An Act Surprising: Meanwhile

 

On Friday afternoon while I was still at work. Mary Coral called me and said that if I wanted to participate in the action I should be ready at some hour (5:30 maybe) to be away for up to a week. I could bring my children or leave them with a designated baby sitter (Jo Andersen). We were to meet at Stonehenge (an old stone building near campus that had been a student coop for years) and someone would let us know what to do next. She offered a ride and we made arrangements on the spot. There was never any hesitation on my part. I am an activist, I acted.

Mary did not know what the action would be. She implied that whoever had called her had not known. They need to trust, then, came up very early, so much for that old paranoia. It was necessary to trust all the women at the inception, even though so many were unknown to me. Trust not only that they would not lead us into peril (people had been gunned down in the streets of Lawrence by off duty police just two years earlier) but also trust that these actions would be effective.

All I had was my body; all I had to put on the line was myself and my life. Because it was the right thing to do, because the women were as important as the result, because I had so little to lose this is why I went. At such times I generally remind myself of Stokely Carmichael's truth: Freedom is in the struggle.

MEANWHILE
On Thursday, I was excited and full of energy. Lots of people around campus were talking about the speech. Lots of work room discourse arose from the ideas Robin had voiced. I doubt that I spent much in between time wondering what was afoot. As I left the inception Wednesday night, I knew that something would actually happen. I really didn't know what it might be and assumed that if I needed to know it would be revealed.

I don't remember what I did on Thursday night, probably went to bed early.

However, all Thursday from midnight to midnight sisters were working, thinking, planning, gathering. Hundreds of women were busy while I entered information about the journal collection at the library into the computer. Dozens of women went without sleep for two nights running. I was not aware of any of this.

There was a group who was picking the location and planning how to use it and how to secure it. Another group was studying the issues and writing the demands. Still another was working on strategy, how to inform the administration, how to get word to the public and the press. Others were gathering food - for forty people for a week. And, of course, typing and copying, typing and copying. I am afraid that even to this day, I do not know all the jobs that were done or the number of women it took to accomplish them. Women worked all day Thursday and into the morning hours of Friday. They worked during the day Friday. I would love to know how many of us there really are.

I do not know the composition of these groups. I assume that the majority were students. But faculty and staff had to have been involved. And several faculty wives were involved. How many, how much - still a mystery to me. Perhaps these women too will tell their stories and the mystery will begin to reveal itself.

Late Friday afternoon, the university administration called a press conference and announced the creation of an Affirmative Action Office. I was not at the press conference. I looked for the announcement in the student and city papers on Saturday and Monday mornings but the news was dimmed and shut out by the sisters taking affirmative action.

It turned out to be a very effective Affirmative Action Office - at least while I was still in Lawrence - so it is too bad that it didn't get the attention of the press. Guess they should have done it the week before.

I did not hear of the announcement until we were waiting at Stonehenge. At the time there were people who said that the administration had hurried the creation and the announcement as a bone thrown to the women to prevent them from taking rumored action. I have worked for the state of Kansas of and on for nearly 20 years and have worked for other government offices. I do not currently b3lieve that the bureaucracy is capable of hurriedly putting together an entire Affirmative Action Plan in 2 days. They may have been capable of moving up the announcement a few days not even that is iffy. I do think that the university was finally ready to announce the plan. There was a federal mandate for it, after all. It is possible that the administration chose Elizabeth in lieu of some very nice and worthy black professor. But I think they weren't paying enough attention to what women, particularly student women, were doing to arrange a diversion.

I merely left work a little early and began to pack clothes, toys and bedding. It was hard to prepare for an unknown destination and unimagined circumstances. Since the instruction were only clothes for a week. Occupation seemed a real possibility. The children too prepared themselves without hesitation. With a quick dinner we were off on a mysterious adventure. The children each carried a bag - mostly toys and I carried one with everyone's clothes. Blankets were thrown over the arm. Mary's husband, Michael, drove the three of us and Mary to Stonehenge and wished us luck.