Jesse Jackson visits Weber State Racism: “A flaw in the character of our country” acism is a sin, a moral outrage and a “flaw in the character of our country,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson told people during a convocation lecture in February at Weber State. Throughout the history of the United States the government has accepted immigrants, giving them food and jobs, repatriated the Japanese after World War II, helped Jews rebuild their nation, and given war-torn Europe the Marshall Plan. But blacks were chained, sold as slaves, and robbed of their cultural and religious heritage, and the two attempts towards reconciliation—the post Civil War agrarian plan and Affirmative Action—have both failed, Jackson said. “Our challenges are to rise above racism, to rise above sexism, to rise above anti-Semitism,” Jackson told the 6,000 plus crowd in the Dee Events Center. Jackson spoke to students, community members and a large number of grade school children who loudly welcomed the two-time presidential candidate to Ogden in a Feb. 16 convocation lecture. He invited children in the audience to sit on the arena floor, and more than one hundred youngsters thronged the floor. “We must always take time for the children,” he said. “This is African-American history month,” he said. “The African roots of American civilization are substantial— free labor, raw materials, art, music, culture, and scholarship. Why is this important? When we have an appreciation of each other’s worth and contribution then we can accept each other. “Those who came as immigrants never had their culture and their religion severed, because heritage is more than skin color deep,” Jackson added. But African Americans were considered three-fifths human in early America. They had no legal right to pass on family names to their children, and it was illegal for a white owner to teach his slaves to be literate. See related story on page 3 Slavery has ended, he said, but racism is alive in the 20th century. What is needed in the 1990’s, Jackson said, is a “quest for the moral center.” “Racism is diversionary. It pulls the wool over our eyes and takes away the rational thought process," he said. The 1980 and 1984 presidential candidate said that when Reagan ran for office in 1980 he created a mythological welfare “African Queen.” This black woman on welfare threatened to dramatically increase the national deficit. The myth, he said, “motivated the insecurities of whites who voted Republican.” Now we face not this mythological welfare queen, but the reality of a $130 billion savings and loan bail out. “This $100 billion dollars taken basically by greedy men, for the most part white males, could boost the income of seven million families living in poverty by $14,000 each, could add $3,000 to the amount the government spends for each of the country’s 39 million elementary and high school children. While we cut back on aid to dependent mothers and children and scholarships for youth and breakfast and lunch programs, we bail out gangsters who raped our economy and robbed us,” Jackson said. Citing Jesus’ flight to Egypt, David’s and Moses’ marriage to Egyptians, First five inducted into WSC's alll Five people who were a significant part of athletics at Weber State are the first inductees into the college’s newly formed WSC Athletic Hall of Fame. Dr. Reed K. Swenson, J. Stuart “Monk’”’ Halliday, Allen Holmes, Lee White and Kathy Miller were inducted into the hall of fame during a special ceremony this January. The purpose of the hall of fame is to honor athletes and others who played key roles in Weber State athletics during the college’s first 100 years. The five will have individual plaques with their picture and a list of accomplishments. The 16 by 24-inch plaques are mounted on a wooden background wall in the east entrance of the Dee Events Center. Swenson worked at Weber State from 1933-71 during which he acquired a national reputation as an athletic director, coach, educator and administrator. He was the college’s football coach from 1933-36, coached the basketball team from 1933-57, served as athletic director for 35 years and periodically coached teams in track, golf, tennis, boxing and wrestling. WSC won seven conference basketball championships under Swenson’s direction, and captured the Intermountain Jesse Jackson signs autographs for children who attended his speech in the Dee Events Center in February. Jackson noted that the Bible gives blacks a significant part in the world’s history. Anthropological evidence concurs. “African-American history is not a course for blacks only. We must all know the breadth and depth of the American culture and what makes it up. In other of Fame A“ Amateur Athletic Association title in 1938 and 1939. He was one of the founders of the National Junior College Athletic Association in 1948 and served 13 consecutive years as its president. He was also enshrined in the United Savings-Helms Hall of Fame in 1973 for his contributions to intercollegiate athletics. Swenson was instrumental in the formation of the Big Sky Conference and in engineering Weber State’s admission as a charter member to the then six-school league in 1962. The Swenson Gymnasium is named in his honor. Halliday was an outstanding athlete in four sports at Weber Stake Academy from 1919-23 and then at Weber Normal College from 1923-26. He played halfback his first year, 1919, before moving to quarterback for the remainder of his five-year football career. He played on three Western States Conference championship teams, and helped the college down Phoenix, 33-0, in the 1924 championship game. He was a 1925 all-conference selection at quarterback. Halliday also played basketball and baseball, ran the 100 and 200-yard dashes, and was a member of the relay track team. #” of a words, as young African Americans now fill up these basketball arenas and these football stadiums carrying footballs and basketballs, we once used to carry cotton balls. We’re always carrying the ball, but never quite getting the credit for our contribution,” Jackson said. p college first-team All American in 1967 Holmes, a two-time, first-team junior and, a first-round draft pick of the college All-American, helped lead Weber American Football League in 1968 going College basketball to a second-place to the New York Jets. finish in the 1958 NJCAA Tournament He finished his Weber State career with and the 1959 national championship. 14 100-yard games and still holds the The college qualified for NJCAA play WSC single-game record of 276 yards on again the next year, and Holmes captured 44 carries against Idaho in 1967. an astounding 40 points in a quarterfinal Miller played basketball, volleyball and win over Pratt College in Kansas. softball for the Lady Wildcats from the The Wildcats defeated Bethany, 57-47, 1975 season to 1979. Holmes accounting for 31 points of that She was a four-time Intermountain total which earned him the Most Valuable Athletic Conference and All-Region 7 Player award. He scored 115 points, an selection, and a Wade Trophy finalist for average of 28.8 points, in four tournament the top women’s basketball player in the games. nation in 1978 and 1979. Holmes scored 1,507 points during his Miller led the conference in scoring ior two-year career as a small forward and was | four years, and was invited to try out for the nation’s ninth-leading scorer in 1959 the 1978 U.S. University World Games with 24.5 points per game. team and the 1979 Pan American Games White was a Weber State fullback and team. She was the 1979 Copper Classic remains the college’s all-time leading Most Valuable Player. rusher with 3,062 yards on 648 carries and She is Weber State’s career scoring 34 touchdowns during his 1965-67 career. (27.5) and rebounding (13) leader, and He also holds the WSC single-season holds the single-game scoring record of 50 rushing mark of 1,378 yards in 1967. He points set against Utah State in 1976. She is the fourth leading rusher in Big Sky scored 35 points or more 15 times during Conference history, was first-team Allher career. Big Sky in 1966 and 1967 and was named Miller is WSC’s all-time scoring leader to the Big Sky Conference Silver Annifor both men and women with 2,745 versary Team. points for a 27.5 point average. White was an Associated Press small