In the early '80s, Harvard student involvement in the group began to decrease, Johnson says.
Hairston attributes this trend to the administration's attempt to discourage students from being involved in activities geared solely toward African-Americans.
In the 1981-82 school year there was an attempt to get rid of the Afro-American Studies department and in 1983 a pre-frosh week dedicated solely to black students was discontinued, he adds.
"The buzzword of the time was 'assimilation,'" Hairston says. "At one point there was question from the administration as to whether [the Kuumba Singers] would continue to be a Harvard organization."
But the identity of the group had begun to change, accepting students from every cultural background.
Epps remembers standing outside Memorial Church after a Kuumba Christmas concert in the late 1980s and being amazed at the cultural diversity within the group.
"I remember asking a white student, 'How did you come to be involved in Kuumba?'" he says. "She said, 'My roommate was in it and they always seemed to have such a great time...and so one day I asked if I could come. And I was welcome.'"
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