AC_1965_Web

57 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z G O O D S O N GOODSON MARTIA [GRAHAM] THEN AND NOW 4 B.A. Sociology and Anthropology ADDRESS 4 206 W. 180th St. Bronx, NY 10453 CONTACT martia.goodson@verizon.net NON-RANDOM THOUGHTS ON FIFTY YEARS AGO OR WHY WAS PRESIDENT DIXON SMILING? By Martia Graham Goodson, ’65 Fellow Classmates: I beg your indulgence. I have made a decision not to record here what I have done for the last fifty years. Instead, I want to share some current thoughts relative to my expe- rience at Antioch so long, long ago. At the risk of sounding whiny, I have written about my concerns rather than my achievements, though they are innumerable� Thanks to my parents, I have a photograph of my Antioch gradu- ation ceremony and a copy of the graduation program, where, as we know, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the commencement speaker. It was a momentous time. My dad was es- pecially happy to attend because he, like Dr. King, was a graduate of Morehouse College and would have a chance to shake hands with MLK Jr., who had just won the Nobel Prize and endured Selma. My mom was happy because I had made it through the school of her choice. I had occasion to study the pho- tograph and program when I was invited to an Antioch residency in August of 2012. As I prepared for my first return toYSO since our class re- union in 1985, I looked at the pho- tograph of me shaking hands with President Dixon as I received my di- ploma. I am smiling slightly and the president is grinning broadly. That puzzled me because, for sure, the president did not know me. I was not an award winner or outstanding student, so I was trying to figure out why he looked so pleased. Perhaps he smiled broadly at all the gradu- ates, but I think not.With difficulty, I came to believe that he was smil- ing because, thanks to me, he did not have to introduce Dr. King to an all-white graduating class at liberal Antioch College during the height of the civil rights movement. (Was Betsy Diaz there?) Correct me if I’m wrong: I was the only black mem- ber of our graduating class. For some reason, it had taken decades for that to soak in. It seemed that so many of the people that I thought had grad- uated did not. (Anyone remember Stanli Kay Mitchell from Charleston, W. Va.? She is the only other black person that I remember starting in 1960 with us.) Then, in 2012, I started questioning who else did and did not graduate from Antioch. With the co-op system, it was hard to know where anyone was at a par- ticular point in time.And I also ques- tioned why/how I survivedAntioch? I really wondered about that, and still do. My next question: what was my Antioch experience and how would I evaluate it with the hindsight of a single parent who has sent two kids to college? From another per- spective, how did I view Antioch af- ter spending over thirty years as a professor at Baruch College-CUNY. I know a bit about the halls of aca- deme. For sure I had good time in Yellow Springs in the sixties. Best memories: Red Square on Friday nights; North Hall Common Room on Saturday nights; warm glazed do- nuts from the bakery; getting twoA’s in one quarter;working at Com’s res- taurant, my combination refuge and counseling center; late night ham- burgers at the “68”; co-ops in NYC; some good, fun fellow students; the Gourmet Club; Louis Filler’s tests. And there were new things I learned about: Long Island, The Upper West Side, Linus Pauling, Pete Seeger, the Deacons of Defense, uni- lateral disarmament, existentialism, conscientious objectors, matzohs, and that some white people could dance (I had only seen what then passed for dancing on American Bandstand). But I keep returning to a few troubling questions about those hal-