A CAMPUS
Challenged By Marc D. Allan, MFA ’18 Butler was founded in the struggle against slavery and through 166 years has survived during backdrops that included the Civil War, two world wars, two pandemics, the Great Depression and Great Recession, presidential assassinations, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, presidential impeachments, 9/11, and so much more. Every generation has faced seemingly insurmountable turbulence and, so far, every generation has lived, learned, and come through wiser. As our graduates from the 1960s and early ’70s will tell you, that’s a lesson worth remembering when times get rocky, as they have been this past year. Butler Magazine spoke to three alumni and a professor emeritus about what we can learn from the toughest of times. Jean Smith ’65 came to Butler in 1961 and knew all of the other undergraduate students of color personally. She recalls there were 10. In 1964, Smith remembers, George Wallace, the Alabama governor known for his racist and segregationist views, received a rousing reception in a packed lecture hall. “That told me everything I needed to know about what Butler was at that time,” she says. A small counterpoint occurred later that year when Smith earned her own ovation when she spoke in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in her public speaking class. A larger counterpoint occurred 16 years after graduation, with Smith in the midst of a career that took her from journalism to the ministry, when Butler President Jack Johnson asked if she would serve as a trustee. 18
BUTLER MAGAZINE
That “was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had,” she says. “It allowed me to see that the Butler I had gone to as a student was capable of change.” This was reinforced just a few years ago when Smith attended a dinner for underrepresented students in the Fairview Community Room. “The room was filled. I felt that the changes that were happening at Butler were real.” The lesson learned? For that, Smith paraphrases former President Barack Obama: “We’re never going to make things perfect, but we have to keep doing our part to make things better. And better is what you build upon.” Terry Curry ’71 arrived in 1967 to a Butler University that was transitioning from what he describes as a stereotypical 1950s, early ’60s college to a school where the political and cultural revolutions were taking hold. By early 1968, he found himself immersed in Eugene McCarthy’s candidacy for president and participated in anti-war marches that took place in Indianapolis and elsewhere. (Protests on Butler’s campus at the time, however, were focused on the 10:00 PM curfew for women.) Curry, who became an attorney and, ultimately, Marion County prosecutor, says he’s “absolutely” glad he went through the ’60s. Despite the fear and tension of the times, positive developments came out of that era, including civil rights, advancements of the rights of women, and ending the war in Vietnam. “In spite of the fact that it didn’t feel like it at the time, there was positive evolution of the country,” he says.
