DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | University of Iowa black football players boycott newspaper articles, 1968-1969 | 1969-03-11 Daily Iowan Article: "Black Athletic Panel Probes Racial Problems"

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University of Iowa black football players boycott newspaper articles, 1968-1969

1969-03-11 Daily Iowan Article: "Black Athletic Panel Probes Racial Problems"

[handwritten]
DI March 11, 1969

Black Athletics Panel Probes Racial Problems
By KAREN GOOD

A discussion Monday night originally entitled "Physical Education: A Black Man's View," turned into a free-for-all on nationwide racial problems and the part the University should play in solving those problems.
Huston Breedlove, A4, Akron, Ohio, one of four black panelists at the discussion, told an audience of about 40 athletes, coaches, and physical education instructors in the Field House that black athletes could not and should not be expected to cope with the University atmosphere, because their background and culture were completely different from that of the white athletes on campus.
"If you put a white man in the Negro culture he would be dead in one hour," Breedlove said. "But black athletes are showing that they are superior individuals because they are able to condition themselves to the white society."
Breedlove, a former Hawkeye basketball player, said that he felt one of the basic problems with society was that white universities were trying to make white people out of black people.
Only in the last few years have some blacks begun to use their talents, after graduation from college, to go back to help their own people, Breedlove said.
Before, blacks accepted white society and became part of it, he said. "In effect, they were rejecting their own culture for the white society that the university had oriented them to."
Another panel member and organizer for the discussion, Bob Piper, G, Rayville, La., agreed with Breedlove and added that there were still very few blacks who wanted to go back to the ghetto to help their own people.
Breedlove, however, contended that the movement toward blacks helping each other is getting stronger. He said that many people consider the riots in many of the nation;s large cities and the demonstrations by black athletes distasteful.
"I don't think they are," Breedlove said. "I think that the people - the small minority of the blacks - who participate in the demonstrations and the riots are the ones who have the deepest insight into the problems of the black community.
"If black college students demonstrate to try to get an all black dorm, they aren't demonstrating for themselves, they're demonstrating for all the thousands and thousands of brothers who don't get the chance to demonstrate because they aren't in college.
"While I could progress as an individual - receive my college degree and go out and get a job - the only way I can really progress is if my people progress with me," he said. "The black community has to work together if it wants to get anywhere."
In a more formal session at the beginning of the evening's session two of the panelists, Dr. Edward Hicks, an assistant in the Department of Pathology, and George Miller, G Mullins, S.C., presented talks on the black communities' economic plight and the effects it had on black mortality.
Hicks blamed establishment institutions for setting up a system that was helpful to whites but did very little for blacks.
He said that, from the time of conception, a black person had much less chance than a white of surviving in the United States. He called for aiming public health facilities at the black community with the same intensity that they have been aimed at white society.
Miller, a preventive medicine student, talked of the undernutrition of the black community and went into the political aspects of the problem.
He said that society was "cursed" with what he termed a political parasite - a person who ignored the country's current situation entirely, lying and acting as if the black community did not exist.
Many southern senators are examples of just such parasites, Miller contended. "All of a sudden they are aware that there are underfed people in the United States," he said.

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[handwritten] DI March 11, 1969 Black Athletics Panel Probes Racial Problems By KAREN GOOD A discussion Monday night originally entitled "Physical Education: A Black Man's View," turned into a free-for-all on nationwide racial problems and the part the University should play in solving those problems. Huston Breedlove, A4, Akron, Ohio, one of four black panelists at the discussion, told an audience of about 40 athletes, coaches, and physical education instructors in the Field House that black athletes could not and should not be expected to cope with the University atmosphere, because their background and culture were completely different from that of the white athletes on campus. "If you put a white man in the Negro culture he would be dead in one hour," Breedlove said. "But black athletes are showing that they are superior individuals because they are able to condition themselves to the white society." Breedlove, a former Hawkeye basketball player, said that he felt one of the basic problems with society was that white universities were trying to make white people out of black people. Only in the last few years have some blacks begun to use their talents, after graduation from college, to go back to help their own people, Breedlove said. Before, blacks accepted white society and became part of it, he said. "In effect, they were rejecting their own culture for the white society that the university had oriented them to." Another panel member and organizer for the discussion, Bob Piper, G, Rayville, La., agreed with Breedlove and added that there were still very few blacks who wanted to go back to the ghetto to help their own people. Breedlove, however, contended that the movement toward blacks helping each other is getting stronger. He said that many people consider the riots in many of the nation;s large cities and the demonstrations by black athletes distasteful. "I don't think they are," Breedlove said. "I think that the people - the small minority of the blacks - who participate in the demonstrations and the riots are the ones who have the deepest insight into the problems of the black community. "If black college students demonstrate to try to get an all black dorm, they aren't demonstrating for themselves, they're demonstrating for all the thousands and thousands of brothers who don't get the chance to demonstrate because they aren't in college. "While I could progress as an individual - receive my college degree and go out and get a job - the only way I can really progress is if my people progress with me," he said. "The black community has to work together if it wants to get anywhere." In a more formal session at the beginning of the evening's session two of the panelists, Dr. Edward Hicks, an assistant in the Department of Pathology, and George Miller, G Mullins, S.C., presented talks on the black communities' economic plight and the effects it had on black mortality. Hicks blamed establishment institutions for setting up a system that was helpful to whites but did very little for blacks. He said that, from the time of conception, a black person had much less chance than a white of surviving in the United States. He called for aiming public health facilities at the black community with the same intensity that they have been aimed at white society. Miller, a preventive medicine student, talked of the undernutrition of the black community and went into the political aspects of the problem. He said that society was "cursed" with what he termed a political parasite - a person who ignored the country's current situation entirely, lying and acting as if the black community did not exist. Many southern senators are examples of just such parasites, Miller contended. "All of a sudden they are aware that there are underfed people in the United States," he said.