Much more than sandwiched in between was the Harvard classroom education. What courses do you take if you think you might be a presidential candidate after European, African and law school experiences? Which openings in the course catalog were "relevant" to my future? History and literature was the perfect major. Its interdisciplinary approach encouraged exploration of common themes and original scholarship. It was in Donald Fleming's American intellectual history course that I really first understood that factual conclusions have a lot to do with who is determining the facts and reaching the conclusions. My tutors, Barry O'Connell and Gail Parker, directed my intellectual growth with the right amounts of demand and reassurance.
I also had the great pleasure of having dinner almost nightly for a semester with Professor Ewart Guinier. He was the first chair of Afro-American studies at Harvard. He was an imposing figure, as handsome as he was intelligent. A lawyer and a political activist, he told me stories of the Harlem Renaissance, post-Depression governmental policies and why Harvard could not be trusted. Before the end of his term as chair, he would distribute a booklet he edited entitled "Unfair Harvard," wherein he chronicled the sorry saga of minimal commitment to African-American studies. Harvard's administration should award him with a posthumous medal for his bravery and valor in battle--and then take a seminar on why he would never have elected to receive such a tainted honor.
My clearest recollections of the class of '72 are of being one of the group of students who seized Massachusetts Hall--President Derek Bok's office--for more than a week. We demanded that Harvard divest its shares in Gulf Oil, which was then underwriting oppressive regimes in Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Angola.
It was the largest and most effective campus demonstration ever. During the demonstration, the Yard was fully circled with thousands of sympathetic supporters who came to protest and to protect us against the possibility of a '69-type bust. There was no bust and Harvard did not divest. We did, however, focus the attention of the nation on an important human-rights issues. At the '72 Commencement we carried black crosses to symbolize our struggle.
Now, 25 years later, I have just cosponsored an order before the Cambridge City Council requesting the city to decline any investment related to Shell Oil, which today underwrites the oppressive regime of Gen. Sani Abacha in Nigeria, where the democratically elected President Moshood K. Abiola has been imprisoned and his wife Kudirat murdered. Their daughter (Hafsat O. Abiola '96-'97) has asked that we join her in a human-rights campaign. I am prepared to do so.
--Kenneth E. Reeves '72 was mayor of Cambridge from 1992 to 1995 and has served on the City Council since 1990.