Letter: The 50th anniversary of the Allen Building Takeover
(02/22/19 5:00am)
Thank you for soliciting our memories on the 50th anniversary of the Allen Building takeover. One of this past week’s events nearly brought me to tears. I viewed the library exhibit and attended a discussion at the Mary Lou Williams Center, where I again saw the list of demands by the African American students. One was to increase the population of black students at Duke to 29 percent by 1973. This demand was so powerful to me because I matriculated to Duke in— you guessed it—1973. That demand, read today, almost felt like they asked for me by name.