Anita Holmes Johnson
Feminism, racism, and global politics: 75 years of changes
My perspective goes back 43 years to a time when the school was less than middle-aged, only 32 years old. In the fall of 1947, as a freshman from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, I took the introductory course for the four-year program leading to a degree in journalism.
The University was only about one-third as large as it is now [1990]. Irreverent veterans recently returned from World War II came to the University on the GI bill. These older and wiser fellows and some "foreign" students (now called "international" students) stretched our world view. But Eugene's population was below 25,000 and our student life was wonderfully, or woefully, provincial in this pleasant little Oregon city where my husband Art and I continue to live. Pure reminiscence is so much fun, but, instead permit me to look at my experience in the journal- ism school of 1947 as it is reflected in some of the news currents of today, nearly half of a century later. |
Consider feminism.
Professor Warren Price, most famous for his love of trains, baseball, and the history and law of the press, often complained to me that it was a waste of time to educate "girls" in journalism. He railed that they never used what they learned, instead marrying and raising babies immediately after accepting their diplomas. He was only half serious in these remarks; in truth, he was prodding us all to do otherwise.
In many ways, the journalism school was ahead of the rest of the world in encouraging women at that time. Early on, I heard about such legends as "Beaver" Witwer Wright, Helen Angell Kitchen and other illustrious women who had studied journalism at the UO. However, not one woman taught me journalism while I was there; it never really occurred to us that she should. That's probably the most telling insight into the feminist consciousness at the time!
Professor Warren Price, most famous for his love of trains, baseball, and the history and law of the press, often complained to me that it was a waste of time to educate "girls" in journalism. He railed that they never used what they learned, instead marrying and raising babies immediately after accepting their diplomas. He was only half serious in these remarks; in truth, he was prodding us all to do otherwise.
In many ways, the journalism school was ahead of the rest of the world in encouraging women at that time. Early on, I heard about such legends as "Beaver" Witwer Wright, Helen Angell Kitchen and other illustrious women who had studied journalism at the UO. However, not one woman taught me journalism while I was there; it never really occurred to us that she should. That's probably the most telling insight into the feminist consciousness at the time!
It was clear to me that the J-School, through Dean Gordon Sabine and faculty friends such as Charles Duncan and Carl Webb, would assist me as vigorously as any of their male students in finding a good job after graduation. They did.
Probably my greatest trauma as a journalism student came in my senior year, as editor of The Oregon Daily Emerald, when we editorialized that a sorority was wrong in advising a member to move out because she was dating a black student. Fierce responses from all points of view rained down on "The Shack," our quonset hut along-side the journalism school. Several university administrators admonished me for bringing negative national scrutiny upon the University of Oregon. One dean was especially angry at me, an emotion reflected in her cool responses to later queries from my prospective employers.
Such an incident seems beyond belief today. The sororities and fraternities at the UO admit students of color. The University administration works with integrity to promote diversity and to combat discrimination. This is not to suggest that racism has vanished from Eugene and the University in the last 40 years. To the contrary, but the institutional response to it has changed significantly.
Probably my greatest trauma as a journalism student came in my senior year, as editor of The Oregon Daily Emerald, when we editorialized that a sorority was wrong in advising a member to move out because she was dating a black student. Fierce responses from all points of view rained down on "The Shack," our quonset hut along-side the journalism school. Several university administrators admonished me for bringing negative national scrutiny upon the University of Oregon. One dean was especially angry at me, an emotion reflected in her cool responses to later queries from my prospective employers.
Such an incident seems beyond belief today. The sororities and fraternities at the UO admit students of color. The University administration works with integrity to promote diversity and to combat discrimination. This is not to suggest that racism has vanished from Eugene and the University in the last 40 years. To the contrary, but the institutional response to it has changed significantly.
Did journalism students forty years ago care about global politics?
This was the age of McCarthyism. We did care about global politics. We wrote editorials about the ironic danger of losing our freedoms in an effort to stop communism, which we abhorred because it would take away these same freedoms, Who could have predicted that it would take more than 40 years before the "cold war" would begin to resolve in our favor.
What about the new kid on the block, television?
We had never seen it. We only talked, mostly in jest, about a future when American would no longer read -- they would only look at pictures, As students, we had no inkling of the power the new medium would amass.
Was environmentalism an issue?
I cannot remember a single editorial nod toward the natural environment, not even a little anxiety about the damage delivered by our atomic bombs. Our own Western nest was relatively unsullied at that time. Concern came later.
And, lastly, on a more personal note, when I ask if the classes of 1950 prepared me to interpret the events of 1990, I hark back to two fundamentals hammered into me in that fine young School of Journalism, The first is, "Ask the next question." The second, "Read on-you know so little."
Beginning with those brief lectures, we should be on the way to interpreting the events of this year and the next forty.
This was the age of McCarthyism. We did care about global politics. We wrote editorials about the ironic danger of losing our freedoms in an effort to stop communism, which we abhorred because it would take away these same freedoms, Who could have predicted that it would take more than 40 years before the "cold war" would begin to resolve in our favor.
What about the new kid on the block, television?
We had never seen it. We only talked, mostly in jest, about a future when American would no longer read -- they would only look at pictures, As students, we had no inkling of the power the new medium would amass.
Was environmentalism an issue?
I cannot remember a single editorial nod toward the natural environment, not even a little anxiety about the damage delivered by our atomic bombs. Our own Western nest was relatively unsullied at that time. Concern came later.
And, lastly, on a more personal note, when I ask if the classes of 1950 prepared me to interpret the events of 1990, I hark back to two fundamentals hammered into me in that fine young School of Journalism, The first is, "Ask the next question." The second, "Read on-you know so little."
Beginning with those brief lectures, we should be on the way to interpreting the events of this year and the next forty.