“Think back on Quaker values when you hear all of this,” said James Shields, director of Community Learning, before embarking on the history of integration at Guilford on Sept. 24 in Founders Gallery. Prior to becoming a school, Guilford was a plantation. It was then that the Friends Society began the moral struggle that has plagued Guilford throughout its racial history.

The Friends battled with the concept of slavery due to the Quaker religion. Friends member Levi Coffin and others led an abolitionist movement in Guilford County, which included helping escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad, and directing slave hunters the wrong way.

After the Civil War, the Friends idealistically supported black schools, but focused on themselves and the Guilford area.

That idealistic support remained as long as Guilford never had to deal with blacks on the college’s campus. From its opening in 1837 and for more than 100 years, Guilford never had an official segregation policy and never had a black student.

Like much of the country, Guilford shunned the black community, denying blacks entrance until the 1960s.

“Guilford College is a smaller section of the larger society,” said Holly Wilson, director of multicultural education.

Yet there was dissent within the ranks.

“From the 1940s on, the faculty called for change,” said Shields.

The pro-integration group grew until, in 1951, students and faculty motioned to end segregation on campus. The board of trustees never made a decision.

“There was always someone saying we should do right,” said Shields.

However, the people saying we should do right, such as the faculty, were not the ones with the power to make things right.

The 1950s saw change on campus, as the school enrolled international students, including Japanese students from internment camps.

Black students, however, still had no place at the school. Guilford brought in black bands for the students’ entertainment, but denied them lodging on campus.

In 1963, 1,200 students in the Greensboro area led a peaceful protest in the streets. The number outstripped protesters in any other city except Birmingham, AL.

Many of the protestors were Guilfordians.

Yet of the five schools involved, Guilford was the only one not to officially sponsor the protest.

“These decisions were made mostly by the board and president,” said Shields.

In 1968, under pressure from the faculty, students, and the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), Guilford admitted 28 black students.

The slowly increasing element of diversity added a positive and fresh element to communities on campus.

“More than anything else, sports teams helped form racial harmony,” said Shields. Unfortunately, that harmony was lacking elsewhere on campus.

BASIB (Brothers And Sisters In Blackness), a black student organization founded following the 1968 admissions and currently known as BUS (Blacks Unifying Society), said that black males were seen only as athletes.

“Something always derails the momentum,” said Wilson.

After integration, Guilford did little to establish a comfortable black community on campus. In the coming years, that lack of comfort would affect the student body.

Guilford had low black enrollment in the 1980s. Rob Owens, an African American and the first director of multicultural affairs, resigned due to lack of support.

As recently as 1998, students put up posters warning against a black takeover of the student Community Senate. A student-led protest and sit-in soon followed.

In 2000, Guilford made African American studies a major, and the board vowed to transform Guilford into a multicultural and anti-racist institution, upholding the Quaker values of diversity and peace.

Diversity is an ongoing process. The 2007 incident in Bryan Hall, in which students Faris Khader, Osama Sabbah, and Omar Awartini came under attack for their ethnicity, brought racial tension back to the surface. The more recent Sept. 14 and 17 bias incident against a gay student reemphasized the continuing nature of the battle for universal acceptance.

“The school doesn’t address any racial problems,” said sophomore Lamia Elgouacem.

“We have to act beforehand,” said Wilson.

Sophomore Adam Watkins, president of Many Voices, a club designed for students to discuss personal issues, believes the onus falls on the administration to prevent such occurrences.

“It all lies with the people up top,” said Watkins. “Push for more presentations (like Shields’), and if people don’t come, go to Brian and do it.”

Dean of Students Aaron Fetrow stressed the importance of reactions.

“You can be as proactive as you want,” said Fetrow. “But you have to react.”

The amazing turnout of 500 people at the vigil last week represents how Guilford reacts.

“Our reaction is very typical at Guilford,” said Fetrow. “They are student-led, and determined to deal with (the issue).”

Guilford students rise to the occasion. The occasion now is to recognize the power of our reactions, and to use that power constructively beforehand.

“Heed the call,” said Shields. “When we come together outside of crisis, that’s when the work gets done.