Chapel Hill’s center has been in the planning stages for more than a decade. It was proposed by Sonja Haynes Stone, an African-American-studies professor who helped integrate the UNC faculty in the 1970s. She hoped the center would not only nurture scholars of African-American culture but also foster better racial understanding on campus. The idea languished for years. Finally, in 1986, a university-appointed committee drew up plans for a spacious facility with a library, a lounge, an art gallery, a music room and a dance studio. In 1988 the school hired a director, and the center opened in what was supposed to be a temporary 900-square-foot space in the student union.
Four years later, black students say they’ve waited too long. Stone’s sudden death in 1991 from an aneurysm increased the pressure. Last month black members of the football team led 600 marchers to Hardin’s offices. The rally a week later drew filmmaker Spike Lee, a relative of Stone’s, to campus. “Black students catch hell on white campuses,” declared Lee. “This is going to … affect white universities across the country.”
But Hardin had initially objected to the center, saying it would increase racial separatism on the campus, where blacks make up only about 8 percent of the 23,000-member student body. His remarks angered many black students, and Hardin says he was misunderstood. “What’s broken my heart is that I’ve been portrayed as a ’60s liberal who stopped growing,” he says. “I believe in the legitimacy of a black-culture center. I’m not an opponent.” He has appointed a committee to draw up new plans for the center; members include Delores Jordan, the mother of pro-basketball star Michael Jordan, a UNC graduate. The group held its first meeting last week. “Why start all over again?” asks Michelle Thomas, president of the Black Student Movement. “It’s just another stall tactic.”
Some white students admit they have reservations about the center. “A lot of white students think it will just become a black student union,” says student-body vice chairman Charlie Higgins, a senior. Blacks say that won’t happen. “Our own place doesn’t mean we want to keep people out,” says Tim Smith, a defensive back on the Tar Heel football team and a leader in the athletes’ Black Awareness Council. If Smith’s words are heeded, the center could fulfill Stone’s intent: a place for study and a place for harmony. Easier said than done.
