Point of Reckoning: Duke alum s book highlights history of desegregation, student activism at Duke dukechronicle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dukechronicle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Before the famed "First Five" Black undergraduate students enrolled at Duke University in the fall of 1963, the Board of Trustees took the first step toward desegregation with a decision years in the making.
Traditionally excluded from Duke’s predominantly white fraternities and sororities, it wasn’t until 11 years after being admitted on campus that Black students could find social outlets in the University’s Greek life scene. Now, 46 years later, Duke's NPHC is currently in a transition period.
In Its Quest to Become Anti-Racist, Duke Must Reckon With a Past That Echoes Into the Present
On the job training session at campus dining in 1947.
âCan Duke really become anti-racist?â
The question was emblazoned on the cover of the 2020 winter edition of the Duke University alumni magazine and probed with essays, feature stories, and text excerpts from podcastsâmostly responding to the larger racial reckoning that swept America following George Floydâs death.
Letters to the editor in the issue offered mixed reviews about the magazineâs coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests. But an incendiary letter submitted by Charles Philip Clutts, a 1961 Duke graduate, unleashed anger on social media. Clutts called the âconstant remindersâ of systemic racism âwearisomeâ and said Black men should marry, take care of their children, avoid drugs, stay out of jail, and realize that âacting white by studying is not a bad thing.â