One of the most common themes within the documents I found was protest. Obviously the 70s were a political hotbed for protests, but even so, Knox students seem unusually active. There were a lot of examples of students protesting Vietnam and other big world events, but the one I found most interesting is local: Knox students striking with the International Molders and Foundry Workers Union of North America at the Galesburg Malleable Co. factory.
The initial plea for help striking, speaking about the picketing system and how Galesburg Malleable Co. has wronged the workers.
Brian Allen and Evan Jones’ response to both the letter and a posting in the newspaper, objecting to claims that the entire student body stands with the workers.
A report from William Kilkenny, about Allen and Jones’ response.
These letters show two sides of Knox’s relationship with protesting: Both the positive in the letter promoting the strike, and the negative in the letter complaining about being misrepresented. Both of these are interesting to me as I can’t see either of them happening anymore. Strikes are already rare and college students taking time out to picket with the community is extremely surprising, while how offended the others got at the student body being misrepresented was also shocking to me. Overall, I think these documents show both how involved the student body used to be in the community and protest in general, while also showing how deeply they cared about their identity as a community.
Document source: Knox College Archives Box 24 File 11
Good work, Guy. At the beginning of each post, get in the habit of letting us know something about the documents. What are they? How might they have been used. Then go into your analysis.
Also, as we move forward, try to find and focus on materials that have a more direct link to the Black Arts/Black Power movements. Or make the connection explicit when, here, there doesn’t seem to be a direct relation.