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Richardson stands tall, alone at SOU
By
Sean Wolfe
Ask Southern Oregon University professor D. L. Richardson how he feels about being the sole full-time African-American professor on campus, and he'll tell you about his first job interview at the institution. "When I came to interview, I asked how many blacks were professors at the university, and they said 'none.' I thought it was a joke," Richardson said.
"As far as I know, I'm still the only one. But I don't think the university has tried to keep out minority professors. It just hasn't happened. Still, I'm glad to be here. They've welcomed me, and I think it's how we get students here - I think it's how we say that black students are welcome here." Richardson's comments come at a time when affirmative action is again under fire from the White House, and in a state where minorities are thin on the ground. In a nation that's 13 percent black, Oregon is less than 3 percent. Southern Oregon University's 2002-2003 enrollment numbers indicate that the campus has 46 African-American students, or 1 percent of the student body. Roughly 10 percent of the student body are ethnic minorities - with Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans making up the bulk of that number. While Richardson is not the sole African-American professor - two of the university's African-American administrative faculty also teach classes - his full-time status keeps him at the forefront of the university's slow march toward having a campus faculty that's in balance with state and national demographics. Richardson hails from Selma, Ala., a city that arguably became the primary salient for the civil rights movement. He is one of two assistant professors at SOU's communication department, and got his masters in communication arts from the University of Montevallo, Ala. where he also took his bachelor's. His doctorate in communication from the University of Alabama is pending his dissertation. Part of that dissertation is his book on the influential black journalist and civil rights leader Emory Jackson - editor of the Birmingham World Armed. With the working title of "The Weight of the World" and slated for completion in the next 18 months, Richardson holds in his book that without the influence of Jackson, the sweeping effects of Dr. Martin Luther King's efforts would not have been as far-reaching. Richardson said his book combines his love of journalism and civil rights. "When you look at the key figures in the civil rights movement, certain names keep coming up. And it was Emory that counseled King on some of the better things to do. In that way, he was a kingmaker - and I don't mean that as a pun," Richardson said. "What made him so special was that there were other black newspapers, but they didn't get into altercations with local governments. Emory didn't care. He got into it with everyone - even King." Today, Richardson will take a break from working on his book to attend SOU's noon service honoring the work of Martin Luther King. "Normally, I try to do a little bit on the book everyday. Today, I'm going to take it off to pay my respects," Richardson said. Emory Jackson became the managing editor of the Birmingham World in 1943, and he remained editor until his death in 1975. In that post, Jackson promoted voter registration, equal job opportunities and education for African Americans, and served on many boards and agencies, including Birmingham's Industrial Development Board. Jackson consistently championed civil rights in Alabama. He wrote hundreds of front page stories on the movement, and used his column, "The Tip-Off," to rail against Jim Crow, champion the NAACP, register blacks to vote, and encourage interracial committees to continue their work against segregation. The editor also repeatedly confronted Birmingham police commissioner "Bull" Connor with vivid accounts of brutality perpetrated by his officers. Connor swore he would run Jackson out of town, but failed. Only prostate cancer was able to dislodge Jackson from his post. The Birmingham World's current editor Joe Dixon wrote that Jackson was the man who defined the paper, and brought the paper its reputation as the leading black newspaper in the country. "Emory Jackson was a man that really brought this paper to where it is. He did the voting rights, he challenged Bull Connor all the way to the segregated law. He dealt with no black officers, no black firemen. Emory Jackson and this newspaper led the fight. In addition to what he did in the city of Birmingham, Emory would leave at night and go into the black belt areas and other areas of this state. He would train other blacks in the methods of getting blacks registered to vote," Dixon wrote. According to Richardson, his research into Jackson indicates that the editor was more instrumental to the civil rights movement, and to Dr. King personally, than previously thought. "King knew the power of the press. He wouldn't make a move without them. When he would appear, he made sure the press was there with him. King said 'we need the press,' and Jackson made sure that King was taken care of," Richardson said. "What I teach in my civil rights class today, I teach how those brave people used the press as a pawn. The civil rights leaders set up different events to entice the papers to cover them. King said that the only way to get rid of evil was to expose that evil, and the only way was to get the press to come in and expose it for them. And from that you get the attacks on Connor, and all the rest," Richardson said. Richardson's views are echoed by other civil rights scholars, who also note the courage of a small group of Southern editors, Jackson included. In a 2001 speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, University of Maryland professor of journalism Eugene L. Roberts eulogized Jackson along with other influential editors during the civil rights years, arguing that a small group of two dozen editors supported integration in the South, and opposed the political currents of the times. "Let us remember, too, the editors of black weeklies like Emory Jackson of the Birmingham World in Alabama and Daisy Bates of the Arkansas State Press. They believed the time had come to end segregation in America. And they struggled fearlessly to hasten the end," Roberts said. "Think of the consequences if the Southern editors had not stood up and reached out to the rest of the nation, even at the risk of angering their readers and touching off reader and advertising boycotts. The gulf between the South and the rest of the nation might have grown wider … Instead, segregation came to an end and our nation entered into a period of reconciliation."
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