Apartheid. USA 1988

March 4, 1988:

At Dartmouth College in New Hampshire a confrontation has taken place between a black music professor, William S Cole, and four white students accused of harassing the black professor in class. The students concerned, who contribute to a politically conservative off-campus weekly newspaper, The Dartmouth Review, also published an article critical of the professor. Black students and others on campus charged that the article and the alleged harassment were racially motivated. The four white students denied this, saying the article was justifiable criticism of Mr Cole's class. Dartmouth granted a request by black students that the college hold forums on racism in residence halls, culminating in an open meeting on racism on campus. Dartmouth has 3 687 students of which 6 percent are black.

Racial tension at Dartmouth received national attention two years ago when a group of students carried out a midnight sledge-hammer attack on a cluster of shanties erected by students who opposed investment by the college's endowment fund in companies doing business in South Africa. Of the 12 students who faced disciplinary proceedings in the incident, 10 were staff members of The Review.^227.

227. The New York Times, from a report by Allan R Gold