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I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're looking at race relations by way of the new book fraternity in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination. Father Brooks an educator at the College of Holy Cross decides the college needs to recruit black students. The story is almost too good to be true. The 20 young black men who Brooks recruits include Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas NFL wide receiver Eddie Jenkins Pulitzer Prize winning writer Edward P. Jones Wall Street executive Stanley Grayson and defense attorney Ted Wells fraternity is the story of trust with Father Brooks at the center who to this day remains a mentor to these men. In the words of Ted Wells they were in a college to learn the skills that would destroy a sick society and replace it with one dedicated to liberty and justice for all. Up next big man on campus. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying Nevada is the

next state up on the elections calendar with recent polls showing Mitt Romney ahead of his three Republican presidential rivals. But after a big victory in Florida Romney drew fire again when he said on CNN that he was not concerned about the very poor. He went on to say the country has a safety net for the poor and that if it needed to be fixed he would be the man to do that. Still his words provided campaign ammunition for the Obama camp and Romney's GOP rival Newt Gingrich. President Obama meanwhile is appealing for respect among groups with differing views saying it's the right thing to do. That message was delivered today at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington before a bipartisan group of influential figures. Well as more positive news on unemployment this morning with the number of claims down again last week by 12000 NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports those numbers have been steadily improving. The claims came in lower than economists expected and in fact they've been trending down for some time indicating that layoff activity has finally slowed and that the job market

may be stabilizing over the past four weeks the average number of claims has declined to about three hundred seventy six thousand. Still this doesn't mean layoffs have ceased. A separate survey by outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas said the number of announced plans to cut jobs surged in January January is typically a big month for layoffs. And this year those were heavily concentrated in the retail and financial sectors. You can a Gucci NPR News Washington. NATO's secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the deadline for handing over full security responsibility to Afghan of Afghanistan remains the end of 2014. Terry Schultz explains the Alliance is trying to tamp down suggestions the U.S. is pushing for an accelerated withdrawal. Rasmussen says remarks made by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are nothing new. Panetta announced Wednesday the U.S. hopes to end combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of next year while the need to agree timeline for a complete handover is the end of 2014. Rasmussen says it's

natural the role of NATO's troops will gradually change as Afghans move into the security lead. But he also wants to underscore the alliance will stick together and not act hastily. It is of course of crucial importance this change of road takes place in a coordinated manner and takes into account the actual security situation on the ground. NATO spokesperson says inside the defense ministers meeting the attitude is in together out together. For NPR News I'm Teri Shultz at NATO headquarters in Brussels. At last check on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 21 points to twelve thousand six hundred ninety five in trading of about 2 billion shares Nasdaq up seven points to two thousand eight hundred fifty five and the S&P 500 up slightly at thirteen thousand four. This is NPR News. A French appeals court has upheld the 2009 fraud conviction against the Church of Scientology. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports that the church was convicted three years ago of pressuring members to pay large sums for

questionable remedies. The case began with a legal complaint by a young woman who said she took out loans and spent about $30000 on books courses and purification packages after being recruited in 1998. She says when she sought reimbursement and to leave the group its leadership refused to allow either. A spokeswoman for the church in Los Angeles denounced the decision calling it a miscarriage of justice. The church says it plans to again appeal the decision. This time with France's highest appeals court it also plans to bring a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights during the appeals process the judge in its bookstore have been ordered to pay a nearly $800000 fine while Scientology is recognized as a religion in the U.S. Sweden and Spain. It is not considered one under French law. Eleanor Beardsley NPR News Paris. Pakistan's supreme court reportedly plans to charge prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani with contempt the conviction could force Kalani out of office and into prison for six months. In Pennsylvania Punxsutawney Phil has

seen his shadow to which his Groundhog club's vice president Mike Johnson made this declaration. As I look at the cloud on the. Many shadows do I see. Six women. Not a happy crowd in Pennsylvania's gobbler's knob when temperatures were near freezing as Punxsutawney Phil emerged. This is NPR News. Support for NPR comes from the Public Welfare Foundation supporting coverage of workers issues more information at Public Welfare dot org. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley. Joining me in the studio is journalist Diane Brady. She's here to talk about her new book fraternity. It's a local story about trust and mentorship and race relations in the late 1960s fraternities tells the real life story of Father John Brooks an educator at the College of the

Holy Cross and wester and his mission to recruit young black men to the college. Diane Brady welcome. Nice to be here. So if you look at the definition of fraternity. Most of the time it refers to a sort of a Greek organization come together but there's also another definition which is the coming together of a group of people with common interests and these young men who were brought to the College of the Holy Cross had common interests in many ways and they became a fraternity if you will. As a result of Father John Brooks recruiting effort. So first tell us how did it happen. Well you know and you're right they're definitely in a Jesuit college you are not going to find Greek fraternities and the way it came together really is that John Brooks like many people in the 60s had a very strong sense of social justice it was very much part of the Jesuits and he wanted to set out to diversify this white college on a hill and was stir and met a lot of resistance this was a college that

did not have much money it was a college that was mostly Italian you know Irish. And so after Dr. Martin Luther King died he went in a car with a dead young admissions officer drove to places like Philadelphia spoke to men in Washington and recruited a major group and also enabled money. More money coming into athletic scholarship so he managed to amass a group of 20 that does not sound like a lot in the college of 2000 but consider the fact that there were 1 2 there even years where there was essentially one black student on campus so this was the first major group that came to Holy Cross. And what was his process I mean did you find 20 but how do you look if you've decided on the mission if he had. Where did he go. Who did he talk to how did he begin begin doing what he thought was the right thing to do. He tried the public schools they were not interested so he very much tapped the Catholic School Network which is interesting because that network as we know has eroded in most cities

and there's certainly a lot of discussion about that but that was where he went and partly why he went there was he felt that he wanted students that had the drive had the discipline had the academic background. And he was looking for students who could sort of meet a relatively rigorous standard and he found a lot. He found students who were exceptional who just either had never thought of Holy Cross certainly had not been offered money to go to Holy Cross and in many cases just didn't weren't even aware of the opportunity and hadn't been offered so he personally reached out and made it clear that they were going to get full freight in terms of tuition places to live and offered the opportunity. Then I wonder if you read from your book just a bit about how Father John Brooks started off on his recruiting trip. This is early on on page 27. One at a time. That's how Brooks found him. He and Gallagher went to a handful of Catholic schools interviewing dozens of candidates they talked to teachers and counselors.

At the end of the frenzied visit the two men sat down in a Philadelphia restaurant with a list of names. Together they picked out several young men who seemed to have what it would take to succeed at Holy Cross. For Brooks the men's grades were just a starting point. The priest was equally interested in the candidates drive and ambition. It would take a strong personality to overcome the isolation many would feel at Holy Cross. It was hard enough for young men to attend white Catholic high schools when at least they could return to the comfort of their families and neighborhood friends at the end of the day at Holy Cross. The isolation of the classroom would follow them wherever they ate and slept the curriculum would be tough and the expectations high. What made Father Brooks think this could work. Did he just say I'm just going to do this and we'll just see what happens. I think you know obviously the late 60s was a time when there was more awareness of the injustice he also wanted women to be coming to the college at that time was shot down. And let's make it clear at this point he was the head of the Theology Department he was not the

president. He was not the Dean he had no real license to go out and do this but he had a strong sense having come back from Rome you know with Vatican 2 he's a very progressive individual and a sense that Holy Cross was missing out on a generation of leaders and that was his motivation it was partly an opportunity for these men but he also knew the college was missing out and the existing students at Holy Cross were missing out on the opportunity to meet people not like themselves not from their neighborhoods who would go on to be you know leaders in society. Now you've raised a very important point he was not the president. So this is his idea and he's very persuasive in and pushing it forward. But that also meant that there had to be numbers of people who are like Who are you to make this decision and not really appreciating what he was trying to do. Oh I think so very much there was definitely concern about the trustees and for some perspective this was a college with about a million dollars and down meant at that point they did not have a lot of

money. He essentially came in presented the president the bill that was totaling more than $80000 from that one trip to Philadelphia So the pushback was the pushback you still hear frankly it's things like you know will they make it. Are they are they going to you know be able to meet the tough standards. Not going through the usual process obviously always raises questions so he just went ahead he said this is what we have to do and I think especially after Dr. King died he thought if we don't take bold steps this is not going to happen this can't happen incrementally let's just go out there and do it. Now we should say that the mix of students that he ended up with those 20 young men came from varied socio economic backgrounds so yes there was scholarship money that had to be involved for some of them but not all. You know and I think that that's important there are also men who had been in very white environments Clarence Thomas transferred he dropped out of the seminary I think infamous story when Dr. King died fellow seminarian basically said he got what he deserved and that was the

final straw for him. So he transferred in a second year student you had people like Ted Wells who had gone to all black high schools all black neighborhoods. Then you had people like Stan Grayson Eddie Jenkins who very stable family environments who had gone to largely white schools so they also were coming in with different comfort levels about being the sole black face in a crowd of white students. One of the things that I thought was interesting is that OK so he recruits the students and now they're coming. And now there is some preparation needs to happen with regard to the other students on campus the ones who are coming in in the same class and not to mention the faculty and administration. But if you would read the piece about. A particular thing policy they decided to enact on page 59 with regard to the student's Holy Cross had called up white students and in some cases mailed out letters over the summer to ask if they would mind rooming with a black man. Nobody was quite sure who had suggested the strategy and the

approach was poorly executed. Some of the students who ended up with black roommates had not been asked in advance. None of the black students were asked about their preferences to Father Brooks who learned of it after the fact the move seemed ham handed at best. While he didn't want any black student in a dorm situation where he'd feel uncomfortable unwelcome Brooks didn't like the idea of anyone at Holy Cross offering white freshmen a chance to reject someone based on his skin color. It undermined the college's values to even ask the question as if discomfort were valid grounds for discrimination and not asking black black students the same question was proof that their discomfort didn't matter. So the young men come to campus and. You know that as we've said they're quite different in their backgrounds they don't really know each other they're there and they realized they knew when they when they came that they were going to be in a very distinct minority. Describe for us just some of the early days of their trying to make it there and figure out how socially I mean how to interact.

You know it's interesting because the men have different levels of consciousness of consciousness of this when you talk to Edward P. Jones who ended up having a Pulitzer for the known world. He was very aware of the fact that the small slights the students who were all sort of interacting with each other and not really including him the man who goes to meet his parents and introduces everybody but him so in a lot of ways it was the omission it was not being part of the crowd it was simply being isolated. There were people who came up and you know essentially said are you here because you're black are you here because you're an athlete. It but I think in some cases also Malcolm Joseph who was the year before said when he first arrived at Holy Cross people wanted to touch his skin they wanted to touch his hair. That could be racism it could also just be the otherness right how foreign it is to a lot of these students who had never interacted before with African-Americans so I think in many cases they were treated like everybody else. That might have been the right response.

Oftentimes it felt like they weren't even being acknowledged as having come from a different place. Now as we've said this group this fraternity ended up with the five that you focus on are you know doing extremely well. One's a Supreme Court justice one's a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. One is a you know world renowned attorney on and on. How did you come up on their stories. You typically cover business. I do that's true that's true and I am not a you know a pundit on the Supreme Court I happen to be at lunch with stand Grayson who is the head of the largest minority owned investment bank. You know somebody that we go to quite often for his thoughts on business and it was the same day that Ted Wells was a page one story New York Times because he was representing Scooter Libby at the time. And Stan started talking about the classmates that he had which there are five in these books. But there was also a physician on Air Force Two there were other law school you know law partners.

And then he began talking about Father Brooks and I guess what intrigued me was this was not a story that I had heard about. And it's interesting even if you read you know Justice Thomas's memoirs he keep basically limits Holy Cross to three or four pages does not spend a lot of time on that chapter of his life so obviously Justice Thomas was interesting to me because he's such a polarizing figure but then to be intrigued you're always wondering what is it that creates greatness I'm interested in Leadership and Mentoring. They were clearly accomplished men coming into this setting. But you I wondered what was the influence of Father Brooks in the fact that he was still alive and still involved in these men's lives I think was what really to me and wanted to report on it. Right more out of touch. More to come. My guest is journalist Diane Brady author of the new book for eternity a true story about how race and class converge on the campus of the College of Holy Cross in Worcester in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination. Coming up we'll hear from two of the men profiled in this

book former NFL wide receiver Eddie Jenkins and Arthur Martin. He founded the Black Student Union in 1968. You can join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 seventy 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. We really want to talk to you if you were at the College of the Holy Cross during this time. Give us a call 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. You can write to our Facebook page or send us a tweet. You're listening to WGBH eighty nine point seven. Boston Public Radio. Yeah. WGBH programs exist because of you. And Grogan and company fine art auctioneers assisting New England families with the sale of their fine art antiques silver and jewelry since 1988. Located in historic Dedham Massachusetts and at Grogan's CEO dot com. And Hannaford in

Dumas commercial printers offset and digital printing finishing and mailing from one source you can find more information at Hanaford dimmest dot com or by calling 8 6 6 quote HD. It is. On the next FRESH AIR The producers of smash the new NBC back stage musical drama about the people putting together a Broadway musical will hear from Neil Marin and Craig Satan join us. Was. This afternoon a hero may be 9.7. This Valentine's celebrate the perfect pair with the WGBH one loves

chocolate chocolate lovers wind event Tuesday night February 14th from 6 to 8 right here at the WGBH studios. You and yours will be treated to a variety of decadent chocolates and fine wine then at the end of the night you decide which pairs were meant to be and which ones work better on their own. Tickets are $25 and there's a discount for the members visit WGBH dot org slash taste of WGBH. Joy Donovan every Saturday at 3 for a session. Well just like that on a Celtic sojourn here on eighty nine point seven w h. Welcome back to the Kelly Crossley Show you are listening to the fight song at the College of the Holy Cross and Western Choo-Choo run what I think is the name of it. If you're just tuning in my guest is Diane Brady.

She's a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and author of the new book fraternity fraternity is the real life story of Father John Brooks former president of the college and an educator at the College of the Holy Cross and Lester who was determined to recruit young black men to the college. In the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination you can join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 if you were at the College of the Holy Cross during this time we want to hear from you. 8 7 7 3 0 1. Eighty nine seventy eight 7 7 3 0 1. Eighty nine seventy on the line on his way to Indianapolis to attend the Super Bowl game is former NFL wide receiver Eddie Jenkins one of the five students profiled in the new book fraternity Eddie Jenkins welcome. Thank you very much I've I've found the cure places on reporting the call. And that's what I hear. Also joining us is Arthur Martin he graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1970 in 1068 he founded the Black Student

Union. Hi Arthur. Good afternoon how are you. How you doing. Good seeing you. Any let me start with you. Tell me about the first time you heard about Hurley. Holy Cross and what did Father Brooks say to you that was persuasive. Well the first time when I was in New York City and they were trying to recruit me and number of other people and they were using the FBI to kind of wait us out a lot of the Holy Cross students actually became FBI agents and so they took us to the smoke filled room in Manhattan and they were trying to persuade us if you will go to Holy Cross a Boston College you can become an FBI agent the last thing I want to do is become him. We didn't start out to be very exciting. What about Father Brooks influence to get you there and you were a city guy from Brooklyn. How did you get. Why did they go to the country. Well you know the thing about it is that people really don't know New York City to be a football

state. But my team has had excellent players if you will American and you know we just came up here I was really really Slade go to Boston College but they emphasize that you know go to Holy Cross is an exceptional academic school and you really will end up being an accountant or your doctor and I said you know one of those one of those three not a bad choice of career. Well you played football at the college and then you went on to get your law degree become a lawyer. Do many other things and congratulations on your new job as Chief Diversity and civil rights officer for the mast Seuss's Department of Transportation. Was there something in the water there. I'm going to ask Art all these questions as well but but what about it that turned all of you out into exceptional young men with fabulous careers and lives. Well I think it was I think with the crisis that was going on and this is a for a lot of people who are of the era of course we had a war in Viet Nam we had the civil rights era when we came just gotten

killed. And so I think we all came together and. This is where we're going to make a point on this so we're going to jump into the river where we practice when I make a change to transform really white America's role in Black America we started right there on that campus of old Art Smith you were already on the campus when these 20 young recruits came as the book describes quite a lonely existence for you before they came. But you also went on then after they arrived to found the first black student union. Tell me about what changed what with what was a campus like before when you were there and after they came and how did you all move to the the communal point where you built the Black Student Union. Well Kelly Number one I was recruited by Father Brooks. I came on my own I came in 1966 I was an academic athletic scholarship and when I came to Holy Cross their only about

10 other blacks too and there were two students. Ron tech Sarah who was from Boston Mass. Stu says he went to a Catholic Moore High School play basketball and Henri Douglas who was from Savannah Georgia. And those are really the only two students aside from Bob's Shea came in my year and let me explain what I until the crossover 660 freshman to black the Schick and sophomore when Douglas erotic Savva no one really extended themselves you know to say welcome or do you need anything new or can I help you you know you are young. So when the students came in one thousand sixty eight. And for the most part to say Eddie Ted Wells and even Stan were coming and they were really recruited by Father Brooks. Correct me if I'm wrong they were coming for other reasons. Jones I believe was recruited by Father Brooks

Clarence Thomas I think was also recruited by claims by Father Brooks. But I knew that they were going to have to have somebody or an institution that was going to provide a social need as well as an academic need as well as other needs for them because I didn't have that. And the good news is a group of guys who came on the same white so the Black Student Union if you fit in and again I'll be 64 March so I don't know your age don't necessarily $4 to one but Im sure it was of a tumultuous time not only at Holy Cross but all across the country. I mean and understand something during this period of time this is the first time. There was a large number of black students going to white schools. It wasn't only Holy Cross if you remember if you can remember there was an incident at Cornell University. It made the cover I believe Newsweek magazine where black students had actual ammunition bad to Larrys across their chest. They were

protecting the black women. That was due in the 60s. You had you had other things yes. Campus is being taken over all over the country so it was the March of last year so it was a natural thing to start a black student you know it all because because we needed to have some organization it was going to protect the academic as well as the social interests of the students coming in and once and for lack of a better word I was the logical choice I was the senior statesman. But what is one of the things that both of you and am back to you. And let me know if you've got to get off the phone I'd like to continue to talk to you like everybody let's play I just have a family. OK excellent. Everybody thought the play went on and I guess they are well OK thank you. OK. Because what I talked about is very important for a lot of people listening to understand because this multicultural world even how imperfect it may be now a lot of young people and for that matter a

lot of all people who just want to part of it just can't grasp how intense things were at the time and what difference your presence on the campus made. So talk to me about the coming together of all of you even though you're very different and what that meant to you on that campus. Well you know we have we have brothers coming together from Philadelphia Chicago Newark York D.C. What is one thing we all have in common seems like we all have parents who gave us really a sense of what it was to work hard and to to know that and this this and this America that we have to survive and they were saying look we gave you about as much as we could to get you where you were you could be the first generation the first generation to acquire two so that we can kind of. Develop we can develop the science of taking care of all of our people. This is a great burden that was put on our chest because our parents are saying look we didn't have that

opportunity and you better take it and you better do the best with it. So when we walked out after this injustice and gave them all up to you know to you know read that I could tell you that was a that was a major thing for us to go through to tell a parent Hey we just gave our scholarship is up because of the injustice. Yes Art I want you to speak about that there were a couple of things that happened on the campus that really pushed pushed some conversations on the campus and almost threatened your very existence and again even though you didn't come in under the Father Brooks contingent You were very much involved in a walkout. By the students which happened after a demonstration against some recruiters from General Electric as it turned out I'm just giving the history so people understand what happened. There were many people protesting including a lot of white students but the 16 black students who were there who were gathered up and because they were easily identifiable they were going to be charged more harshly.

It became quite a crisis point on the campus and you all decided to walk out in protest to not graduate if you were going to be singled out that way. Well let me share this. There were 16 students and there were only four black that were highly identified and and ironically the only one who was in the midst of graduation was me. You know well I was the one who was the senior and I was the one who was graduating. The gentleman was graduating and I must say at this time. To their credit they told me at that point I did not have to participate in the walkout. I had a bae. Basically I'm a senior and graduate already been accepted to one law school and they said Aren't you don't have to do this but that if you know you don't know me but if anybody knows me they knew that was not going to happen because to me they're almost like I don't want to see children but we were that close I mean we had gone through things together and this is going to be something that was going to be major and I wasn't going to walk away from it. Basically what happened. Students are highly identifiable.

And if you have so many black students on campus they would be. And what happened they came to us and the black student I mean at the time and I was no longer in leadership position and basically said what are you guys going to do because now we're going to be expelled and you know we don't think it's fair. So Ted Wells took on a role of their attorney and he in fact tried to argue their case to no avail. And what happened next. You know Jake came to me and we had a good relationship with Father swords to the president the school at the time so we figured we could go to him and he could fix this and then everything would be OK and we went to the swords. And he said he could fix it and these guys are going to be exposed along with the art. There is a we have a caller who was there during this time so Mike from Pennsylvania go ahead please you're on the callee Crossley Show eighty nine point seven WGBH Chalis and Mike McGrath. I was the chair of the judicial board of the the center of this whole controversy. And

if they have any questions about I'd like to put something to rest it was an amazing time and I think that the black students handled themselves very very well. I was extremely impressed with Ted Wells. Ted Wells a sophomore at the time and came in and negotiated with us in a very very fair and even handed way. And we basically felt that we had a poll that the decision that the students who were basically blocked the GI recruiters were guilty. We asked them if they want to be dependent. Try to be individually they said no. So we basically had that to live up to that. I felt that the black students walked out they were right for the med effect Melcombe Josephs one of my students came in the next morning after the meeting came in my office told me what you did was right. I want you understand that I bet you. But I've got to go and he can't start crying and kissed me and walked out. We spent the next day trying to talk to Father sword saying the judicial world was on not on happy

if other sort of overrule the judicial board and gave amnesty and he was the president the college at the time. It was a present time and eventually you overruled them. Which is fine with us reignited the whole community reunited united the community. Hold on a second Mike so Diane you know this as I said in this context of multiculturalism now where you think you know this sounds like a small incident but it was really huge and could have broken apart in many ways. The campus Father Brooks was in the middle of this. It turned out OK but this is a real test about whether or not the campus was dedicated to overcoming racism. It was a clear case of racism because the people the white students who had been identified were leaders literally leaders. They were trying to get these guys off campus they were the ones that like talky pipe buildings the black students were just like any of the other students there were a total of about 60 who just showed up the way you'd show up for you know. You know I hear there's a demonstration let's go. They were targeted and I think that was partly what was so

offensive and what was happening here was the entire black student body at Holy Cross was quitting. It wasn't tactical let Art and Eddie speak to this it was not oh we'll do it and they'll have us back. These men literally thought they were abandoning their education abandoning their scholarship in the middle of the year. And it's many cases such as Clarence Thomas knew they could not go home. What. I want to talk to you about Art Smith and he is what all of this meant to you because as Diane book says Diane's book demonstrates you went on to exceptional lives not just great lives but exceptional lives in almost any every instance. Was there something special about the time and the place that made it so Art Smith. Or were you just going to be exceptional. Art Art Art. MARTIN I'm sorry but where you get going to be exceptional wherever you went. Do you want to go first or do you want me to deal with that.

I want you to as a first Art let me say that number one let me say this here at the time. OK. You have to understand there was a bond among us. And as the book points out there's still a bond among us. It's like it's you know when you go through fire they say if it doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And trust me I think that whole walk out we were close anyway but that walk out just really it was almost like a spiritual happening because we had to bond together and don't think it wasn't some controversy because of one point and I don't you know we would Clark University and a lot of the people want to home so most stayed around but the people stayed because they were what we were hoping to resume. We write hoping for resolution. I just made it clear that there was controversy about it it was a big deal. Yeah Brooks was trying to say don't you know you just got to stay here let's turn and work this out because I understand something. We we we had gone we were gone right all wrongs we knew we had

called another school to see if I could finish my education somewhere else. Malcolm was a pre-med program I mean we were gone and like Eddie said we were the first generation of graduates you know from our families going to college to get about law school anything as we were first graduates coming out of college period. So looking back was it worth it. Oh yes definitely it was worth it because you understand something and again understand the times we live that if you remember carefully young people who are at the point of the spear who down south you know began dissidents you were young children who were you know being hones to Alabama. You have people being killed. The kids that were bombed. This is this is this is all we were doing was giving up an education for a principle. And I understand also. King had been assassinated Malcolm X had been assassinated you know so you look at all of history and sometimes you just get suddenly you get tired ok and we were more concerned about who we were as black men young black men. You know we had to take a stand

and we took our stand and we're sure it's necessary as racism. This is from the school but it was racist. And if you go back in history you look at it was but we had to take a stand we had to determine who are we going to stand as white school or are we going to embrace our neighbor to know we're going to brace who we are as black men. That's what we did and that I think among all of us determine who we are today because if we were willing to do that at a young age. OK. There's nothing that we couldn't do later on in life. I'm sure when Eddie got on the field he said this is easy I can do this. Jake goes to trial he said. I've been in the best position this I can do this in all of us have had some adversity which we've overcome because we had been literally due to fire and Nat that it didn't work out it was stronger it made us closer to this day you know you know it's a transition and not only that and this was very important too. It helped the school to a different place.

Well I want to get to that a second but I want Eddie to do you want to make a comment because I don't want to talk about that crisis and it was a crisis for us that really shaped us and brought us really into matter. Mike you since you were there and at the end. And are talking about moving the campus to a different place. Did you feel that after this incident. Oh no question at all. We spent the judicial board spent 12 hours agonizing over this issue. We started our first meeting at one o'clock in the afternoon we came back with our result at 1:30 in the morning. The entire campus was in the ball room listening to this was on the radio station and we were agonizing over trying to live up to what they did but at the same time worried about the situation with the black students. And we said actually after that the entire class the classes were called off for a week and we had an open campus to discuss issues of racism issues of all sorts of issues. It was to

change the campus. It was wonderful in the in the long run. Thank you very much Mike for your call. We have much more to talk about. The book is fraternity the true story of how one man changed the lives of young black men in the late 1960s by recruiting them to be students at the College of the Holy Cross in the late 1960s. If you were at the College of the Holy Cross during this time you really want to hear from you. 8 7 7 3 a 180 970 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. You're listening to the Calla Crossley Show on WGBH Boston Public Radio. This program is made possible thanks to you and the Harvard innovation lab a university wide center for innovation where entrepreneurs from Harvard the Austin Community Boston and beyond

engage in teaching and learning about entrepreneurship. Information at I lab at Harvard dot edu. And Concord lamp and shade. We have customers coming to the store all of the time who will note that they heard our sponsorship on WGBH an Eckerd owner either their existing customers and were happy that we were sponsoring or their new customers who came in as a result of listening to the sponsorship and GBH to learn how W.. It can benefit your business. Visit WGBH dot org slash sponsorship. Next time on the world. There's a particular subway train that I ride a neuroscientist in Montreal as it's speeding up. It makes this interval but every time I hear that I mediately think of why some songs pop into our heads and stay there. What scientists call ear worms. Next time on the world. Coming up at 3:00 here on eighty nine point seven WGBH.

Because a small gesture can make a big impact hitting 9.7 would like to recognize WGBH sustainers supporters who make monthly gifts that automatically renews thanks to them. February is fundraiser free if you love fewer fundraisers make a sustaining gift of $5 a month and eighty nine point seven will say thanks with a new CD from NPR's Story Corps. All there is. Love stories we have is the difference was when we started a conversation 20 years ago and we have never stopped here a sample of WGBH thought org. Great question that is a great question and that's a great question. It's a great question. Rick great question on FRESH AIR feel hear unexpected questions and unexpected answers this afternoon. You're on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in my guest is journalist Diane Brady. We're discussing her new book for eternity. It's a story about trust mentor

ship and race relations in the late 1960s fraternity tells the real life story of Father John Brooks an educator at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester and his mission to recruit young black men to the college. You can join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 Were you a student at the time at the College of the Holy Cross. Did you see examples of Father Brooks his generosity and dedication today. Do you see those kinds of examples today 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 on the line is Bruce from Boston. You're on the Kelly Crossley Show WGBH eighty nine point seven Go ahead please. Yeah I want to give a shout out to Mr. Bruce too. I mean feeling good how you doing my friend. OK. Many moons. House bugs shake Bob I talked to him recently. Man Thank you put a book came out because you had to get some editorial fact correct. But Bob is gone.

Good good. Yeah I just want to note that I was simply order was also a student at Holy Cross he was a student body president and I was a prisoner broke the news that Martin Luther King. And I want to say how grateful I am for all right because he changed my life I was on my way to be a naval officer and all the civil rights movement just changed by her polling station so fortune in the cities and colleges. Those things that most of my life. And so I had a great great deal. So the College of the Holy Cross would have been an entirely different place of these young men had not come to school there it was because I think the free walk out and I was just when Clarence and the chink in the sand. Eddie Jones and those guys would come in but I didn't go up to Shays break already and Douglas was a wonderful person I still remember his soapbox It was a real minority of the minority and

racial attitudes. So I know that what isolated him and he suffered a great deal was those who prank phone calls of things like that. That and I think that Brooks is response to Sherm soap and lychee in that community and they not only. Brought in more diversity but he also set a rule that anyone who got accepted to Holy Cross would never have to leave for financial reasons and I think this is the greatness of the man. All right well thank you very much for calling in Bruce. Yes thank you. I think Eddie and art I note that both of you have sons and I wonder if they could have gone through the experiences that you had at Holy Cross then. And it really had the same kind of experience which is just a whole different time and place now. Myself I had to do it. Yes what. Who's behind. You start. Yeah no this

is our one. Now my son would have been able to do it. He's a different child who's raised differently and I wouldn't put him in that environment because I think we are all very special but let me say this. If I had it if I had it to do again I'd do it all over again because it made me see I want to be boy Catholic school. It was twenty five hundred boys in that school and I was student council president when I graduated. And one percent of those students are black. So Holy Cross is there because of my high school and I came out of that violence so I could do that. My son came out of a different environment. He didn't come out of a black environment but he is patient level would have been a little different. OK. It is days. And his mother is a lawyer and attorney. He would have been a little more aggressive because he would not have dealt with some of the issues we dealt with you know we had the tumble pie sometimes I don't think he would have been about you and he. Well my son actually he benefited from

where we were he understood it but I don't think he really experienced it and you know going through what was later called George Miller military carry unspent experience alas he understood you know the institutional racism of Atlanta. But he went on Stanford. And actually play professional football so when you get to Stanford you you almost start entering what's very close to what they called a post-racial world. And so he probably is perched to to be really the leader of of where we are as a people when we're presented with these all these holes racial alternatives and policies that great that they have race in slavery's over and so I think the different kind of leaders today here you know you about 20 years old and he's looking at a mirror at a different America. I think that he would have had to have probably undergone a little bit more of what we did in terms of having the deaths of our most powerful leaders and undergoing direct discrimination to really feel and to afford

and to be to carry that fight like we did back in the 60s. Diane Brady. It does this is a story about the importance of mentor ship because mentorship is not just sort of bringing somebody on the campus and leaving them and we made the point that Father Brooks in his interaction with a number of these men kept it up even today even as we're talking about an award winning author Supreme Court justice the attorney that our Martin is the chief diversity officer that Eddie Jenkins is what is that. Is this really a story about mentorship. I think it's a it's certainly a microcosm of the time and I think what's interesting is there's so much debate about affirmative action. A lot of it does sort of end up ricocheting back to Clarence Thomas but I think what's interesting about this story is there was never any sense that the academic standards vary. Not only did these men put in the work they often were at the top of their class. Certainly Ted Wells Clarence Thomas seemed to be the last two

in the library every night but there were a concession certainly in terms of. Opportunity and when it came to the social concessions or recognition that this was a tough environment so these men did get the BSU van the boss which was essentially initially a station wagon to get off campus. They got extra resources and I think what happened was they knew that at the very highest levels of the college people deeply cared about their success but it's also called fraternity because I think they helped each other as much as Father Brooks helped them and certainly there was a sense as you heard from the callers that they change the call it as much as the college change them this was not a one way transaction so I think it's about mentorship but it's also about the power for eternity because they were as much lifting up each other. And I think they understood as Eddie said that there was a big burden on their shoulders the doors were opening and they had to go through and make something of it. So what do you guys think is the legacy of your experience there. I know the Diane that the numbers the racial numbers in terms of the

student population at the college level across not so great today and diversity is different you know people include you know there is something distinct and I guess I'll let the men answer this about being African-American when you put in Asians Latinos their very different experiences being a new immigrant for example than being black in America. So I think when we talk about diversity we talk about it differently. The legacy of our crisis was basically racism and I know and how unjust war. We had to develop the tools and character to try to overcome that. Today there is another war and there's another crisis and that's economic and it's also class and race. And the young people today have to develop the skills to survive and understand it. It's also a way of coming together as a group and as a family and as a nation to overcome this. Disparity. What do what do you want. And a lot of young people will read this

book. What do you want them to take away from your stories. Well if I can speak let me say this I think one of the legacies is the stack we all quotes. Diana tell you when she sees us together it is just unbelievable. And the friendship a strong friendship despite this you can't even imagine. You can't even buy and I think the legacy is one do we have our friendships too. We didn't change we did change the school. Make no mistake about that. And then the third thing I think for the young people to eat is they need to understand when this when this happened 40 something years ago none of. Where we are today none of us. If you were to say to Clarence Thomas you were going to Supreme Court Jenkins you would be on a Super Bowl team or a JONES You write a Pulitzer Prize book would you be one of the best lawyers and well you know none of us would have imagined any of that because we were there to get an education. But what happened as a result of the friendship. What

happened as a result of you know Father Brooks you know encouraging you know. People to move on and excel. The story is there you can overcome anything and be whatever you want and what these young people have to understand it's not going to be an easy road and you have to be prepared you know to be to get knocked down to maybe have some adversity and then to be able to get back up get on your feet and move on. And if you can develop friendships and relationships with people of like mind you know there's nothing you can accomplish and I think you know just as far as per the Bakshi one person was there wasn't. A student and he was the affair the other night he said one of the problems probably with affirmative action it was working and that's why after seven years you saw different cases you saw the pocky Keisha's sort of the few this case different cases that came down to really attacking a few affirmative action.

Ron from New York you're on the callee Crossley Show. Go ahead please eighty nine point seven. Hi how are you. Fine. Good i just wanted to speak for a minute because I arrived well after the tail end of all that I was the last all male class and a Holy Cross in 1971. We represented African-Americans represent 3 percent of the campus population and only half of us graduated. But I lived for a year on a corridor with Stan Jones Ted and Gil Harvey who unfortunately is no longer with us. And these guys for the last 40 years have been my big brother. And I mean that sincerely I don't mean in a pejorative sense. And I don't mean it frivolously these the guys that I know believe in me and what they left for me and the rest of my classmates and fellow African-Americans behind us what the legacy of achievement they had established a sense of excellence that when we moved on the court which was clearly three in 1071 they were our expectations set. Then we had

folks on the corridor who were kind of like Resident Gru who told us about our bar and I got to meet Clarence Thomas and Malcolm jealous of the spring weekend before when I came out when I was being recruited by Holy Cross but these guys it was tough a legend. So when we got to him we expected to follow the steps and so we have folks like Gary Thomas who's the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines in my days who's the managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. So they established and created a legacy for us which we are eternally grateful. Thank you very much for the call Ron. Well there you have it Eddie in art. There's a legacy good in his energies and I don't believe he's continues on. I thank both of you for joining us I'm going to finish up here with Diane but thank you so much. Eddie and George your game at the Super Bowl and art. Thanks so much. We're calling you. OK thank you no Appreciate it. God bless you.

All right Diane talk to me about Father Brooks now as you've said that he keeps in touch with a lot of these men and remains very active in the call it in fact he was the president for two decades. A lot of everybody in Worcester knows him and this was not unique to I think you know just the African-American men but I think it's interesting when you talk to him this was a very special time in his life. It was also I think a very special group and he frets over how do you continue this legacy of leadership not just for black students but for all students at Holy Cross. I think what's interesting is he is still somebody who very much is not only present in the world he's out there actively you know mentoring kids today he still teaches a course it is one of the toughest courses to get into out Mike Ross and his thing is you work you work. We've given you the opportunity you're smart. We know you're smart. Do the work.

And so I think he understands that leadership is a combination of having faith in people having faith in yourself and putting in the effort and these were men that very much put in the effort and I think the results speak for themselves. I was very touched by a point in the book where Ed Jones now Edward P. Jones the MacArthur Genius Award winning author of the known world his novel was struggling. And you know a word from some of the other men and from Father books like get those grades up and he got his grades up. And you know their ideas and he came in as a math major and nobody offered him a scholarship. Many of these men had multiple opportunities in fact Ted Wells actually had to get out of another scholarship to come to Holy Cross. He didn't have those options and it was because he was at Holy Cross that somebody also recognized his writing and said you know what you're a gifted writer so I think there was the getting the marks up and there was the idea that he could actually forge and have this passion.

What do you want people to take away from your book Diane Brady. I think I want them to appreciate this moment in history because I think it's easy to forget you know what it was like. Certainly I wasn't there at the time. And I think it's also to understand that the power of having faith and also the power of giving opportunity because I think this is a testament to the idea that when you offer opportunity people rise to the occasion and I honestly don't think that we're giving or getting the same opportunities for most Americans these days as perhaps at one point we felt they had to have and so one thing is the legacy of actually understanding that diversity makes everybody better makes college education better and it's what this country needs I think to really compete. Thank you very much we've been talking about the book fraternity which tells the story of race class and trust on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross in was during the late 1980s. I've been speaking with journalist Diane Brady the author of fraternity and I was also joined by two men who were at the College of the Holy Cross at the time Eddie

Jenkins a former NFL wide receiver now chief diversity officer and master. And also Martin a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross who founded the Black Student Union in 1968 and is today an attorney himself. You can keep on top of the cow across the show at WGBH dot org slash Calla Crossley follow us on Twitter and become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook. We are a production of WGBH Boston Public Radio.