McLean heads Signs of Adoration, which is a gospel sign language group on campus. The historically black group has begun extending its membership to all ethnicities.

But 60 years ago, developing a multiracial student group, such as Signs of Adoration, would have been more challenging. Diversity at MSU had a different meaning at the time, as MSU students and people across America were just beginning to feel the implications of the civil rights movement.

The story of black history at MSU is one written by the hands of a multitude of students, faculty and alumni — one that continues to be written today.

How it was

He was barred from the right to rent an apartment in East Lansing and denied admission to MSU’s graduate school.

It was the late 1960s, and Bill Andrews was one of about 500 black students at MSU in a time when racism was “alive and well.”

“I can recall being outside of the Chemistry Building, sitting on a bench that is probably still there, wondering if I should go back to Detroit,” said Andrews, who graduated from MSU in 1971 with an undergraduate degree in social science.

“I had been at MSU for maybe two weeks, and it seemed like everything was impossible. You reach a point where you think, ‘Why am I here? Can I do this?’ Of course, the answer is always yes … The answer was yes because I had no choice. You put yourself together and you go forward, which is exactly what I did. I didn’t quit, of course … Frankly, this was a real challenge. I had not been in an integrated situation, I was from Detroit. It was a big world to me.”

With the help of an MSU official, Andrews was later admitted to graduate school at the university. He earned his master’s degree in educational psychology in 1975.

A lack of awareness and understanding from Sharon Claytor Peters’ peers left her frustrated but not hopeless in her years at MSU as she pursued her degree in liberal arts with a concentration in anthropology.

“I always learned from my family to stand up for myself, so I didn’t feel I was discriminated against in the way that a door closed for me and it stayed closed,” the 1971 graduate said. “It was more in the way of comments made that displayed a lack of understanding. It was a frustrating experience feeling that the dominant group was the only way, and we were still working to change that.”

It was the support of other black students on campus that helped both Peters and Anderson through the racial challenges, they said.

Andrews credits a social network of black peers for his success. At that time there was little formal support for black students — a time when leaving his dormitory meant not seeing another black student until his return.

“Black students did things together because they had to,” he said. “You were mentored by people who came before you. The fact of the matter is, it was important because you needed someone to talk to … I knew I was certainly a minority — I was very conscious of that, and it was my frat and group of friends that helped ease that. As a group, you realize you’re isolated. But as an individual, I had friends, a social life.”

Membership in organizations such as his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, were essential for black students on campus to form a network of support and mentorship, he said. The social relationships and camaraderie allowed students to cope with the challenges of being a minority group on campus when racism, though not a factor for all students, was still prevalent. But Andrews says he is appreciative of MSU for where he is today.

“We did deal with racism … like being denied housing, hearing comments from some of the other students,” he said. “There were certain places you knew you could go, other places you didn’t bother because you knew you wouldn’t be welcome.”

“We were tough people, so we persevered … You certainly got no breaks — you were your own affirmative action, you had to do the work.”

A period of change

The 1950s and 1960s symbolized a period of significant growth at MSU and in the U.S. as a whole, as the civil rights movement gained speed. The movement launched in 1954 with the landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, which made segregation in schools and public institutions illegal.

At MSU, students began to organize and protest with the help of Robert Green, who was the dean of the College of Urban Development and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. He was also the official who helped Andrews further his education.

Beginning in 1963, Green and many students protested against the prevention of blacks renting property in the city.

“That was primarily what was going on in East Lansing — trying to get an ordinance created to make it illegal for people to discriminate on the basis of race,” professor emeritus and former campus minister John Duley said.

Five years later, the City Council signed the ordinance, making it possible for black students to live in East Lansing, he said.

Enrollment of black students at MSU climbed from hundreds to thousands in the late 1960s and students continued to press for equal treatment through demonstrations, Peters said.

One of the students who came to MSU in the late 1950s was Ernest Green, who was directly involved in Brown v. Board of Education as a member of the “Little Rock Nine.” He was the first black graduate of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.

“(Little Rock) was an opportunity to try to change the options for myself and the other eight students,” he said. “I didn’t anticipate that it’d be one of the shaping events of the civil rights movement … Barack Obama’s election is something that made me think about the choice I made in trying to attend that school … I claim Little Rock was helpful in making that occur.”

As one of the beacons of the civil rights movement, Ernest Green came to MSU on an anonymous scholarship, which he said he later discovered was funded by former MSU President John Hannah.

“(MSU) was far different than my experience at Little Rock,” he said. “I went to high school with the U.S. Army. I had to have the protection of paratroopers. This wasn’t the case going to class at MSU … I was impacted by the role of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King (Jr.) and Emmett Till — all of that was something that weighed on my conscience. I still had to try to eliminate barriers wherever they occurred.”

Six years after Ernest Green’s graduation, Peters arrived as a freshman at MSU while changes were still occurring at the university.

“America as a whole, and the university as a whole, was just beginning to look differently at race,” she said. “I came to campus the fall after Martin Luther King (Jr.) was killed. People were beginning to have an awareness of people different from them — that was the type of environment I came into.”

During her time as a student at MSU, Peters said the university engaged in efforts to increase black enrollment. That improved the balance on campus of black students, though it caused protest among some of the other students on campus.

Desegregation of the dormitories allowed black students to better integrate with other students in the dorms, and the formation of formal black organizations soon followed, she said.

Life today

But the fight against racism and for diversity at MSU is not over, some say.

“What we’ve seen since the ’50s is an increased effort to provide opportunities to African Americans — there is a greater sense of diversity in the sense of African Americans at the level of students, faculty and administration, but that’s not to say the job is complete,” said John H. McClendon III, MSU’s director of African American and African studies. “There is still a big gap between where we are and where we should be.”

Although instances of racism are less overt, they still remain in the U.S. and on campus, economics junior Ken Steele said. Steele said he continues to cope with the social stress of being a black student.

“I don’t think it’s conscious — it’s not frequently or explicitly stated,” he said.

When students aren’t given the chance to interact, it is more difficult for them to understand and learn about each other, Steele said.

“Understanding destroys prejudice,” he said. “The real problem we’re fighting is ignorance. Understanding is to understand that you don’t understand anything at all … There’s just an overall lack of understanding of social dynamics, history, culture.”

McLean said parts of MSU remain segregated, but that’s mostly people choosing to be around others like them. The campus has come a long way since the start of the civil rights movement but always has room to grow.

“I just love the fact I chose MSU,” she said. “I come into contact with so many different cultures and people, and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s what they do, that’s what they celebrate in their culture.’”