Tribune columnist reflects on struggle to eliminate racism

Insisting that audience members in a packed Hale Auditorium crowd keep their "eyes on the prize," Clarence Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Chicago Tribune, at "A Drum Major for Justice," a program sponsored by the School of Business Administration.

Kofi Bruce, president of the Business school's student government, introduced Page as an accomplished journalist and timely speaker to honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Today we look back on our nation's history and renew our daily struggle of fighting racism," said Bruce, who detailed Page's accomplishments as a member of the Tribune's editorial board, a regular panelist on Black Entertainment Television's weekly news panel program "Lead Story," and a biweekly commentator for National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition Sunday."

Page, who mixed humor, personal narrative and historical perspective in his talk, said that "Dr. King provided a model not just for us, but for the rest of the world."

Page added that just by the audience's presence at his speech, they were "living King's dream."

Bonnie Brereton, a comparative religion professor at Eastern Michigan University, said she has noticed a more diverse climate in Ann Arbor since she graduated from the University in the late 1970s. She said she considers the MLK Day programming an integral part of honoring this diversity.

"It's good to see so many students here," Brereton said. "I wasn't sure if so many students would be interested or not."

Medical student Peter Thomas said he was struck by Page's powerful delivery.

"I especially enjoyed Mr. Page's satirical review of the historical presence of racism and race relations," Thomas said. "He was satirical yet insightful of the irony and hypocrisy that exists on an everyday level in American society."

After reading excerpts from King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, Page connected the time of King's activism to his own experiences with racism.

"I was four years old when I first learned the rules of race," said Page, speaking of a white-only amusement park he could not visit.

Page was seven when he first heard the word "segregation." His father explained that the signs over the public water fountains referred not to the color of the water but to the race of the people allowed to use the fountain.

Page said he has noticed that Americans either believe that we "ain't made no progress" or that we have "made all the progress we need to make."

Page finished by offering several "prescriptions" to help cure the racism epidemic in the United States, including acknowledging the problem, creating honest dialogues between the races and insisting that whites actively fight racism.

01-20-98