Nearby History: A time of tension, protest

Editor’s note: Nearby History is a weekly column written by historians and archival content managers on the Palouse.

While student protests on the Washington State University campus can be dated as far back as 1892, it would be hard to argue 1970 was not the most volatile on campus. The first organized “peace protest” appeared to occur in 1960, and they trickled along thereafter, but it was really in 1969 that large activist events began on campus.

Sparked by a Jan. 9, 1969, pickup basketball game between members of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and residents of Gannon-Goldsworthy Hall in which racist language was apparently used and punches reportedly thrown, members of the WSU Black Student Union confronted fraternity members at their house six days later. Despite a stated peaceful intent, a melee ensued and shotgun blasts were fired at the upper levels of the house. To be clear, no individuals were shot at; no one was seriously injured.

Police were called, and five students were arrested, all Black. At their trial in February, all five were convicted, given one to three years of probation, and sentenced to serve 30 to 90 days in the county jail. However, the jail time was set to be served only on weekends to allow them to continue their education. Regardless of what actually happened, for many the arrests of only Black students carried the appearance of racism.

On Feb. 28, the five students were set to report at 5 p.m. to the Whitman County Jail in Colfax. However, student protestors, most from WSU, but some also from Whitworth College and Eastern Washington University, descended on the Colfax jail, drumming, chanting and singing. Alerted to what was going on, Colfax photographer Bill Walter brought his camera and followed the actions of the next 24 hours in a series of 66 photographs now preserved at the WSU Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections. When the five arrestees arrived, the demonstrators locked arms and physically prevented them from entering the jail. Sheriff C.A. (Mike) Humphreys talked with the protestors but they said he’d have to arrest all of them, and he ultimately left them in the parking lot as he sought assistance from WSU officials.

While the relatively peaceful (a few bottles were thrown at the building) protestors remained outside, effectively a stalemate had been reached. With WSU faculty member Johnnetta Cole negotiating for the students, she and Humphreys led the students three blocks north to the First Methodist church, where the protestors and the five convicted students would spend a relatively peaceful night.

One piece of graffiti was drawn on church walls, but cleaned off by protestors in the morning (with an apology delivered to the minister); one angry townsman attempted to enter the church and confront the protestors but was held off by police outside. Although police, protestors, lawyers and university officials negotiated, nothing was resolved.

At 10:30 the next morning, the demonstrators left the church and returned to the jail, where they resumed their protest. A few hours later they walked the full length of Main Street to the St. Patrick’s Church on the hill at the south end of town, where they sought shelter. Given the option there by the sheriff to leave or be arrested, about a third of the remaining protestors left, and the final 42 were arrested, allowing the original five to report to jail at 2 p.m. with no negative repercussions. The remaining protestors, singing “We are Soldiers in the Army,” were taken by school bus to the Colfax jail, where they were charged with “resisting process” with bail set at $1,000 each. They were all released the following day after agreeing not to return to Colfax to protest further.

This all was happening in an era where confrontations between protestors and police had resulted in many deaths and injuries, so tensions between police and protestors were high going in.

However, in the aftermath of this protest, the Black Student Union sent Sheriff Humphries a dozen red roses for “keeping his cool” during the demonstrations. The following year would see multiple protests and a student strikes on the WSU campus, but for the most part they all followed the precedent of peaceful, if tense, protests set by local students and authorities alike in early 1969.

O’English is the university archivist at Washington State University’s Libraries’ Manuscripts and Special Collections.