouting to Captain Jones, stationed at the rear of the building, asking what they should do.

‘Don't leave!’ Baker screamed. ‘Whatever you do, don't go home! If we allow him to run us away we'll never git anything for as long as Sutton University stands. We must stand our ground.’

Captain Jones broke through the crowd that was swarming around his men. He led the charge, billy stick in hand, that carried him into the waiting arms of huge Ben King who pinioned the older man's flailing arms until he saw Baker leap back to the floor from the platform.

Calhoun was trying hard to maintain some semblance of order from the stage when Abul Menka ripped the microphone from the wall sockets and wrenched the instrument itself from Calhoun's hands and dropped it roughly to the floor.

Baker had started a chant of ‘Hell no! We won't go!’ that swept through the entire audience until it was as though one thunderous voice was shouting the words in unison and pointing at the retreating figure of the president. Reporters at the front exit were pushed to the ground and cameras purposefully torn from their shoulders and smashed to the floor.

The security force formed a wall to protect Calhoun's way
through the back exit. The crowd of a thousand students pushed its way out of the auditorium and continued the chant on the sidewalks, in the street, and across the oval.

The three SGA representatives became separated briefly during the surge out of the building, but found themselves staring dumbly at the procession led by Ralph Baker that cut a trail directly across campus to the door of Sutton Hall where the chanting continued.

‘The wimmin hangin’ tight wit’ that SNCC shit, ain’ they?’ Odds asked. ‘Out here leadin’ the damn revolution. Need to have they asses kicked so they go the hell inside!’

‘They've got to leave. We have to protect them from the cops.’ Earl breathed heavily. ‘Le's git the car an’ put the speaker on it. We can direct dudes to stay if they wanna but we need to git the wimmin outta here.’

‘Calhoun gonna call the man?’ Odds asked.

‘You bet'cho balls he is,’ Earl asserted. ‘Le's go!’

The three men started off at a trot angling away from the crowd forming at Sutton Hall. They were going to get a small, portable public address system that Earl had used during his campaign to solicit votes. It had been taken from Earl's car and stored over the summer months in a back closet in the Student Government office.

‘You think they gonna leave?’ Odds asked, wiping a handkerchief across his nose.

‘We gotta do a convincin’ job,’ Earl said. ‘Remind people of Jackson State an’ Kent State, things like that.’

‘I ain’ anxious to stay an’ get shot either,’ Odds admitted.

‘Better leave with everybody else, then,’ Earl said, pulling up in front of Carver Hall and fishing for his office keys.

‘This is gonna be the split,’ Lawman said, glancing back over his shouder.

‘What split?’

‘MJUMBE tellin’ everybody to stay. You tellin’ people to go.’

‘I'm jus’ tellin’ wimmin to go,’ Earl snorted irritably. ‘I ain’ askin’ none a the nigguhs to leave.’

‘If you think you can ride aroun’ here loudspeakin’ about Kent State an’ Jackson State an’ Orangeburg without niggers flyin’ you must be crazy.’

‘Malcolm said it wuz a new Negro,’ Odds laughed.

‘There's some new ones,’ Lawman agreed, ‘but it's a whole lotta ol’ ones too . . . Earl, if you tell people to leave you gonna be cuttin’ off yo’ own nose,’ Lawman pleaded. ‘Who in hell you think Calhoun is after? You an’ MJUMBE, thass who. If the students leave you as good as finished here.’

Earl managed to get the door open. ‘I know,’ he said softly, continuing into the back of the office. ‘But I gotta do what I think is right. Don't I? How can I ask people to follow me if I'm leadin’ ‘um to Bull Run jus’ to save my own ass?’

‘This may not be Bull Run,’ Lawman argued.

‘But it might be Jackson State revisited,’ the SGA president offered.

Odds picked up the connecting wires from the public address system. He took a long look at Lawman and shrugged. Then the two men followed Earl out of the door.

The green Oldsmobile was in the Carver Hall parking lot directly next to the old science hall. Odds scooted in under the wheel and started connecting the sound equipment. Lawman and Earl watched what resembled a congregation of ants standing in front of the Administration Building on the opposite side of the oval. They could still hear many of the students shouting. Others stood in smaller groups watching the windows of Sutton Hall and talking among themselves. Security guards blocked the entrance to the building itself.

‘Somebody gon’ shoot them fuckin’ F Troopers,’ Lawman reasoned.

‘I wouldn’ be surprised,’ Earl admitted.

‘Ready,’ Odds said.

The three men rolled away from the lot, Odds behind the wheel and Lawman in the back seat. When the car made its first turn around the oval in front of the congregated demonstrators Earl began: ‘This is Earl Thomas,
president of the Student Government Association. We are asking that all female students leave Sutton University as has been proposed by the administration. We are making money available from our emergency fund for transportation and for phone calls and telegrams. We ask nothing of the male students, but we ask that all women co-operate. This is not a question of politics. This is a question of safety and I feel that my office has no way to offer protection to the women of the community. Need I remind Black people of what happened at Jackson State when devil policemen fired into a women's dormitory? Need I remind Black people of the slaughter of the four students at Orangeburg? Need I remind Black people of the treatment we have always received from the devil law officers in America? Brothers, our first responsibility is to the women on campus and we must not ask them to risk their lives . . . Sisters, please go home.’

The chanting had subsided as students watched the green auto cruise around the oval.

‘This is Earl Thomas . . .’

MJUMBE continued chanting at the door of Sutton Hall hoping to overcome the damper that Earl had put on its demonstration. As if on cue a police siren was heard wailing in the background. Many of the men stayed to save face with their friends, but women slipped quietly away. Earl continued his broadcast and was not only heard, but listened to. Teachers and administrators nodded silently.

‘But baby, there ain’ rilly nuthin’ like that goin’ on, is there?’ a tall male student wearing a Sigma sweat shirt was asking a coed.

‘Not now,’ she admitted, speeding up her exit toward the dorm.

‘Thomas is jus’ a jive-ass Uncle Tom,’ the fraternity man continued. ‘I been tellin’ you that for the longes’ time.’

‘Maybe,’ the girl admitted walking faster. ‘I don’ know.’

And so it went all over campus. Men talked freely and loudly
about the stands that they would make and complained about their ‘Uncle Tom’ Student Government president who was chasing their women away. But still coeds made hasty plans to leave Sutton University, Sutton, Va.

26

Lying in Wait

Angela Rodgers sat nervously in front of her television set waiting for the six o'clock news. She had received only enough information from a girlfriend who attended Sutton to set her nerves on end.

When she called Earl's home and got nothing but more questions from Mrs Gilliam, who had not seen Earl since seven thirty that morning, a call to the Student Government office put her in touch with Earl's secretary. Sheila Gibson explained that Odds had gotten her away from her luggage to man the SGA telephones. Earl, she said, had been last seen driving around the oval asking women to go home. That had been an hour ago.

The assurance that Earl had been all right up until five o'clock set Angie's nerves at ease for a moment. Then a radio report informing her that police were conferring with the university president put her on tenterhooks again.

‘Good evening. In tonight's WSVA headlines Sutton University is closed until November first. We'll have the details on this and other stories making today's Big Six news in just a moment.’ The minute seemed to stretch over a week before the deadpan face of the newscaster reappeared on the small screen.

‘At Sutton University this afternoon university president, Ogden Calhoun, stated that he has decided to close the school until a readmission program is instituted on October fifteenth. Calhoun stated that the reason for closing the school was based on thirteen non-negotiable demands placed before him at ten o'clock last evening. He says that it was demanded that he reply by noon today and that his answers brought on a student strike called for by the Student Government Association
and an unauthorized campus political organization known as MJUMBE. Earl Thomas, the Student Government president, was unavailable for comment, but Big Six reporter Larry Herman was on hand for Calhoun's five o'clock announcement which brought on a near-riot at the eighty-seven-year-old institution. For that report we switch you to Larry Herman at Sutton University.’

The scene changed to a younger reporter standing in the middle of the oval path with perhaps one hundred or more male students in the background standing in front of Sutton Hall.

‘Behind us you see the remaining demonstrators after almost one thousand students congregated to protest the closing of Sutton University by university president Ogden Calhoun who said and I quote: “I have decided to close Sutton University until such time as the university can institute a readmission program to make sure that the community is able to function at one hundred per cent efficiency.” The demonstration here at Sutton Hall came after five students in dashikis took over the stage and microphone following Calhoun's announcement. The leader of this group called MJUMBE, Ralph Baker, a senior football player, urged students not to leave the campus saying that students at Sutton would never achieve their goals if they allowed Calhoun to close the school. The students then shouted: “Hell no! We won't go!” and marched on this site you now see in the background. The demonstration continued until a car driven by members of the Student Government Association toured the campus with a public address system urging female students to go home. We are waiting now for a statement from Ogden Calhoun and Police Chief Michael Connors who have been conferring somewhere on campus for over half an hour now. Larry Herman. Big Six News.’

‘On other campuses nationally . . .’

Angela turned off the television and sank back into the sofa. She ran long, slim fingers through her short natural hair and started to remove her earrings. She suddenly realized that she
hadn't changed her clothes since she had arrived home from the office or even thought of Bobby's dinner. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the four year old's running down the stairs from his bedroom.

‘Mommy? When we gonna eat?’ the youngster asked.

Angie reached out and pulled his cowboy hat over his eyes.

‘Soon. Mommy's had a lot of things on her mind. Why don't you go out an’ play with Peanut?’

‘'Cause Peanut's eatin’ his dinner,’ Bobby replied. ‘Is Uhl comin’ to eat dinner?’

‘I haven't seen
Uhl
today,’ Angie said, starting to slip out of her dress.

‘Mommy? You gonna marry Uhl, Mama?’

‘I know a certain little cowboy who's gonna get scalped,’ Angie said smiling at her son. Bobby ran behind the sofa and laughed heartily. Angie made a gesture as though she would chase him and he scampered to safety up the stairs.

Angie thought seriously about her son's question all through the preparation of dinner. She rarely liked to think about the implications of her relationship with Earl although she was sure that she loved him and that he loved her. She was more than a little bit nervous and afraid to give herself totally. She wondered sometimes if it wasn't an unbreakable wall of suspicion that she had built up around herself. It always seemed as though, real or unreal, someone was taking from her and she wasn't getting anything back. Often she felt empty after she quarreled with Earl. Even when she felt that she had been right during an argument she felt that he walked away with a piece of her inside of him.

She heard the shrill toot of the toy train that Earl had bought Bobby for his birthday. Bobby was a blessing. For a while he had been all that had kept her going. She couldn't imagine facing the house without him; without the echo of his laughter in the yard as he ran and ripped with the young boy from next door; without the big grin on his face when he
had been doing something that he had no business doing. He was the spitting image of his father. Round head with curly hair, dark brown eyes planted carefully in a caramel face like the pieces of coal on a snowman, large grin and even teeth. Bobby indeed was a blessing.

Earl was a blessing too. He had completely changed her life. In his own way he had given new shape and strength to her life. She had taken pains to explain her family situation to him over dinner on their first date. She suspected that he wouldn't be interested in her any more and considered that unfortunate because she had such a wonderful, natural time with him, laughing and talking as though they were long-time friends. He had surprised her by approaching her during lunch the following day and asking for a second date, which she had happily arranged.

They met in midtown on the following Saturday. Saturday was always her shopping day and Bobby usually spent the afternoon with Peanut, the youngster next door. Angie picked up the few articles that she had in mind for Bobby before meeting Earl and taking in a movie. After the show he had driven her to the shopping mall and helped her select the groceries and then had taken her home.

Earl and Bobby hit it off like old friends. Earl was up-to-date on Batman, Gunslinger and Mighty Mouse, to name only a few of Bobby's favorites. Angie had commented that apparently Earl spent as much of his Saturday morning in front of a television as the four-year-old.

Earl and Angie began to see each other regularly. She began to feel he was what had been missing in her life during her self-imposed isolation after Bobby's father had left her. She began to realize that all the frustration she had felt during that time was a result of her need for a strong, mature man. Earl Thomas was that type of man.

She also felt that Earl was good for Bobby. She had approached the situation of rearing Bobby with anxiety. As far as she was concerned all boys needed male figures to identify
with and the only question in her mind was how much Bobby would be hurt by the absence of a man in the house.

It had seemed as though the summer lasted only a few days because before Angie knew it Earl was back in school. She had been happy that he seemed so pleased with his summer earnings. He told her that he had never made as much before during a summer. He had also been offered a permanent opportunity at the factory, but he had turned it down to concentrate on his schoolwork and his duties as president of the Sutton Student Government Association.

Their lives had slid into a nice groove as far as Angie was concerned. No less than two or three nights a week, many times more often, Earl was at the house when she got home from work. She would cook for him and he would talk to her about the things that he was doing. That was more than important for Angie. It was necessary. Earl had opened her eyes to the fact that she was lost without a man and he had turned out to be the kind of man that she needed. She had come to depend on him to be there when she looked for him. And now there was trouble on Sutton's campus and Earl was neck-high in it. She felt helpless and frightened. She felt alone.