"There was no violence. They did not sit in my chair or in the secretary’s chair and keep us from carrying on our activities. The disruption, of course, came by virtue of the fact that there were so many people in such a small space. It was a regrettable thing to have happen on campus, but I am happy that there was no physical violence, and that the students went peaceably when the police came to remove them from the Regent’s Room.”

Kirk E. Naylor, 11-11-69

Republished from a November 1969
Gateway student newspaper article.

On Friday, November 7, at 1:30 p.m., the Black Liberators for Action on Campus held a news conference in the Milo Bail Student Center. BLAC President Robert Honore (pictured, second from left), a Viet Nam Veteran and reserve army officer, disclosed to the assembled newsmen six black student demands. At 2:00 p.m., Honore, and about fifty of his followers, marched over to Dr. Naylor’s office to present the list of demands to the president in person.

The group, which is made up of black students attending UNO, demanded that Dr. Naylor ask for the resignation of Fred D. Ray, Director of Student Activities, and Mrs. Thelma Engle, University Social Director. The group went on to demand that the “control of the student center . . . be vested in a student governing body.” “a voice in the programming of the black studies curriculum” and the right to be consulted when the university sought in the future to employ both “black speakers” and “black instructors.” The group also requested that the university set up a training table for athletes, “that the university explain the 95 per cent reduction in the fiscal budget for black oriented activities,” and reimbursement for the revenue loss occurred when a BLAC-sponsored dance collapsed because the sound system (which the University provided) failed to perform.

BLAC’s statement, which was dated November 5th, 1969, was prefaced by a claim that Negro students at UNO were “appalled by the contemptible attitude exhibited by key administrative personnel towards them” and that this blatant racial discrimination had left them, “both personally and as a group, in considerable anguish” because they were not able “to function within the University system.”

Again, according to the preface, the demands listed above were minimal and were presented to Dr. Naylor only for “his immediate action.” Failure to act in this manner would, the group said, be met with “a black student boycott of all University functions,” “a demand for the withholding of all federal and state funds until the University was investigated on grounds of both racial prejudice and financial mismanagement,” and a request that the military review the bootstrap program at the University because of the “absence of proper programming.”

The demands were unanimously approved by BLAC membership.

President Naylor received the demands in his office from Mr. Honore, and placed them face down on the table. He then told Mr. Honore that he would meet with him at 11:30 a.m. on Monday for his reply.

Over the weekend, President Naylor conferred with Emmett Cribbs, BLAC faculty advisor, and member of the University Human Relations Committee. Cribbs was ignorant of the BLAC move prior to their news conference. Dr. Naylor also met with his University Executive Council, Dean Carter, Fred Ray, Thelma Engle and Ron Pullen.

No attempt was made over the weekend to bring Mr. Honore and Dr. Naylor together in a more relaxed meeting. The University Human Relations Committee was not consulted by Dr. Naylor, nor did they consult with each other. Instead, both sides girded themselves for the Monday morning confrontation.

On Monday, Mr. Honore and about 75 fellow black students met in Dr. Naylor’s office. Because of the size of the group, which included supporting white students and newsmen, Dr. Naylor moved the meeting to the Regents Room, a large conference room adjacent to his office. At this time BLAC president Honor told all the press to leave so that his people and the President could meet in private.

[In this period of the confrontation we are forced to rely on the impressions of those present.]

Dr. Naylor read a point-by-point statement in reply to the original BLAC demands. In response to their charges of racism being tolerated on campus, Naylor said that he was unaware that any racism did indeed exist, but that he would immediately act on any documented incident of discrimination. After some personal accounts of his own beliefs, the President assured the students that all their concerns would be aired through the normal university channels.

BLAC interpreted Dr. Naylor’s comments as patronizing and insincere and unsympathetic. After he was finished, Mr. Honore asked if there was anything else the President wanted to say. Naylor replied, “no.” Mr. Honore, without hesitation, rose and said that the group had unilaterally agreed that Dr. Naylor’s reply to their demands was inadequate. Honore added that members of his organization would occupy the President's offices until he capitulated. At that time the BLAC members fanned out into the President’s office, his secretary’s office, as well as the Regents Room. BLAC leaders made sure that no black athletes were involved in the sit-in and that no white students were to occupy the rooms. About 200 additional students, white and black, filled the hall outside.

Dr. Naylor went out of his office to confer with Dean Pflasterer, and then returned to his office to inform Mr. Honore that his group had 15 minutes to clear his office, and if they were not out by that time, he would authorize Dean Pflasterer to call the police. Honore replied that they had no intention of leaving. After 15 minutes, Dean Pflasterer called the police.

The crowd of 250 students in the hall began to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

At the 12:20 class break, a black student from Creighton University kept the aisles open and the stairway cleared so that students could pass to their classes.

It was not until 1:10 that the first members of the Omaha City Police Department arrived in the Administration Building. They immediately went into Dr. Naylor’s office. BLAC students informed white and black students in the hall not to get in the way of the policemen.

At 1:30, after an appeal by a black police inspector was rejected, fifteen more policemen entered Naylor’s office. Not knowing the exact situation on the campus, the policemen were helmeted and armed with nightsticks. The police began leading the BLAC sit-ins away in groups of three to awaiting cars and wagons. The black students walked out quietly, with arms linked, always one female between two males.

Honore refused to be simply removed form the building, but requested that BLAC be specifically charged. Among those arrested were Honore, Miss Cathy Pope, the reigning Miss Omaha, and 52 other black students.

Once at the Omaha Police Station, the students were booked under a new Nebraska anti-riot statute. Members of various community civil rights groups had attorneys on hand to negotiate the student’s bond. The judge set each individual student’s bond at $25.

At 3:30 p.m., Dr. Naylor held a news conference where he explained that the students “had not learned to live gracefully with democracy.” He further explained that the university has proper channels for correction of grievances such as those presented by the black students.

On Tuesday, November 11, at 9:00 a.m., BLAC held another press conference and added a seventh demand to the earlier ones. This demand states . . . “that all charges be dropped against those students arrested November 10th, 1969, for unlawful assembly and that no disciplinary action be taken against those same students by administrative personnel at UNO.”

On Wednesday, the University Student Senate got into the news conference business. S. Kent Wild, Student Senate President, and his Vice President, Mike Nolan, issued a blistering indictment of the administration’s use of police and Dr. Naylor’s refusal to back the student senate as the most legal and obvious route of student grievances.

This news conference had something for everybody, as it knitpicked some of BLAC’s statements and demands as well. The leaders of the UNO Young Democrats were also present to throw their lot with the members of BLAC by issuing an unqualified statement of support for BLAC actions, and Wild offered his services as a mediator.

Newsmen were quick to point out that Dr. Naylor was receiving much support in the form of phone calls and telegrams. They also cited early reports of at least two University of Nebraska Regents condoning the President’s use of police. Some students countered that this show of support was coming from without the campus and on the basis of early news reports referring to the confrontation as a “takeover,” rather than a sit-in.

From Tuesday on, both the President and BLAC set about getting their various actions during the confrontation endorsed by as many groups and individuals as possible. As early as Tuesday morning, Naylor met with the now-released Honore, to talk over the demands and the events that led to them. But if the parties involved began to realize how they got into the confrontation, both refused to negotiate a way out. For the most part, both sides stuck to their original written positions. Honore said that student control of the student center was the most important of all the demands. He added that the proposed Student Center Policy Board would be another red tape committee and that nothing would change until Fred Ray was removed.

Early attempts to approach President Naylor to drop the legal charges against those arrested met with little results. Naylor was convinced that the legal action was out of his hands at that stage. He added that he would not fail to press charges even if he could, as those students had knowingly broken the law.

As of this writing, the polarization goes on. Perhaps the most positive thing to come out of the episode was the passage of resolution No. 395 by the University Senate. The resolution reads:” “That The University Senate firmly supports the actions of President Naylor on November 10, 1969, and urges all persons concerned to provided additional channels of communications; specifically, the Senate directs its President to appoint an ad hoc committee to consider the demands and complaints of students and to report to the University Senate its findings and recommendations with all possible speed.” The above resolution was the end product of a meeting more divided than the 18-3 vote indicated. By the time the police action was brought to their attention, it was history.