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Mixture of Memories for BAR Bently Renwick '66 held back tears as he spoke, pride rushing forth. Renwick, a former associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, returned to UNC in 1969 as a student recruiter, when fewer than 70 black students attended the school. Within four years, UNC's black student population had increased to more than 800. As part of his recruiting process, Renwick developed UNC's Minority Academic Advancement Program. "I rededicated my life to helping those students," Renwick said, unable to suppress his emotion. "These were the kinds of things I felt were dear to me." Thanks to the groundwork of individuals such as Renwick, the number of black students attending UNC has continued to increase every year. According to a new survey conducted by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, UNC topped the nation's elite universities for the second consecutive year with the highest percentage of black freshmen enrolled this fall. The annual study noted that black students comprise more than 12 percent of Carolina's first-year class. Speaking about memories and traditions that have enriched the black experience at UNC, a panel of six black alumni addressed about 50 people who gathered in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on Nov. 10 for "Celebrating 20 Years: 'The African-American Experience,'" part of the Black Alumni Reunion's 20th anniversary weekend. Closing remarks were given by Chancellor James Moeser, who expressed his strong commitment to diversity at UNC.
The enrichment panel was moderated by Rosalind Fuse-Hall '80 and included Eloise Crowder Beech, wife of UNC's first black graduate, Harvey Elliot Beech '52 (LLB); Renwick; Herbert Davis '73 (MS), associate director of undergraduate admissions; Angela Bryant '73, a member of the UNC System Board of Governors; Johnnie Southerland '81; and Reyna Walters '99, the first black woman at UNC to serve as student body president. The panelists, three of whom—Davis, Bryant and Southerland—have multiple UNC degrees, spoke about their experiences at Carolina through the years and how they impacted the black community during their respective times in Chapel Hill. Davis has been at the heart of the change to boost the numbers of black students on campus, continuing the work that Renwick began. Working in the admissions office, he has seen the number of applications increase gradually, up to 2,100 last year. As a UNC student in the early '70s, "if you saw a black face, you would stop them," said Davis. "That was quite different than it is now." Like Renwick, Davis said that recruitment programs, such as today's Project Uplift, have attracted a diverse group of excellent students to UNC. "Students that have come here have been extremely talented students that have offered a lot to The University of North Carolina," he said. "UNC has a commitment to diversity—a commitment to have a lot of people that come from a lot of different backgrounds." Bryant, who attended Carolina at the same time as Davis, told the group how her college experience had started on a sour note when the white student who was to be her freshman roommate relented to parental pressure and declined to room with her. When she arrived at school, Bryant learned she had a new roommate, who also was black. While Bryant succeeded in the classroom—she was the only black student in the Honors Program at the time—it was harder for her in other arenas at such a predominantly white school. Part of her response was to become politically active and to become involved in the fight for civil rights. "It was the political life that affected me and, in some respects, what I got my degree in," said Bryant, a self-described activist and feminist. "What I learned was social change. We were here during a time of exciting activism." From Bryant's and other black students' activism in the early '70s grew the Black Student Movement. Previously, the NAACP was the only black group in Chapel Hill. At the same time, other important changes occurred, such as the creation of the publication Black Ink, of which Bryant was editor, and the start of African-American history and literature courses at UNC. "Traditional Negro literature is an important part of understanding our history," she said. "We got a lot of things started that we never fully reaped the benefits of." One of the students who did reap those benefits, Fuse-Hall said by way of introduction, was Southerland, recipient of BAR's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1995. Southerland noted how his freshman year dorm held more people than did his hometown in eastern North Carolina. The SAT had been foreign to him, but once he began an English major at UNC, he made straight A's. "I was a person who had talent, but it did not surface until I got here," he said. Walters, the panel's youngest member, explained how she became involved with student government in her sophomore year only to discover that women never seemed to rise above the office of vice president. "I was always curious why there were these wonderful women who didn't want to be president," Walters said. "It motivated me, more than anything, to get involved." That she did, becoming the first black female student body president in UNC's history. "It was a life-changing experience," Walters said. "It was one of my best experiences, but also discouraging." On one occasion, in the chancellor's box during a football game at Kenan Stadium, Walters said she was mistaken for an employee simply because she is black. But hearing other members of the panel speak, she said, allowed her to realize how far black students have come at UNC. "Listening to everyone before me, it puts things in perspective," she said. "Things have changed so much, but there are still some things we're working on. It's still a pretty close-knit family." —Worth Civils
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