They Demanded Courageously

[00:00:00]

OVERLAY: “As a senior in high school, what were your plans after graduating?”

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HILL: My plans were to go to Jones Commercial College and become a court stenographer. My mother’s plans were that I would be going away to college or at least going to college. And at the time I was accepted at Vassar [College] until I discovered that it was all girls. So, I sent their check back to them saying, “Thank you very much, but I’m not going to an all-girls school.” I was accepted at The University of Chicago. And so, that was very cool, except my mother said, “Oh good, you can just take the bus to school and live at home because we live not too far from The University of Chicago.” So, that didn’t work for me. I was accepted at Howard University, and my mother said, “Great, but you realize we’re poor, so we won’t be able to send for you but once a year, so you’ll have to figure out where you’re going to live and what you’re going to do in between summer vacation and when school starts.” So, I didn’t want to be that far away from home for that long a period of time. And then finally there was Northwestern, and interestingly enough, growing up in Chicago, I never knew that there was anything past downtown Chicago. And so, consequently, when we got invited to Northwestern to come up for an interview, it was fascinating to drive along Lake Shore Drive past downtown Chicago and find this whole new world, this whole new community that was really at my back door. So, Northwestern offered me a decent financial aid package, with some stipulations, but the good news was I could take the ‘L’ [train] home. And so, I was far enough away from home to live on campus but close enough to be able to come home on my own when I needed to.

OVERLAY: “What was your experience like visiting Evanston for the first time?”

[00:03:15]

HILL: For me, it was like a fantasy world. It’s like who lives off the lake [laughs]? You know, who knew that there was another community off the lake? When we arrived, we got lost trying to find the registration in Bursar’s Office and ultimately asked people. Didn’t see a lot of Black people in downtown Evanston, but the white people here were very friendly in directing us to where we wanted to go. It was mother and I. So, that was an interesting time for me because living on the South Side of Chicago, Englewood High School was about 90% Black, about 8% Hispanic, and about 2% white. And so, being in an area that was dominated by all I could see was white culture, didn’t disturb me, but it was just an interesting take on the rest of the world, particularly the rest of the world in Chicago.

[00:00:00] OVERLAY: “What was your experience like in the Northwestern University Chicago Action Program (NUCAP)?” [00:07:13] HILL: When I was accepted to Northwestern, a part of the condition was that I would attend the NUCAP program which was Northwestern University Chicago Action Program. And the program was essentially designed to give inner-city students from Chicago a leg up on coming to Northwestern. So, initially, you were already kind of made to feel that you maybe weren’t quite good enough because now they have to have the special eight-week program for you to come on campus. You were going to live in the dorm, you were going to take classes. They were not going to be credit courses. But this was – we were told we were culturally deprived, and this was going to give us an opportunity to have a leg up when we started in the fall with other students. [00:08:16] HILL: At the time, again, given the tenuous civil rights, it was Black people didn’t have a culture, or the culture that they had was not equivalent to white culture. So, now you’re going to come into this environment that’s predominantly white, and we want to make sure that you at least have some of the experiences and some of the exposure that you’re going to be connected with by virtue of being Black on a white campus.

[00:10:35] HILL: We were assigned a counselor. And at the conclusion of the program, probably the thing that I distinctly remember the most was being told by one of the University professors that, “You’re not going to be successful at Northwestern,” based on what I had accomplished or what he perceived I had not accomplished during my summer in NUCAP. And I like was, I‘m not quite sure why that was said, but I went home from NUCAP being concerned that I was not going to be capable of being successful at Northwestern when I returned in the fall. 

[00:37:58] HILL: … that first encounter being told that I wasn’t going to be successful. So, when I got my undergraduate degree, I made a point of coming back to campus because this individual was now department chair at the University. So, he had leveraged up and moved up a level. But I made a point of visiting him and saying, “You may not remember me, but I was in NUCAP four years ago, and you were my counselor. And we had a conversation in which you told me that I would not be successful at Northwestern, so I just wanted to thank you and say thank you for pushing me to prove you wrong because I’m now graduating, and I’m graduating with a three point, whatever, whatever. But I just want to thank you because your lack of faith in me caused me to want to make a liar out of you. So, thank you so much.
[00:40:34] HILL: I had to go back. I had to go back and say, “Ta-da! Guess what?” And there are a couple of other things I could have thrown into his face, but I decided just pushing the degree accomplishments was going to be enough. Because, again, before I can – after six weeks, after a summer, you’ve determined, based on nothing, that I’m not going to be able to be successful in this august institution? No. So, in my conversation and communication with students, both the sorors that are on campus as well as students that we bring from the community to visit the campus, I tell that story to say to them, “Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot be successful here. Because it’s not so. It’s what you make of it, it’s what you do with it, it’s how you work the system. So, don’t let anybody else tell you different.

  [00:15:29] HILL: Well, one of the first things we did was we went to some of the rush parties. Again, as a group of young women, we were looking for something to help tie us together. And so, I went to at least three white rushes, and those of us who did that just kept saying, Eh, this is not quite what we were looking for. And when we attended the rushes, we were kind of made to feel that it was being done because that was an expectation but that you really weren’t going to be asked to be a part of that rush. So, coming from Chicago, coming from the South Side, coming from Englewood, had never really heard of Black fraternities and sororities. And so, the exposure to that, that there actually were groups out there of Black students who belonged to sororities and who had that bonding and that sisterhood and that whole thing, that was different from white sororities, was really just a wonderful aspect to college life that we hadn’t considered. I hadn’t considered before because I knew nothing about it and having that as an option.
When I came to Northwestern, I was really into music, and so, I joined the chamber choir [4]. It was nothing like the choir that I had been in for four years at Englewood High School. You know, it was music that I couldn’t relate to even though I went to, you know, to choir practice and just totally different from the musical experience that I had. So, I backed away from chamber choir because it was not related to what my experiences had been in terms of music. I’ve always been active in terms of extracurricular things and found that it was very limiting at the time at Northwestern because the cultural piece was so different, so different. So, but that, that helped push those grades up. And I ended up having a 2.5 which allowed me then to pledge and to be a part of the first chapter of AKA [Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority] on Northwestern’s campus. So, I’m a charter member of Gamma Chi Chapter from March 1, 1969.

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OVERLAY: “I could be kicked out of school for this, but that’s okay because my mother’s here, and she thinks I’m doing the right thing.”

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HILL: It was the realization that some things were happening on campus that just weren’t right. Women being harassed going to class. Professors giving you poor grades without any explanation. I mean, there were all these kind of subtle things that, again, goes back to that, you’re not going to be successful at Northwestern. I mean, that was kind of the theme. Let’s see if we can help you out be not successful at Northwestern. And so, there was some quiet rumblings that we were going to – the fact that, again, in terms of our roommate situation, we didn’t get a chance to select. If two or more of us gathered, then somebody else was coming up to say, “What are you all talking about? What are you all doing?” You know, there was, sort of, this overlay of we were doing something wrong. If five or six white students gathered, that was fine. If three or four black students gathered, someone was going to question what was happening, and what were you doing, and what were you saying, and what was that about? We had no location. We were scattered all over campus in terms of living in the dorms. We had our social activities, and again, those were housed in various and sundry places. But we didn’t have what we felt was kind of a connection, I think, in terms of being able to operate relative to our cultural needs because, of course, we were culturally deprived according to the NUCAP philosophy. And so, I think that those indicators were things that were bubbling under the surface.  
And so, we were kind of told we’re going to do something, and we were really kept in the dark. But we trusted the people who had been speaking up on our behalf. And that was, you know, Jim, and Eric, and Kathy, and a bunch of people. And we were just told to be prepared. Be prepared. And so, I remember being told, “You need to get some Vaseline because they may mace us. We don’t know what’s going to happen, just follow our lead.” And we didn’t know where we were going or what we were going to be doing, at least I didn’t. Now, some other people may have been more aware, but I knew that I wasn’t going to let my friends go or do anything without me. So, that stealth, because that’s what it was in the middle of the night, that stealth kind of anticipation of something that we didn’t know what was going to happen. We did know that we were going to try to get the University to sit up and take notice. That was probably the most that I remember about the whole process. You know, sneaking across campus, and going into a place, and having the doors locked. And when I got inside the Bursar’s Office, all I could think of is, My mother’s going to kill me. Because she did not send me to school to be locked up in the Bursar’s Office, you know, not working on those grades that I had not done so well with the first semester, and I’m going to be in big trouble. 

[00:28:25]

HILL: My mother was such that once she heard about it, she, of course, came to Evanston as would be her want. And what we found was that the Evanston community and parents were so supportive. She was one of the parents that went to the [University] president’s office when they had a group that went to meet about what was happening. So, she was very supportive and all in favor of it, and which, probably just of all things, threw me for a loop. The fact that this was okay, and yes, you do need to stand up for yourself, and that’s what I taught you to do, and if this is the way it’s going to happen, then I’m going to be there, and I’m going to stand up with you. And so, that made it all right and made it all okay. 

OVERLAY: “When did you realize the gravity of the Bursar’s Office Takeover?”

[00:30:45]

HILL: I think I realized that the day that the truck pulled up that was stuffed with things that the community had contributed to help us, food and blankets. And that there was a crowd outside, and we still had to stay away from the windows, and that this was being televised on TV, and national. And I mean, those were the things that, for me, really highlighted and emphasized that this, this is more than just a little sit in. This has larger implications. I could be kicked out of school for this, but that’s okay because my mother’s here, and she thinks I’m doing the right thing.

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OVERLAY: “How does knowing that students are still protesting for similar reasons make you feel?

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HILL: Proud and sad, but to me it’s the way of the country [laughs]. It’s the way of the United States. But proud from the perspective that students are still willing to stand up, and to speak, and to be heard, and to take it to the top. And again, kind of cut down on the middle man. Let’s talk to the people who can make some decisions. Sad in that a lot of it is history repeating itself. When I hear from my sorors, my undergraduate sorors, some of the kinds of things that continue to happen. Disappointed in the University from the perspective of when you look statistically at the number of Black students that came in 1967 with me that the numbers have not significantly increased which was one of the things that we had asked for as a part of the protest. And that the University played a shell game and that they brought in minority students from other minority groups, and that increased their minority enrollment, but it really didn’t address the issue of Black students. You have more Hispanics, you have Asian students now being counted as a part of the minority. So, percentage-wise, it may look like Northwestern has improved the number of minority students, and they have, but they have not improved on the number of African American students. Again, which was one of our concerns. So, from that standpoint, recognizing the struggle is real, the fight continues. But again, to me, it reflects what’s happening in America.

[00:45:36]

SEALS: What do you think the administration is missing or misunderstanding about the Black students? Back in 1968, they didn’t know what they were doing then, and still the protests are still going on today and they don’t know. What do you think, in your opinion, that the administration is missing or mishandling, I guess, with Black students on their campus? 

HILL: It’s a band-aid approach.

SEALS: What is a band-aid approach?

HILL: Rather than fixing the, you know – one of the components was integrating the Black community into the University community. And I don’t think that that’s happened fully in terms of student governance, you know, coming to the table, being a part of discussion. I think that it’s giving lip service and not any real meat to it. So, yes, you have Black studies program, but if you look at the turnover of the people who’ve been a part of the Black studies program, if you look at the turnover of the number of University professors or staff, it’s pretty staggering, I think. And again, my impression is based on having been on campus with the sorority for four years and watching and hearing, well so and so used to being in charge of such and so, and they’re not here anymore, and now they brought somebody else in, and then they’re here for a year or two years, and then they’re gone. And so, that lack of consistency in terms of the voice of the Black community here on campus, I think is woefully missing. And that the University is sort of like, again, kind of giving lip service and not really serious about incorporating thoughts, and ideas, and considerations. And that the Black community now has been lumped with the whole minority population issue.

OVERLAY: “What do you think about the proposed changes to the Black House, a building that you were a part of establishing?”

[00:41:43]

HILL: I think one of the things that happens when you have transition in leadership and administration is that new people come in, and they don’t have the background, they don’t have the backdrop. And so, they take a look at what they see on the surface and think, ah, here’s an opportunity for us to make some changes without investigating how this came to be. Because I think, seriously, if the University went back in retrospect and looked at that history, then there would not have been as much push to change the Black House and the Black House location. So, I think someone didn’t do their homework, number one. Number two, it really caused people to be up in arms, again. Those of us who have contributed to the University, who still come back to the University say, Uhn uhn. We worked too hard. We were too scared to let this – to let you all just kind of sweep this under the rug and to the side and do something different than what you promised because this is what you promised us.