Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Awa Diaw

Access: Open access

Awa Diaw ‘11 talks about the experience of moving from the diverse community of Harlem, New York to snowy Brunswick, ME, and how it was one of her first times being around white students in an academic setting, which she calls a “cultural transition.” Diaw, reflects on learning to use Bowdoin’s resources and how to get support where she needed it, and recalls incidents of racial bias experienced by Bowdoin students during her time at the College. One of these culminated in a moment in Diaw’s junior year when, frustrated with the administration’s response to a particularly disturbing incident, Diaw and a committee of other students created a campaign called I Am Bowdoin, which elevated the voices of students who felt marginalized at Bowdoin.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Randy Stakeman

Access: Open access

Randy Stakeman came to Bowdoin in 1978, not as a student, but as a member of the faculty. He discusses the history of the Africana Studies program, which he chaired from 1989 until his retirement in 2006. Stakeman also discusses his position as Acting Dean of Students, which he held for a brief period of time early in his career. He worked diligently to help bridge the achievement gap between black and white students. Stakeman partnered with faculty across the college to give special attention and support to underachieving students. He remembers fondly the role of the John B. Russwurm Center, where black students could congregate and find support. He says the house created a community, which he cherished.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Symone Howard

Ashley Musana

Briana Cardwell

Rebkah Tesfamariam

Access: Open access

Symone Howard ’15, Ashley Musana ’16, Briana Cardwell ’17, and Rebkah Tesfamariam ’18 were four consecutive presidents of the African American Society. They were the last to preside over the organization before the name changed to Black Student Union. They discuss the numerous challenges each encountered during their time here, which coincided with large scale instances of cultural appropriation, including Cracksgiving, the Gangster Party, and the Tequila Party. Musana, who was president for both parties, recounts the long hours spent working with students and administrators to sustain and support community. All four presidents recognize the tremendous burden placed on them as individuals, but all express gratitude for having created such a close knit community.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Robert Johnson

Access: Open access

Robert Johnson, Class of 1971, talks about his first visit to Bowdoin in 1967 with a friend, and being involved with BUCRO, the Bowdoin Undergraduate Civil Rights Organization. There, he met Virgil Logan, president of BUCRO and an instrumental face on campus and in the Bowdoin African American Society. Johnson details how Afam came about after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr out of a desire to form community. Johnson then became the first President of the AfroAm at Bowdoin College. Johnson talks about how critical AfAm was for him and fellow black students isolated from their respective communities and drove black students to organize, and change racist systems. He shares stories of activism and resistance carried out on campus, specifically one where the black students on campus went silent and marched across campus to protest the lack of action on part of the Bowdoin administration as far as ensuring racial diversity in future classes. He also talks about racial incidents at Bowdoin and how Bowdoin shaped him in the years during and after graduation.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: DeRay Mckesson

Access: Open access

DeRay Mckesson ’08 was a two-time president of Bowdoin Student Government, and instituted many of the programming and policies that are in place today. Mckesson shares how during his tenure he transferred several powers of the presidency onto the Executive Committee. He tasked this body with selecting members for BSG’s General Assembly but also with selecting students for institutional committees. Mckesson reaffirms his belief in the Bowdoin community, which he considers unique for its collection of highly capable individuals who believe in the bigness of the world. He discusses how he strove always to imagine new ways to serve the community and built meaningful relationships with faculty, staff, and students.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Alvin Hall

Access: Open access

Alvin Hall ’74 begins with a brief anecdote on how he helped bring together Geoffrey Canada and Stanley Druckenmiller to collaborate on the Harlem’s Children Zone. Druckenmiller was a friend of Hall’s roommate at Bowdoin, and Canada a member of the Afro-American Society. A couple years after graduation, Hall ran into Canada on the streets of New York and shared that Druckenmiller had recently come into good fortune. The rest is history. Hall remembers fondly how close the Bowdoin community was when he was a student. He spent many nights in the John B. Russwurm Center, where black students could come together for community. Hall recounts his involvement with the Society during his four years as a student. He took part in several protests, including a silent strike, where black students advocated for more people of color in the faculty and student body.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Saira Toppin

Access: Open access

Saira Toppin ’09 discusses her upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, and how that made for a challenging transition to Brunswick, Maine. She shares how a few juniors mentored her during her first year, which helped Toppin adjust to Bowdoin. She credits this mentorship with encouraging her to carve out space for herself on campus as an Afro-Latina and also to look out for others once she became an upperclassman. She shares stories from her time on the boards of both the African American Society and the Latin American Students Organization (LASO). As co-president of LASO during her junior and senior year, Toppin helped the organization have an impact on campus by organizing Latin American Heritage Month event Fall. She made sure to mentor underclassman so that they could run the club in her absence and considers LASO to be her legacy.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Adriennie Hatten

Shelby Cogdell Knox

Access: Open access

Adriennie Hatten ('90) and Shelby Cogdell Knox ('91) both share their path to Bowdoin from East Cleveland. They describe the racism that they experienced on campus, especially in their first years at Bowdoin, and how they struggled to develop a sense of place in what was a campus with so few black students. Both Hatten and Knox were highly involved with the African American Society (AfAm) during their time at the College, and the two women share how central Russwurm was to their Bowdoin experience. They reminisce on various speakers that they brought to campus, including Toni Morrison. Finally, Hatten and Knox reflect on AF/AM/50, and share concerns about both the current state of Russwurm and the recent name change from the African-American Society to the Black Student Union. Finally both women criticize the ways that black alumni are treated by the College, and how they see that embodied in the offerings and verbage of their recent weekend on campus.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Marnita Eaddie

Access: Open access

Marnita Eaddie ('90) reminisces about her time at Bowdoin, particularly the transition of moving from her predominantly black hometown of East Cleveland to Brunswick, Maine. She shares how variations in wealth between students showed during her time at Bowdoin, but also how students from a variety of backgrounds managed to come together. She recounts confronting racism on the predominantly white campus, and how she navigated being one of less than fifteen black students in her incoming class. She additionally describes her own commitment to academics during her four years at the College, and how she managed to balance a superb academic record along with holding various part-time jobs during all of her semesters. Eaddie brings up the impact of various tragedies on campus, including the death of student Pamela Herbert (‘90) in the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist attack. Finally, she explores how her later work in the military contrasted and aligned with her Bowdoin experience.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Justin Weathers

Access: Open access

Justin Weathers ’18 grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. His track coach and AP Gov teacher, a graduate of Bowdoin, encouraged him to apply to Bowdoin. Weathers talks about transitioning from the mostly black population of Baltimore to the very white, very small town of Brunswick, ME. He reflects on how, while AfAm was a safe space at Bowdoin, the class, ethnic, and regional differences among black students at Bowdoin affected the black community at Bowdoin. He also reflects on several bias incidents happening at Bowdoin during his first year, which was also the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Weathers remembers how it was to experience the Baltimore riots of the mid 2010s while attending Bowdoin. Additionally, Weathers reflects on his lasting impact at Bowdoin, from making “More than Meets the Eye” a mandatory part of Bowdoin First-Year Orientation, to advocating for black students affected by Bowdoin’s zero tolerance violence policy, which neglects to account for racial and verbal violence, plus the difficulty of having conversations across difference at Bowdoin that feel productive. Overall, Weathers reflects on how Bowdoin shaped him into who he is today, and one of his favorite memories of Bowdoin: riding into Ivies on the Brunswick Quad with Bowdoin security on a golf cart.