In class, we listened to an audio interview with Alfreda Dortch Williams. In these excerpts of the recordings we heard, Williams described her experience growing up, existing in a mostly white college, and eventually founding A.B.L.E. at Knox. This is one of the sources linking and showing the influence of the Black Power Movement on the Knox campus. Alfreda Dortch Williams grew up in the West Side of Chicago, and graduated from Knox in 1969. She founded A.B.L.E. (Allied Blacks for Liberty & Equality) and the A.B.L.E. house.
“So a lot of the stuff I did was to challenge the present norms. But the formation of A.B.L.E. was to enable our subsistence. That was how we got through, that support system from A.B.L.E. And we also had the support systems from other schools. We would go periodically to Bradley University, to Western Illinois, we went to Cornell, we went to a couple other schools that had Black student organizations and we would exchange information.” -Alfreda Dortch Williams (R3/Excerpt 6: 21:02-22:29)
This excerpt of the interview stood out to be the most. She talks about how most of her life she was just pushing against norms (after telling a story about how she wore blue jeans to a white church in Galesburg). But she says that forming A.B.L.E. didn’t have that same intention behind it, instead she did it to help her and other black students “get through” their experience at a mostly white college. This is a common sentiment throughout the Black Power Movement; creating spaces where black people can connect and find brother ship amongst others like them. And that is exactly why A.B.L.E. was even founded. Williams also talks about using a car that Knox provided them to go to other colleges that had Black Unions or Black-Led student groups. I think this aspect is very interesting, and I wonder if any of the other schools around here have archives from their Black Unions. It’s interesting to see the wide berth such seemingly small movements at the time had. It makes me think about one of my archive finds from last week, the pictures of Fred Hampton at a Black Power panel at Monmouth College. Even I have been to Monmouth College for events (and I never usually go to events on campus). I wonder if any A.B.L.E. students around that time (1970) went to that Black Power panel and if any of them are pictured. Overall, it’s fascinating to see all the interconnectedness of the campuses and how Knox was part of the Black Rights and Power Movements.
During the (admittedly little) research I did outside listening to this audio recording, I stumbled upon this online archive of one of the Knox newspapers from 1999. In the section pictured they outline different Knox Alumni, one of them being Alfreda Dortch Williams (far left, darker box on the side). Within her own little section, the writer details some of Williams’ experiences as a black woman on campus and her founding of A.B.L.E. on campus.
Great work, Tyler.