Talking Like It's 1969 and You're Living in Watts

My favorite course at the University of Arkansas in 1969 was an upper-level essay writing course that taught the discipline of structured writing and showed the rewards of writing regularly. The instructor was Harriet Jansma, who had a welcoming enthusiasm and pleasant openness that inspired confidence that our essay writing efforts would be judged by an appreciative audience. I remember the course with much pleasure.

This essay writing course came to mind recently when I excavated a couple of handouts from it. One handout provides the definitions of slang words that were being used during the last two years of the 1960s. The other handout has definitions of slang used in Watts, a large residential district of Los Angeles inhabited mostly by African-Americans, in the late 1960s. Watts was famous at the time for the wild riots that occurred there in 1965 with extensive burning and looting.

The slang definitions were taken from an academic journal, Current Slang, published by the University of South Dakota. I assume the handouts were provided to us to help with the language we used in our essays.

Looking at these 1969 slang words, it is fun to try to recall if they were words that I used at the time. Do I  still use them?  What slang words do I not recognize? What happened to them?

Many of the words in these two handouts have been fully incorporated into the English language so that now we no longer think of them as slang.  A much smaller number of words in the handouts have disappeared from the language or have changed their meanings.

This list of words reminds us of the dynamic nature of the English language and how it grows both richer and poorer over time as words are added and other words fade away.

Part 1:  Current Slang of the American Language, 1969

Ace                       n.  A skilled performer.

                              -He’s an ace in pool.      

                              v.  To perform well.

                              -I think I aced that test.

All-nighter             n.  A long, difficult job; a cram session

Axe                       n.  Guitar

Bent out of          adj.  Angry; dissatisfied

Shape                  

Blow…mind         adj.  To lose control.

Boss                    adj.  Good; the right thing; especially a good sound.

Cold turkey          adj.  Unprepared.

                              -He took that history test cold turkey.

Cop out                v.  To change intentions

                              -He’d like to cop you on that party.

Cut a trail              v.  To leave.

                              -We’d better cut a trail before the counselor comes.

Dog                       v. To contribute an inadequate performance; to give less
                                that the best.

Drop back and      v.  To try a new strategy after a setback; to try again

Punt

Fink out                 v.  To disappoint

                              -She really finked out on her date.

Freaked out          adj.  Acting abnormally

Funky                    adj. Relaxed; informal

                              -We wanted the bar to be a funky place.

Greaser                n.  Gangster; “hood”; a shady type

                               

Gross                    adj.  Displeasing, unpleasant, crude

                              -That guy’s jokes are really gross.

Grossed out          adj.  Disgusted

                              -I’m really grossed out at this exam.

Grunge                 n.  A bad, unpleasant thing, especially food.

                              -Did you see that grunge we had for supper?

Hacked off          adj.  Anger

Hang it there        v.  To keep struggling

Hang loose          v.  To relax; to remain calm

Lunchbox             n.  A simpleton

Metrecal              n.  A process of treatment used on self-important people;

Shampoo              the cure for fatheads.

                           -What he needs is a metrical shampoo.

Nurd                     n.  Someone with objectionable habits or traits; 

                                 an affected person; a “dud”

                             

Out of …trees     adj.  Insane; confused

Out of sight         adj.  Beyond belief

Out to lunch        adj.  Conceited; snobbish

P.G.A.                   n.  Pure grain alcohol

Rack                     n.  Body

                              v.  To sleep

Rah-rahs              n. saddle oxfords

Rally                     v. To attend a party; drink; to have a “wild time.”

Saigon tech         n.  Vietnam; Vietnam war.

Suck suds             v.  To drink beer.

                              -Let’s go suck suds.

Tough                   adj.  Attractive; perfect.

Turn on.               V. To become enlivened, usually for a short period of time.

Up tight               adj.  Sophisticated; “cool”

Uptight                adj.  Nervous; worried

Unreal                  adj. Unbelievable

                              -It was an unreal time.   

Whole-hog          adj. Enthusiastic

Zilch                      n.  A nobody

Zonked                 adj. Drunk

                              -He was really zonked last night.

The above definitions came from Current Slang, vol II, no 4; vol. III, no. 4; and volume IV, no. 1, 1968-69; Department of English, University of South Dakota.

Part 2:  Slang of Watts (Black neighborhood in Los Angeles), 1969

Acid                      v.  LSD (Drug user’s jargon)

Babe                     n.  A girl

Bad News            n.   An uncomfortable or dangerous situation; 

                                 an untrustworthy person.

        - That bar was bad news.

Bag                       n.  A problem.

Barge                   n.  A big car; a Cadillac

Bastille                 n.  Jail

Beautiful              adj.  Pleasing, nice.

                           -It’s beautiful the way the people work together.

Black.                   n.  A Negro. A work preferred by the new nationalist groups.

Black power        n.  A slogan used to advocate the sharing by Negroes of 

                              economic and political control in the United States

Broad.                  n.  A woman

Broke                   adj. Without money

Bug                       v.  To bother

Bug out                v.  To drop out; to leave; to quit

Charlie                 n.  Caucasian

Chitterlings           n.  Soul food; intestines of a hog or a pig to be cooked slowly

Chuck                  n. Caucasian male

Clod                    n.  A stupid person

                              -Harry has flunked every test, he’s such a clod.

Cool cat               n.  A person with whom there is immediate rapport; 

                                one who is in with the crowd.

                             -All the cool cats were at the jazz scene.

Cool head            n.  A person who treats people well; someone who does 

                                favors

Cool it                  interj.  Stop what you are doing

Crash                    v.  To go to bed; to go to sleep

                              -I really crashed after the party last night.

Creep                   n.  A strange person

Cut out                 v.  to leave a place.

                              -I think it’s about time to cut out.

Devil                     n.  A Caucasian

Dog                       n.  An unattractive woman.

Dough                   n.  Money

Dud                       n.  A joke intended to be funny which falls flat

                              -He’s always telling duds, and it gets tiring hearing

                                the same old stuff all the time.

Fink                       v. To tell on

Flake out              v.  Fall asleep

                              -Bill has flaked out.

Flat                       n.  A house; an apartment

Fox                        n.  An attractive girl

Foxy                      adj.  Attractive, sexy.

Fuzz                      adj.  Police

Go lurking            v.  To go joy riding

                              -I went out lurking last night.

Grapevine            n.  A chain of gossiping people.

                              -You said you heard it through the grapevine.

Grass                    n.  Pot, marijuana.

Groovy                 adj.  Excellent, smooth, wonderful

Hip                        adj.  Informed on current events

                              -He is hip. He knows what’s happening.

Keep your cool      v.  To stay calm

Kicks                     n.  Excitement; fun; a daring experience; shoes

                              -You’ve got a hole in your kicks.

Maintain your         v. To keep a level head and to stay calm in a time of 

Cool                        turmoil or disagreement.  

                               - Man, you best maintain your cool or Joe will busy your 

                                  mug.

Mod                      adj.   Modern, in the fashion.       

                              -Everybody’s going mod, why don’t you get hip.

Out-to-lunch         adj.  A person who does not take drugs.  

                              -He is out to lunch.

Pull someone’s       v.  To expose someone’s reputation or activities

Covers

Punk                     n.  A person, usually a man, who is no good.

Put me on             v.  To tease

Soul                       n.  Awareness; feeling; sensitivity; the spiritual bond felt 
                              by Blacks for each other. Rarely said to describe 
                              Caucasians.

                              -He has soul:  he knows things; he’s tuned in.

Soul brother         n.  Used by one Negro to another whether or not they are
                              acquainted.

Soul food             n.  Good fresh food which has neither been canned or frozen. 

                             Often refers to pork, greens, black-eyed peas, and 

                             cornbread.

Souling                 v.  Playing an instrument well.

                              -Man, he is really souling on the trumpet.

Soul Language      n.  Idioms and slang used by Negroes between themselves.

Soul minority        n. Negroes. Used by Negroes to describe themselves.

Soul sister            n. Any female Negro. Used to describe a Negro in the 

    same situation as yourself. She may be a friend, or
    acquaintance, or even a stranger.

Soul sound           n.  Good music. Harmony which appeals to Blacks

Soul talk               n.  Meaningful conversation among Negroes.

Spade                   n.  Negro

Threads                n.  Clothes

Too much            adj.  Very nice.

                              -That is just too much

Tube                     n.  Television

Weird                   adj. Different; square; hippie; homosexual

Yen                       n.  A craving for heroin (Drug user’s jargon)

Definitions from Current Slang, Vol III, No, 2, 1968.

Pioneer Tales: The Way You Push Things, So They Will Go (Or, You Reap What You Sow)

Arkansas Echo

January 26, 1894

(Wie man’s treibt, so gehts)

Frequently there have been comical and serious stories to read in the Echo about how things went for the first settlers. The stories are entertaining and arouse old memories in everyone. So, I had to think back on my first days here when I lacked serious experience. I had to start small. My entire possessions consisted of an ax,  a saw, and an old rifle. Therefore I had to work for other people in order to have something to eat at home. 

Yes, yes, at home. In my piece of the woods, I had built me a block hut just as they look in a picture. The time that I didn’t have to spend working for other people was devoted to cutting down trees and clearing land. That gave me swollen hands and tired bones.

Gus Blass Clothing Store, ad in Arkansas Echo, early 1894

At last a small piece of land was cleared and a provisional fence was up around it. Every three feet a stake was driven in the ground and crossed with the next one. A post over this and a fence was finished. It was high enough, and a cow couldn’t go through it.

So I planted corn and it grew splendidly. I was very happy about that. The time came when it was supposed to become ripe.  Then I heard one night that something was not right in my cornfield. I got up and went out into the moon-lit night. An entire pack of pigs was harvesting my corn.

“You beasts are going to catch it….”  With a club I drove them out, but was unable to wipe out any of them. I drove them far into the woods and thought, you rascals won’t return again tonight, and I went to lie down in bed.

A misjudgment. Hardly in bed, the hullabaloo outside broke loose again. This time, I ran outside in my shirt and hunted the beasts away, again driving them deep into the woods.

The next morning, I began to quickly improve the fence, but by the time I finished making my fence pig proof, the pigs were also finished with my corn. I cannot say that is the way it’s done in Hungary; I was never there, but you reap what you sow. Do all of your work steadily and don’t depend on luck.

Ad for Vienna Bakery, 117 West 5th St., Little Rock; January 1894, Arkansas Echo

Certainly a couple of times I shot squirrels out of a tree from my house, but I had little time to hunt. Once however I was in the woods with my rifle when I heard my dog nearby at a swamp. Running there, I saw a magnificent deer in the water with the dog running around on the shore. Yes, but a person can’t shoot a deer with buckshot. So I ran home and grabbed the only bullet that I had. And as I returned with the bullet in the rifle, I almost forgot to breath. Just as I arrived, a shot came from the other side of the water.

There I stood with my knowledge and had to watch as two others pulled the deer out of the water. So it often went with the unschooled; therefore, they have labeled us here as Grünhörner” (Green Horns).

1890's Kitchen Stove

I had three bachelors as neighbors. They had bought a cook stove and wanted to bake bread. Such an American stove is a practical thing. Of course a person must know how to handle it. The three had the dough ready and discussed where the fire had to be built. They agree with each other and made a wood fire in the front of the stove under the ash bin, where one takes out the soot. But they soon had to give this up because it smoked so much they could not stop it. Later they learned where one makes a fire in the stove.

But they wanted to invent something new. So they had a corn planter. The apparatus was a tube made out of sheet iron. One end was closed except for a hole through which a thick iron wire passed. The tube was filled with corn and the wire was pushed, opening a hole (letting a few kernels through), then it was pulled closed. The corn was planted and covered by scrapping soil over it with a foot. The thing is still not patented because planting in a plowed furrow goes better. It can’t be done with a bachelors' prank.

H. R.

****************************************

Introduction to the Pioneer Tales

This pioneer tale is one in a series published in 1893 and 1894 by the Arkansas Echo, a German-language newspaper in Little Rock. The stories are intended to show the challenges and adventures facing German-speaking immigrants when they came to settle in Arkansas. So far, the following posts have introduced the Pioneer Tales and provided translations of several of them:

Pioneer Tales of Arkansas' German Immigrants (background of the newspaper series)
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, November 3, 1893THE GOOD OLD DAYS?http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_17.html

Arkansas Echo, November 10, 1893
MERRY MÄT, OR A TRIP TO THE BATHS, Part 1
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_21.html

Arkansas Echo, November 17, 1893
MERRY MÄT, OR A TRIP TO THE BATHS, Part 2
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_31.html

Arkansas Echo, December 1, 1893
A JUICY ROAST--OR--WHO WANTS TO EAT WITH ME?
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, December 8, 1893
ANOTHER PIECE ABOUT "AUGUST"  --OR -- LONG FENCE RAILS
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_08.html

Arkansas Echo, December 22, 1893
HOW FRANK, WITHOUT POWDER AND LEAD, ONCE SLEW A MAGNIFICENT DEER
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_10.html

Arkansas Echo, December 29, 1893
ERNST'S BAD LUCK
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_17.html

Arkansas Echo, January 5, 1894
THAT'S THE WAY ITS DONE IN HUNGARY -or- A PERSON WHO WILL NOT ACCEPT ADVICE CANNOT BE HELPED
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/07/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, January 14, 1894
HOW ONE CAN LOSE ONE'S WAY IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/09/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, January 19, 1894
BILL’S TRIP TO THE MARKET
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/10/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, February 23, 1894 and March 2, 1894

JOSEPH GLANZMANN'S STORY OF GERMAN-SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS 

SETTLING NEAR ALTUS, ARKANSAS

http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2012/10/pioneer-tales-joseph-glanzmanns-story.html

All Rights Reserved 

Arkansas's Old Guard Takes on Muhammad Ali: The Symposium '69 Controversy

I happened to stumble on some old Arkansas Traveler newspapers a few months ago and among them were several papers about a controversy that arose in February 1969 about the scheduling of Muhammad Ali to speak at the University of Arkansas Symposium '69, a student-run lecture series. I recalled that I was an amused spectator and peripheral participant in the events attending the controversy, but did not remember the details or the outcome of the kerfuffle.

I decided to revisit the controversy by reviewing newspaper articles about it in the Arkansas Gazette, Arkansas Democrat, and Arkansas Traveler newspapers. I have written a longer account of the elements of the controversy that I have posted on Scribd. Here I will provide an abbreviated (but still long) version of the story.  (The scribd link is as follows: http://www.scribd.com/doc/122793691/Arkansas-State-Senators-Mutt-Jones-Milt-Earnhart-and-Dan-Sprick-take-on-Muhammad-Ali-The-Symposium-69-Controversy )


The Controversy Begins

The controversy stated soon after a story was published on February 13, 1969 in the Arkansas Gazette providing information on the lineup of speakers for Symposium '69. In roughly a month, six senators, an NBC newspaper reporter, a NASA scientist, a civil rights activist, and former heavy weight champion Muhammad Ali were scheduled to appear on the UA campus.. 

Ali was available to speak at UA because he was no longer allowed to fight professionally and was making a living by lecturing on college campuses.  He told a reporter that he was scheduled in 1969 to speak at 64 universities including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Notre Dame, and UCLA (Arkansas Democrat, March 10, 1969, p. 2A).

Opposition to Ali’s UA speech surfaced in articles published on February 20^th in the Arkansas Democrat and on February 21^st in the Arkansas Gazette. These articles described an exchange of letters by the Pulaski Businessmen’s Association of Little Rock and UA president David Mullins. The Association’s letter asked Mullins to “take immediate action to prevent Clay or any un-American activity to reach our campus.” Mullins had responded by refusing to take the requested action. Mullins wrote, “previous experience with Symposium speakers has indicated the capacity of students to evaluate and place in proper perspective the expressions and viewpoints of any speaker...” He continued, “The presentation of divergent viewpoints is one of the recognized functions of the university.” 

Arkansas Gazette, Feb. 21, 1969 p. 1B

Mullins stance won him a favorable editorial in the Arkansas Gazette (“Bravo, Dr. Mullins”) on the following day. The Gazette suggested that Ali had much in common with George Wallace in that both “have big mouths, are ex-boxers, and both are radicals, each in his own way even if Ali is essentially a comic figure while Wallace is inherently an evil, malevolent man.” The editorial suggested that exposure to such figures as Ali and Wallace “is a consequential help in getting a solid education.”

Other criticisms of the Association's letter appeared in Gazette stories. The leaders of a group of Pulaski County civil rights groups called it "racist." The Arkansas Chapter of the ACLU said “the Little Rock businessmen do not understand the concept of free speech in a free society and that the freedom of all men is best served by insisting on full respect for the First Amendment.”

Milt Earnhart Proposes a State Senate Resolution

A few days later, on February 25, state Senator Milt Earnhart of Fort Smith introduced a resolution in the State Senate to condemn Ali’s upcoming appearance at the University of Arkansas. Earnhart had served in the state House of Representatives from 1958 through 1967, then had been elected to the state senate in 1968.  One of his campaign cards listed among his qualifications his introduction of a law to outlaw the communist party.

From Earnhart's blog:
http://senatormilt.blogspot.com/

This resolution came to the Senate floor on February 28. It did not go through unchallenged. Debate of the resolution, according to the Gazette, was “one of the lustiest oratorical exhibitions of the session.” (Arkansas Gazette, March 1, 1969, p. 11A) After Earnhart stated objections to Ali’s appearance because he was a draft dodger and had nothing of value to tell students, state Senator W. D. Moore of El Dorado stood up to argue that the resolution opposed the concept of free speech. He told the Senate: “I detest Cassius Clay as an individual…but students had the right to expose themselves to Clay’s thought.” He said it was wrong to graduate students from the University without allowing them to be exposed to both sides of questions. He asserted that the Senate would be doing an injustice if it caused cancellation of Clay’s speech.

Moore’s arguments were rebuked, according to the Gazette story, in a series of “stormy anti-Communist speeches by Guy H. (Mutt) Jones, Dan T. Sprick, and Melvin T. Chambers.” Included in the speeches were calls to insure that students were “imbued with ample doses of patriotism.”

Moore engaged both Jones and Sprick to ask each a similar question: “Are you saying indoctrination by the Russia is wrong but that indoctrination by the University of Arkansas would be right?”

Arkansas Gazette, March 1, 1969

According to the Gazette, the conversation with Sprick continued as follows:

“Are we indoctrinating them?” Sprick asked.

“You are not letting them hear the other side,” Moore said and Sprick replied that there was only one side.

“You’ve answered my question,” Moore said. “There is no side but yours.”

As part of his speech, Sen. Sprick said he was ready to go to Vietnam immediately to fight, if Pres. Nixon summoned him and “I wouldn’t have a hunger strike.” Moore replied that he had two sons in the armed services and a third in officer training. He observed, “They don’t think they have a patent on patriotism.”

Sen. Sprick condemned UA President Mullins for approving Clay’s appearance, saying “He’s running a college up there and doesn’t have anything to say about it, and he’s mealy mouthed anyway.”

In addition to Sen. Moore, two other state senators spoke against the resolution. One was the only Republican in the state Senate, Sen. Jim Caldwell of Rogers, a Church of Christ minister. The other was Sen. Clifton Wade of Fayetteville, who represented the county in which UA is located. In one exchange, Sen. Chambers asked Sen. Wade if he realized that riots always follow such college appearances. Wade said that was incorrect.

A voice vote was taken on the resolution and, according to the Gazette, “a chorus of votes was heard against it.” The presiding officer, Lt. Governor Maurice Britt, a Republican, ruled that it passed. The 35-member state senate that passed the resolution had one woman and no black members. Thirty-three of its members were white, male Democrats, including two “Mutts,” a “Chubby,” and a “Buddy.”

The following day, a Gazette editorial praised the debate for showing “that some senators have grown weary of putting the Senate’s stamp on every demagogic declaration that one of their number may introduce, whether out of its own ignorance or simply in a play to the peanut gallery.” It continued:

 Senators Moore, Wade, and Caldwell argued this most elemental case for academic freedom beautifully. About all we would add is to remark anew the strange sense of insecurity that moves members of the legislature to oppose letting students hear someone ilke Cassius Clay. What on earth or in heaven are they afraid of? (Arkansas Gazette, March 1, 1969, p. 4A) 

Senator Earnhart Writes a Letter and George Lease Replies

After the Senate resolution passed, a few letters about the controversy -- all but one pro-Ali -- were published in the Gazette and Democrat. Also, apparently some local veterans and civic organizations in different Arkansas cities passed resolutions against Ali's speech.  However, it is not clear what most Arkansas thought -- if anything -- about the planned speech.

The Ali matter gained some more visibility on the UA campus on March 12, the day of the speech when two letters about it were published in the Arkansas Traveler. One letter, from Sen. Milt Earnhart, was a response to a letter that had been sent by a group to students to Sen. Earnhart after he had introduced his anti-Ali resolution. These students, from Fort Smith, wrote to oppose the resolution. He addressed his reply to George Lease, the elected president of the student government who grew up in Fort Smith, even though Lease had not signed it. 

Arkansas Traveler, Feb. 28, 1969

In his letter, Earnhart suggested that communists were behind "Clay" and his actions. He wrote: "We are at a point now, where we must fight Communism everywhere it is detected, and if you believe a character like Clay is not encouraged by Communists, you would be more naive than I believe you are!" He asserted the issue was not about "freedom of speech," but about good taste

Lease responded to Earnhart’s letter by sharply rebuking him for sending a copy of the letter to Lease’s ailing mother even though he, Lease, was 22 years old and self-supporting. He asked Earnhart if he sent copies of letters to the parents of everyone with whom he corresponded.

In a deft move, Lease refused to respond the Earnhart’s assertions, instead inviting him to speak, along with other state senators, at a special session of Symposium ‘69. He proposed dates for the appearance and offered to pay expenses and an appropriate honorarium.

(The texts of the letters are presented in appendix 1 of the full article posted on Scribd.)

The Speeches Are Made

Muhammad Ali and Floyd McKissick made their speeches as scheduled on the evening of March 12^th to a full house at the Barnhill Field House. The crowd was about 4,000 people, including several hundred blacks, the largest attendance at a Symposium ’69 event.

In his speech, Ali discussed Nation of Islam doctrine, strongly advocating non-violence and the separation of the races. He told the students, “…by nature the two races cannot live together. People, like animals, like to stick together.”

He explained that the Nation of Islam wants “full and complete freedom to establish a separate state or territory on this continent or elsewhere….The land, which must be fertile and minerally rich, should be supplied by the former slave owners of the United States – the white people.” The former slave owners were also obliged to financially support the new state during the first years of its founding. If these things did not happen within a few years, Ali said, God (Allah) “would destroy the nation with natural disasters.”

In addition to having good things to say about Gov. George Wallace and his segregationist views, Ali said he had respect for whites in the South who lynched Negroes who had bothered their women. He pleaded with Negroes to protect Negro women. (Northwest Arkansas Times, March 13, 1969, p. 1) 

A Gazette editorial made this remark about Ali’s speech:

 When the speaker was not advocating separation of the races, he was praising George Wallace to the skies, both of which stands seem to accord with the plurality of voting opinion in the state. One wonders again what the advance fuss was all about. (Arkansas Gazette, March 20, 1969, p. 6A.

The Old Guard Senators Visit UA

Six days after the Ali speech, three state senators and a state respresentative traveled to the University of Arkansas to take part in a special session of Symposium '69. Two of the speakers, Sen. Guy "Mutt" Jones and Milt Earnhart came to explain why Ali should not have been allowed to speak on the UA campus. Sen. Jim Caldwell of Rogers, the only Republican in the state senate, and Rep. Herbert Rule of Little Rock came to defend his appearance. 

Northwest Arkansas Times, March 19, 1969

Sen.Earnhart spoke first, suggesting that students “talk to some of the people in your hometowns and see the reaction of these people who support this university, who are paying taxes and the [income tax] surcharge and then see it paid over to a draft dodger. He said, “This is not a matter of questions of free speech or race.” He asked, “What are you trying to do? Are you trying to disturb your parents and the people of Arkansas?” He concluded, “Well, you are.” (Northwest Arkansas Times, March 19, 1969, pp. 1-2; this story is re-printed in appendix 2 of the Scribd document).

Sen. Jones wore a red tie, red handkerchief and red boots and engaged at times in heated oratory.  He told the audience of about 400, mostly students, “You don’t have a single right that wasn’t bought with blood. The right to distribute scandalous criticisms was bought with blood.”

Jones linked Ali to communism. He said, “The Chinese say they are going to take over the world and the Russians say they are going to take us from within. They say they are going to do it through college students and through professors.”  He also told the audience that if there is a last citadel of Christianity, it is this country. He asserted that no power on earth can stop the spreading of communism except the United States government. His speech elicited a few cheers and some jeers.

Sen. Jim Caldwell of Rogers, the sole Republican in the state Senate, told the audience that he was happy that Ali came to UA. He said, “I don’t agree with him, but he should be heard.” He argued that Ali had as much right to be heard as Mutt Jones.

Rep. Rule of Little Rock was the favorite with the audience. He noted that a large American Legion Post in Little Rock had called for legislation that could preclude anyone under indictment for a felony from appearing on a state supported campus. Rule said that under such circumstances you couldn’t have had Gandhi on your campus nor Christ nor Socrates. Rule got a standing ovation when he told the audience, “The University is the last place a person should be denied the right to state his views. …The University is the cradle of liberty in this country.”

My Meager Involvement

Before giving my perspective on the meaning of this controversy, I want to confess to my antics in the affair.  First, I was one of the smart alecks of the University of Arkansas Young Republican Club who stirred the Ali pot with a couple of resolutions passed by its executive committee (mainly, Skip Carney and me, plus some others I don’t recall). One resolution condemned attempts to stop Ali from coming to the UA as “intolerant, misguided paternalism that is completely unnecessary and an insult to the maturity of the students and the responsibility of the faculty and administration.” The second resolution read:

Whereas, State Sen. Dan T. Sprick stated on Feb. 28, 1969 that he was willing to go to Vietnam to fight immediately if President Richard Nixon summoned him; and

Whereas, such a journey by Sen. Sprick would immediately improve Arkansas and could not hurt Vietnam;

Be It Therefore Resolved: The UofA YRC urgently requests that President Nixon immediately ask Senator Sprick to go to Vietnam;

Arkansas Traveler, March 10, 1969, p. 1

And Be It Further Resolved: The Young Republican Club requests Private Sprick to invite Sen. Mutt Jones, Sen. Milt Earnhart, and Sen. Melvin Chambers join him on this trip.

I have to admit that I was pleased to note that stories about the Sprick were published in the Arkansas Gazette (March 7, 1969, p. 8A) and on the front page of the Arkansas Traveler (March 10, 1969).

Second, I was one of the campus trouble makers (along with Carney and some collaborators) who handed out leaflets at the entrance to the Symposium '69 session featuring the state senators. Our leaflets contained the “scandalous criticisms” mentioned in Jones’s speech. These handouts were described in the Gazette (March 20, 1969, p. 18A) story about the speeches:

Before the lecture Tuesday, several students handed out leaflets saying “Our special thanks are extended to Guy (Mutt) Jones of Conway (the Athens of Arkansas) and Milt Earnhart of Fort Smith for attempting to insure our intellectual pureness and virginity.

We feel that they have attempted to prevent us from hearing a segregationist theory, which would support Arkansas’s segregationist actions. They have earned our enduring support.”

 (Ali was Cassius Clay before become a Black Muslim and taking a new name. Ali’s Symposium speech called for the separation of the races.)

The leaflets also said: “We furthermore are gratified that these two esteemed, unhypocritical, progressive-minded legislators would take time from their time to appear on our campus as intellectual bastions service to provide us with “ample doses of patriotism”

The leaflets were signed “under auspices of AHCPMC (Ad Hoc Committee for the Preservation of Mental Chastity).”

We miscreants who wrote and distributed this leaflet were, instead of being embarrassed by their juvenile actions, pleased that it got covered in the Gazette and newspapers. We were especially tickled that the leaflets seemed to upset Sen. Jones. 

What Did It All Mean?

Looking back at the Ali controversy more than forty years later, it seems that this incident can best be viewed as evidence of the changes taking place in the nation and Arkansas as the Sixties ended.

Journalist John Starr (1987, p 55) described Winthrop Rockefeller as the “wrecking bar voters used to dismantle the political machine that held Arkansas in thrall and was threatening in the mid-1960s to give the state a governor for life.” In 1969, the wrecking bar was still at work: Rockefeller had defeated segregationist Jim Johnson in 1966 and Old Guard politician Marion Crank in 1968, and he brought forward what Ernie Dumas (2012), long-time political reporter, called “the most ambitious program in Arkansas history.” According to Dumas, Rockefeller said that this program was what he entered politics to do.

The Old Guard Democrats wanted none of Rockefeller’s proposed tax (almost $100 million per year increase) and modernization program, which included, among other things, a reorganization of state government and the implementation of the state’s first classification and pay plan. As the Ali controversy arose, they – under the leadership of Sen. Jones – were fighting to derail WR’s proposals, and were succeeding.

Perhaps their success in thwarting Rockefeller’s program reminded the Old Guard of the old days when they could get their way on most issues. Perhaps in opposing the Ali speech, the Old Guard senators were just reverting to form, recalling how they had previously restricted speech on state campuses. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, they had used accusations of subversion and communism to limit who could speak on Arkansas campuses, keeping out people they labeled “racial agitators,” “communists,” and other bad “outside influences.” During those years, the Attorney General and legislators had held hearings on and conducted investigations of “subversives” they claimed were undermining order in the state.

In this atmosphere, as late as December 1964, the University of Arkansas had forbidden the use of its facilities for a speech by the cultural attaché of the Bulgarian Embassy on the grounds that he was a communist. (He was instead allowed, by a minister, to speak at the Methodist Student Center.)

Because most funding for public universities came from state appropriations, college leaders tried to avoid offending the elected officials who proposed and voted on their budgets. From 1954 to 1966, Faubus and his men determined how much money Arkansas universities and colleges would receive each year, thus the Old Guard had been in a strong position to influence decisions about who was allowed to speak on college campuses.

In 1969, however, the Old Guard senators no longer had the power to exert their will on Arkansas colleges and universities, though they tried with the Ali controversy. Both university administrators and students were less willing to submit to the efforts of these legislators to control them. Thus, UA President Mullins could ignore the state Senate’s anti-Ali resolution, and students could ridicule its authors, with little fear of the retribution that likely would have been meted out a few years earlier.

Although, the Old Guard succeeded in killing most of Rockefeller’s reform program during his last term, the end of their influence was near.  The major elements of Rockefeller’s program were passed in the following years under the leadership of the three progressive Democratic governors who followed Rockefeller in office. These three governors acknowledged that Rockefeller was “the beacon who showed us the way out of the dark days of politics.” (Blair and Barth, p. 46).

The Ali controversy likely did not hasten the end of the dark days of Arkansas politics, but it did show the end was near.