The Organization for Black Cultural Inclusion and Fabulation:
The Evolution of Acceptance at Blackburn College through Student Organization and Theater
Catherine Ward
Pride Prize History Essay Contest
Blackburn College
15 January 2014
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The Organization for Black Cultural Inclusion and Fabulation:
The Evolution of Acceptance at Blackburn College through Student Organization and Theater
As a small, private liberal arts college in the American Midwest, Blackburn College
attracts students from small towns near or similar to Carlinville, Illinois. Its access to major cities
such as St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois attracts big city and suburban students,
challenging rural- and urban-raised students to interact harmoniously. Although the college
community has fostered greater diversity in recent years, Blackburn also has a complicated
history of racially charged conflict. Examining the college’s past challenges is key to helping the
community understand its current stake in further progress.
Through the 1950s, Blackburn College had limited exposure to minority cultures and
therefore often created what would today be considered insensitive social programs (such as
Native American themed dances). However, as non-white students enrolled at Blackburn in
greater numbers in the 1960s, student organizations dedicated to cultural awareness arose. This
particular movement began with the Organization for Black Cultural Inclusion in 1969, enabling
minority students and visiting performers to represent their own cultures. Despite these efforts
fostering racial harmony in the community, Blackburn theater productions continually failed to
reflect this progress; annual plays continued to feature dominantly white casts performing
dominantly white playwrights’ work through the early 2000s. Just as students actively addressed
the need for fresh voices within the community, Blackburn Theater Director Dr. Kate Roark
recognized the need to showcase talented African-American students in the 2013 fall production
of Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine. By considering the parallels between the
Organization for Black Cultural Inclusion and Fabulation, members of the Blackburn
community will see that the college is on the cusp of realizing fuller artistic diversity.
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Racially Insensitive Student Programming in the 1950s
Since 1950, faculty and staff have led students in creating the Blackburn College
yearbook Beaver Tales (see Appendix A). Available in Lumpkin Library’s general reading area
as well as the college archive, decades of Beaver Tales volumes offer a unique glimpse into the
college community throughout the years. Yearbooks’ campus photographs and statements depict
fashion trends, political atmospheres, and general cultural attitudes of their times.
Interestingly, the vast majority of Blackburn students in the 1950s were white, but
student activities were often based on non-white cultures—often reducing them to cultural
clichés. The 1952 Beaver Tales edition contains a photo of students reading an event poster for
the first formal dance of the year: the “Wigwam Wamble” (see Fig. 1). According to the
Fig. 1 Students view an advertisement for the “Wigwam Wamble” formal dance in 1951.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, the term “wigwam” refers to dome-shaped North American Indian
housing made of bark (629). The event flyer ignores the distinct difference between wigwams
and tipis, using them interchangeably as symbols of Native American living. The flyer addresses
male students: “Bring your squaw.” The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the term
“squaw” as a Native American wife or woman, and it is characterized as derogatory due both to
the word being an arbitrary mix of different Native American languages’ words for “woman” as
well as the weak character often implied by the term (“Squaw” 2). For the Wigwam Wamble,
students dressed in elaborate, clichéd costumes (see Appendix B). The same edition includes a
photograph of six male students receiving Mohawk haircuts and mimicking assumed Native
American gestures (see Fig. 2). The Mohawk hairstyle is also another white interpretation of
Fig. 2 Students receive Mohawk haircuts and mimic Native American gestures (1951-1952).
Native American culture. Although the name suggests an association with Mohicans, no photos,
artwork, or historical texts reflect this style being used among this group. Notice the depicted
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students’ hand gesture: a raised, open right palm as if to say, “How.” This is another stereotype
and just one of many whitened representations of Native American culture from the 1950s
Blackburn community.
While deemed harmless fun at the time, such themed activities today would be
considered blatantly racist. Dismissing them as aggressively discriminatory prevents the viewer
from understanding their purpose. Rather than aiming to debase non-whites, evidence suggests
Blackburn students instead glamorized or fetishized the “other.” Based on the hillbilly dress
theme of the annual Sadie Hawkins Dance during these same years in the 1950s, culturally
themed activities (especially those involving costumes) were ways to enjoy facets of other
cultures that white, midwestern Americans considered novelties. The concept of novelty, or
strangeness, was not limited to race or ethnicity, either; male cross-dressing consistently shows
up in decades’ worth of Beaver Tales editions as a form of comedic entertainment (see Appendix
C). Although a blackface performance would mortify the Blackburn community today (see Fig.
3), in the past the college lacked substantial representation of “others” and did not understand the
implications of such performances. This was soon to change in the 1960s.
Fig. 3 Students perform as “Stoddard’s Black Faces” at Talent Night. (1951-1952)
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The Turning Point: The Organization for Black Cultural Inclusion
In 1969, Blackburn students formed the “Organization for Black Cultural Inclusion”
(O.B.C.I.), and that year’s Beaver Tales edition featured a club statement:
Predominantly white institutions had found it not necessary to include black
culture as part of its campus life, but now with Black Awareness it becomes not
only necessary but imperative that these institutions include black culture as part
of their total make-up . . . The idea is to create a greater channel of
communications for dialogue between white and black students—a channel which
has in the past been closed because of the nature of the white society.
Communication did indeed flow through the newly opened channel, as students designed the
1970 yearbook with artwork and quotes pertaining to diversity and harmony (see Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 The 1970 yearbook: “Begin then to repair that world.”
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The editions following show greater diversity in candid photos of social groups and student
organizations (see Appendix D).
Three years into its existence, the O.B.C.I. became the Student Organization for Unity
and Liberation (S.O.U.L.), presenting its club statement in the 1972 edition of Beaver Tales:
“We the black students of Blackburn College acknowledge the fact that without unity we will
never be able to achieve liberation.” During the 1976-1977 academic year, S.O.U.L. hosted
Fig. 5 S.O.U.L. received a photo spread in the 1972 yearbook.
fashion shows and various other social programs, earning several pages of photos in this year’s
Beaver Tales edition (see Appendix E). The 1975 yearbook expanded on the 1970 edition’s
harmony theme, scattering quotes and thoughts about acceptance throughout the publication: “It
is fundamental that the best way to stimulate improvement at Blackburn is to work in unison,
over-looking personal differences, and social backgrounds so that the community may benefit”
(see Appendix F). That same year students from different racial identities joined S.O.U.L.
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After a few years without Beaver Tales mentions of S.O.U.L. in the late 1980s, student
organization Black By Population Demand (B.B.P.D.) arose “to promote the ideals of
brotherhood, equality, and democracy by informing each other, the campus and community of
black culture in America and around the world using education and social activities” (Beaver
Tales 1993). A few years later the organization Multicultural Expressions arose, implementing
anti-prejudice programs such as “The Game of Life” and “The Tunnel of Oppression” in which
participants are assigned a demographic (poor or Middle Eastern, for instance) and undergo
various forms of harassment or right infringement to better understand the plights of others (see
Appendix G).
These various incarnations of cultural awareness organizations from 1969 to 1995
ushered in countless social harmony programs and opportunities. At the 1985 Founders Day
Convocation, Judge Carl Stokes challenged the Blackburn community with his speech, “Why not
a Black for President?” According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History website, Stokes was
both the “first black mayor of a major U.S. city when he was elected mayor of Cleveland” and
the “first black anchorman in New York City when he took a job with television station WNBC”
(“STOKES, CARL B.” 1). Three years later, Illinois Poet Laureate and award-winning AfricanAmerican writer Dr. Gwendolyn Brooks spoke in Clegg Chapel at the Founders Day
Convocation during Blackburn’s 150th anniversary celebrations, attended a college luncheon, and
signed book copies for Blackburn students (see Appendix H). Just three decades after it was
considered appropriate for students to wear blackface at performances, the Blackburn community
regularly encouraged tolerance among its students, facilitated increasingly frequent cultural
events, and hosted brilliant thinkers and speakers of different backgrounds to inspire every type
of student.
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White Over-representation in Blackburn Theater
Likely due to the dominantly white authorship of most popular plays, Blackburn’s
production selections have been overwhelmingly written by white playwrights. Any highlighted
decade of the college’s theater program will demonstrate this: Blackburn has put on productions
of Pygmalion, An Ideal Husband, Caught in the Villain’s Web, Grease, Music Man, Fiddler on
the Roof, Cabaret, The Importance of Being Ernest, Inherit the Wind, and dozens of other theater
classics. Although largely (if not exclusively) white casts made sense with almost non-existent
minority enrollment in the 1950s, casts’ racial breakdowns throughout the following decades
remained overwhelmingly white as the rest of the college community diversified. Student
Kristen Moore’s senior production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When
the Rainbow is Enuf during the 2003-2004 academic year broken this pattern briefly (see Fig. 6).
Fig. 6 Moore’s student production crosses gender and racial experience.
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Fabulation Confronts Race Onstage
As students returned to campus for the fall 2013 semester, audition flyers appeared
calling for four African-American men and five African-American women to fill nine roles in the
2013 fall production of Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine. After auditions on August
25, six students were cast: Reginald Guyton, Andre Hoskins, Kenneth James, Lindsey Smith,
September Stanton, and DeArryka Williams. Despite disappointing a few white student actors,
the production began relatively quietly, and it was not until the campus press ran a controversial
editorial about it that the play selection received mass campus attention.
In the first fall issue of The ’Burnian, Editor-in-Chief and Blackburn junior Haley Welch
ran an editorial entitled, “‘Fabulation’ or segregation? The controversial casting of the fall play.”
In the article, Welch claims that, by enrolling and paying tuition in college, Blackburn students
pay for the opportunity to build portfolios: “For the sake of learning everyone should have the
chance to gain as much experience here as possible . . . Denying someone the right to do so in an
educational setting goes against the purpose of this institution” (7). In the same issue, Theater
Director Dr. Kate Roark submitted an editorial explaining her directorial decision: “Why I chose
‘Fabulation’ for the fall play.”
These two editorials immediately stirred campus emotions; although the initial call for
auditions left some student actors unsettled, it was not until the ’Burnian release that official
steps were taken to address the community’s feelings. Within a week of the editorials hitting
campus newsstands, campus administrators arranged a community program confronting the
controversy. On Friday, September 13 Diversity & Inclusion Director Jarrod Gray led a
lunchtime discussion; in attendance were approximately two dozen students, staff, and faculty
members including Provost Dr. Jeff Aper, Dr. Roark, and several Fabulation cast members. Dr.
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Roark spoke about the internal struggle that led her to choose the play, noting that all 2014
graduating theater majors were African-American and had not yet acted together onstage.
“Above all, I wanted to showcase these amazingly talented students as a group,” Roark said.
Student DeArryka Williams expressed gratitude for the play choice, highlighting the
tendency for her fellow African-American student actors to receive smaller roles that do not
interact with one another significantly. Fabulation lead September Stanton added that theater is
about conveying a story’s message rather than about the ambition of any individual actor and
that any student hoping to study theater needs to learn this. Weeks later, the second issue of The
’Burnian came out with three letters to the editor regarding Welch’s editorial. Cast members
Reginald Guyton and DeArryka Williams as well as student Catherine Ward defended Dr.
Roark’s decision, all calling the Fabulation production a community learning opportunity.
Despite rumors of student boycotts or petitions to have the fall play canceled, the production
ultimately succeeded in drawing in Blackburn students, faculty, and staff. More importantly, it
succeeded in providing students Reginald Guyton, Andre Hoskins, Kenneth James, Lindsey
Smith, September Stanton, and DeArryka Williams the opportunity to walk under the Bothwell
spotlight together to present the college community a fresh perspective.
Putting it All Together
The 1969 creation of the Organization for Black Cultural Inclusion and the 2013
production of Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine are separated by forty-four years but
connected by the spirit of giving different identities their own voices. Until the 1960s, the
Blackburn community lacked diverse cultural input and often resorted to inaccurate, trivialized
versions of other cultures for entertainment and social stimulation. However, once non-white
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students gained numbers and decided to organize inclusion and communication efforts, the
college opened up to the genuine, complex experiences of its different groups. Students’
hopefulness and determination allowed the Blackburn community to move forward along with
the rest of the country during the formative 1960s and 1970s, embracing previously unheard
cultural narratives. The theater program struggled to catch up to this trend, but 2013’s Fabulation
production marks a significant step toward taking these unique cultural narratives and giving
them the Bothwell stage.
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Appendix A
The yearbook officially becomes the annual Beaver Tales publication in 1950.
Appendix B
Blackburn students dress in stereotypical Native American attire for the 1951 Wigwam Wamble.
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Appendix C
Blackburn men cross-dress for entertainment throughout the latter half of the twentieth century.
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Appendix D
Candids and club membership photos show growing inclusion in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s.
Appendix E
S.O.U.L. receives ample coverage in the 1972 Beaver Tales edition.
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Appendix F
The 1975 yearbook features many harmony and acceptance passages like above.
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Appendix G
Above: The mid- and late-1990s saw a spike in multicultural programming.
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Appendix H
Judge Carl Stokes (left) and Dr. Gwendolyn Brooks (right) speak at Founders Day
Convocation in 1985 and 1988 respectively.
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Works Cited
Beaver Tales. Blackburn College. 1950-1995 ed. Print.
Grabowski, John J., John Baden, and Nathan Delaney. "STOKES, CARL B." Encyclopedia of
Cleveland History. Western Reserve Historical Society, 30 May 2013. Web. 31 Dec.
2013.
Roark, Kate. "Why I Chose ‘Fabulation’ for the Fall Play." Editorial. The 'Burnian [Carlinville,
IL] Sept. 2013, Opinion & Forum sec.: 7. Print.
"Squaw." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/squaw>.
Welch, Haley. "‘Fabulation’ or Segregation? The Controversial Casting of the Fall Play."
Editorial. The 'Burnian [Carlinville, IL] Sept. 2013, Opinion & Forum sec.: 7. Print.
"Wigwam." Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th ed. 1911. Print.