Don Noble: Earl Tilford offers what seems a very useful way to think of the history of the University of Alabama. This study is mainly the story of the Rose years, and Frank Rose is its hero. Under Rose, Alabama became an oasis of modern thought in a sea of reactionism. While Rose is presented as maneuvering successfully under intense pressure, [ David ]Mathews receives mixed reviews. Mathews had been installed only one year and seemed, to Tilford, unprepared to deal with the student anger, demonstrations and rebellion of the spring of 1970, demonstrations ignited by the Kent State killings. Attorney Jack Drake, in his foreword, while sympathetic to Mathews dilemma, feels nevertheless that he overreacted to what were, by any national standards, gentle student protests. Someone else, Mathews insisted, called in the Tuscaloosa police but did not tell him. The police, sometimes with their name tags removed and badge numbers hidden, arrested scores unnecessarily and roughed up a number of students, radicalizing the traditionally apathetic undergraduates. Mathews was perceived as unresponsive to student demands. Students complained he was stonewalling. He repeated on several occasions there would be no amnesty for students and he would not negotiate under duress. Unfortunately, duress was the condition of the day. In the long closing section, Mathews is described as shaken by students vehemence and determined to be firm on matters of discipline and investigate what charges might be brought against students involved in disorder. Mathews thus lost the support of many conservative students, including sorority and fraternity members, some of whom joined Yippies from the English department in subsequent demonstrations. Another structuring device Tilford employs to good effect is the intertwining of two individual students stories. Drake, from a Birmingham blue-collar family, was something of a campus progressive, as an undergraduate and law student. Carol Self was a sorority girl and cheerleader. That these two would meet and feel they had enough in common to fall in love and marry says worlds about the 60s and the gulf that opened between students and university authorities while the traditional gap between students of different backgrounds narrowed.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:27:37 +0000
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