RIDGELAND — Fifty years ago, a young man from Trinidad named Wilhelm Joseph was enrolled at what was then called Mississippi Valley State College. He was an excellent student and athlete and demonstrated an ability to inspire others. These qualities led to his election to the Student Government Association as president during the 1968-69 academic terms.
It was to be a momentous scholastic year for Valley, particularly during the spring semester. In January, the college’s marching band performed in Washington during festivities marking the inauguration of President Richard M. Nixon. Less than one month later, large-scale arrests on campus would follow a demonstration for increased rights for female students and improvements in the quality of education offered at Valley.
Wilhelm and I spoke by phone in late September on the issues that brought about the demonstrations and the reactions of administrators, namely President James Herbert White.
Wilhelm said that the demonstrations at Valley must be understood within the context of the times. He pointed out that during the previous year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated, rioting occurred in major cities and calls were made for more rights for black citizens. It was within this context that Valley students began to seek changes. Chief among these were demands for more instructors with doctorates, a better library that would include volumes by noted black writers, and more freedom for Valley students, including an end to the curfew for female students.
Stalling tactics by the administration resulted in an all-night sit-in in the gymnasium. Students promised to demonstrate until their demands were met. The reaction of President White was to have the demonstrators arrested and sent to jail. Wilhelm said that this was the largest mass arrest ever to have occurred in the United States up to that time. An all points bulletin was issued for his arrest, even though he was in Memphis at the time. He became the symbol of black resistance to the local press and law enforcement.
The situation at Valley led to classes being cancelled and the university temporarily closed. Those students who remained on campus after the mass arrests were taken to the Greyhound Bus Station in Jackson. There the university bursar instructed them to secure tickets for travel to their respective hometowns. Wilhelm recounts that many, if not most, of the students seized upon the opportunity to request tickets to Itta Bena so that they could return to the campus and continue the demonstrations.
Those things sought by students at Valley in 1969 seem rather tame in comparison to what was being sought by students protesting elsewhere. Wilhelm said that he and other students were tired of the “ridiculous” rules they were subjected to. He mentioned that female students were confined to campus during the week and were only allowed to leave in yellow school buses on Saturdays for shopping trips to Greenwood.
Today, Wilhelm credits White as a genius and praises him for building Mississippi Valley State. He also criticizes White for having a limited vision concerning how much Valley graduates could achieve. Wilhelm recounts White’s often-repeated charge to Valley students that they should aspire to one day have a $10,000-per-year job and a Cadillac. The job and the car should have been the floor for graduates, Wilhelm contends, not the ceiling.
• Vincent J. Venturini, of Ridgeland, is a retired associate provost at Mississippi Valley State. Currently he teaches part time in its Department of Social Work.
