Allen Ginsberg at Memorial Union Terrace, 1972, photo by Duane Hopp (Image #S01117)
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
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Allen Ginsberg at Memorial Union Terrace, 1972, photo by Duane Hopp (Image #S01117)
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Welcome Week Tailgate Party, 1991 (Image #S17486)
Jeff Miller snapped this shot of Tony Mastacci, T. Dickens, and Sung Chang as they enjoyed barbecue fare.
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
The “High Priestess of Anarchy” Descends on Wisconsin: Emma Goldman at UW-Madison
Site of the Controversial Roundtable: The Old YMCA Building (Image #S03085)
In late January 1910, UW-Madison students hosted a guest speaker who would quickly embroil the campus in controversy: Emma Goldman. Carl Hookstadt, president of the Socialist Club, had met Goldman’s manager in downtown Madison after seeing her post flyers for Goldman’s public talks on the 26th and 27th. Recognizing an opportunity to meet the famed anarchist, he asked the manager if Goldman would speak among students at a small roundtable at the YMCA at 4 p.m. on the 26th. She agreed. No flyers were posted for the roundtable, but students assembled based on word of mouth.
Meanwhile, on his way to class on the 26th, professor Edward Alsworth Ross had seen “a lady going along the street tearing down the posters announcing Miss Goldman’s lecture.” As the day progressed, what he saw increasingly troubled him. Later, during a lecture, he stopped to reflect on what he’d seen earlier. Interrupting himself during remarks on “Herbert Spencer’s theory that government is rooted in force and consists in coercion,” he stopped to say, “I am told that some lady in Madison has been tearing down the posters announcing Miss Goldman’s lecture. Now I take no stock in philosophical anarchism, but I do believe in the principle of free speech. For this reason and no other I wish to state to you that Miss Goldman speaks this evening at eight o’clock in the Knights of Pythias Hall.” Then he resumed his lecture.
According Merle Curti and Vernon Carstensen (The University of Wisconsin: A History, 1949), Ross himself did not attend the lecture or roundtable. Still, he did invite Goldman on an informal tour of the campus the following day.
Professor E. A. Ross (Image #S10904)
Fewer than 20 students would attend the informal gathering. But that would hardly stop local and state press from seizing on the event and generating controversy from it. Days later, The Loyal Tribune (Loyal, WI) ran with the following series of subtitles under its article announcing the visit:
EMMA GOLDMAN SAYS WISCONSIN SCHOOL CONTAINS MANY ANARCHISTS SOME PROFESSORS FAVOR CULT Woman Leader Declares That Believers Are Numerous Among All Student Bodies ORIENTALS HEAR TENETS
The editors of the Brown County Democrat (De Pere, WI) also sounded the alarm. Their editorial referred to Goldman as the “high priestess of anarchy,” and criticized the University for allowing the YMCA to become her temporary temple. Nearly identical sentiments appeared in the Wausau Daily:
Money raised by taxing the citizens of Wisconsin was employed to buy the very table at which stood this notorious female red and about which was grouped the brood of budding anarchists and their socialistic preceptors of the faculty, all doubtless hanging with breathless interest upon the words of this evil, revolutionary spirit.
President Van Hise and other university officials quickly moved to defer responsibility for the controversial appearance. He reminded her critics that the university had not invited her to speak, nor had the campus hosted her appearance. “None of the university authorities have taken any action which can fairly be construed as approving Miss Goldman’s doctrines,” he concluded. Van Hise added that the one professor who had publicly advertised her talk had subsequently laid out “the fallacies of philosophic anarchism,” as if to preemptively discredit Goldman.
President Charles Van Hise (Image #S08081)
A week later, the La Crosse Tribune dismissed the affair as a “harmless, inconsequent incident” in an article titled “much ado about nothing” (Feb 4, 1910). The Milwaukee Journal agreed, calling the whole thing “a foolish hullaballoo” on Feb 10. It even conceded, “she was treated with courtesy, which is the right of anyone visiting a state university.” The article concluded on a note of confidence in the power of the American people to resist her doctrines: “The enlightened people of America have nothing to fear from Emma Goldman. She is the product of another and different country and of its conditions.” The Evansville Sentinel and the Waukesha Freeman would republish these statements.
By March 2, the Board of Visitors issued its own formal report on the “Goldman Incident.” In preparation for its report, members of the Board of Visitors investigated all newspaper claims, met with students and faculty, examined “courses of study” within the department of political science, and assessed the scholarship of professors involved in the “incident.” It concluded that the press had abounded with “erronious [sic] statements.” (That said, its own report was riddled with erroneous spelling mistakes… College education only goes so far!) The report subsequently laid out 5 numbered points establishing its authors’ findings. The authors confirmed that the university had not extended the invitation, nor had it directed any funds to the event in any way. The professor (Ross) who had supposedly advertised her talk did not deny doing so, but defended the principle of free speech. The Board read Ross’s books and confirmed that “[they] contain the clearest presentation of the necessity for government and for the preservation of the institutions of existing society.” In other words, he was no anarchist!
UW-President Van Hise with Teddy Roosevelt (Image #08042)
But Ross wasn’t totally off the hook with President Van Hise. Ross fielded a slew of impassioned letters from the president, meeting them with tepid but polite replies. Despite Ross’ concession that he would no longer do anything to further “embarrass” the university, he publicly spoke out against “the editor who uses his paper to air his prejudices,” implicitly targeting newspapers that had slandered his name for ulterior motives. Days later, he would again find himself in hot water with Van Hise over an unsanctioned lecture by Parker H. Sercombe on January 31. In the aftermath, president and professor exchanged a series of testy telegrams (Ross had inexplicably decamped to Canada). Nevertheless, Van Hise publicly defended Ross against “popular passion,” which had demanded “Ross must go!!” To this end, Van Hise cited his exceptional scholarship, even pointing to President Roosevelt’s favorable review of Ross’s book Sin and Society (1907) as “wholesome and sane.”
In a mere afternoon, Goldman had given rise to rivalries and dissensions within both the University and the state of Wisconsin at large. That said, no record remains of what she said that day at the YMCA! We are only left to wonder whether her words were as incendiary as her mere presence.
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Posted by Jillian Slaight for UW-Madison Archives
For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
My last UW-Archives post!
Sunbathers, c. 1965 (Image #S08337)
Here’s to hoping some of these gals were wearing sunscreen…
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Carson Gulley: Beyond the Kitchen
Many are familiar with Carson Gulley as the acclaimed head chef of UW-Madison Division of University Housing, or as a local WHA Television personality. (Even if you haven’t heard his name before, you might be familiar with his fudge bottom pie…) But what did Gulley like to do when the chef hat came off? As these family photos suggest (Images #S17356-17361), the man clearly loved to fish. He also enjoyed snapping photos of his wife, Beatrice.
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
One of my favorite figures in UW-Madison history!
College Sweethearts Sit on Fallen Elm (Image #S17384)
On May 5, 1950, strong winds downed an historic elm whose leaves had shaded students for a full century. While its trunk would eventually be conserved in various forms (including a coffee table for E. B. Fred), its memory meant something particular to the undergrads pictured here: Yvonne Evans (BS ‘53) and James A. Dyer (’54). The two Badgers would wed just a few years after sharing this moment on the newly fallen elm.
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Glad that they decided to preserve parts of the tree, but pictures of EB Fred’s coffee table make it look kinda shoddily constructed. Sigh.
On This Day: May 12, 1917
On this day, nearly 100 years ago, Madisonians waved goodbye to the men who marched through town, packed onto trains, and made their way to Fort Sheridan.
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Lecture on Moby Dick, 1963 (Images #S14843 & S14842)
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Campus Racism & Responses: The Slave Auction Incident
The recent arrest of a UW-Madison student has provoked controversy and raised allegations of campus administration’s inaction against racism. Such backlash is hardly new. It forms part of a longer story about friction between students, staff, faculty, and administration about the appropriate response to expressions of racist ideology and the most effective means of fostering a positive educational environment for all students. Those frictions placed UW in the national spotlight in the fall of 1988 when a fraternity hosted a fundraiser whose theme shocked and disgusted members within and beyond the community: a slave auction. Not only had guests appeared in blackface and racialized costumes, but offensive language and themes had figured prominently in the event’s activities. What’s more, the entire event was immortalized on a set of videotapes.
As the New York Times would later report, campus fraternities had hosted similarly insensitive parties in years prior. In his history of blackface, John Strausbaugh mentions one “Harlem-themed party, complete with fried chicken and watermelon” thrown in 1986. Although similar events prompted disciplinary responses, none resulted in mass protests and calls for change across campus. Why? Perhaps campus climate seemed too inhospitable - even in the late 1980s - to make moves against student groups that targeted racial minorities. But by 1988, students’ patience had worn thin.
Zeta Beta Tau’s apology to the community met with a tepid response, its authenticity tempered by the fraternity’s initial refusal to release the videotapes of the event. Meanwhile, community members mobilized in protest, both to condemn the group and raise awareness of broader issues of racism on campus.
At the time, Roger Howard, Associate Dean of Students, surmised that racial incidents were no more prevalent than before, but that “our community is becoming less tolerant of behavior that has largely gone unreported, that has been a fact of life for… minorities in most U.S. communities for some time.” Students agreed: A piece in that year’s Badger yearbook (“Dreams Deferred” by Jordan Marsh) commented that recent events had given whites in Madison “some inkling of what people of color had been going through for years in this liberal town of ours.”
After suspending the organization, the University scrambled to assemble a student-faculty committee to investigate the incident and coordinate a response. However a November 15 news release stated that “the student-led committee investigating the incident” decided that however offensive its actions, the fraternity “did not violate any university rules.” Other students were clearly in disagreement. The Wisconsin Student Association spoke out, stating that “the fraternity was no longer welcome on campus.” Likewise, the head of the campus Minority Coalition condemned the University committee’s “weak and ineffective response.” (The group had already organized protests at Bascom Hall.) One student expressed the frustration felt by many students of color at that time: “There must be something we can do. But don’t patronize me because my dignity is at stake and my safety is at stake.”
In a subsequent statement, Chancellor Donna Shalala defended due process and accepted the committee’s decision that Zeta Beta Tau had broken no university policy. But she also suggested university policy required revision in the wake of this event. The university’s subsequent policy-based approach to changing the racial climate on campus would be fraught from the outset. That winter, Shalala spearheaded efforts to devise a new “speech code.” The resultant policy issued penalties for “racist or discriminatory comments, epithets or expressive behavior” that “create an intimidating, hostile or demeaning environment for education.” It was approved by the Regents in June 1989, but met with opposition soon thereafter. By 1990, the new policy faced a legal challenge from the Wisconsin ACLU on the grounds that it constrained constitutional rights to free expression. Meanwhile, individual students found guilty of infractions against the code also took it to court - and won. In response, Shalala returned to the proverbial drawing board, producing a new code by 1992. However the threat of legal action quashed the new code before it was ever enacted. (See Alan Kors’ book for a deeper discussion of the legal controversy.)
In the years following 1988, campus administrators learned the hard way that speech policy would not resolve racism on campus. Administrations since have continued to wrangle with the question of how best to penalize racist ideology, protect its victims, and prevent its future occurrence. One thing is clear: through campus history, protest has functioned as a crucial response to racism and instrument of change. Where speech policies have failed, public demonstrations of solidarity have proven empowering.
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Jillian Slaight for UW-Madison Archives
For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
My latest
Balancing on the Bridge (Image #S16965)
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
“Muhammad Ali speaks on… The Black Muslim’s Solution to Racism” (Image #S17307)
Forty-eight years ago, students walking to and from their classes might have eyed this flyer announcing an April 26 speaking appearance by Muhammad Ali. Without doubt, some of the students in his audience would go on to participate in the Black Student Strike of February 1969, the culmination of student frustrations with the failure of UW administration to address racism on campus .
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Good Times at Memorial Union Terrace (Images #S00142 & S05048)
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Scenes of Madison: Diner Counters (Images #S17271 & S00083)
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Feeling nostalgic for diner counters this week...
UW-Madison Baseball’s Final Game
These photographs document the final game played by the UW-Madison Baseball team on May 9, 1991 (Images #S14797, S14798, S14801, S14804). As the 1992 Badger would later report, a budget deficit prompted the controversial decision to not only cap spending for several athletic programs, but to terminate others altogether: baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics, and men’s and women’s fencing. Several coaches reportedly chafed at the decision, which was approved by Chancellor Donna Shalala and Governor Tommy Thompson. One went so far as to characterize the cuts as a political ploy. Student athletes on the ill-fated teams felt the decision as a personal affront. As one gymnast put it, “The fact that we’re top quality students and top quality athletes doesn’t seem to matter. From what I understand, it’s all a matter of money.”
The baseball players who lost a 1-0 pitcher’s duel against Purdue on May 9, 1991 were thus doubly disappointed. Players and fans congregated on the field long after the game ended. “It was just something that I didn’t want to give up,” one player said later. Coach Steve Land likewise called it “the end of a great tradition.”
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Jillian Slaight for UW-Madison Archives
For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
“Studying” at Memorial Union Terrace (Images #S00267 & S00268)
Impatient for the Terrace to reopen? Us?
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Conversational German TV Course, May 1955 (Image #S17214)
These Clintonville ladies look like they’re having a grand old time learning German from home. “Danke,” UW Extension!
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Women’s Mechanic Class, May 1917, Photo by William Meuer (Images #S17220-17222)
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For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
Some of my favorite photos from the archives.