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Ruth Ann Torstenson Schwartz, Editor
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
1
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Ruth Ann Torstenson Schwartz, Editor
Minneapolis, Minnesota
2004
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
1
CHAPTER I: My Life with the Primary Family
3
CHAPTER II: Legacies from Norway
18
CHAPTER III: Beyond the Family Farm
24
CHAPTER IV: The Quest for Authenticity in the World Order
26
CHAPTER V: Testing Alternative Futures
41
CHAPTER VI: My Life as a College Professor
54
CHAPTER VII: Life and Learning Beyond Retirement
83
CHAPTER VIII: The Heart of My Life
101
PHOTOGRAPHS
122
Preface
In the fall of 1982, I was asked by the director of adult education at Trinity
Lutheran Congregation to share some reflections on the source and substance of my
religious faith. In preparing for that presentation, my reflections were inevitably shaped
by the disciplines of thought and the perspectives about time and place derived from my
studies in history and sociology.
I headed my presentation with the title "The Social Geography of My Conscience
and Consciousness." Implicit in such a title was the assumption that both one's
consciousness and conscience at any time in life are inevitably fashioned by the
prevailing ethos of all the significant others in one's life at that particular pt;riod in
history.
With this as a basic premise, I proceeded to review my past, identifying those
significant others in each period of my life--my parents and their significant ethnic roots;
my intimate family and the family farm; the Haugian-oriented Lutheran church and its
neighborhood; my educational experiences from grade school to college; and many other
socio-cultural encounters with life.
Some of my contemporary "significant others" in that Trinity assembly were
apparently pleased with my presentation and suggested that I should write my memoirs.
That was the first time that such an idea came to my mind. That was fifteen years ago.
Presumably, at the age of seventy, I had already "lived my active life" and should now
have little else to do but reflect on my past. But somehow my active life continued much
as before, and the thought of writing my memoirs never captured my interest.
Now that I have reached the age of 84 and am gratefully still in good health, the
thought of reminiscing about my life and identifying with gratitude the people and social
groups and organizations that have contributed much to my life has become more
·attractive.
Not long ago, one of our most distinguished literary personalities, Studs Terkel,
addressed our local "Minnesota Meeting" about the challenges for older people to tell the
stories of their past and share them with the present generation. The thought occurred to
me that perhaps dabbling with a memoir might not, after all, be meaningless. As Terkel
noted in his speech and also elaborated on in his recent book, Coming of Age,
"remembrance is the attribute that most distinguishes" the lives of the elderly.
Even though Mr. Terkel and I are chronological peers, having both entered history
in 1912, I must acknowledge that even my best dabbling will likely miss the mark of
significance he had in mind. But what is so gracious about Mr. Terkel is his generosity
of spirit with people less literate than he. That gives all of our age courage to do what we
can.
On the Hazards of Interpreting One's Biography
My exposure to sociological and historical studies has made me aware of at least
some of the hazards of interpreting one's own biography. I know that the eourse of
events in one's life can be subjected to alternate interpretations. We are always both
interpreting and re-interpreting our past. In a sense, memory is an act of re-interpretation.
At our best, we will seek a deliberate, fully conscious, and intelligently integrated reinterpretation of our past. It is in this spirit that I have sought to describe my changing
social geography and draw from those memories a portrait of my evolving conscience
and consciousness.
As I have dabbled in these memories of my life, one thing above all has impressed
me--the debt of gratitude I owe to the many significant others in my life and the many
groups and institutions that have enriched it. It is this that has prompted the title for this
document Takk For Alt--the beautiful expression found on so many tombstones in
Norwegian cemeteries meaning--Thanks for Everything!
2
Part One: My Life with the Primary Family
In the Beginning
November 8, 1912 was the date of my entry into history. Everyone at one time or
another likely tries to imagine the situation or the circumstances surrounding the occasion
of one's birth. Perhaps some fantasize about the joys and fascinations with which one's
arrival is celebrated. But I can't possibly imagine such a celebration for my arrival into
the life of the Torstenson family in the modest farm home on the banks of the Lac Qui
Parle River in western Minnesota more than eighty years ago.
Being the last of a large family of five sisters and five brothers, I can imagine no
such celebratory reception. More likely responses were something like the following:
"Oh no! Not another screaming bundle of protoplasm to become yet another member of
our already crowded household!" "When is this ever going to end?" To add to these
understandable but likely misgivings, this little new brother could hardly have been the
cutest little baby to cuddle and nurture, since he was born with a cleft palate. Yet, in
spite of such a precarious beginning, I have never felt rejected by any of my brothers and
sisters and certainly not by my mother and father. Hence, I will begin my reflections
about my early childhood with some comments about my relations with each of my
brothers and sisters and then with my father and mother.
My Brother Ludolph
Since my brother Ludolph, shared the fate of being one of the last two children in
a family of eleven, and since he was only one and a half years older than I, we came to be
identified by the older members of the family as the "kids" of the household. While this
3
designation became somewhat distasteful as we approached adolescence, it contributed to
a special kind of bonding between us that has lasted throughout our lives.
As children we were constantly playing together, improvising our own toys with
wheels from abandoned toy wagons, homemade stilts, curious playhouses, and so on that
we salvaged from the tool shed, the garage, and other farm home sources. Perhaps our
most creative play activity centered around our play farm and imaginary community
along the banks of the Lac Qui Parle River, which included a family farm home and
roads to the village market using abandoned gadgets from the family kitchen and
machine shops. We enjoyed these play activities fully as much as contemporary children
playing with highly expensive toys.
Since Ludolph's birthday was in April and mine in November, our parents agreed
that we would begin elementary school at the same time, contributing to a community
perception ofus as the "Torstenson Twins." However, there was never any doubt in my
mind that Ludolph was my "older" brother, and I think my parents assumed that he would
"take care" of his younger brother. As children generally do, we internalized these
expectations and played out roles in conformity with them.
This was clearly dramatized in one of our early morning two-mile ~alks to our
neighborhood one-room school. To shorten the distance, we took a diagonal walk across
a plowed field. I found it difficult to keep up with Ludolph, and clearly understanding
our expected role relations, I sat down. Ludolph, also complying with the same role
expectations, stopped to help me up. In later years, we have playfully noted that this was
the beginning of the "Sit Down Strikes" movement launched by the automobile workers
in the 1930's.
As we grew older, we became increasingly co--equal playmates, classmates in
public elementary education as well as in parochial school and Confirmation instruction.
We also assumed special family functions together, such as weeding and hoeing the large
family garden; picking strawberries, raspberries, and gooseberries; and doing chores
around the barn and chicken coop. Later, when our mother suffered a debilitating stroke,
we assumed major housekeeping roles--doing the family laundry, baking bread, churning
butter, and cleaning house. By then, our older sisters had left to establish their own
homes.
4
When we reached high school age, we were matriculated in a private academy-the Lutheran Normal School in Madison, Minnesota. Since our mother could no longer
help her high school children with food and other provisions in rented rooms in Dawson,
as she had done for some of the older brothers and sisters, our parents found this
arrangement in the Academy a good alternative. We continued our household duties
during the weekends. To relieve some of the stress on the limited family resources,
Ludolph and I became the mail carriers for the Academy, thus paying part of our school
costs.
All of these joint ventures from infancy to adolescence quite naturally contributed
to a special bonding between us. But in the middle of the second year at the Academy,
Ludolph became desperately ill with Rheumatic Fever, which significantly altered our
relationship. While the first attack left lasting health impairment, continued recurrences
shattered virtually all our shared expectations of completing high school together and
pursuing whatever post high school ventures that might follow. For nearly two decades,
Ludolph struggled with the debilitating impact of the illness, while I was fortunately able
to pursue college and post-graduate studies and begin my career in teaching. All through
those troublesome years, we maintained a continuous friendly relationship. But, while I
was only encountering the typical academic tests from time to time, Ludolph was
struggling with one difficult life test after another and ultimately passing them.
By 1945, Ludolph was finally able to begin what became his lifetime career.
Joining in marriage to Alpha and in a successful insurance and real estate business in
Dawson with his brother, Olaf, transformed his life. Ever since we have enjoyed a
mutual respect for each other and shared many joint family ventures.
While many details of our relationships have been omitted from this account,
enough has been shared to make clear that Ludolph played a special role in my life.
Throughout our long life, I think we have shared a mutual admiration and respect for
each other, even if likely too often unexpressed.
My Other Older Brothers
While my relations with my other older brothers were different from those, which
I enjoyed with Ludolph, each had an impact on my life. Each could merit a separate
5
account, but for the purpose of these memoirs, some general observations about all of
them together with some special comments about each must suffice.
Oscar
In some ways, my relations with my oldest brother, Oscar, were different from
that of the others. By the time I had reached an age of conscious memory, he had already
left the family domicile to pursue his own grown-up life. His whole life in many ways
provided a dramatic "ideal type" model for first generation children of ScandinavianAmerican families in rural Minnesota.
His first adult years were spent as a hired man for neighboring farms, followed by
beginning farming as a renter of a neighborhood farm. That first year he lost virtually all
his personal possessions as his house was demolished by a fire while he was working one
of the fields. His neighbors demonstrated the best American virtues by staging a surprise
party for him, which provided him with funds for replenishing some of his losses. After
that rather dismal beginning, Oscar launched a highly successful farming career--raising
good crops, building a productive dairy herd, and maintaining other aspects of a wellbalanced diversified farm.
From a strictly human perspective, perhaps his most fortunate break was to find a
great life-mate, Selma Quall, who whole-heartedly supported him in his many life
ventures. It was noted in Selma's Morris Agricultural School's Annual, that she was "a
friend to everybody, and everybody' s friend." I think that appraisal was shared by all of
us in the Torstenson family.
Besides his conventional farming activities, Oscar pursued other ventures as a
thresher, a buyer and trainer of western broncos for farm horses, and many other vital
activities. All of these activities added to his growing assets, which he invested in land
ownership of the farm he had rented and other farms in the area.
But what perhaps most impressed me, was that Oscar was more than a successful
farmer and what is often heralded in America as a "self-made man;" he was also a good
and respected neighbor. He admired and respected his parents and loved his wife and
daughter Marlys. During the great depression of the thirties, he demonstrated his deep
commitment to the populist values of his heritage, taking on leadership activities in the
6
growing Farmers Union, the Farm Holiday Movement, and the development of rural
electrification. It can be confidently said that he played a leading role in the development
of the R. E. A. program in the Lac Qui Parle and neighboring counties. Its members, who
elected him president of its Board of Directors, apparently acknowledged this role.
While Oscar's community leadership activities constantly expanded his social
horizons and his political and social contacts throughout Minnesota and other states of
the country, he always remained loyal to his family and friends in the local community.
Even ifhe shared some of frontier America's skepticism about higher education, he
always responded to my activities in that arena with respect and, I think, a certain amount
of pride. I will always cherish our friendship and his legacy.
My association with Olaf, Bardolph, and Selmer was somewhat different from
that of Oscar. As they were passing through the stages of adolescence to adulthood, they
became role models for Ludolph and me. They all assumed increasingly important work
responsibilities on our family farm, which we began to emulate, as we grew older. They
all enrolled in Dawson High School under difficult economic and social circumstances.
Olaf found the experience most gratifying, doing well academically, playing leading roles
in school plays, and excelling in musical activities. Had the economic situation been
more favorable it is quite likely, he would have continued on to college. Bardolph (AKA
Bud) and Selmer withdrew to take increasing responsibility for the growing need for help
on the farm.
All these older brothers in some sense became role models for Ludolph and me.
We observed their association with and hosting of friends at our home, and we were
allowed to participate in some of their play activities such as splashing around in our
highly prized neighborhood swimming hole, playing outdoor games in our home yard
and an adjacent meadow, and of course indoor games such as rook, dominoes, and
carems.
Olaf
My relations with each of these three brothers were altered by the varied
circumstances involved. Olaf's life-long struggle with a steadily increasing Parkinson's
affliction made all of the family sad. I noted with admiration his creative responses to the
7
frustrations, defying the conventional "frustration to aggression" syndrome. He kept on
with his musical interests, singing tenor in the Dale-Torstenson quartette and other
musical activities. After abandoning his bakery activities, which had been launched by a
professional training program at the Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis, he joined our
brother-in-law, Pete Vollan, in a farming venture. It was in this situation that I had the
closest relations with Olaf, since at the same time I lived at the Vollan home while
teaching a neighborhood one-room elementary school.
The farming venture itself turned out to be a great frustration. The first year
produced a bumper crop associated with a catastrophic collapse of the grain market. The
following year an awesome draught virtually destroyed all the farm crops. In spite of
these overwhelming frustrations, he volunteered his talents to participate in the Debating
Society program I had launched in our school district, as well as to play a leading role in
a three-act play that was staged in several locations in the larger community. All the
while, his relations with all ofus at the Vollan household were friendly and brotherly.
He continued to struggle bravely with farming near Madison, even as his
Parkinson's symptoms grew, until he was finally compelled to abandon that occupation
and prepare himself for the insurance and real-estate profession which he pursued in
Dawson for the rest of his life.
Like the rest of his brothers, he had the good fortune of meeting and marrying a
wonderful life-mate, Ruth, with whom he established a loving family, a good home, and
an honored social community reputation. As I noted earlier, in dealing with his life-long
battle with Parkinson, Olaf spurned the "frustration to aggression" syndrome, and instead
nurtured a spirit of sensitive, sympathetic understanding of other people's tribulations.
This was matched by a growing commitment to a philosophy of non-violence and
peaceful reconciliation in human relations. He joined the National Fellowship of
Reconciliation and gave much thought to its relations with Christianity.
Shortly before Christmas in 1977, he produced an insightful six-page document
reflecting his thinking about these matters. The document clearly indicated he had done
much reading and thinking about issues of love and reconciliation vs. the dynamics of
war and revolution and made references to the life and work of Mahatma Ghandi and
Martin Luther King. The Bible also contributed to his thinking on these issues and he
8
referred to many of Jesus' sayings about peace. I have since learned that Olaf also found
inspiration from the Prophets of the Old Testament and their cry for justice. Thus, it can
be said that Olaf was passionately concerned for both justice, as well as peace. For this
and much more, I cherish my memories of Olaf.
One of the most remarkable tum of events in our family history was the coming
together of Ludolph, with his long struggle with the legacies of Rheumatic Fever, and
Olaf, with his life-long battle with Parkinson's, to carry on a successful life-insurance and
real-estate enterprise in Dawson and its surrounding community.
Bud
In a special way, Bud made possible my continued comfortable connections with
the Torstenson family homestead. He became the most sustained farm hand and
eventually the farm manager of the homestead. During my many summer vacations, I
had the privilege of working for him on the farm, earning decent pay and enjoying very
congenial working relations.
He too married a wonderful woman who helped make my frequent visits and
longer stays at the homestead comfortable and pleasant. Selma's beautiful relations with
my mother and dad, helping them make their upstairs apartment life cozy and pleasant,
has been greatly appreciated by all of the family.
My father frequently alluded to how grateful he was for Bud's kindness, as well
as his able management of the farming enterprise. Even while he rejoiced in Bud and
Selma's opportunity to become owner-operators of their own family farm through the
New Deal Farm Home Administration, I know he was a bit saddened by the ending of
this close relationship with Bud and his little family. Fortunately Tilda, Pete, and Irene
Vollan were able to fill in the breach.
Beyond his kindness and loyalty to members of our family, Bud in many
unpretentious ways took leadership roles in community affairs such as the local school
board, the church council, farmers' union activities, etc. In many ways, he performed
community activities in a style and spirit not unlike that of his father.
9
Selmer
Selmer too took leadership roles in school, church, farm operations, and other
community affairs. In many ways, he played out the classic role expected of a farmer
committed to the historic American family-farm dream. He began prudently by building
a home on a small farm, carefully planning and managing both his land and livestock,
and adding to his holdings as his resources warranted.
Like the other brothers, he was supportive of my educational hopes and dreams,
including lending me the necessary money for my first college ventures. His
commitment to education was significantly complemented by his good wife Mildred,
who besides being a superb elementary school teacher, shared both Selmer's family farm
dream and his support for school, church, and community affairs.
It was also clear to Selmer that the "family farm dream" should also include a
vital concern for community life and nurture. He was always concerned about the
community, the land, the water, and the environment. This was clearly reflected in his
extensive involvement in community affairs.
He first served on the local township board, the local school board, and the local
cooperative telephone company board as his father had done may years earlier. As one of
the leaders of the telephone board, he became dynamically involved in its transformation
to a Rural Telephone Association (R.T.A.) patterned after the popular Rural Electric
Association. He was president of that local R.T.A. when it became the first Minnesota
R. T .A. to secure the federal loan, which made its telephone system one of the best in
rural Minnesota. Selmer later became active in other local cooperatives including the
Dawson Cooperative Credit Union, which he helped launch and on which he served later
as board President.
Responding to the changes in the farm culture introduced by the "New Deal" farm
programs such as the Triple A (Agricultural Adjustment Act) and the Social Conservation
Service legislation, he became the first local township committee member measuring
allotment acres and sealing grain in farm storage for government loans. He later served
on the Lac Qui Parle County Board, promoting soil conservation practices and
commodity price supports.
10
Like his brother, Bud, and his father he played an active role in the local rural
Lutheran Congregation.
My Sisters
Tilda
Since two of my sisters had died before my birth, I will only comment on my
relations with the other three - Tilda, Marie, and Esther. Each of them had special
significance for my life.
My oldest sister, Tilda, was sixteen when I arrived on the family scene. I can
imagine she had become my mother's main household helper. When by that time the
household contained nine children sixteen years and younger, her tasks as chief
household helper must have been awesome. What she must have given up of her own
personal wishes as a young 16-year-old can only be imagined.
During my childhood years, I am certain that I took her home-making role for
granted. Virtually everything that gave security to my boyhood was undoubtedly touched
by her hands--the preparation of the daily meals, the never ending tasks of house
cleaning, the laundry work, and all the rest. Unhappily, I was too immature to show my
gratitude appropriately.
Such an opportunity came much later in my life when, for three years, I lived at
her Vollan home while teaching in a one-room elementary school in their neighborhood.
I experienced first hand the faithfulness, steadiness, and dignity with which she
discharged her homemaking duties. But beyond that, I came to know Tilda as a caring,
tender person whose unselfish love touched all of us in the household-- her husband Pete,
her daughter Irene, and even the brothers Olaf and myself.
Since her daughter Irene began school as I began my teaching, a special quality of
Tilda's life became evident to me. Beyond the normal concerns of a mother for her
child's first three years in school, Tilda took a special interest and delight in the entire
educational venture. She was interested in every aspect of school's activities. While
preparing for Christmas programs, she learned virtually all the lines of the dialogue,
songs, and recitations of the programs. I was impressed by her native intelligence and
can only imagine the price she paid for having to give up on advanced education during
her teenage years.
11
However, Tilda gave no hint of her regrets, if she had any. Her love for her
parents and all other members of the Torstenson family remained central. I think hardly a
day passed without her having a telephone conversation with our mother--something I
know meant a great deal for both of them.
Out of such circumstances, it is understandable that I should look upon my three
years at Tilda's house from 1932 to 1935 with special gratitude. My admiration, respect,
and affection for her continued through the rest of her life. Good fortune made it possible
for the Vollan family to take over the Torstenson family home when Bud and Selma and
their children moved to their new home. Thus, Tilda made it possible for my father to
continue living in his family's homestead until his death in 1955 and make my visits
there continued occasions for enjoying her hospitality.
It is important that I make a special mention of Tilda's husband, Pete. During all
the years I lived with them, I never heard a mean word from him. He was kindness
personified. We became good friends and shared many activities together. He too was
intensely interested in our school programs. Every Christmas he applied his considerable
artistic talent painting a beautiful holiday scene with colored chalk on one of the school's
strategic blackboards.
Marie
My second oldest sister, Marie, was 14 years of age at my birth. Since Tilda had
become mother's over-all housekeeping assistant, Marie seemed destined to become my
special baby-care helper. In her inimical way, Marie often alluded to her special caring
responsibility for me--responding to my tears, changing my diapers, rocking me to sleep,
and all the rest. Her daughter, Jean, has observed that the special relationship between
me as a baby and her as a 14-year-old sister continued to influence her thinking about her
baby brother as long as she lived.
Unlike her sister, Tilda, who continued as a steadfast Torstenson homemaker until
her marriage, Marie pursued a more adventurous life beyond the homestead. She secured
her secondary education at what was called Windom College in Montevideo, Minnesota,
after which she worked for the Dean of Women at the State Agricultural School in
Morris. Then followed several especially venturesome years in Minneapolis, where,
12
among other things, she served as special nursemaid for children in the illustrious homes
of the prominent Northrup King and Carpenter families, who lived in the then exclusive
Lake of the Isles neighborhood.
Her vacation visits home were special occasions in our family. She would always
bring special gifts for Ludolph and me, the Torstenson Twins, gifts that were unusual in
our home. Once she brought home the lively book, The Flapper's Wife, which was read
aloud to both the delight and astonishment of our family gathered around the large
kitchen table.
Marie later worked for Sheltering Arms, a prominent child care center on the west
Mississippi River Road where she came in touch with a clientele quite different from the
more elitist families of the Kings and Carpenters.
Throughout her life in Minneapolis, she in effect introduced our family to life in
the city. Olaf and Selmer both enrolled in the Bakery program at Dunwoody Institute.
Marie very likely played some role in that venture. She also introduced our mother and
dad to special friends in the city who hosted them while they were attending the 1924
Norwegian-American conference in Minneapolis. Because of Marie's life and work in
Minneapolis the cities were no longer a strange and far-away place for the Torstenson
family.
Even after her marriage to Walter Christianson, who managed a Standard Oil
station in Dawson, Marie's life was destined for high mobility and adventure. After a
few relatively serene years in Dawson, where Sonny (Walter, Jr.) and Jean were born,
Marie's family was destined to live in many parts of the country. Partly because of the
versatile competence of her husband, Walter, and partly because of the economic
uncertainties of the twenties and thirties, their family moved a great deal. To list these
changing habitats will suffice to indicate the complicated adventures of Marie's life:
•
Life in the rural community of Echo, Minnesota where Walter served both as farmer
on the Christianson Farm and butter maker in the Echo, Creamery.
•
Life in Marshall, Minnesota where Walter managed a Conoco Oil Station.
•
Life in Fairfax, Minnesota where Walter served as an auto mechanic at a large Auto
Service Center.
13
•
During the war year of the early 40s, life in the Portland, Oregon region where Walter
first worked in the Defense Industries, then in the lumber and other industries.
•
After Walter's death, the family retired to Portland, Oregon where Marie lived until
her death at the age of ninety-three.
It was always a pleasure to visit her and her family at all of these places where we
always encountered a lively hospitality and a loving welcome. Our family always
cherished Marie's stories about our family history. There were times we suspected she
might be embellishing an essentially accurate story with some exaggerated nuances, but
that only added to the vitality of the telling. Never was her loyalty to and love for her
family in doubt. We cherish her memory.
Esther
My sister, Esther, was 10 years of age when I was born. I find it difficult to
imagine her life as a ten-year-old living in a family with two older sisters and an older
brother, together with five younger brothers. She was likely in fifth grade in the oneroom country school (District 7), which was a little over two miles from the family home.
Those hours at school must have seemed like a refuge from a bewildering family setting.
My first vivid memory of Esther was of visiting her at her light-housekeeping
room in a house in Dawson where she was a high-school student. I remember her serving
me a piece of white bread with butter and sugar. The sugar turned out to be salt--thus
creating an especially memorable event.
Esther was evidently a good student. After graduation, she enrolled in Dawson
High's Normal School and became an elementary school teacher. It was as a
schoolteacher that I first came to know Esther well. As it turned out, she became a
teacher in our District 7 elementary school when I was a student. I remember her as an
excellent teacher who skillfully taught me some of the fundamentals of grammar,
spelling, and the rudiments of good writing.
Beyond that, she effectively taught me the proper separation of her role as an
older sister and responsible schoolroom teacher and administrator. An amusing, but for
me a very embarrassing and for her a very aggravating encounter between us occurred
when I failed to understand those important differences in her role relations with me. Our
14
schoolroom was heated by one of those black iron grated heaters on which the children
had their potatoes baked for noontime lunch. I took the liberty of climbing on top of the
stove jacket to tum the potatoes and continued to stay there reading one of my books.
Esther appropriately insisted I get down to my seat and I stupidly thought I could defy my
sister's demands. In the following encounter, I was demonstrably taught the difference
between her role as a teacher and as an older sister. Since that incident, Esther would
occasionally, with a sense of humor, remind me that I was not always that "good boy" my
mother often told me that I was. Not long ago at a restaurant in Dawson I was introduced
to an elderly gentleman who said he had had two great teachers in his life; one of them
was Esther Torstenson.
i
Even while teaching, Esther married her high school sweetheart, Ervin Larson.
They lived on the Larson farm homestead a few miles southeast of Dawson. They had a
happy early-married life here where their son Lowell and daughter Delores were born.
The Great Depression of the early thirties drastically put an end to this very
promising beginning. As happened to so many farms at that time, an insurance company
mortgage holder foreclosed upon it. The young Larson family became landless tenants
and Ervin was forced to take work for WPA on the Lac Qui Parle Lake project. Through
some much appreciated help from Esther's brother Oscar, the family was able to first rent
a farm and later to buy the farm near Dawson through the Farmers Home Administration
which became their family farm homestead for most of the rest of her life.
Throughout her life, Esther continued to be vitally interested in education, and
with Ervin's full support, in the educational activities of their son Lowell and daughter
Delores. Throughout the years, Esther was always an inspiration for me. We shared
many interests--in education, social concerns, and political issues. Both Fran and I
always enjoyed their visits to our home in Minneapolis and our visits to their home in the
Dawson community.
Perhaps one of the highlights of such association came when in 1973 they visited
us in Norway. Although Esther was still wrestling with the after-effects of a very
troublesome surgery, she joined us in our visit to the Telemark homestead of our dad.
We cherish all these memories.
15
A Closing Commentary on My Brothers and Sisters
The reader must know by now, that my brothers and sisters have meant a great
deal to me. Each in his or her own way has added much to my life. Whatever their first
reception may have been when their 11 th sibling arrived on November 8, 1912, I can
remember only their positive affirmation to my joining their sibling society.
Mother and Dad
It would be unthinkable to assume that the friendly and caring support my
brothers and sisters have always shown me would have happened without the steady
loving care shown all of them by our mother and father. Beyond their individual
differences and varied life experiences, they shared a basic ethos of life that no doubt was
nurtured by our parents. In a sense, all of us in the Torstenson family "stand on the
shoulders" of our caring parents. While more will be said about them in my account of
our "legacies from Norway," it is appropriate to comment here about their impact on my
life as well as that of my brothers and sisters.
Whatever the magic at work between them, there never in doubt love for each
other left an indelible imprint on all of us as to the appropriate relations between husband
and wife. I cannot recall ever hearing an argument between them. While both of them
had been nurtured in a pietist legacy from Norway and both of them were active members
in our neighborhood Lutheran congregation, their piety was never the stem and
discipline-oriented rigidity often associated with pietism.
Of the two, mother was perhaps the most manifestly pietist. But she was also the
most demonstrative of her "tender-loving care" for each of us children. That was
significantly reflected in her concern for me as a child born with a "harelip." I've seen
special letters indicating her anxious concern for the outcome of the early surgery that
should remove as much as possible the negative impact that this defect might have on my
life. This apparently continued to concern her as long as she lived. Some twenty years
after my infancy, she received a telephone call from a young lady asking about me and
leaving a message for me. When reminding me of the call, she inadvertently commented
on her delight that a young lady had such interest in me.
16
As I have already noted, her two youngest, Ludolph and I, had become her special
helpers in many family duties. She would always comment on how good we were.
Perhaps one of the most indelible memories of my mother's love for me was her frequent
expression "Du er en snil gut, du Joel" (you are a kind or good boy, you Joel). Long
before the talk about the importance of "self esteem," she had intuitively sensed its worth
and incorporated it into the best of her pietist religious nurture about "loving one's
neighbors as oneself."
While the same "tender-loving care" was reflected in her relations with all of her
children, it was most vividly impressed upon me in terms of her relations with Ludolph
and me, her two youngest. When Ludolph was smitten with a severe attack of rheumatic
fever, which left him bed-ridden for nearly two years, her tender, loving care for him
knew no bounds. There can be no doubt that our whole family was deeply moved by her
spirit and her caring concern for Ludolph for the rest of her life.
While my father was more reserved, it would be entirely inaccurate to say he
lacked our mother's caring concern for all ofus. He completely shared mother's special
concerns about both Ludolph and my particular problems. He was always interested in
the special developments and achievements of each of his children. He wanted all to get
as much education as possible and was an active member of the local school board. He
wished for all a positive role in the life and culture of American society. He wished for
all of us a good home and family. His own life became in many ways a model for our
lives; he read widely and was well informed, and he participated actively in community
affairs, including church council, school board, telephone cooperative board, and
township board.
Not long ago, I learned from one of my mother's letters to me while I was
pursuing my degree in rural elementary education at Moorhead State Teacher's College,
that my father had contacted a member of the school board of the school district in which
I came to serve, to let him know about my readiness to teach in such a school. It is very
likely that this contact was the first important step leading to my first teaching job in a
time when such jobs were hard to find. Since both my mother and father were conscious
heirs of a Norwegian legacy, much more will be noted about their impact on my
conscience and consciousness in the following discourse, "Legacies from Norway."
17
;
Part Two: Legacies from Norway
While doing the profile of the members of my immediate family and
acknowledging their gifts to my life, I was constantly haunted by the question: "why
were they like that?" That question led inevitably to an inquiry concerning the sociocultural and historic sources of their values, their norms for appropriate behavior, and
their basic goals for life. As I have already intimated, our mother and father appeared to
be the most significant conveyors of the cultural values and norms of their children. But
where did their values come from? That question led naturally to an examination of their
historic socio-cultural roots.
Since the origins of both our parents were intimately related to Norway, the sociocultural legacies of that country inevitably contributed much to their life. I;Ience, an
examination of those legacies seems important. However, any attempt to generalize
about any over-all culture and its impact on its people in this treatise would be altogether
presumptuous. Anyone interested in pursuing such a study would find Professor
Christian T. Jonassen's Value Systems and Personality in Western Civilization:
Norwegians in European America (1983) an excellent source. In this presentation, I will
only note such traits from this book and other sources that seem to help illuminate the
particular norms, values, and worldviews of our parents.
Since both our father and our mother's parents were nurtured in Norway's
prevailing Lutheran Church, their children were both heirs of a common religious
heritage which had established the principle of universal education and religious
instruction in Luther's Catechism and Bible history. After an extensive account of the
complexities of religious history, Professor Jonassen suggests that Christianity had laid
the foundation for many Norwegian values, such as degrading "aggression, violence, and
self aggrandizement and making modesty, self- abnegation, and concern for the
18
unfortunate and the weak, central values" (p.56). Both our parents in many ways
reflected those very values and sought to nurture them in the lives of their children. It has
often been noted that Norwegians have perhaps over-emphasized the qualities of selfabnegation and modesty.
'
While reflecting on these legacies from Norway, I received in the mail a
remarkable book, a translation of Professor Ole E. Rolvaag's classic work, Omkring
Fadrearven, published in 1922. This translation, bearing the title Concerning Our
Herita~, was put together by Rolvaag's granddaughter, Solveig Zempel, Professor of
Norwegian at St. Olaf College. The book provides an illuminating description of some
pervasive Norwegian socio-cultural attributes that seem strikingly relevant for
understanding our parents' value orientations. Among the Norwegian character traits
identified by Rolvaag, the following seemed to be particularly helpful in understanding
our parents' cultural values: (1.) A desire for knowledge, coupled with a love of literature
and an appreciation of art and music (2.) A love of nature (3.) The love of place and
home (4.) A democratic ethos, coupled with a respect for law and government.
The more I've reflected on my parent's life style, the more I've come to
understand that they had internalized the Norwegian legacy concerning the,desire for
knowledge and the love of literature. Both our parents were consummate readers. In
their early life together, they often joined with their neighbors to read and discuss new
books. Our father was perhaps the most avid reader, reading newspapers such as the then
prominent Norwegian-American Skandinaven, weekly magazines like The Pathfinder, as
well as a wide variety of books, some literary classics translated into Norwegian, some
books on American history, and on the history of religion. Our mother read primarily
religious literature, including the Bible and religious magazines. But she also enjoyed
some of the same literature that inspired our father. In her well-kept scrapbook, I found
that she had carefully collected extensive poetry labeled as reading that both of them had
treasured.
Much of this poetry reflected Rolvaag's observations about the love of nature
common to Norwegians. Among the poems she collected were such classics as Norway's
national anthem, "Ja Vi Elsker Dette Landet'' ("Yes We Love this Land") and such other
gems as "Mellom Bakkar of Berg Ut Med Havet" ("Between Hills and Mountains Out by
19
the Sea"), and "Kan Du Glemme gamle Norge?" ("Can You Forget Old Norway?"). All
of these reflected a pervasive appreciation of nature, which inevitably impacted our
parents' thinking about environmental protection and its implications for farming policies
and practices. Another pervasive motif accented in these poems was the love of place
and home as so beautifully described in Rolvaag's account of our Norwegian legacy. It
was perhaps not an accident that our home was built on the banks of the Lac Qui Parle
River. It was obvious that our father loved the woods along the river, caring for them and
carefully managing the selection of such trees that could be appropriately harvested for
the wood stove and furnace. Both our parents were interested in caring for the flowers
and shrubs and the trees around the homestead.
Our parents' interest and participation in public affairs aptly reflected Rolvaag's
comments about Norway's ethos and its pervasive respect for law and government. One
of the tragedies of the new land for our mother was that she had to wait until she was
nearly forty years of age before she could participate as a voter in America's political
process. Women's suffrage came much earlier in Norway.
Since our parents were both influenced by the impact of the Hans Nielson Hauge
Pietist movement in Norway, a word about that would be in order. As historians have
clearly documented, that movement had an impact on Norway's political and social
development, as well as on its religious institutions. One of the reasons for the success of
the movement was attributable to the fact that it "combined a political struggle of the
farmers (bonder) against the official classes with the strong emotions engendered by a
religious revival" (Jonassen). In other words, the movement was both "populist" and
"pietist."
The populist dimension was internalized in both our father and mother but most
explicitly affirmed by our father. He clearly identified himself with the populist
orientation of Norway's Pietist movement. He often alluded to the dominating influences
of the "lensman" (sheriff) and "presten" (the preacher) in the Norwegian community.
That this perception was likely shared by the rural community in Telemark in which he
grew up is indicated by the fact that the first retail consumer cooperative enterprise in
Norway was launched in the very local neighborhood school in which he received his
elementary education. It seems reasonable to surmise that this Norwegian background
20
helps us to understand why our father became actively involved as board member of a
local mutual telephone company, as well as an active member of many other local
cooperative organizations in his new home in America. It may also help explain his
interest in such populist political movements as the Farmer Labor Party in Minnesota
politics, the Farmers Union, and in later years the New Deal orientations of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. While our mother was less expressive of such populist sentiments,
there is no doubt but that she shared our father's views. There can be no question but that
both our parents had subscribed to the populist as well as pietist dimensions of their
religious faith.
From what has already been noted about the Norwegian love of knowledge and
literature, it becomes understandable that both of our parents should be very positive
about general education. Our father became an active board member of our local
elementary school board. Both were glad for whatever achievement we made beyond
elementary education. They both read a good deal, and kept up with the news. As has
already been noted, our father was an especially an avid reader, reading widely in areas
of history and classical literature. In recent years I have examined some of the books in
his library and found translations of such classics as Pilgrims Progress and _.T he Imitation
of Christ.,_ as well as important books on American history. As a lifetime academic
familiar with the anti-intellectualism nurtured in our frontier culture, I have much
appreciated his affirmation of my academic pursuits, even as he affirmed the
I
achievements of my brothers and sisters in their ventures.
While both our mother and father internalized important aspects of Norway's
cultural values, our father was the most articulate communicator about them. Since he
had grown to manhood in Norway and had undoubtedly been influenced by the life and
culture of his Telemark community, he more clearly understood and empathized with that
heritage. It is noteworthy that his original intention as an American immigrant was to
stay in this country for five years until he had earned enough money to provide adequate
resources for launching a career in Norway. He did, in fact, return after five years but
found prospects for the future in Norway less then promising and returned with many
friends from Telemark, who, like him, had decided America promised a brighter future
for them than the "old country" which they still loved.
21
While our father became a very positive American citizen, highly committed to its
best humane and democratic ethos, he never lost his interest in and love for Norway. He
kept reading its poetry, singing its songs, and following with interest its historical
development. He was a faithful reader of a distinguished Norwegian-American
newspaper, Skandinavian published in Chicago, which kept him informed about
developments in Norway as well as about Norwegian-Americans in this country. Every
Christmas, the attractive literacy magazine, Jul I Vesterheimen, kept him in touch with
the more aesthetic and literary reflections of Norwegian life and culture. He maintained a
lively exchange of letters with friends "back home" and became an active member of an
association of emigrants from Telemark called "Teledag." In 1938, he and another
"Teledag" friend, Tor Ringstad, made plans for a final re-visit to the "homeland" but the
disturbing pre-war developments in Europe persuaded them to abandon the venture.
After the April 9t\ 1940 Nazi invasion of Norway, our father became actively involved in
the special aid programs for Norway.
All these manifestations of our father's continued affection for Norway inevitably
nurtured in all of us a special interest in that country and its legacies. I think all of us
learned to sing the first stanza of Norway's national anthem with its opening "Ja vi elsker
dette Landet" and the following lines about that country's beautiful nature.
It is likely no accident that all but Tilda from our family have made visits to
Norway and to our father's Telemark community. I suspect that these legacies from our
Norwegian roots contributed something to my interest in launching a "semester in the
city" program in Scandinavia for a consortium of upper-midwest colleges and
universities in the early seventies. After a summer excursion in Scandinavia with
Ludolph, Alpha, Fran, and myself in 1971, I found a positive co-sponsor for such a
venture at the University of Oslo. This venture, launched in 1973, succeeded beyond all
expectations and has continued each year ever since.
While these reflections about our parents' historic linkages with their European
past are far from complete, I trust they indicate some of the most salient dimensions of
our socio-cultural legacies from Norway. How these legacies have been transferred to
following generations in the United States becomes an interesting topic for speculation.
When a thoughtful relative, Johannes Steinsrud, a schoolman from Telemark, visited us
22
several years ago, he noticed with obvious pleasure that many of the second and third
generations of Torstensons were engaged in the teaching professions and related service
oriented fields. Perhaps this observation might not be unrelated to such a legacy transfer
from Norway to America.
'
23
Part Three: Beyond the Family Farm
Although much of my early nurturing occurred within the context of our
immediate family and its farm home, it would be a great mistake to ignore the importance
of its supportive surrounding Scandinavian-American community. Our farm was
surrounded by an entire neighborhood of family farms owned and operated by first
generation Norwegian-Americans who shared many of the values of our common
European heritage, together with the hopes and dreams for a future life in the new
homeland. Our nearest neighbors were also relatives, which added much to the
intimacies of our neighborhood ties. I cherish fond memories of the many family "get
togethers" with these neighbors including all kinds of games, great dinners, and shared
intergenerational conversations.
It was out of this network of related family neighbors that much of the extensive
Torstenson, Christianson, Skoien, Borns, and Holtan kinship system emerged, a kinship
that eventually spread itself over much of Minnesota and other parts of the United States.
As it spread itself geographically, its members expanded vocationally becoming involved
in education, commerce, and politics, as well as farming. One of its members, Theodore
Christianson, even became a governor of the state of Minnesota.
Perhaps the most memorable legacy of our intimate family-farm neighborhood
was the development of a traditional "threshing bee" led by Clarence Borns who had
become its much loved and respected thresher. As the neighborhood gathered to map out
the year's threshing schedule, the best values of rational neighborhood economic
planning were combined with a festive social celebration.
Beyond these inter-family relations, we also shared in the development of the
larger neighborhood institutions such as the elementary public school, together with its
supportive life and culture, and the neighborhood Lutheran congregation and its social
and religious activities. As our family grew, we become increasingly involved in life and
24
services of our neighboring towns and villages as well, such as the historic village of Lac
Qui Parle and such surrounding towns as Dawson, Milan, and the county seat of
Madison.
All of these relations with both our neighborhood and the life and work of the
surrounding villages and towns involved our family in personal and social as well as
economic and political linkages with the larger society surrounding our family farm. All
these contributed to our preparation for sharing in the emerging common life and culture
of a growing American society. Perhaps the popularized concept of the "family farm
dream" with its emphasis on rugged individualism and economics provides an inadequate
account of what life was really like in these early farming settlements, one that has
neglected the important socio-cultural values associatd with rich neighborhood and
surrounding community experiences and associations.
t
25
Part Four: The Questfor Authenticity in the
World Order
Introduction
Import~nt as my cultural roots were in nurturing many of my value-orientations
and personality traits, there came a time in my life for relating them to my role as a
growing person in the context of a larger complex and dynamic American society. In a
sense, this meant a shift from an immersion in my childhood cultural roots to a lively
encounter with the larger society around me and the development of a self-conscious
authenticity within it.
The L.N.S. Academy and "Growing Up"
The first step in this transition was Ludolph and my enrollment in a program of
secondary education in the Lutheran Normal School Academy in Madison, Minnesota.
As has already been noted, our parents were agreed about the importance of education
and wanted their children to continue their studies beyond the elementary education they
received in District #7. This meant arranging for such studies in neighboring towns
eleven to fourteen miles away from our family homestead, this before there was a highly
developed automobile culture and/or school busing. For our older siblings, arrangements
had been made for them to rent rooms with families in town where food and other daily
needs were provided. However, this option became difficult by the time Ludolph and I
were ready for this new educational venture, since our mother's health had become
precarious. This difficulty was resolved by enrolling us in the Lutheran Normal School
Academy in Madison some thirteen miles from home. Here we would live in a well-
26
managed dormitory and work for our board in the Academy's food services in another
part of the campus.
While the students at this Academy came from a wider geographical area than
was typical of the public high schools in the region and were supported by private funds,
it would be a great mistake to classify it as an elitist institution. Tuition and other costs
were a little less than $300.00 per student. It was obviously this low cost that made it
possible for our parents to enroll us in this private academy.
However, even if this academy was not socially elitist, its curriculum was clearly
designed to meet the entrance requirements of most colleges and universities. Both
Minnesota's Department of Education and the University of Minnesota officially
accredited the academy. Thus, its students were all exposed to both world and American
history, four years of English and world literature, mathematics, the physical and social
sciences, as well as typically two foreign languages--one of which was often Latin. In
addition to such typical academic encounters, our academy provided a four-year program
in religious studies including Biblical study, Church history, a study of the life of Christ,
the writings of the Apostle Paul, and Church doctrine. These studies were
understandably consonant with the religious orientations of the Lutheran Cµurch
supporting the Academy.
'
All of these courses, as they were intended to, expanded my consciousness
beyond the limits of my prior experiences in the local neighborhood life and culture. I
am grateful for the generally excellent faculty who stimulated me to a fairly rigorous
response to this varied curriculum such that I graduated with one of the two highest
honors in my class. Perhaps additional thanks should be extended to our boys' dormitory
dean for his systematic monitoring of the study hours every day of the week.
I am also grateful for the many ways this academy was more than an academic
institution. As a residential organization where students as well as several members of
the faculty spent the whole day together, it became a veritable social community where
people came to know each other well. Its extensive extra-curricular programs provided a
wide variety of opportunities for participation in such musical activities as the school
choir, girl's glee club, school band, and men's quartettes that presented special programs
in the surrounding churches and communities.
27
Similarly, an extensive athletic program provided opportunities for participation
in such activities as football, basketball, baseball, and tennis. These athletic teams of
course played other high school and academy teams in the region adding to their appeal.
In addition musical and athletic activities, there were special programs in dramatics,
debate, and public speaking. Since the school was relatively small, several of us were
able to participate in most of these activities.
Since our school was linked with other similar academies throughout the upper
Midwest, we became involved in inter-academy competitive events involving both
athletic as well as more typical academic activities such as debate, public speaking,
drama, and musical performances. Colleges such as Luther College in Decorah, Iowa
and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota typically hosted these events. As
venturesome young adults, we found participation in such events exhilarating.
Participating in these multi-varied extra-curricular activities not only expanded one's
interests in such things as music, drama, and public discourse, they also provided
opportunities for new roles-as an athlete in baseball and basketball teams and as an
actor in the senior play. The same could be said for my singing in the academy's choir
and male quartette. Perhaps most cherished of all was the expansion of one's circle of
friends.
My First Venture as a Pedagogue
While graduation from the L.N.S. Academy represented an important step in my
"growing up," it was in a sense but a prelude to the next important move toward a
relatively authentic status as a grown-up person--namely, making a choice relative to my
future career. More than prior decisions in my life, this had to be essentially my own.
However, like prior choices, this too had to be made in the context of the socio-economic
circumstances of the time, as well as the cultural orientation that shaped what I perceived
to be my alternatives. As anyone knowledgeable about the history of the late twenties
and the early thirties knows, these were not the best of times. The famous stock market
crash of 1929 and the following years of economic depression severely limited what I
perceived to be my optional first steps in choosing a future career. While some of my
classmates were able to delay making specific career choices by entering four-year
28
college programs, this was not an option for me because of our family's economic
situation. It was also clear that even if I had by now come to have a high regard for the
life and work of farming and its culture, my future career would have to be sought
elsewhere.
Whether or not my academic exposure at the Academy, which had begun as a
teacher-training school, and the fact that my older sister, Esther, had chosen a one-year
teacher-training program at the Dawson High School, influenced my thinking at the time
I do not know. But I began to seek out one-year teacher training programs at colleges in
the area. I decided to enroll at Moorhead State Teachers College in a special one-year
teacher-training program preparing for a "Rural Elementary" teaching certificate. My
L.N.S. classmate and friend, Lloyd Hanson, had made a similar choice, and together we
rented a room in a small apartment near the college. The proprietor of the apartment also
provided us a space in the basement for light housekeeping.
Thanks to a trunk full of canned goods my mother had sent with us, and similar
supplies from Lloyd's home, our food costs were very low. A modest compensation both
of us received each week for distributing sales fliers for our apartment's small grocery
store every Friday afternoon helped pay for some of our groceries. A smal,1 loan from my
brother Selmer provided the money I needed for the college tuition and related costs,
which also were very modest since the college was a publicly supported state institution.
The two reasons for describing what might well be perceived as trivial economic
details of my first year's college expenses is first, to clearly dramatize the impact of the
economic crisis of the time and secondly, to acknowledge, with gratitude, the helpful
support of my family, as well as the important public support given to the college which
made this first year of college education possible for me. The very nature of this oneyear training program necessarily limited both the breadth and depth of its academic
encounter. But I remember with special gratitude those excellent professors who added
zest to the coursework.
In terms of my preparation for teaching, perhaps the most significant part of the
one-year program was the excellent teaching internship conducted in a two-room
elementary school in an open-country neighborhood about ten miles north of the
Moorhead-Fargo area. This whole experience provided a reality-testing situation for all
29
students involved. Two of us roomed in a family farm home about a mile and a halfwalking distance from the school. Since all of our meals were provided at the school
cafeteria, we spent most of our time at the school. We observed excellent supervisory
teachers in virtually every grade of the school and gradually became participatory
teaching interns in some grades. We learned about curriculum issues, alternative
methods of teaching, techniques for evaluating student performances, and over-all
principles of schoolroom administration. Although the very nature of this one-year
teacher-training program limited our involvement in the extra-curricular programs of the
college, we managed, as young people usually do, to find both time and situations for
some relaxation and play.
Having satisfactorily completed the one-year academic program required for a
teaching position in a rural school, the next challenge for me was to find a school district
that would hire me. To my knowledge, there was no highly developed teacher placement
program at the college related to its one-year rural teaching training program. Thus, like
most of my college classmates, I thought mainly of my local home community as the area
representing my best prospects.
As was true of the whole state, the general economy had a strong impact on the
market for such teaching positions. In the first place, the wage structure was greatly
depressed. Because of the great farm depression, school boards were compelled to
reduce their salary offerings. Many schools were paying less than $50.00 a month for
their teachers. This low wage pattern was further supported by the fact that there was a
good supply of teachers desperately needing those jobs.
It was my great good fortune to have a tender, loving, and persistent employment
service made up of my Mother and Dad. They were fully aware of the precarious
employment situation. In reviewing the ma~y letters I had received during my year at the
college, I discovered that my folks had all along shown an intense interest in both my
academic program, as well as in my job prospects as a schoolteacher. They followed
closely the teaching openings in their area and made several contacts with various school
boards on my behalf.
Since my father had served on our local District Seven school board, he was quite
familiar with school board issues. It was of particular significance that one of his
30
colleagues on that board, Oscar Quenemoen, had become a member of another school
district board where there was an opening. My Dad met with him to tell him of my
potential interest in that teaching opportunity. His response was positive and stated that
he needed an application and related information about my interest in and readiness for
teaching in District #13. I was of course immediately informed and made the application.
Through follow-up meetings with Mr. Quenemoen, Dad learned that the whole board had
met and considered my application and agreed to employ me for the salary of $65.00 a
month.
I understood that Mr. Quenemoen had wished that they could pay me more, but
the fact that several other applicants had offered to take the job for much less made that
virtually impossible. Both my Mother and Dad thought I should respond positively to the
offer. My Dad said that under the prevailing conditions the salary was not bad, and my
Mother observed, "a bird in the hand was better than a bird in the tree." I agreed with
both of them, and in the fall of 1935, I began my first stint as a pedagogue.
Some Reflections on My First Teaching Experience
Any attempt to describe accurately my three years as teacher at the District 13
one-room school in Lac Qui Parle County now fifty years later is fraught with many
hazards. There are of course the inevitable hazards of memory lapses, as well as the
likelihood of re-interpreting the past out of one's present consciousness. As an
historically oriented sociologist, I shall, however, try to reconstruct that past experience
as accurately as my limited memory and historical data provide. Beyond that, I will
speculate on how that experience influenced my developing consciousness and
philosophy of life.
The 22 students enrolled in District 13 came from thirteen families that were all of
first or second-generation Norwegian American heritage. All the families were at least
nominally associated with the local Lac Qui Parle Lutheran Church. All the families
were also engaged in farming, most as owner-operators and some as renters. In a sense,
all could be said to be participants in values and hopes associated with the historic
family-farm dream. Thus, it can be said that District 13 was rooted in a relatively
homogeneous socio-economic culture. In many ways, the schoolhouse served as a
31
neighborhood center. It was a fairly new and attractive structure with a full basement,
indoor toilets, and a small library. Thus, it was well suited to serve as a neighborhood
social center.
Even though I had a fairly clear understanding of the homogenous character of the
District #13 community and received some comfort from it, and even if I felt that my
college teacher training had been quite successful, I feared that my first day as teacher at
this one-room country school might be a daunting experience. How could I really have
mastery of an orderly educational agenda for eight grades of more than twenty children
ranging from ages five to thirteen? I remember spending much time thinking and
worrying about this as I planned for that first day.
Beyond the issues of academic management was also the concern for classroom
order and for nurturing positive and friendly relationships between the teacher and the
students, as well as good interpersonal relations among the children. I had been given to
understand that one of the reasons I had been favorably considered for this teaching
position was that during the past two years there had been considerable discipline
problems thought to have been related to the fact that the upper classes had a
preponderance of big boys who caused problems for my predecessor. It was thought that
as a man, I could master the situation and effectively assert my authority over the
troublemakers.
But I had no predilection to play such an authoritarian role. Having learned at
college about the potential merit of Citizens Councils as a strategy not only for creating
good relations between students and teacher, but also for providing a live experience for
the students in democratic processes, I found that approach more congenial to my spirit.
So on the opening day, I wrote in bold, gold-colored chalk over the top of the blackboard
the following simple guiding principle for our student--teacher relations: "I'll help you
and you'll help me, then what a wonderful school this will be." Using this as our guiding
principle, I presented the case for the Citizen Council idea and proceeded to organize
such a structure for democratically determining the elementary norms for behavior in the
schoolroom for both the teacher and the students.
I perceived this approach to be not primarily a strategy for control. It truly
reflected my personal predilection toward the democratic ethos that I had been nurtured
32
in from my childhood. I think it can be said to have worked beyond my fondest
expectations. I encountered no fundamental discipline problems during my three years of
teaching. The big boys became in a sense, my friends and helpers. Because of some
agreed upon rules governing how students might help each other in their schoolwork, the
schoolroom was perhaps noisier than it should be at times--that at least was the
judgement of the County School Superintendent on his first visit. Having heard the
Superintendent's comments to me, the next time he visited our school, the children
without any prompting on my part behaved so quietly that the Superintendent
commended me on how well I had solved the noise problem.
Naturally, I was gratified by the children's concern for their teacher. What was
more important, that gesture reflected a spirit of positive relationship that was developing
among us. This, I think, contributed much to whatever success we experienced as a
learning community. The children's positive responses to the classroom learning
challenges as well as to such special activities as the Christmas programs, public
speaking contests, and county-wide musical events gave me great satisfaction. It more
than compensated for my sense of inadequacy in effectively managing the highly
complex challenges inevitable in a one-room elementary school of eight gq1des. The fact
that after more than fifty years, I still remember with positive feelings the names of all
the children in that school, indicates why I remember with gratitude all the ways in which
those youngsters made those three years so memorable to me.
As every educator knows , the teacher's effectiveness is usually enhanced by
positive and friendly relations with the school's surrounding community. Even with less
consciousness of its significance than I might have had, I found this to be true at District
# 13. The responsiveness of the community to my initiatives in organizing a debating
society as well as a community drama club putting on three-act plays in the district and
surrounding communities was both personally gratifying to me and rewarding in terms of
promoting positive school-community relations. Both activities brought older members
of the children's families into positive school-community relations and provided outlets
for their intellectual and artistic interests--even as they gave me an outlet for some of my
long-time interests.
33
The debating society provided special opportunities for people of the
neighborhood, together with invited special participants from the larger community, to
debate the vital socio-political issues that were raging during this time in our history.
Every event staged, whether drama or debate, packed the schoolhouse with a highly
responsive audience. Some refreshments and lively conversation followed each event.
The many, informal Friday night dinner parties to which I was often invited provided for
more intimate relations between the community and myself. This cherished relationship
was largely due to the fact that I lived with my oldest sister Tilda and her family. Their
daughter Irene began her elementary education the year I began teaching. These dinner
parties brought whole families together into close relationships. Children would gather
together for their play activities. Older people played "Rook" or other games. The oldest
would often gather to share reflections on past neighborhood history and other social
issues or to share stories. There was neighborhood cohesion there, the likes of which I
have never since experienced.
The Impact of the Great Depression
I have already made some casual references to the Great Depression, but none of
them has adequately described the great impact it had upon me personally as well as upon
the school and its community. Since our community was made up almost entirely of
farmers and their families, the Great Depression was primarily experienced as a great
farmers' crisis. The market for farmers' products virtually collapsed in 1932. Wheat
sold for as low as 20 cents a bushel, oats for 9 cents and com for 12 cents. Hogs went to
market for pennies a pound. The markets for dairy products were similarly depressed. A
highly productive year with a bountiful harvest only added to the market catastrophe.
This economic reality cast great doubt about the adequacy of letting the "law of supply
and demand" determine the economic fortunes of the country. In their frustration, the
people began to paraphrase that old adage to "the law of supply and be damned."
Further complicating the problem was the legacy of the bank crisis. Many of the
banks of the neighboring towns were forced into bankruptcy, making them inoperative as
sources for loans during these difficult times. Some farmers, who during the prosperous
twenties had greatly expanded their operations and borrowed extensively to finance such
34
ventures, found themselves unable to meet the related mortgage payments. This led to
widespread mortgage foreclosure sales of farm homes and other properties to such credit
agencies as the major insurance companies that had bought their mortgages. For the
farmers who managed to hold on to their homes and market their grain, livestock,
poultry, and dairy products found their income inadequate for paying the costs of
producing them--to say nothing about meeting the annual costs of the family budget,
taxes, etc.
To add to the tragedy of the farm crisis was the complete crop failure of 1933-34
due to the great drought that swept over this part of western Minnesota. We had dust
storms that rivaled the worst winter blizzards in their intensity, forcing farm families to
light lamps in their homes all day. Schools were occasionally forced to close down until
the storms subsided. Since most of the farmers were diversified, not only did the drought
wipe out their income from marketing their crops and produce, it also threatened the
supply of feeds and forage needed to keep their livestock fed. To expect that the farmers
would accept these drastic threats to their very economic survival with serenity and
complacency would be unthinkable. They keenly understood that the entire "family farm
dream" that had nurtured them in the past was being challenged. Their response to this
challenge led to a revitalization of the Farmers Union and other farm organizational
programs. The most dramatic new organizational activity was a rapid growth of the
National Farm Holiday Association. When the nation's President, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, declared a National Bank Holiday to deal with the banking crisis, leaders of
the Farm Holiday Association thought it similarly appropriate to launch a National Farm
Holiday to deal with the farm crisis.
The Farm Holiday Association proceeded to stop farm mortgage foreclosure sales
as well as other farm bankruptcy sales. Many of District #13 farmers became active in
this new organization. One of the farmers in the district became the Lac Qui Parle
County Chairman of the organization and played a crucial leadership role in bringing
large crowds of farm men and women to the county courthouse every time a farm
foreclosure sale was scheduled. The very size of these crowds persuaded the county
Sheriff to postpone the sale. Fortuitously the County Sheriff was a relative of the Farm
Holiday Chairman and, after many such confrontations, they agreed to have the Sheriff
35
telephone his relative to inform him of every forthcoming foreclosure sale to ask him if
another crowd would come to stop it. If so, the Sheriff would postpone the sale.
Knowing many of the participants in these populist protest activities, I witnessed close
hand and with sympathetic understanding these dramatic social forces at work in our
community.
When the Farm Holiday Leaders decided to march on the Minnesota State Capitol
for a conference with the state's popular new Governor, Floyd B. Olson, and to press
upon a reluctant state legislature the urgency of some critical new farm legislation,
thousands of farmers in our area boarded the train that would take them to the Twin
Cities to join that farmers' march on the Capitol. Several local farmers joined in the
venture, including my brother-in-law, Peter Vollan. An insurance company thought this
would be a strategic time to conduct a farm foreclosure sale, assuming the usual men
farmers who would stop such a sale were away on the Farmer's march. To their surprise,
they found Madison packed with farmwomen who were milling around the courthouse
well-prepared to stop the sale.
While these dramatic events inevitably enlivened my social consciousness, the
devastating impact of this depression upon people and families that I had come to know
intimately shook to the core of my very being. One of my school board members, for
example, endured unthinkable indignities and anguish. I had come to know him as a
highly sensitive, industrious, and respected farmer and a caring family man. In
desperation and against all his sense of self-pride, he was compelled to apply for W.P.A.
funding at the county courthouse. He was assigned to work at our schoolhouse, as a
janitor who would tend the school furnace, sweep its floors, and do such other tasks as
might be needed. As the teacher, I was expected to sign the paper that would indicate
that he had done such work responsibly. Of course, I agreed to sign the papers, but told
him that it made no sense for him to walk some three miles each day to do the routine
janitorial tasks that I had already been doing myself. Furthermore, we agreed that his
responsibilities at home doing the usual farm work and supporting a large family were far
more important. Any sensitive person would readily understand the sheer indignity of the
situation.
36
These experiences with the Great Depression inevitably left a never-to-beforgotten mark on my social consciousness. My early nurture in the populist legacies
from my parents and their Norwegian heritage took on a new significance. The popular
cliches about the virtues of "rugged individualism" and "self-reliance" lost much of their
glamour. The imperatives of cooperation and collective socio-political action became
more understandable, and the social implications of the Judeo-Christian legacies began to
haunt me as never before. Although most of my time and energies were absorbed in my
work as teacher, I could not isolate myself from the socio-political drama spawned by the
Depression. Knowing personally many of the local participants in the growing populist
farm organizations and having a fairly clear understanding of their socio-economic plight,
I attended some of their meetings and witnessed some of their demonstrations. In the
process, I developed a sympathetic understanding of the socio-political ethos of the
emerging Farm-Labor Party, the Farmers Union, and the Farm Holiday Association.
The impact of these experiences upon my changing political philosophy can
perhaps be most vividly described by the following two episodes in my life. When in
1931 my college English professor assigned for our class the writing of a "political
essay," I chose for my topic "Why Boost for Hoover." A year later, after rp.y experiences
with the farm community in District #13, I had become an ardent supporter of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt for President. I had also found the popular Floyd B. Olson of the
Farmer-Labor Party had become my favored candidate for governor of Minnesota. An
analysis of the local elections returns indicated that my changing political orientation
could be interpreted as a symbolic representation of much of the changing political
orientation of our District #13 community.
Augsburg College and Consciousness Expansion
Although I had found my role as teacher in District 13 both challenging and
socially stimulating, I never abandoned my intention to complete a four-year college
degree. After three years of teaching, I determined to go back to college to pursue what I
had somewhat vaguely perceived as an important liberal arts education. The three years
of teaching during a pervasive depression had understandably not removed all the
economic difficulties in this pursuit. But some fortuitous circumstances lessened the
37
difficulties. One of my L.N.S. classmates had begun his academic studies at Augsburg
College in Minneapolis. He encouraged my doing the same and informed me that his
uncle, Abner Batalden, had become the Director of Student employment at the college,
and that he would help me find the necessary part-time employment if I should decide to
come to Augsburg. I was told that some work experience in a grocery store might help
his finding such part time employment in Minneapolis. So, during part of the summer of
1935, I did some volunteer work at a Madison grocery store to get such experience; later
that summer I was informed of a part time job in Minneapolis.
Thus, in the fall of 1935, I enrolled at Augsburg College and began my part time
work at a C. Thomas Grocery chain store near what was somewhat flippantly called the
"Hub of Hell" a few blocks south of Lake Street. For a full day's work from about 8:00
a.m. to nearly midnight, I was paid four dollars minus four cents for apron laundry. What
is noteworthy about this pittance of pay was that it in many ways reflected the realities of
a continued depressed economy in urban America. It is also noteworthy that the tuition at
the college was also very low. This plus income from other work opportunities made it
possible for me to complete my BA degree by the spring of 1938.
In spite of the economic difficulties, however, the academic challenges at the
college were both gratifying and invigorating. I think that in some sense I was ready for
the challenges. I was eager to expand my knowledge of world history. I had become
acutely interested in economics and political science, thinking that the study of these
disciplines would help me grapple more critically with the socio-political problems I had
already encountered. I was also interested in probing more deeply into the JudeoChristian legacies. I was ready for a "beyond the Sunday School" study of religion. I
was also quite conscious of my limitations in the fields of literature and the fine arts.
Augsburg ' s faculty seemed well prepared to satisfy my interests. I owe many thanks to
that dedicated group of scholars. I remember with special gratitude the grand history
professor, H. N. Hendrickson, who made the history of European Civilization seem like a
great drama. Through his discourse on English history, I came to a deeper appreciation
of the importance of its developments in parliamentary government and law. It did not
take long for me to declare history as my college major. Miss Gerda Mortensen, the
gracious "queen of the college," stimulated my interests in American history.
38
I am also indebted to Mr. P.A. Sveggen, professor of English, who so uniquely
dramatized some of the major literary classics. I think every student in his classes
remembers his dramatic references to the great trilogy of human values - "Truth, Beauty
and Goodness." One of my lasting regrets was that my other academic pursuits
prevented me from majoring in English. It was natural that my encounter with the Great
Depression should prompt me to have a special interest in the social sciences such as
economics, political science, and sociology. These courses made up another
concentration of my studies.
My interests in religious inquiry were greatly rewarded by one of Augsburg's preeminent leaders, Dr. Bernhard Christensen. His courses in Christianity were inspiring.
He also introduced me to the study of philosophy and exposed me to Plato and the great
Socratic Dialogues. One of his colleagues, Dr. Christopher Hagen, awakened my interest
in psychology. Another professor in Christianity, Dr. Sverre Norborg, from Norway,
added both depth and drama through his course in "Varieties of Christian Experience."
All these courses in history, the social sciences, literature, philosophy, and religion both
expanded and, in many ways, transformed my consciousness beyond my fondest
expectations.
Supplementing these primarily academic encounters, were a variety of extracurricular activities such as debate and forensics, journalism, student government, etc.
By the time of my graduation, I had been elected student director of forensics; I was
editor of the college newspaper; and an active member of the International Relations
Club and the student Farmer-Labor Party. My fellow classmates chose me as their senior
class president, adding considerably to the complexity of my life in the senior year.
Perhaps the most significant happening for me during my senior year was related to the
tragic sudden death of the college's President, Dr. George Sverdrup. Professor
Hendrickson was asked to step in as Acting College President. To my great
astonishment, he asked me to take over his class in European History. He was apparently
pleased with my performance, since to my great delight, he asked me to continue
teaching the course the following year while I pursued my post-graduate work in history
at the University of Minnesota.
39
This most unanticipated tum of events dramatically resolved many of the
uncertainties about my future. I had thought of several alternatives such as high school
teaching, law, journalism and editing a small town paper, or entering a seminary to
prepare me for the ministry. I could now graduate from college with the comfortable
certainty that the following year I could continue one of my major academic pursuits in
graduate school while at the same time become part of a college faculty.
Although most of this account of my three years at Augsburg has been focused
upon my academic pursuits, I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge some of the
important, even if unplanned, social experiences. One of the most significant of these
was the friendship of my classmate and my three-year roommate, Adrian Tinderholt. I
had barely settled down in my dormitory room when I learned that my home community
neighbor who had completed a year of study at a western Minnesota Junior College had
also decided to complete his college studies at Augsburg. I was delighted that he would
become my roommate. Besides being a good student also majoring in history, he too did
part-time work in the city to help pay his way. We soon took up residence at a nearby
home where we could also prepare our own meals. The owner of this home was a
delightful from Sweden and joined the local Episcopal Church because she found its form
of worship more like what she had experienced in the Swedish Lutheran Church.
Since all but one of her children had grown up and established their homes
elsewhere, I think in many ways she treated us as her boys and almost like part of her
family. We would walk through living room, dining room, and kitchen as we went to her
basement where she had arranged a place where we could prepare and eat our three meals
a day. Our fairly spacious upstairs bedroom and study became like home for us where
our friends could come for visits. Since we were only about two blocks from the college
campus, these occasions were readily arranged.
We were also within one block from the Fairview Hospital and its School of
Nursing, which came to have special importance for the lives of both Adrian and myself.
I will leave it to the imagination of the reader to fill in the story of how both of us found
our future life-mates at that place. More will be written about my courtship, marriage,
and family developments in a later part of my life's story.
40
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
- -- - - --
-
-·---------·-
Part Five: Testing Alternative Futures
Introduction
Normally college graduates spend the following few years entering into
alternative future vocations or pursuing post-graduate studies prior to entering vocations
requiring more academic preparation. But as is well known, the decade following 193 8
was far from normal. All 1938 college graduates were destined to encounter the complex
forces of change associated with the outbreak of World War II. For some, this meant
becoming actively involved in the military services. For others, work in special draftdeferred occupations or carrying on the necessary public functions of health care,
education, and governance. For all of them, the socio-political, economic, and moral
forces of change associated with the war dramatically altered their conventional
alternative futures.
From 1938 to 1940--Graduate Study and College Teaching
As previously stated, I was asked to take over Professor Hendrickson's class in
European History when he was made acting president of the college. In a sense, it was
both an awesome challenge and a great opportunity for me. Apparently, Professor
Hendrickson was pleased with my work, since he asked me to continue teaching the
course the following year while beginning my post-graduate studies toward a Masters
Degree in History. Thus, I had the good fortune of pursuing graduate work and at the
same time exploring college teaching as a future career.
I found both ventures challenging as well as enjoyable, and the college saw fit to
keep me on as instructor in history until I completed my Masters degree. I found my
graduate studies in history very interesting and challenging. The study of historical
methodology and the critical analysis and use of documentary sources was dramatized by
41
th
a good professor. Another professor made 19 century Europe an intriguing field of
study.
I am especially grateful to Dr. George M. Stephenson who was at the time a
professor of American History at the University of Minnesota. Besides being an
inspiring teacher and a kind and gentle person, he gave me much help and encouragement
in the preparation of my master's thesis, on The Attitude of the Lutheran Church Toward
Slavery. From his suggestion, I discovered important primary sources such as periodical
publications of the various immigrant groups identified with 19 th century American
Lutheranism. This experience demonstrates the importance of my language studies in
Norwegian, Swedish, and German. It has been gratifying to know that the final thesis has
been found somewhat useful for later scholars.
I chose sociology for my minor field of study in my Masters Degree program.
This opened up an opportunity for my teaching some introductory courses in that
discipline at Augsburg. By the end of 1940, I had completed my work for the Masters
Degree in history with a minor in sociology and was ready to respond to Augsburg's
overture that I continue to teach an increasing academic load in both sociology and
history while beginning graduate study for a Ph.D. in sociology together w,ith a minor in
History.
These two years from 1938-1940 are especially memorable to me for a more
important reason and one not particularly related to the academic work. During that time
Fran and I decided to marry and establish a home in the area. More will be said about the
beginning of our new family later. But a few comments will indicate how much that new
beginning added to the joys of these two years.
Frances had completed her studies for an R.N. degree in Nursing at Fairview and
had become a special surgical nurse at that hospital. We found an attractive upper duplex
less than a block from Augsburg's main building and only about four blocks from the
hospital. It is almost unbelievable that we only paid $27 .00 a month rent for that
attractive upper duplex. Needless to say, this new home, near our work in the heart of a
predominately pedestrian oriented neighborhood, provided a delightful place for our early
beginnings.
42
I
The War's Impact on Academia
The serenity and joys of these two years of gratifying academic, career, and
I
personal pursuits could not shield us for long from the troubling news of an impending
outbreak of another World War in Europe. We listened virtually every night to Shirer's
dramatic accounts of the developing crisis in Europe. Ominous signs of a world
conflagration increased day by day. With Hitler's forces moving into Poland in 1939, the
war had begun.
The impact of these developments on the entire academic community was
awesome. In a sense the college population of 1939 had been heirs of a Wilsonian dream
about a "war to end all wars" and the hope of an enduring world peace under the
direction of a League of Nations. Many ofus at Augsburg were active members of an
International Relations Club. I remember well my own participation in that organization
while a student at the college--including representing Augsburg's Club at an inter-college
event staging a model "League of Nations" meeting. My role was to represent Hungary.
Even before my coming to Augsburg, I had developed a strong interest in the
"peace movement." As a youngster, I had been nurtured in the virtues of non-violence.
During my confirmation instruction at our Lac Qui Parle Lutheran Church,, I had some
difficulties with the Pastor's handling of the Fifth Commandment. I was not satisfied
with what was presumably the Lutheran position that exempted war from that
commandment's "Thou Shall Not Kill" edict.
As a schoolteacher in District 13, I had organized a debating society, which
grappled with contemporary social issues. One of the topics debated was compulsory
military conscription. While the affirmative position was well defended by an able editor
and his colleague, the opposition made a strong appeal to those whose ancestors had left
Europe to avoid being drafted, and had incorporated their anti-war sentiments into overall populist sympathies. As one of the debaters taking the anti-conscription side I had
found an intriguing book in our local church library, entitled War What For. It highly
dramatized the evils of the munitions industry that was at the time being exposed by
Senator Nye's Munitions Industry Investigating Committee. I had read reports from that
committee in the Congressional Record, but this book made more graphic its charge that
the munitions industry was callously promoting war among nations.
43
As a student of religion and philosophy at Augsburg, I was exposed to the more
profoundly philosophical and moral dimensions of the issues of war and peace as well. I
read Albert Schweitzer's inspiring book The Philosophy of Civilization, with its two final
chapters on the "Ethics of Reverence for Life." I became aware of the life and work of
St. Francis of Assisi and many other historic leaders of Christendom. Through more
careful study of the Bible, I came to understand more clearly the central role of Jesus in
Christendom's social ethos. When my teaching assignments increased, I soon learned
that many of the college students, as well as other faculty, were wrestling with the same
Christ and culture tensions relative to militarism and war.
In the early forties Dr. Bernhard Christensen, who had then become president of
the college, asked me to teach a course on the Social Teachings of the Bible. By then
America had become fully engaged in the world struggle and the study of the relation
between Christian ethics and war was no longer merely an objective philosophical and
academic exercise. For student and teacher alike, the study had become a profoundly
personal encounter.
In a sense, this ethical dilemma provided a creative and dynamic context for our
study of the Biblical account of our Judeo-Christian heritage. But it also i~volved the
usual hazards for intellectual integrity and objective study. The classroom at times
erupted in passionate and sometimes angry debate. As I remember the experience, I think
that in the main the class became a vibrant community of co-learners sharing a common
moral and intellectual concern about some of the most central issues of life itself. In a
sense, this class was likely representative of what was happening throughout the college
community, including both faculty and students. No one could escape the war's claims
on their lives.
The Peace Movement
As noted earlier, the peace movement in America had developed considerably
during the decades of the 1920s and 30s. This was certainly true for Minneapolis, as well
as of Minnesota generally. This has been well documented in a recent book by William
P. Everts, Jr. , Stockwell of Minneapolis, published by North Star Press in St. Cloud, in
1996. The outbreak of the war of course presented this peace movement with serious
44
I
challenges, which demanded new responses. This was also true in Europe, where the
peace movement had given birth to a new organization entitled "The Fellowship of
Reconciliation." Its international leader was Muriel Lester of Geneva. She was invited
to Minneapolis where she addressed a large gathering at one of the downtown churches.
Her story of the growth and development of their organization in Europe and her quiet,
dignified, and eloquent presentation of its central mission made a profound impression on
the gathering. To make a long story short, the event was the beginning of a Fellowship of
Reconciliation organization here in the Twin Cities, which became the new central force
of the Peace Movement in this area.
Fran and I attended the Muriel Lester meeting and were deeply moved by her
presentation. We soon joined the local F.O.R. chapter. What attracted us to the
movement was its ecumenical orientation. Also it brought the peace movement out of its
aggressive anti-war posture to a pro-peace orientation based on social justice, love, and
reconciliation. Through our participation in the F.O.R. we came to know many new
people in our Twin City community and were able to bring some of them into informal
meetings with students and some faculty at Augsburg College.
One of our new friends was Trevor Sandness, a graduate student in English at the
University of Minnesota and a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Southeast
Minneapolis. He was deeply concerned about what he perceived to be the Lutheran
reluctance to become involved in the Fellowship of Reconciliation movement. Through
his able and persistent leadership, he succeeded in organizing and developing a Lutheran
Peace Fellowship as a part of the F.O.R. movement. Fran and I hosted several of his
meetings at our home and became early members of the new organization. Several
students and faculty of our Lutheran Colleges also became members. This organization
continues to the present time as a nation-wide Lutheran Peace organization.
These developments were understandably challenged from many perspectives.
For some, the conventional religious orientation meant that Christians must be obedient
to the State as representative of the "earthly kingdom", even while they remained
"spiritually faithful to the heavenly kingdom." For others the incredible atrocities
associated with Hitler's Nazi movement made the position of pacifism intolerable. For
45
many, these and other positions led to intense re-examination of historic relations
between religion and society.
An extensive literature developed in response to those challenges--articles in
religious journals, secular periodicals, and special publications from the Peace
Movement. Many new books dealing with the subject also appeared. Those of us
wrestling with these issues were immersed in this new literature. That the leaders of the
Fellowship of Reconciliation were also reading these publications and grappling with the
complex theological and ethical issues was clearly shown in its official journal,
FellowshiQ. In its June 1941 issue, there appeared an article by Dr. McGregor, a
Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism from the Faculty of Theology in the
University of Glasgow, with the title "The Relevance of an Impossible Ideal." The article
was an answer to views of the prominent American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, who
had published a widely read document entitled "Why the Christian Church is Not
Pacifist." In dealing with all of Niebuhr's complex analysis of the moral dilemmas of
what he perceived to be the non-resistance posture of pacifism, McGregor's article
referred to much of the exploding literature on the subject. Since Dr. McGregor was also
vice-chairman of Fellowship of Reconciliation in Great Britain, it was clearly evident that
the F.O.R. movement was far from being a flippant anti-war organization. The fact that
Macgregor had also written a widely read book, The New Testament Basis of Pacifism,
gave evidence of the deeply religious orientation of the F.O.R. movement.
The Peace Movement and Social Action
Since a central position of the Fellowship of Reconciliation held that the Christian
message was profoundly relevant for life in the real world, it followed that one of its
compelling challenges was to deal practically with the social and cultural issues
consistent with such a perspective. Thus the F.O.R. movement took seriously the
prophetic message of the Bible such as is reflected in Micah 6:8 which reads as follows:
"What does thy God require of thee but to love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly
with your God. " Christ's "Sermon on the Mount" and his characteristic responses to the
poor, the sick, and the socially rejected inspired F.O.R. members as well.
46
In the context of our social situation in our part of the world in the 1930s, this
took on special meaning. The great Truck Drivers Strike in 1934 and the following years
of organized labor's struggle to achieve decent wages and humane working conditions as
well as the other legacies of the "Great Depression" prompted peacemakers toward a
sympathetic response to the cries of justice implicit in these issues. In those responses,
the F. 0 .R. found encouragement from the more secular peace movement that had been
developed by prominent political leaders in Minneapolis and the state legislature.
Closely related to those developments was a growing conviction among our
F.O.R. friends that we must seek to nurture ways oflife more consistent with and
productive of peaceful human relations. Among our friends who were especially
concerned about this were Elliott and Eleanor Marston. Elliott was an Episcopal Rector
serving as pastor of the flourishing St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina. He was a
very sensitive and well-informed person with widely varied experiences in the
ecumenical church world.
As our friendship with the Marstons grew, we realized we shared similar
convictions about current social issues. We agreed that a highly competitive and
individualistic culture was inimical to both local and global peace. We read with interest
reports of developing cooperative and community oriented ventures led by F.O.R.
movements in other parts of the world, and became active in local cooperatives in
Minneapolis and supportive of other social developments in the area.
The Co-op Farm Venture & the Peace Movement
The more we thought about the merits of a cooperative and community-oriented
culture and its relevance for our FOR position, the more we began thinking about what
new steps we might take in promoting such a culture. This led finally to our decision to
launch a cooperative farm venture together. Elliot Marston resigned from the Edina
parish and became rector of two smaller churches--one in a labor-oriented parish in
Northeast Minneapolis and one in a rural parish northwest of the city. Since my teaching
assignment was only part-time, I could reconcile my necessary work on the farm with
that teaching activity. We purchased an 80-acre dairy/poultry farm on Bass Lake Road
about ten miles northwest of Minneapolis.
47
Since both Elliot and I had considerable backgrounds in farm life and
organization, we managed to develop a fairly successful dairy arid poultry program. Fran
and Eleanor had the challenge of transforming a large old farmhouse into a facility that
would accommodate the housing needs of our two families and the hosting requirements
we would have for the guests and visitors interested in our venture.
Eventually the house provided residential accommodations for an increasing
number of F.O.R. members waiting for assignments to alternative to war programs
provided for conscientious objectors. Although we managed to develop fairly efficient, if
modest, dairy and poultry operations, such productivity was never the sole goal of our
venture. We were seeking to grow in the art of cooperative living--pooling our resources,
sharing our incomes, and providing cooperative activities in the general community.
We marketed our milk with the Twin Cities Milk Producers Cooperative
Association and participated in its meetings. We marketed our eggs with the Sumner
Field Co-op Grocery Association in North Minneapolis. Both Elliot and I became board
members of that inter-racial Cooperative. Through that Cooperative, we became
associated with Midland's Consumer Cooperative activities and its educational programs.
We hosted a variety of persons and groups interested in our venture, and were in a
variety of ways involved in the peace movement. A public school teacher asked to stay
with us while writing a book about the Southeastern Minnesota community in which she
had been a teacher. A group of members of the South Dakota Hutterite community paid
us a visit to share their life story. Several intercultural young people interested in the
peace movement spent weekends with us, camping on the pasture hilltops adjoining our
farmstead or sleeping in the haymow (loft) of our dairy barn. One of our closest
neighbors, with whom we had especially friendly relations, wondered aloud if we might
not be "anarchists." It must be noted that he was an immigrant from Denmark and had
brought with him a notion of the classical nonviolent anarchist orientation.
While we have fond memories of most of these activities, perhaps one of the most
moving events was our hosting an intercultural group at one of our Christmas Eve
festivities. We invited the group to join us for a typical Christmas Eve dinner, followed
by the singing of Christmas carols and attendance at a service at the Elim Lutheran
Church in Robbinsdale.
48
Among our guests were two people who had signed up for the University of
Minnesota's Starvation Experiment as an alternative to military service. One of them
was a young Jewish fellow named Max Kampelman who made a moving statement at the
end of the evening's events. He said it was the first time the singing of Christmas carols
did not send a dreadful chill in his body--since as a member of a Jewish Community he
shared the long memory of the Christmas Eve celebrations in Medieval Europe when
"Christians" would invade the Jewish Ghetto and kill their children. Needless to say we
were astonished and made keenly aware of the deep tragedy of alienation of the so-called
"Christian" community from the very cultural roots of their own faith. We were also
thrilled to know that Max had enjoyed our evening together and he continued to be one of
our friends during the crisis times. As many will know, Max Kampelman in later years
came to play prominent roles in the federal government in Washington D.C.
As the war demands grew, an increasing number of conscientious objectors joined
our venture. Some of them helped us develop a "peace garden" movement. Others came
to stay for a time while waiting for their assignment to "alternative service" work. Some
decided to become a part of the Cooperative Farm Community and began working on the
farm. Since Elliot Marston became one of the leading counselors for young
conscientious objectors, our community became a kind of voluntary service center for
many of them. Thus it can be said that our Bass Lake Farm experiment became a
multifunctional and dynamic community trying to respond to the challenges facing the
peace movement during the wartime crises.
When the war was over, the crisis time functions of the community came to an
end. The relatively transient C.O. participants returned to more conventional life and
work. For a year or so, the community sought to continue its life on the farm , making
such adjustments as were necessary. But then the great tragedy of Elliot's sudden death
as a victim of the Polio epidemic made the continuation of the community virtually
impossible. Eleanor and her three children moved back to her parent's home in
Minneapolis, and the farm and all its livestock and equipment were sold, putting an end
to an exciting, stimulating experiment.
49
The Cooperative Education Interlude 1945-1947
Through our work with the Sumnerfield Co-op Grocery Store and other co-op
activities, Elliot and I had become acquainted with several leaders in Midland
Cooperative Wholesale and its dynamic developments. One of them, a former director of
agricultural education in the public schools of Minnesota, Harry Peterson, had been
appointed Director of Education for Midland. One of his tasks was to organize
cooperative educational programs for its local member cooperative associations
throughout its rapidly growing region. Having come to know of my interest in both the
cooperative movement and community education, as well as my experience as a country
school teacher, he invited me to accept an appointment as a Director of Education and
Community Relations for an Association of Cooperatives in southeastern Minnesota, and
northeastern Iowa.
It was with considerable trepidation that Fran and I decided to accept this new
challenge. It meant severing our active relations with Augsburg College as well as the
Bass Lake Community Farm. It meant the necessity of finding a new home in a new
community for our little family, which now included a 2-year-old daughter 7 And of
course, it meant our launching out on an entirely new educational venture and
establishing linkages in a new rural community setting.
To our surprise, finding a place to live in the beautiful little town of Lanesboro
became our most difficult first challenge. For four months, I had to rent a room in a
family home in town. Fran and our daughter, Carol, went to live with Fran's parents in
W estem Minnesota. After a futile search for a place to rent, I decided to buy a plot of
land on the edge of town. Here I built a small one-bedroom house, which was later
combined with a duplex to accommodate the housing needs of my brother, Ludolph, and
his wife, Alpha, and Alpha's brother and his family. All of us involved with the
development of these housing accommodations learned first-hand something of the socioeconomic difficulties of our country's transition form a war time to a peace time life.
The shortage of building supplies, the poor quality of much of the new being produced,
and the scarcity of good labor--all contributed to both the frustrations and the adventure
of continuous problem solving. When it was all done, and our three little families were
50
settled in, and our shared garden made productive, we all found a comfortable and
enjoyable setting for our life and work in this area.
The Role Expectations of a Director of Cooperative Education
Since Midland's programs of cooperative educational associations were relatively
new, the role expectations for their directors were relatively ambiguous, but certain
expectations were fairly clear. In the first place, the director must establish good
relations with all the member cooperatives, including their managers, workers, and board
members. He must, as quickly as possible, learn all he could about the history and
operations of each cooperative.
For me that meant spending considerable time at such dispersed places as
Plainview, a few miles east of Rochester; Lewiston, a few miles west of Winona; Hokah,
in the southeast comer of Minnesota and near Lacrosse, Wisconsin; and Decorah, Iowa.
Since Lanesboro and Rushford were neighboring towns in Fillmore County, they were in
a sense hometown locations. Needless to say, I had much to learn and many to meet in a
very short time. A more clearly defined role was to help each cooperative plan and
promote its annual meeting--getting a good attendance and arranging for a well-planned
program including guest speakers, good music, and good food. I think I can say that my
work with publicity, including contacts with editors of local papers, as well as my
relations with leaders of other community organizations, literally transformed many of
those annual meetings from poorly attended events that barely fulfilled quorum needs
into large and quite festive occasions.
As educational director, I was also expected to help promote local community
settings for the study of cooperatives and their relevance for the nurture of a good social
order. These were often developed around existing neighborhood programs where I
would provide visual aid materials available from Midland's educational program. All
such activities were of course developed with the help of members of the local
cooperatives throughout the region.
In a more indirect way, my cooperative educational activities were carried on in
the context of my role as community relations director for the member cooperatives. In
this context I met with commercial clubs, farm organizational meetings, 4-H clubs, and
51
local churches, describing to them the work of cooperatives and their social goals. I also
met with public schools and colleges in the area. Through my association with local
county agricultural agents, 4-H club leaders, soil conservation specialists, and directors of
other farm programs in the area, I was able to establish positive relations between the
cooperatives and their programs.
Some Assessments of my Work
Even though all these activities meant a great deal of traveling throughout the area
and life apart from my family and home, there were many positive personal rewards. I
learned something about both the charm and hazards of driving among the deep valleys
and hills, which are characteristic of the landscape in this part of Minnesota. I came to a
keener appreciation of the important relationship between soil conservation and
environmental consciousness. I found intriguing some of the subtle differential impacts
of landscape variations upon neighborhood cultures as reflected in the life of the "valley
people" and the "prairie people." I learned much about the social structure and value
orientations of such rural communities as could be found in Southeastern Minnesota.
Of course because of the very nature of my work, I learned much about the
cooperative movement in general and about its role in contemporary society. I read many
books about the history of the cooperative movement, including its inspiration from the
Rochdale pioneers in Britain to its developments in Scandinavia and in this country.
Midland's own story provided an instructive illustration.
From its early
beginnings as a small filling station operation in Minneota, Minnesota and the rapid
growth of local cooperative oil associations throughout the Middle West, leading to the
founding of Midland Cooperative Wholesale was a dramatic success story. Its necessary
entry into a cooperative refinery program and then to the acquisition of oil wells meant
that local farmers through cooperation had established a coherent economic linkage
between production and consumption. "Production for use rather than for profit" became
a part of their story.
Similar developments took place in an increasing variety of
commodities, such as feeds, seeds, and fertilizers. The development of a cooperative
milking machine factory and a sales force for distributing the same to its members added
to the complexities.
52
All these developments inevitably brought Midland and all its members into
increasingly complex relations with the general culture.
Midland's employee staff
expanded immensely and the requirements for their specialization grew even more
complex.
Increasingly, the needs for professional management and increasingly
sophisticated personnel policies began to take priority over cooperative education. This
had special implications for those of us working in such educational programs.
We
began to wonder about the viability of our potential role in Midland's future. Some of us
were encouraged to enter into management and related activities.
The Letter that Changed My Life
While both Fran and I were beginning to reflect upon our possible changing role
m the cooperative movement, I received a most welcome letter from Dr. Bernhard
Christensen who was now President of Augsburg College. He was eager to have me
return to Augsburg and resume my teaching of the courses in sociology that I had taught
before and to take a leadership role in developing a major in sociology, together with a
related program of social work education.
Although I had enjoyed my work as Director of Cooperative Education for
Midland and its affiliates, and thought it important, I found this invitation to return to
college teaching and the accompanying possibility of completing a Ph.D. program in
Sociology irresistible. Thus, in the early fall of 194 7, I resigned my duties with the
cooperative movement and our now family of four prepared for our move back to
Minneapolis.
By this time we had established many pleasant associations with people in
Lanesboro and its surrounding area and had come to appreciate the distinctive charm of
this town's beautiful location on the Root River and in the shadows of the towering bluffs
overhead. That many of our new friends organized a surprise party to bid us farewell
seemed to indicate that our fondness for them had been reciprocal; for that we were
deeply grateful.
53
Part Six: My Life as a College Professor
Introduction
My return to Augsburg in the fall of 1947 was destined to be the beginning ofmy
major life's career as college professor and academic scholar. For the next thirty years I
was immersed in the college's dynamic growth and development as a liberal arts center
of higher learning seeking to respond creatively to the complex challenges of a rapidly
changing world.
Dr. Christensen's leadership as President of the college, contributed greatly to
both the joys and achievements of my work as college professor. While being faithful to
the fundamental historic religious orientations of Augsburg, he responded fo the
challenges of a changing world with imaginative understanding, of how the college might
most creatively respond to the new realities of life. Having completed extensive studies
in leading universities in both the U.S.A. and Europe, he was sensitive to both
ecumenical and world perspectives. For him a college like Augsburg should be a creative
center for life and learning. Its religious orientation should contribute to such a
community the highest ethical and humane sensitivities and values derived from its
Judeo-Christian legacy. It was out of such a perspective that he held that "education for
service" should be one of Augsburg's main objectives.
Beyond his ideas about community service, Christensen acted them out in his own
life. In 1946, for example, he accepted Mayor Hubert Humphrey's invitation to be an
active member of his innovative Council on Human Relations. From 1948 to 1950 he
assumed chairmanship of that Council. In the context of that assignment, he played a
54
prominent role in the Minneapolis Self-Survey of its human relations practices and the
follow-up fight against discrimination.
It is understandable that such leadership from the college's president made my
new assignment as chairman of its sociology department in the fall of 194 7 such an
intriguing one. The following first statement of the department's objectives were clearly
consonant with Dr. Christensen's orientations:
1. To help students attain a better understanding of society.
2. To prepare students for social service, graduate training in social work or
sociology.
3. To explore the relevance of Christianity to effective social service.
To tell the story of my academic career, I found it helpful to divide the account
into the following three periods that seem consonant with both the societal changes and
responses to them: (1.) 1947 to 1958, (2.) 1958 to 1968, (3.) 1969 to 1979.
(1.) The First Decade
As is always true, everyone begins a new career bringing to it the influence of his
or her past social geography and history. I think I can say that of my work as teacher scholar at Augsburg was significantly informed by at least the following major influences
upon my life:
1. The Judeo-Christian legacies of love and justice as mediated through the
religious nurture of my home, church, and Augsburg College.
2. The liberal arts legacy nurtured through my studies at Augsburg College and
the University of Minnesota.
3. My encounters with the "Great Depression" and my involvement with various
programs thought to deal with its problems.
4. My involvement in the "peace movement."
The interplay of these influences significantly shaped both the character and style
of my work at Augsburg. In developing the department of sociology, I consciously
sought to promote a rigorous and dispassionate, as well as a sympathetic understanding of
society, the human community, and personality. I thought it important for both student
55
and teacher to wrestle with the tension between a "rigorous and dispassionate" quest for
societal understanding, and the more "compassionate and sympathetic" concern for the
fate of the human community.
It was in the context of such an encounter that I sought to promote lively
classroom discussions of issues of social justice, human dignity, and caring concern for
all members of the human community. This, I thought especially appropriate in the
context of Dr. Christensen's emphasis upon education for service. Closely related to this
approach was my interest in examining the relevance of Christianity for effective social
service.
Another continuing motif of my work was to develop strategies whereby the
"realities" of community life would become part of the learning laboratory for both
student and professor. For all learners, but especially for the professor, this meant
becoming participant observer-learners in such significant community affairs that would
have special relevance for the subjects being studied. Another strategy was to bring to
the classroom representative leaders of community affairs to speak about the social issues
being dealt with in their work. These strategies proved particularly significant in our
development of an undergraduate program of social work education in the decade of the
fifties. Representatives of social work agencies contributed greatly to our classroom
discussions, and their agencies were helpful in providing participant-observer field
experiences for our students.
Perhaps the most important strategy for involving the social work community in
our program was the appointment of a prominent social work leader to teach an
introductory course in the fields of social work and arrange for field placements of the
students in appropriate social service areas. As a result of these strategies, literally
hundreds of Augsburg graduates became involved in important social work agencies in
the Twin Cities area and beyond. And many later pursued post-graduate studies related
to their work.
As I look back upon those years, I remember with special gratitude the friendly
and helpful people in the welfare community who played such an important role in the
development of Augsburg's social work education. I am especially grateful to the late
Harold Belgum and his wife Marilyn Belgum who taught the courses in social work
56
education and supervised the field placement programs for our students. They both
combined the virtues of excellent academic credibility with a wide breadth of knowledge
and experience in the fields of social work. Besides all that, they were good and great
people who inspired both our students and faculty.
Graduate Studies and Development of the Sociology Program
Aside from these developments in social work education my major preoccupation in the decade of the l 950s was to complete my post-graduate studies toward a
Doctorate in Sociology and to introduce the courses in sociology necessary for a
responsible major in that field. I owe much to certain distinguished University of
Minnesota Sociology professors for whatever competence I achieved in that field of
study. Dr. Don Martindale, Professor of Sociological Theory, made a sophisticated study
of that field both intensely interesting and highly relevant for the understanding of the
nature and dynamics of human society. He introduced me to many prominent scholars
and their books, which helped me immensely. I found his book, Elements of Sociology
(co-authored by his colleague, Professor Monachesi) to be the best, as well as the most
intellectually rigorous, introduction to the study of sociology. He was extremely helpful
to me in developing the theoretical framework for my Ph.D. dissertation. Don
Martindale's untimely death, from a heart attack, was a great loss to me personally as
well as to the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Lowry Nelson, professor and chair of the university's program in Rural
Sociology, did the same for me in the sociology of community. Because of my early
nurture in a rural community and a later more professional role in rural community
leadership, it was understandable that I should choose rural sociology as one of my areas
of graduate study concentration. I soon learned that Lowry Nelson was one of the
nation's leading rural sociologists. But for me he was more than that; I found him to be a
gentle, sensitive and friendly professor, much loved by his students. I was delighted to
have him as the major advisor in my doctoral studies. It was understandable that during
the 1950s Rural Sociology became one of the principal courses in our departmental
maJor.
57
Another of my areas of special interest was in the field of human relations. Here
the well-known scholar, Dr. Arnold Rose, was especially helpful. He conducted three
highly insightful seminars in social psychology where such issues as intercultural and
labor-management relations were given significant attention.
These graduate experiences quite naturally influenced the development of our
sociology curriculum in the 1950s. Besides the introductory courses in sociology and
social problems, we added courses in sociological theory, social psychology, racial and
inter-group relations, and rural sociology. As the instructor in rural sociology, I sought to
relate my experiences in the rural communities of my early life and those as an
elementary school teacher in a rural community. Similarly, I took advantage of my rural
community contacts and its cooperatives while working in Lanesboro, including a class
field trip to that area to meet with its community leaders.
Because of my interest and involvement in rural community life and culture, I had
been invited to become a member of the American Lutheran Church's Rural Life
Commission led by the Reverend E.W. Mueller. From thqt Commission, I received much
information about rural life developments in the U.S.A. I was asked to participate in
several of its conferences in the country and at some of them to present formal papers on
rural life and its challenges for the church.
In the summer of 1949, I represented Augsburg at a conference on Lutheran
Higher Education in Service to Rural People, and was asked by E.W. Mueller to prepare
a summary statement of the deliberations at that conference. The Augustana Theological
Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois hosted that conference. Through such participation in
rural life activities, I sought to enliven my teaching with reflections on contemporary
developments in rural America.
Church - Labor Relations and the Academic Experience
Perhaps in no arena of community life was my academic role as participantobserver put to more extensive use in the 1950s than in Church-Labor relations. From
my very beginnings as college student and resident of Minneapolis, I became intensely
interested in the momentous labor-management struggle that led to the historic Truck
Drivers Strike in 1934. The details of that strike are too well known to warrant
58
elaboration in this story. Suffice it to say that it came to a virtual "civil war" between the
emerging labor movement and the commercial and industrial management groups. The
conflict led ultimately to Governor Floyd B. Olson's establishing martial law and
bringing in a Federal Mediator to help bring the two sides to a settlement, which for the
first time established union recognition as an essential right for the workers. This whole
story captured national attention as a significant reflection of President Roosevelt's New
Deal Labor legislation.
An intriguing question arose from this labor-management struggle: "What role did
organized religion and church-related colleges play in this momentous drama and what
relevance does the Judeo-Christian legacy have concerning it?"
While it appeared that a great many of the labor participants in the struggle were
at least nominally members or had some historic identities with organized religion, there
was little evidence of organized religion's support for organized labor's struggle.
Some leaders of the Minnesota Council of Churches and the Mim1eapolis Church
Federation were concerned, and established a Church-Labor Committee made up of
leaders of both labor organizations and the religious community. I was invited to become
a member of that committee and later appointed its chairman.
One of the first actions of the committee was to decide on its basic purposes. The
following four purposes were agreed upon:
1. To help achieve on the part of the church an understanding of labor and its problems
and aims
2. To come to a better appreciation of the role that labor plays in the social and economic
life of the community
3. To explore areas of common interest and goals
4. To encourage a mutual acquaintance between labor and the church
To implement these efforts the Committee arranged with professors of Macalaster
College to conduct an informational survey of the extent to which church leaders were
related to union activities and leaders of labor unions to church activities.
The Committee also arranged for a church labor dinner for Twin City Ministerial
students at the Minneapolis YMCA on April 11, 1950 hosted by the Minnesota and
Hennepin county C. I. 0. Councils. The dinner featured Dr. A. D. Mattson, professor of
59
social ethics at the Augustana Lutheran College and Seminary at Rock Island, Illinois.
The committee later sponsored a church labor breakfast hosted by Augsburg College
featuring the highly articulate Professor Kermit Eby from the University of Chicago.
As chairman of this Committee, I naturally became involved with many issues
bearing on labor-management issues and church responses to them. But probably most
important for me, I came to know personally some very sensitive and able leaders of the
labor movement, such as Rodney Jacobson, a leader from the Minnesota C. I. 0. and
Robert Wishart, President of the Hennepin county C. I. 0. Council.
One of the consequences of my working with the Church-Labor Committee was
my decision to add a course in industrial relations to Augsburg's sociology curriculum.
Again, the labor leaders visited the class and told their story, thereby adding some
additional drama to the class deliberation. Another consequence was my invitations to
speak to many church groups about the relevance of the "Cry for Justice" legacy of the
Biblical heritage to labor-management relations.
Perhaps the most significant consequence of my participation in the work of the
Church-Labor Committee was its impact on my academic life. Even as the Great
Depression had made me acutely aware of the important relations between the economic
order and human welfare, I now became similarly conscious of the important relations
between the economic order and human welfare for the workers in the city. As a scholar
in a church-related college concerned about human welfare and as a sociologist asked to
develop a program of social work education, I found that a disciplined study of the
relations between the economic order and human affairs essential. This was reflected in
my graduate studies at the University as well as in my scholarly preparation for my
teaching. Several of my colleagues at the college shared my interest in this kind of study,
and out of our reflections the question arose: "what has Christian higher education to do
with the issues of the economic order's impact on human welfare?" This led to my
presentation of an extensive paper on Christian Education and the Economic Problems of
our Da~ This presentation was part of a series of faculty studies conducted in 19501951. In re-reading that paper forty-six years later I was pleased to find that it reflected a
disciplined scholarly approach to the subject with an extensive bibliography cutting
across wide areas of historical, sociological, and theological sources.
60
As I rummaged through my files from 1947 to 1958, I discovered several other
papers presented to various groups, which reflect some of my developing areas of special
concern. In a paper presented at the Unitarian Society, I elaborated on the role of the
small liberal arts college in contemporary America. Another paper addressed the "Role
of the Church in a Changing World" at the downtown Central Lutheran Church. Toward
the end of the decade I presented a paper entitled "Toward an Adequate Cooperative
Philosophy For Our Time" at a meeting of the Cooperative League chapter in the Twin
Cities. In all of these I sought to bring some of the insights I had acquired through my
graduate studies at the university as well as my work at Augsburg. What demanded most
of my time and attention was the research and writing of my Doctoral Dissertation, which
was completed in 1958. The title of that thesis was The Development of an Institution: A
Case History of Midland Cooperatives Incorporated. When that was approved and I
received my degree at the University on June 14, 1958 the first decade of my role as
College Professor had come to a dramatic end. Incidentally, that date was also my
father's birthday as well as National Flag Day. The reader can easily imagine the
profound joy and satisfaction of such an ending of a decade of work and study.
(2) Academia and the Turbulent Sixties
In a strictly academic sense my role at Augsburg during the sixties continued much
as in the preceding decade. I continued to promote social work education as part of a
gradually strengthened sociology curriculum. Having completed my post-graduate work
for a doctorate, I was able to participate more actively in such professional organizations
as the Midwest and American Sociological societies, as well as the Minnesota Council of
Social Work Education. I could also participate more actively in student and faculty
activities of the College.
But, the sixties turned out to be a very turbulent and crisis filled decade. The
relative serenity of the preceding post-war decade of the fifties came to a dramatic end
with the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. The whole
nation was profoundly shocked and saddened. The entire Augsburg community came to
a sudden halt as all ofus - students, faculty, and administrative staff walked solemnly
across Murphy Square to fill the Melby Hall Auditorium Chapel for a quiet sharing of our
61
common grief and shock. Professor William Halvorson led us in a brief but apt
devotional expression of our shared pain. Many of us returned to our homes to share our
grief with our own families.
After the grieving, came the questioning about what was happening to our country;
were we reaping a harvest of the strident "McCarthyism" of the previous decade? Was
the assassination a reflection of a growing violence in our culture? Was it an act of
conspiracy? No sensitive academic community could avoid such and similar questions.
But these questions were soon to be followed by a national crisis in race relations. The
Supreme Courts 1954 Brown Vs the Board of Education decision outlawing segregation
in public schools and the Little Rock confrontation in 1959 were but preludes to the more
dramatic events of the sixties --The Freedom Rides begun in 1961, The Birmingham Bus
Boycott of 1963, and the mammoth march on Washington organized by Dr. Martin
Luther King in August of that year. The crusade for racial justice and civil rights had
finally become the over-riding moral issue. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King
in Memphis in 1968 sent a shock wave throughout the country that ended in burning fires
in many of our major cities including our own city of Minneapolis. Our Augsburg
community reacted to Martin Luther King's assassination much as it did to President
Kennedy's.
Another dimension of the racial justice struggle was related to the activities of the
United Farm Workers Union in California, led by its dynamic leader Casar Chavez. That
struggle of the Mexican-American fruit growers was dramatized throughout the whole
country by Edward R. Murrow's moving television story, "The Harvest of Shame."
On top of all this was America's most unpopular and ignominious war in Vietnam,
which led to President Johnson's decision not to seek another term in 1968. Throughout
the country a pervasive counter-culture arose which had a profound impact on the youth
of America, including students in our colleges and universities. The racial justice crusade
and the anti-Vietnam war issues were reflected in the political campaign of 1968. One of
the democratic candidates to succeed President Johnson was Attorney General Robert
Kennedy. He became a popular champion of racial justice in that campaign. His
assassination while on a dramatic campaign in California again eroded the nation's
confidence in its future. In the context of these turbulent forces of change in the sixties, it
62
was inevitable that our life and work at Augsburg would be dramatically challenged by
these events.
The Civil Rights Movement and My Role at Augsburg
In a general way, many of us at the college sought creative ways to respond to the
new challenges--each out of the context of his or her particular social geography. For me
the crisis of the sixties came to have a compelling relevance for my work at the college.
Everything I had learned from my studies there, including a compassionate concern for
human welfare and social justice, prompted my involvement in the civil rights movement.
My first personal involvement was as an Augsburg delegate to the Joint
Committee for Equal Opportunity, made up of more than sixty leading civic
organizations of the Twin Cities. This organization represented an extensive cross
section of this area's cultural life, including business, education, religion, labor, and
minority organizations. It was a voluntary committee committed to eliminate
discrimination in the fields of employment and housing.
I became active in the Joint Committee in the middle fifties and soon learned to
know that many people and organizations shared a common concern for human rights in
our region. I shall never forget Mrs. John Gruner who chaired the Committee when I first
became a member. Because of her artful combination of passion for justice with
intelligence and skillfulness in human relations, she perhaps did more than anyone to
break down the barriers of employment opportunities in downtown Minneapolis and to
facilitate the enactment of fair employment practices legislation in the Minneapolis
council and the State legislature.
In 1958, I was elected Chairman of the Joint Committee and became particularly
active in promoting equal opportunity in the field of housing. If I may be permitted some
immodesty, because of the appointment, I was featured as a "Town Topper" in the
Minneapolis Star Tribune. But much more importantly, I came to know personally some
wonderful people such as John M. Warder, our Treasurer, Mrs. Harold Field and Mrs. A.
J. Smaby our housing chairs, and Mr. Richard Fox of the Urban League. Together with
them and many others we promoted a highly varied program of activities, including
63
providing speakers for a wide variety of organizing conferences on equal opportunity,
and working with Minnesota legislators to promote legislation against discrimination.
Because of my identity with Augsburg, I had the opportunity of speaking to many
churches in the area about the relevance of the Civil Rights Movement for their ministry.
One never knows what the fruits of one's activities in such work as was sponsored by the
Joint Committee. One only hopes that the cause might be served.
We worked diligently to promote fair practices in the housing industry. Perhaps
one of the most memorable events that we sponsored was a large luncheon conference at
Lees Village Inn in St. Paul with representatives of the housing industry. A letter from
the Executive Director of the State of Minnesota's Commission Against Discrimination
indicated precisely what the objective of the event was, and of course gave us courage to
think that our work was not in vain.
The Fair Housing Committee of the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches
My activities in the Joint Committee led to other opportunities for involvement in
the Civil Rights Movement. The Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches under the
leadership of its Director, Rev. David Witheridge, established in 1960 the fair Housing
Committee of the Council. Dr. Frederick A. Schiotz, President of the American Lutheran
Church, played a leading role in its development. At an early organizational meeting
hosted by Dr. Bernhard Christensen in December 1960, Schiotz was elected Chairman of
the Committee and I was asked to serve as its Secretary.
The objectives of the Committee were clearly enunciated in the following excerpt
from a letter sent to the churches:
"In recent years every major denomination has adopted resolutions calling for
equality of all people, regardless of race, religion, or national origin. In our part of the
country we have been fairly successful in eliminating discrimination, except in the matter
of rental and purchasing of housing. The churches of our area are about to launch a
concerted attempt to change the climate of opinion among our church members
regarding housing discrimination. "
The following two years the Committee sponsored large inter-church gatherings,
institutes, advertising programs in the major press, as well as conferences with legislators
64
working on anti-discrimination in housing legislation. It is perhaps safe to say that its
activities contributed significantly to the passage of laws against housing discrimination
in the Minnesota State Legislature. A large meeting with members of the legislature in
Christ Lutheran Church near the capitol urging their enactment of such legislation is
believed to have played an important role in its enactment. Both as secretary of this
committee and as its chairman after May 2, 1962, I was inevitably involved in its
programs--including presenting papers at some of its conferences.
The Mayor's Commission on Human Relations
It is quite likely that my participation in these varied human rights activities had
something to do with my invitation from Mayor Arthur Naftalin to become a member of
the Mayor's Commission on Human Relations in November of 1963. For many reasons,
I was especially grateful for that invitation. As has already been noted, Naftalin's
predecessor, Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey, initiated this Commission. Furthermore,
President Bernhard Christensen had been appointed Chairman of that Commission. I
knew that Mr. N aftalin shared similar passions about human relations, as did Mr.
Humphrey.
Participation in this Commission in many ways was an educational experience,
providing reports from its Law Enforcement Committee about problems and program
activities in that area, and reports from the Housing Committee on developments in that
area. As Chairman of its Education Committee, I learned much about what was
developing in Human Rights education in the Minneapolis public schools, as well as in
the colleges in our metropolitan region and in the University of Minnesota. As in my
other involvements in human rights activities, I came to know some wonderful men and
women from highly varied backgrounds who were deeply committed to the goals and
programs of the Civil Rights Movement.
The TV Series on Religion and Race in American Life
In the spring of 1964, I was given the opportunity to present a series of six
television lectures on "Religion and Race in American Life." The presentation was part
of the Minnesota Private College Hour series on K.T.C. A. public television. Through
65
this presentation I attempted to give a scholarly documentation of the role that religion
had played in America's historic dilemma caused by the wide gap between its democratic
creed and its racist practices.
Needless to say, preparing for this presentation made necessary an extensive
reading of many important new books and periodicals treating the subject. It also
provided me my first experience in presenting my finding's in a television format. I later
transposed those presentations into a written monograph on the same topic.
Participant - Observer and the Classroom
It was inevitable that my participation in the Civil Rights Movement would impinge on
my work in the classroom. In a sense the very idea of "Education for Service" contained
within it a potential tension between pre-occupation with academic excellence on the one
hand and the impulse of wanting to become involved in community service on the other.
But the positive fruits of community involvement seemed to me more than compensated
for it. In many ways, it served as a virtual laboratory supplement to classroom
I
deliberation. This was especially true in our course in Race and Intercultural Relations,
where several of the civil rights leaders I had come to know came to our cli;l.SS to tell their
story. They made an invaluable contribution to our classroom.
I shall always remember with gratitude the contribution of such superb leaders as
Josie Johnson who was acting director for the Minneapolis Urban League and her
colleague from that organization Richard Fox. They presented the story of the black
struggle for justice in both a gracious and compelling manner. The same can be said for
Samuel Scheiner, Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota,
Daisuke Kitagawa, leader of Japanese-American community in our area, and Ada Deer,
representative of the American Indian community on the Mayor's Commission on
Human Relations. Besides being good communicators who shared a common passion for
human justice, they all had impressive academic credentials appropriate for the scholarly
quest. Our college owes these "visiting professors" a vote of thanks for their profound
contributions.
'
66
The Urban Crisis and Academia
Anyone significantly involved in the civil rights movement in the sixties soon
discovered that the racial crisis had become conjoined with a national urban crisis.
President Lyndon Johnson was fully aware of this when he addressed the nation about his
proposed response to both crises. As a college in the heart of a city, Augsburg could not
escape the implications of that assessment for its academic program. For the department
of sociology, it had special significance. Even as the department had responded to the
"racial crisis" with special emphasis on race relations, it responded in similar ways to the
"urban crisis." _The accent on urban sociology was intensified.
Even as during the fifties I worked with the national Lutheran Councils Rural Life
program, m the sixties I served on the Advisory Committee of the Urban Life
Commission of the National Lutheran Council, which had been directing urban
community studies throughout the country. In 1964, its able director Dr. Walter Kloetzli
from Chicago, asked me to direct a campus area study here in the Twin Cities.
Thus for the first time a comprehensive sociological analysis of Augsburg's
surrounding community was done. Of course, the study also included a description of the
University's West Bank area as well as its St. Paul Campus community., We titled the
publication Campus Areas in a Midwest Metropolis.
\
Apparently, Dr. Kloeltzli was
pleased with my work since the following year, he asked me to direct another study for a
group of churches in the Phalen Park community of St. Paul's eastside.
In order to do such studies well, we created a Social Science Research Center,
bringing additional faculty into the work, including Dr. David Nordlie, a new colleague
in the sociology department and Dr. Robert Hemmingson from the economics
department. Margaret Habek Fisher, a sociology major, served as a research assistant,
and Valborg Basmoe of Augsburg's printing services directed the printing of the new
145-page study. Perhaps the most important outcome of that study was the development
of a vital Phalen Park community organization, which continued to nurture community
consciousness, and innovative programs for decades to come.
Similar observations can be made about two following studies: the SummitUniversity: A Profile of an Inner City Community completed in 1966 and The North End
Community; a north St. Paul community in 1967. The first of these was done for the St.
67
/
Paul Housing Authority and the second one for a group of churches in the north St. Paul
area.
When President Johnson's "model city" programs were launched, the activities of
the Social Science Research Center directed a study of its activities in south Minneapolis.
By then Dr. Robert Clyde had joined our faculty and become the Director of the center.
Dr. Clyde had a doctorate in social science from the University of Iowa and had become
an invaluable member of our faculty. Vernon Bloom, a specialist in social work, had
joined our faculty about the same time.
Besides teaching some of the social work
courses, he also taught our course in criminology. When the model cities program was
launched, he was assigned as an Augsburg faculty member to assist in its development.
Vern had also been a member of the Mayor's Commission on Human Relations.
The Sabbatical Search 1965-66
The more we became involved in urban affairs, the more we began to ask the
question--what is the appropriate role of a liberal arts college located at the center of an
exploding metropolis? Thus, during the academic year of 1965-66, I was granted an
extended sabbatical for the study of that very question. After an extensive ~xamination
of the primary and secondary literature on the emerging metropolis and the responses of
universities and colleges to it, it became evident that most of the pioneering vis-a-vis this
concern was being done in urban-centered universities. In the spring of 1966, I joined an
urban specialist working with churches in our area, Rev. Bud Klippen, on an extensive
I
study-tour examining their innovative programs and their relationship to the special urban
and human relations issues of their cities. Among the campuses visited were the
following:
The University of Chicago
Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland
The University of Pittsburgh
University of Pennsylvania and Temple in Philadelphia
Hopkins University in Baltimore
Howard and American Universities in Washington, D.C.
Columbia and New York University in New York City
68
Harvard and MIT in Cambridge
Monteith College and Wayne State in Detroit
Visits to these campuses were planned so that we might get some exposure to
important urban dynamics taking place in their cities and to how their programs were
related to them. Needless to say, we learned that each campus and each of these cities
provided distinctive lessons for us.
Upon my return to Augsburg, I prepared a report of my sabbatical study for our
Dean, Kenneth Bailey. . I titled the report as The Liberal Arts College in the Modem
Metropolis. It described some of my major impressions from the study and elaborated on
some of the distinctive lessons that could be learned from what other universities were
doing. Major academic responses to the urban challenges, which I had found particularly
appropriate for Augsburg, included the following: the metropolis as a laboratory for
liberal learning, the metropolis as a laboratory for research, the metropolis as an
opportunity for community service, and the metropolis as an arena for corporate
academic responsibility. Apparently the Dean was pleased by the report and arranged to
have me present a more extensive paper on the same topic in January the following year.
I added to the report some suggestions for possible Augsburg action.
.
In re-reading this report I was both a bit awed as well as highly gratified that
nearly all eleven of these suggestions had been given serious consideration and in many
instances were implemented by the college in the following years as it developed an
Interdisciplinary Metro-Urban Studies Program.
Upon my return to the classroom in the fall of 1967, I think my sabbatical studies
affected virtually everything I did. Certainly, my courses in Urban Sociology, Social
Problems, and Social Psychology were made more relevant. My role as chairman of the
sociology department provided me an opportunity to discuss with colleagues in that
department as well as other faculty members in the college how we might develop more
effective programs for metro-urban studies.
The Assassination That Changed Everything
All of the preceding relatively calm academic deliberations came to a sudden stop
with the tragic and shocking assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. As in other cities
69
'
of America, the "time for burning" had also come to the streets of north Minneapolis. On
March 27, 1968, President Oscar Anderson called an impromptu meeting of several
faculty members to discuss how the college might best respond to the urban crisis. Out
of this meeting came the idea of "a Day in May" when the whole college community
would listen to the voices of despair and revolt from the inner cities of Minneapolis and
St. Paul.
The impact of that dramatic experience with students and faculty learning
directly from their surrounding community about the deeply felt frustration and anger of
hurting people in our cities was intense.
Educational "business as usual" no longer
seemed defensible.
The crisis had a similar impact upon the leaders of the Youth Department of the
American Lutheran Church. Its director, Rev. Ewald Bash, had for many years worked
with students from our Lutheran Colleges in exploring interracial and economic issues of
urban America.
He now concluded that a time had come for a "Crisis Leaming
Experience" for such students and that a "Crisis Colony" semester in north Minneapolis
should be arranged.
Having learned about my growing interest in urban studies and my passion for
social justice, he asked me to help him get such a semester arranged through Augsburg
College so that its students could enroll in its program, live in the area, and participate in
voluntary service in its various organizations and programs. He also asked me to develop
a course on "power and community in the modem metropolis." We secured the help of
our political science Professor Dr. Myles Stenshoel, who would teach a course entitled
Government in the Modem Metropolis.
Leaders of the community involved in the
conflict were provided honoraria for telling their stories, and Joe Bash led a course on
Church and the Inner City. The crisis colony had a profound impact on the students.
Many have since said that their lives were changed. Some said that all urban studies
classes should be in community.
I
There can be no doubt that this new academic
experience also profoundly influenced our urban studies programs in the decade of the
seventies.
70
(3.) Metro-Urban Program Development in the Seventies
In the decade of the 70s, I was immersed in the college ' s development of an innovative
program in metro-urban studies. I was appointed by Dean Bailey to chair an interdisciplinary student-faculty team in developing a comprehensive college-wide transdisciplinary program of metro-urban studies. I presented the committee's proposal to the
college in January 1971. Among other things, it outlined the major goals of the program
including the achievement of the following objectives:
1.
An increased appreciation of the creative role of the city in modern life
and culture.
2.
A keener perception of the nature of the modem metropolis as a
community system.
3.
A firmer grasp of the dynamics of urban change and its concomitant
problems.
4.
A stronger motivation for responding creatively to the problems and
opportunities of urban life.
5.
A greater competence in a variety of human resource skills typically
required in urban living.
The proposal included the following major components for the college's Metro-Urban
Studies Program:
1.
An inter-disciplinary metro-urban study major made up of a list of
required courses plus some suggested electives from various disciplines.
2.
An urban studies "concentration" which could be linked with various
majors in the college.
3.
A general education requirement in urban concern for all students of the
college.
As chairman of an inter-disciplinary faculty for monitoring the implementation of
this new program, I became rather extensively involved in its development. By this time,
Dr. Paul Steen, a specialist in social work education and practices, had joined our faculty,
thus relieving me from special attention to our social work education program.
71
I
Inter College Partnership in Urban Affairs
As the college's involvement in new urban relationships and programs grew, the
more acute became its awareness of the need for cooperative partnerships with other
colleges sharing similar concerns.
As the crisis colony approach to urban education
expanded, its costs to Augsburg College grew considerably.
Since its approach had
considerable appeal to other colleges as well, Dean Bailey arranged for a meeting of
representatives of several such institutions in our part of the country to explore
possibilities of some inter-college partnerships in these ventures.
The outcome of such deliberations was the creation of the Higher Education
Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA). As the first president of that consortium, I
became deeply involved in its developments and expanding programs.
Many long
meetings were required for the development of its corporate structure, program goals, and
strategies. The crisis colony became an inter-college venture, which year by year was
transformed into what appears to have become a permanent interdisciplinary "semester in
the city" program in the Twin City area. Many other inter-college programs were also
developed. The consortium came to include virtually all the liberal arts ~olleges in the
Twin Cities, as well as the University of Minnesota. Other colleges in the upper Midwest
also joined such as St. Olaf, Carelton, Augustana, Grinnell, and Concordia. By now,
about twenty colleges and universities are members of the consortium.
One of the
gratifications of my participation in the developments of this consortium was the coming
t
I
to know and be enriched by the many representatives of these institutions.
The Scandinavian Urban Studies Term (SUST)
However, the most gratifying outcome of my involvement in the activities of the
consortium was the completely unanticipated development of a semester in the city
program in Scandinavia. In the early summer of 1969, the University of Minnesota's
Program of Continuing Education in Urban Affairs arranged a conference at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art on "The Scandinavian City: A Model for Urban America."
It was more popularly referred to as a conference of the "Scandinavian City: An Answer
to America's Urban Crisis?"
72
Deeply involved in the Urban Crisis Colony venture at the time and having
become intensely interested in the exploding literature on global urbanization, I attended
that conference.
Its keynote speakers included distinguished architects and urban
planners from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Listening to their stories, the question
flashed through my mind: why not a semester in the city program in Scandinavia? I
brought the question to the administrative board of the consortium, and although they had
no funds to support an exploration of such a development, they were in general
~
supportive of it.
In 1971 my wife, Fran, and I decided to spend our summer vacation visiting major
urban centers of Scandinavia, while at the same time exploring with their leading
universities the possibility of one of them co-sponsoring such an urban studies program
with our consortium. We were joined in our vacation venture by my brother Ludolph and
his wife, Alpha.
We had beautiful weather and a highly enjoyable vacation.
The
graciousness of Scandinavian Airlines made our first flight across the Atlantic delightful.
First arriving in Oslo for a brief stay, we took a train ride to Telemark to visit some of our
remote relatives, and from there we journeyed to Kristansand and Stavanger where we
visited some families we had come to know in former years. From Stav~mger, we took
our first hydroplane journey in the North Sea to the beautiful city of Bergen where we
met and were hosted by a professor of sociology from the University of Bergen for a few
days. From Bergan we spent time visiting some of Alpha's relatives on the Hardanger
Fjord, after which we took a most wonderful train trip across the mountains back to Oslo.
After a few days more at Oslo, we enjoyed an over night boat trip down the Oslo
Fjord, arriving the following morning in beautiful Copenhagen where we enjoyed
everything we saw, including the enchanting "Stroget"--the city's incredible auto-free
pedestrian avenue. From Copenhagen, we took a train across Sweden to its capital city
Stockholm. Its reputation as the "Venice of the North" says it all regarding its beauty and
charm. When we first arrived in its auto-free downtown we were met with a massive
non-violent demonstration prominently displaying large signs saying "USA: Ut Av
Vietnam!" U.S.A. out of Vietnam! We soon learned that such sentiment was prevalent
throughout Scandinavia.
73
f
From Stockholm, we sailed on another boat across the Baltic to spend a few days
in Helsinki. A special 4 th of July dinner was served that night, and to our great surprise
and delight we were seated at a table with visitors from Welfare Island in New York City,
who had come to visit the famous Helsinki New Town of Tapiola. They were working
on the development of a New Town on Welfare Island. When we told them of our
connection with Augsburg College and its Cedar-Riverside community, it turned out that
they knew all about the New Town In Town developments in Cedar-Riverside and had
visited there.
From Helsinki, we flew back to Oslo and from there back to Minneapolis. In all
our visits to the major cities of Scandinavia, I had conversations with strategic scholars
and urban planners relative to possibilities of a co-sponsored semester in the city
program. It was at the University of Oslo that I found the most positive response. There
Professor Phillip Boardman, Director of that university's International Summer School,
had a clear understanding of what our consortium was looking for. He said the Summer
School was eager to add to its activities an international program in the fall or spring
terms of the University. He told me to prepare a proposal that he would bring it to the
University's administration for approval.
To make a long story short, in the fall of 1973 we launched our first Scandinavian
Urban Studies Term at the University of Oslo. Needless to say, the nearly two years of
planning and promotion of the program in the U.S., and the extensive negotiations and
correspondence with Professor Boardman, demanded much of my time and energy.
However, by the time the program began and all Americans involved in it were settled
into new homes, I was convinced that all was well.
Twenty-three students were enrolled in the program--eight from Augsburg, five
from Carleton, four from St. Olaf, five from Macalaster, and one from Augustana. All
\
were good students with high grade point averages from their respective colleges. All of
them were enrolled in the following three basic courses:
I.
Orientation to Scandinavian Life and Culture
2.
Urbanization and Community Building in Modern Scandinavia
3.
Housing and Planning in Scandinavia
74
For the fourth course, each student chose an independent study related to their major in
their home college. The faculties were drawn from the University of Oslo and the Oslo
School of Architecture, where most of the classes were held.
Professor Gullik
Kollandsrud from the School of Architecture played a combined role as both Professor
and virtual Dean of the program. His leadership was invaluable--bringing a wide variety
of guest speakers and arranging for extensive field trips throughout urban Scandinavia.
Gullik and his wife, Mari, both distinguished architects in Norway have been our friends
..
ever smce. My staff role was identified in Norway as "leder" perhaps best translated as
director.
The following quote from one of my early letters to James Ahler, the new
president of our consortium, reflects some of the "beyond expectation" experiences of the
program:
As you can imagine, a new program like this has a good many surprises. Perhaps
the most dramatic of these so far, was an opportunity for all of us to sail along the
"S0rland"--the "smiling" southern coast of Norway in a restored schooner called
"Svannen," visiting the coastal cities, meeting with their planners and public
leaders along the way. The boat belongs to the National Seafaring Museum and is
used by the Social Ministry of Norway during the summer months for exposing
troubled youth to marine life and providing an intimate setting for group and
interpersonal interaction and rehabilitation. The sailing crews are highly trained
seamen attached to Norway's official educational program.
Both Fran and I enjoyed this--our first long term stay in Oslo. Fran was in reality
my indispensable partner, participating with zest in virtually every venture of our
program. She hosted many of the students at our residence and became a friend to all.
We also found some time to visit some of our remote relatives in Telemark and pay a
brief visit to London. She traveled with us on our extensive field visits to Trondheim,
'
Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki making them both enjoyable as well as instructive.
When our youngest daughter, Janice, joined us for our first Christmas outside the U.S.A.,
I felt that together we experienced the perfect capstone of our first "semester in the city"
program in Scandinavia.
75
'£
On my return to Augsburg, I presented a formal report to the faculty and
administration as well as to the government board of the consortium. I assumed they
might make a formal evaluation of the program before making plans to continue it. To
my surprise, there seemed to be a unanimous judgment that it had been a great program
for the students and a decision to continue it was promptly made. The program has
continued every year since, and became a model for similar semester in the city programs
in Bogata, Columbia and other places.
Academic Developments in the 1970s
In some ways, our academic work at Augsburg before the SUST venture in
I
Scandinavia had prepared us for our encounter with that culture's response to modem
urbanization. Following our Crisis Colony experience in 1968 and the college's decision
to launch a new interdisciplinary metro-urban studies program, both faculty and students
had become sensitive to some of the new challenges associated with post-industrial
urbanization. Being located in the heart of the Cedar-Riverside community, our whole
college community became acutely aware of such challenges. The processes of inner city
deterioration associated with the developments of University, college, and health care
institutions led to demands for urban renewal in the area. With the enactment of the New
Communities Act of 1970, the Cedar-Riverside community launched a New Town - In
Town program for transforming a decaying inner-city community to a modem postindustrial community.
A.
The New-Town and the Modem Metropolis Interim
In response to these new developments we sought to create special academic
programs, which would respond to the "new urbanism." As Director of the college's new
metro-urban studies program, I launched a January Interim course entitled "New-Town
Developments and the Modem Metropolis" in 1973. The course involved extensive
readings on the new urban developments, the earlier New-Town developments in Europe,
and the new developments in the U.S. To relate such readings in New Town
developments in suburbia, a field trip to Columbia, MD was launched. This trip also
included a visit to Washington D.C. where we met with a national director of the New
Communities Act and with Minnesota's Congressman Donald Fraser. Upon re-reading
76
the students evaluation of this innovative learning experience, which I was surprised to
find in my files, I began to think that it was perhaps one of the most successful courses I
had ever directed. I felt richly rewarded for the months of preparation including
negotiations with people from Cedar Riverside, Columbia, Maryland, and Washington,
D.C., and I am deeply grateful to all those who helped us everywhere.
B.
Urbanization and Community Building in Modem Scandinavia
Upon our return from the Scandinavian Urban Studies Term, I thought our urban
program at Augsburg might well translate what we learned from that to an interim course
reflecting it. Thus we launched a January 1975 Interim course entitled "Urbanization and
Community Building in Modem Scandinavia." Although we lacked the field experience
we had in the SUST program, the materials we had gathered in Scandinavia proved
helpful. We were able to bring to American students stories of new-town developments
in the exploding metropolitan centers of modem Scandinavia.
C.
Future Metropolis and the New-Town Idea
The following summer we introduced an interim course on the Future Metropolis
and the New-Town-In Town idea. In developing and directing this course, I teamed up
with an urban planner from the Minneapolis HUD program, Richard Little., He had
joined our staff under a New Professor in the City program, which we had earlier
inaugurated. The very title of the course indicates its subject matter. Mr. Little (Dick)
had studied new town developments in England and Scotland and in a unique way
complemented what I had learned from Scandinavia. Furthermore, with a Master of
Urban Planning degree from the HUD, he was well informed about the New
Community's Act and its basic orientations.
D.
The City and Metro-Urban Planning
Perhaps Augsburg's most enduring legacy from Dick Little ' s role as "Professor in
the City" in our academic program was his help in developing a new course, The City
and Metro-Urban Planning. The more extensively we studied urbanization and
community building both in our country and in Scandinavia, the more convinced we
became of the critical role of urban planning. So far our curriculum had not adequately
reflected that. We had developed a new interdisciplinary lower-division course in "The
Human Community in the Modem Metropolis," but no upper division program in urban
77
I
planning. After long sessions of collaborations, Dick and I had hammered out what I
think was a very well designed course on The City and Metro-Urban Planning. In
addition to extensive readings on the field, the course provided strategies for using the
planning programs of our Twin Cities for field experience. This course has continued to
be an integrated part of our metro-urban studies major ever since.
E.
Philadelphia and the Quest for a Humane City
As we were approaching the Bicentennial for America's Declaration of
Independence, the thought occurred to me that the historic city of Philadelphia might well
become an appropriate January Interim for 1976. Dick Little agreed with me about this,
and, since he had spent some time in that city, he was helpful in securing contacts with
essential people working there. One of those was National Park Historian, Chester
Brooks, who had become the Director of the First City National Park in Philadelphia.
Chester had also been a student in my history class many years earlier and responded
positively to my inquiry regarding a possible field trip in Philadelphia as a strategic
experience for such a course.
Professor Carl Chrislock - an outstanding historian with specialization in
American history - agreed to join me as co-professor of the course. We began the
Interim with an extensive reading of Philadelphia's history from the colonial days with
William Penn, through its role in the American Revolution, and its transformation to an
industrial city, and then to its current post industrial life.
Our field visit to Philadelphia met all our fondest hopes. For Fran and me it was a
perfectly delightful experience. Chester Brooks and his wife Ebba hosted us in their
attractive residence on "society hill"--named from the days when the early crafts people
lived there. We met with planners, professors from the University of Pennsylvania, staff
people from Philadelphia's Planning Department, as well as political and religious
leaders of the city. Chester led our study of activities of the National Park in the heart of
the city. Thanks to Chester and Ebba Brooks and their leadership and hospitality, this
Philadelphia venture became one of the most unforgettable field experiences for all ofus.
F.
Urbanism in the Far West: From Frontier City to Modem Metropolis
Our college's interim programs provided many opportunities for innovative
~
academic options beyond the regular curriculum. In the January Interim, Michael
78
Walgren, Manager of Augsburg's annual choir tour was planning such a tour in the Far
West. He asked me to develop a January Interim for the choir students. After some
reflection, I thought this might be an opportune time for students to examine the urban
experience of the Far West. I designed such a course and prepared a syllabus with
designated readings and topics for discussion. Classes met in November and December
to prepare students for the extensive field trip in the western cities where the choir was
performing its concerts. Arrangements were made with city leaders and urban planners
together with strategic Augsburg alumni living there to lead our field visits in Seattle, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Since all the arrangements for housing, travel, etc.
were made by Mike Walgren, I could concentrate my work on arranging for the field
experience in each of the cities.
In Seattle we were given great help by former Augsburg sociology majors, Robert
Larson and Robert Moylan, and leaders from the Seattle Planning Department. Similar
help was given by a faculty member from the San Francisco State University and leaders
from the Planning Department of that city.
In Los Angeles we learned first hand something about the implications of
"Autopia" for that fragmented and sprawling metropolis. Our planned fiel? experience
venture for downtown Los Angeles was completely scuttled because our bus trip from
our motel at the north edge of the city to downtown was held up by an impossible traffic
jam. When we finally reached downtown, we only had time for some improvised
explorations on our own; we learned first hand why modem Scandinavian urban planners
are determined to prevent the "Los Angelization of its urban environment."
In Phoenix, we received much friendly and effective help from Augsburg
sociology major, Roger Gordon. He helped arrange for a driving tour around the city,
taking us to the highly publicized experimental city of "Arcosante", the Sun City suburb,
as well as the central city. A meeting was arranged for a seminar session with the staff
people of the Phoenix Planning office. The entire experience of Phoenix was very
rewarding. It provided a gratifying finale to our planned visits to some of the major cities
of the Far West.
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Some indication of my personal assessment of this experience is perhaps best
reflected in the following excerpt from a "thank you" letter I mailed to Roger _G ordon
upon my return to Minneapolis:
From the very beginning of our planning for the January Interim, I knew that a
critically important part of our learning would depend on the gracious and
thoughtful help from our Augsburg friends along the way. However, everything
went "beyond expectations." Your creative helpfulness in the Phoenix area
provided an excellent finale for our study.
A similar letter was mailed to Robert Larson expressing our gratitude for his excellent
leadership in getting us a superb beginning experience in our western city study.
Although I did not ask for an appraisal of this January Interim from the 32 students
involved in it, I think they too were generally pleased with this Interim experience.
Since Fran went along with us on most of the trip, we managed to provide for some extra
personal enjoyment along the way. We took the plane to Portland, Oregon to visit my
sister Marie and her family before I traveled to Seattle to meet the students there. After
our visit to Los Angeles, Frances remained there to visit her sister Barbara and her
family. I joined them after the Phoenix visit, and from there we traveled by bus to
Fresno, California for our first visit to our niece, Jeanine, and her family. From there, we
flew back to Minneapolis. While this January Interim was done after my official
retirement, it really represented my last formal academic venture on the Augsburg
Campus in the 1970s.
Some Reflections on My Retirement
When one is officially retired from a career of thirty years in an academic
community like Augsburg College, reflections on the legacies of that past inevitability
come to mind. For me, perhaps the dominant feeling was one of gratitude for what all the
students, faculty colleagues, and other Augsburg personnel have done to make my work
at that place so personally rewarding and enjoyable. I always thought that the friendly
responsiveness of the students was perhaps the greatest gift for any teacher--a gift that
sustains the teacher's zest for the academic life. When that is matched by a congenial
faculty and an administration that honors intellectual freedom as well as academic
80
excellence, academia becomes more than a simple workplace--it becomes a tender,
loving community.
At no time did this become more apparent to me than at the farewell banquet
arranged for Fran and me at Jack's Cafe in May of 1978. I owe special thanks to my
colleague, Jerry Gerasimo, for heading up the planning for that wonderful evening. But
my gratitude extends to all who were there for their expression of kindness toward us.
Perhaps on no occasion did I articulate more adequately my feelings about what my
Augsburg legacy meant for me more than at the Cap and Gown Day event nine days
before graduation on May 12, 1978. The following excerpts from my talk on that
occasion say it best:
I cannot imagine any teacher who would not like to be appreciated as one
who has sought to measure up to the criteria you have used for selecting nominees
for the "distinguished professor" award. At the same time, I cannot imagine any
teacher who thinks reflectively about the high ideals of those criteria, who would
not receive such an award with considerable humility as well as gratitude. To be
honored in this way by this graduating class is particularly gratifying for me. In
the first place, I have come to know many of you both as dear frien9s as well as
good students. In the second place, I am in a sense graduating with you. I have
been observing that countdown banner on Memorial Hall much as you have. I too
have nine days left. I'm experiencing some of the same feelings I had when I first
graduated from college 40 years ago--some of the same feelings I've heard
expressed by some seniors virtually every spring of the thirty years I've been a
full time faculty member at this college that they wished that they might go to
college all their life. To such students, I have often suggested that might well be
arranged if they would but prepare to be college professors. While it would
hardly be prudent for me to recommend that all of you should prepare to be
professors--after all only a few of us retire each year--1 can with complete
equanimity recommend that whatever you do and wherever you go, the liberal
arts oriented examination and appreciation of everything knowable, thinkable, and
believable continue to be an essential attribute of your life. In this sense, we can
all continue the liberal arts adventure as long as God gives us life and breath.
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And as we cultivate the spirit of imagination, continue the search for truth, remain
steadfast in our hunger and thirst after righteousness, and love our neighbors as
ourselves, we will ever be ready to "sacrifice what we are for what we might
become" to paraphrase your class motto.
Somehow, for all of us, the legacy of our liberal arts learning here at
Augsburg at its best has been informed by some of the most cherished and
enduring values in human history. The appreciation and cultivation of truth,
beauty, and goodness; the struggle to achieve a social order where liberty,
equality, and fraternity prevail; and the nurture of a spirit of faith, hope, and love
are illustrative of those values.
I cannot imagine a promising future where the pursuit and nurture of such
values are neglected. Nor can I imagine the nurture of such values which does not
involve a continuing interest in and study of the humanities, the social and
behavioral sciences, the natural sciences, and their relevance for our professional
growth and creative participation in history. A future where simplistic answers
are sought for complex problems will lead nowhere, but to a massive Neo-Luddite
nightmare of terror and chaos. To give ourselves to the ongoing disciplined
pursuit of knowledge, truth, and human understanding; to keep alive our passion
for justice and righteousness together with sensitivity and tenderness; to continue
to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the fine arts and the best of our
religious heritage; what better formula for making our lives count in a future
where the quality of life itself is becoming more important than its quantitative
production? What better way to "sacrifice what we are for what we might
become!"
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Part Seven: Life and Learning Beyond
Retirement
For many, retirement seems to mean a final ending of a tiresome and meaningless
life of work and tedium. I had no such experience. I looked back upon my years at
Augsburg with profound gratitude for the many joys and satisfactions that were
associated with them. I could say without hesitation, that I never experienced a boring
moment during all those years. Hence I did not look to retirement as a complete break
with my past life and work. Rather, I looked forward to continued academic activities
within the context of a less "work-oriented" life.
Back to Scandinavia
Opportunity for that kind of "retirement" opened up almost at once. During the
early summer of 1979, Dr. Sonia Mykletun, the new Director of the Scandjnavian Urban
Studies Term, sought my assistance in the coming fall term. The Higher Education
Consortium for Urban Affairs, HECUA, seemed happy to oblige and provided the funds
to support such an arrangement.
In many ways, this was the "perfect" venture for our life beyond retirement. First
of all, it made possible a re-visit to Scandinavia and its many charms that both Fran and I
had enjoyed so much when we launched the first SUST program in 1973. It also gave us
an opportunity to help strengthen the program we had begun, but was now under Sonia's
excellent leadership. Perhaps most important for my next five year's academic work, it
made possible my doing some very important research work preparatory for writing a
book on urbanization and community building in Norway.
Since on this SUST assignment the administrative direction of the program was in
Sonia's hands, both Fran and I had more freedom to venture out on our own explorations.
Arriving in Oslo in the early part of August and getting settled in an attractive apartment
83
of an Oslo University scholar who was on a study tour to Latin America, we found
ourselves living a life more like that of visiting scholars with very flexible schedules.
During the last part of August and the first part of September, we hosted visiting
friends from the U.S.A. and traveled rather extensively in new regions of Norway. Fran's
sister Ione and her husband Ralph joined us in a delightful train trip to Trondheim for a
brief visit there. From there, we flew to Troms0, the amazing northern city some 270
miles north of the Artie Circle--a city of about 50,000 people. To our great surprise, we
found a very dynamic urban area with all the positive rudiments of a good city--industry,
commerce, schools, art centers, theaters, churches, and a growing modem university.
Moreover, the weather was mild, obviously a legacy from the Gulf Stream.
From Troms0 we flew to Bergan to enjoy a few delightful days on our second
visit to that beautiful city. On our return to Oslo, we enjoyed a beautiful boat trip on the
Sognefjord to Flam and from there took the train across the mountains to Oslo where we
spent a few more days enjoying its sights and life. A few days later, we hosted Dr. Ron
Duty and his wife Theresa--our friends from Minneapolis and Trinity Lutheran
Congregation.
When the SUST program began, both Fran and I became involved i,n its class
activities and cooperated with Sonia in hosting some of the students at our apartment.
Our most demanding work was directing the study tour to the capital cities of Stockholm,
Helsinki, and Copenhagen. Besides meeting with city planners and educational leaders
of central cities in Scandinavia, we also visited satellite towns such as Vallingby and
Kista in Stockholm, Tapiola in Helsinki, and similar satellite towns in Copenhagen. Both
Fran and I enjoyed these re-visits to Norden's capital cities, even as we shared some of
the anxieties associated with such an assignment.
After our return from these field trips, we found time beyond our official
assignment to visit friends we had come to know during our stay in 1973 and to take
additional pleasure trips in Norway. One of the most cherished trips was one with Gullik
and Mari Kollandsrud to the province of Numedal. The Kollandsruds had become our
closest friends in 1973. Gullik had been the virtual academic dean of the program during
the first SUST venture. His wife Mari, also an architect, had hosted us frequently during
that academic term. When Gullick learned that my mother's father had come from
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Nummedal, he was determined to take us on a trip to find his birthplace. He too came
from that province and the Kollandsrud family had established an attractive lake home in
the area.
We had a delightful trip with good weather and had occasion to visit
Nummedal's capital city of Kongsberg. The Holtan home was accessible via a narrow
winding road up and over high hills and through dense woods. My first reaction was
that we were entering an area like the poverty regions of Appalachia. But upon arriving
on the homestead, we soon learned that was far from reality. We found instead a large,
stately old house together with a new modem house being built on the same site. When
we knocked at the front door of the old house we were greeted by a congenial elderly
man, who said that although his family name, Holtan, was the same as that of my
grandfather, we were not related. To confirm that we were at the right place however,
he took us into his library and took out a local history book, which clearly documented
that this was my grandfather's birthplace.
We were quickly disabused of our first impression of the area. The old house
was completely modernized. Mr. Holtan and his family enjoyed their home and its
library. They secured their income from work in Kongsberg. Their son and his young
family were getting comfortable in their attractive new home. They, too, worked in
Kongsberg. We learned first-hand some of the fruits of Norway's socio-political
commitment to "equality and fraternity" as well as "liberty." After this visit, the
Kollandsrud's took us to their vacation home where we spent a couple of days before
returning to Oslo.
Advanced Studies at U of Oslo and Research Work
One of the highly attractive aspects of this second SUST venture was the
opportunity it provided for my matriculation at the University of Oslo as a research
scholar. This provided an excellent base for my research work, preparatory to the
writing of a book on urbanization and community development in Norway. It gave me
access to its library resources as well as to its faculty.
Of particular importance to me was coming to know Dr. Tor Rasmussen - one of
Scandinavia's leading urban scholars. Besides chairing the University's Department of
85
Geography, he had written several definitive books on urbanization and regional
developments in modem Norway. They were of course written in Norwegian and hence
not readily helpful for most of our SUST students. At first I thought our best bet was to
translate his works into English for our students who were still inadequately prepared to
read his Norwegian editions. Tor said no, and challenged me to write a new book on the
subject and said he would be glad to assist me in any way that he could.
Thus, my challenge was unmistakable. I needed to gather as much data and do
as much research as possible before returning to the States and, of course, lay plans for
how the research and writing might be continued in the future. He agreed to take
responsibility of getting the book published in Norway and agreed to write a couple of
chapters for it.
Now that my academic assignment for the coming few years was clearly defined,
I needed to make use of the remainder of our stay in Oslo to reflect on some of the
distinctive attributes of life in modem Oslo. By 1979, the impact of Oslo's commitment
to satellite town development as over against urban sprawl was clear. In one of Dr.
Rasmussen's first presentation to our 1973 class, he noted that one of the major
objectives of Scandinavian urban planning was to "prevent the Los Angeli~ation of
Norden's precious environment." That meant developing an alternative to auto-oriented
transportation. By 1979 we had experienced first-hand what that meant.
Even as in 1973 we had lived comfortably for several months without a car,
relying entirely on Oslo's electric trolleys, buses, and other light rail transit systems; by
1979 the relatively auto-free transit system was even further developed. When a new
subway system under downtown Oslo was proposed, some objected saying, "we cannot
afford it." The prevailing response was "we can't afford not to, we must save the city."
This rejoinder clarified for me that even if Norwegians had a strong commitment
to decentralized urbanization to prevent over-concentration in Oslo, they still had a
strong commitment to their capital city and understood the importance of that central
city for their nation's social, cultural, and historic future. I came to understand more
clearly that we could learn much from Oslo and the other capital cities of Scandinavia
about saving our central cities from the ravages of "autopia."
86
We learned much more about the meaning of Rasmussen's comments about
"preventing the Los Angelization of their environment." Already a couple of chapters
for my new book were taking shape in my mind. We also learned to appreciate the
importance of the role of sub-villages in Oslo's modem metropolis. The city identifies
44 such villages--including both the new satellite towns as well as the historic villages
within Oslo's central city. They symbolize Scandinavia's perception of the city as a
community with many sub-community centers, rather than primarily an economic
enterprise, which tends to be more characteristic of the USA.
When the 1979 SUST term came to an end Fran and I flew back home via
Boston and Portsmouth, where we spent a few pleasant days visiting our daughter Carol
and her family before returning to Minneapolis for a joyous Christmas with our family
and friends.
The Book on Urbanization in Scandinavia
When Tor Rasmussen and I agreed on a kind of joint venture in writing a new
book on urbanization and community building in Norway, I suppose neither one ofus
was fully aware of the complexity of the task. Collaboration across the Atlantic before
the days of the Internet was not exactly convenient. However, both ofus agreed that
such a book was needed for the students in the future who would be interested in such a
subject.
Fortunately, Tor seemed to be confident that I could prepare the manuscript here
based on the research I had already done and the resource materials that I could bring
with me from Scandinavia. With that confidence, I proceeded with the venture early in
1980. My zest for proceeding on this venture was further enhanced by an important
conversation with Dr. Michael F. Metcalf, a professor of Scandinavian history at the
University of Minnesota. He thought such a book ought to be written, and that he
would be willing to write a chapter on some historical perspectives of Norwegian urban
development. Perhaps the most fortuitous development in the venture was my lucky
break in securing the help of the highly resourceful and competent Shirley J. Dahlen in
preparing the manuscript, as well as in providing important editorial assistance. Every
chapter was mailed to Tor Rasmussen for his review and suggested illustrative
87
additions. When all the chapters were completed, he supervised its publication by the
Urbana Press in Oslo in 1985.
Our Fourth Visit to Norway
The publication of the book provided another opportunity for a visit to Norway.
While the principal rationale for this trip was to collaborate with Professor Rasmussen
about strategies for marketing the book, Fran and I agreed that this time the pursuit of
our more personal interests would be paramount. Certainly, our most intriguing interest
was to take a trip to the Lofoten Islands to see the birthplace of Fran's grandmother.
This proved to be a most exciting venture. We had very little information about
the place and were anxiously waiting for a response to one of our written requests for
such information from the Vrerny Island where Fran's grandmother had spent her
childhood. The day before we left, we received a response which confirmed that Fran
had indeed some living relatives on the island and suggested whom we might contact.
Such a contact would have to be made when we arrived in Norway.
Also, a day or two before our departure, I had met with Liv Dahl at the Sons of
Norway headquarters to make some inquiries about the Lofoten Islands. To our
amazement, she had just received a mimeographed copy of an intriguing new book
called Alt For Nor@..(All for Norway), which described the life and culture of a little
"Mostad" neighborhood on Vrerny. As it turned out, this little place was exactly where
Fran's grandmother had been born and spent her childhood. It even included a picture
of what was likely her childhood home. The quest for a copy of that book was added to
our zest for the visit to V rerny.
Since this visit played such a central role in our 1984 trip in Norway, it seems
appropriate to begin its review with a somewhat detailed account of our visit to Vreroy.
After arriving by train in the historic city of Trondheim, we visited our relative and
good friend Anne Gunn Laustad. From her home, we called Fran's third generation
cousin, Rolf Kristensen, in V rerny. We introduced ourselves and told him of our
intended visit. When we asked him to reserve a cabin for us, he protested, saying he
had lots of room in his home and was eager to host us. On August lih we left
Trondheim on the morning train for Bod0, the provincial capital of Nordland, about 100
88
•
miles north of the Arctic Circle. While we had become accustomed to very pleasant
journeys on Norway's exc_ellent trains, this daylong travel through valleys and over
mountains on our way to Bod0 was a sheer delight. When we reached the Arctic
Circle, the train stopped providing us with a brief moment of reflection about this
important boundary.
Our short stay at Bod0 made it possible for us to see first-hand a "new town," in
this part of Norway. The Nazis had virtually demolished the old city as part of their
"scorched earth" occupational policies. We had time to visit its beautiful harbor, its
Nordland Capital, and its Cathedral church as well as to spend a few pleasant moments
on its auto-free pedestrian downtown streets. We learned that this charming "new city"
of more than 30,000 inhabitants some hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle had
pleasant summer weather not unlike we had experienced in our own home in
Minnesota, thanks of course to the impact of the Gulf Stream. We could readily
understand why Norway regarded this city as one of the very important regional centers
in its policies of decentralized urbanization.
Toward evening of our one-day stay in Bod0, we took a cab to its airport and
boarded a large helicopter for a brief 30-minute flight to VIBrny. We had decided on
the helicopter since the more pleasant boat trip would take too much of our limited
time. We were met at the helicopter port by R0lf and his brother Otto, whose genuine
hospitality immediately made us feel warmly welcomed. Since Otto was ill, he was
unable to participate in hosting our visit but, before we left, he gave us a copy of Alt
For Nor~, for which we had searched in vain in both Oslo and Trondheim. The book
had become a best seller and was out of print. Our gratitude to Otto will never be
forgotten.
We S?on learned that R0lf was one of the leading citizens ofVIBrny. His home
was a stately five-bedroom house not far from his general merchandise establishment
where he also played the role of a fish merchant. He also owned another home where
his daughter and her family lived. He drove a relatively new van. When he used that
van for taking us on hair-raising trips around the Saw-tooth Mountains, he reassured us
that he had driven the school bus for the community for 50 years.
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Since R0lf had been a widower for ten years, he had become well practiced in
taking charge of hosting visitors. After our arrival at this home, he promptly treated us
to coffee and some tasty sweets. After that, he took us on a tour of the house which
besides the many bedrooms included a spacious living room and dining room and a
modern kitchen. In his basement were another living room and a workshop where he
made jewelry and polished fancy stones. He gave Fran a locket and some polished
stones. In the living room, he kept his guitar and mandolin which he had played in his
younger days when he also sang in a men's chorus. He said he had always been fond of
music and that his relatives shared similar interests.
During our evening conversations, he shared with us a good deal of family
history and showed photos of the family from Grandma's time as well more
contemporary members. R0lf also told us about the economic life of the V rerny
community. Even as in Grandma's time, its main occupation was fishing. B11:t instead
of the small boats that her father and older brothers had taken out in perilous fishing
expeditions on the North Sea, fishing now was done from large, modem, highly
technical boats. Rolf told about the high price their family had paid for the fishing
ventures in Grandma's time. Both Grandma's brother and his two oldest ~ons had
perished in the sea shortly after she had migrated to America.
During our stay, R0lf took us on tours around the island, showing us Vrerny' s
Gamle Kirke (Old Church) where Grandma had been baptized and confirmed. A wellkept cemetery and small hayfield surrounded the church. Because of its elevated
location and long distance from the central part of the village, it was no longer Vrerny's
main church. A newer church near the harbor and closer to the community's center had
become the main village worship and community center. The well-kept old church
stood as a symbolic representation of Norway' s commitment to historic preservation.
R0lf also took us to a high point where we could see Mostad--the little neighborhood of
Grandma's childhood home. He thought it too hazardous to take us by boat to that
place because of the stormy sea. But from our vantage point, we could see that it was
largely abandoned. Its harbor was too shallow and rocky for the large modem boats.
As a fish merchant, Rolf naturally wanted us to see the operation of V rerny' s
aquaculture establishment. Since this was our first observation of Norway's extensive
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development of this industry, we were naturally highly impressed with, not only its
technological aspects, but also with its meticulous cleanliness as well as its system of
automatic feeding. During our daytime explorations of the harbor, we also got a view
of the high-tech fish processing and packaging activities together with the marketing of
the frozen fish via modem aircraft to distant places such as Manhattan, NY, etc.
We also saw the village center with its health clinic, community-planning office,
and other service centers plus the general merchandise establishments. Nearby was a
modem elementary and secondary school with well-equipped playgrounds and athletic
fields. Around the center were widely scattered and well kept, single-family homes,
which featured a diversity of colors to adding to their charm.
Though this remote community was located far out in the North Sea, some 100
miles north of the Arctic Circle, this was no "deserted village." We again learned first
hand something about the consequences of Norway's humanitarian social policies
relative to caring for all of its people throughout the entire country.
Needless to say, we left V £Erny deeply grateful to Rolf for his hospitality and for
a reassurance that livable and sustainable communities can flourish under highly
diverse situations where good will, love of place, and cooperation prevail. Our only
regret is that V £Erny is so far away that a return visit is unlikely. A redeeming feature is
that through modem technology we can reach R0lfby telephone any time we wish.
R0lf typically now calls us every Christmas.
Trondheim
Although this visit to V £Erny was perhaps the most exciting venture of this our
fourth trip to Norway, we were also delighted with the other visits, with other friends
and in other places. Our two-day stay in Trondheim was such a place. While we had
visited it before, this time being graciously hosted by our friend and relative, Anne
Gunn Laustad, we got a more personal appreciation of that beautiful, historic city. We
could experience the charm of its auto-free central city ("ga-gater") pedestrian streets.
We found time to re-visit the grand Nidaras Cathedral, and explore the new Hotel
Royale on the banks of the beautiful Nidelven (river). We spent some time at the city's
Folk Museum and saw some of the "new town" developments around the city. Perhaps
91
the high point (no pun intended) of this brief Trondheim visit was being treated to a
delicious dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of a new tower much like Needle
Tower in Seattle, WA.
Since Trondheim will be celebrating its 1000 years of history this summer, we
know that the thousands of visitors from many lands will have the same opportunity to
see its gracious charm as we did a decade or so earlier. Like all urban centers of
Norway, Trondheim's charm is a reflection of Norway's positive affirmation of its
cities as centers of civilization and culture.
On our train ride back to Oslo, we stopped for a two day visit with our friends
Ruth and Halvard Pedersen in Vinstra--a small city in the beautiful Gudrandsdal
(valley). Besides a very pleasant visit with our friends, who own and operate a small
general store and a municipal taxi service, we were shown a well-designed and highly
livable small city community. Its downtown was surrounded by attractive residential
neighborhoods with modem elementary and secondary schools. It also had a new
community college, which was surrounded by a mixture of single-family homes for the
younger generation and row-house town homes for an older population. This latter
type housing was near a modem retirement home and nursing home comp_lex.
Beautiful woods and well-groomed landscapes surrounded the housing. It was clearly
evident that this city had found an attractive niche in Norway's over-all national
policies of decentralized urbanization where the historic values of a more rural culture
could be integrated with a life-style compatible with a high-tech, post-industrial urban
culture.
To TelemarkAgain
Since both Fran and I had historic family linkages with Telemark, and since we
had already made friends among our relatives there in our prior visits, we returned there
again on this our last trip to Norway. This time, we were hosted by a young couple,
Magne and Kari Gaara, and their little family. They lived in a beautiful new home on a
small farm, which had become a major apple producing and marketing operation.
Magne's elderly parents lived near by in an attractive old house, which had been the
original farm home. When we visited them, we quickly learned that they were a book-
92
loving couple who cherished their extensive library. Our conversation quickly revealed
that their books were more than merely cherished ornaments.
From Gaara's, we also re-visited our relative, Johannes Steinsrud, a school
principal, and sadly found him very ill. We were pleased to find the country's health
and welfare system serving his needs with tenderness and good care. As it turned out,
our brief visit was also our final farewell, since he died a few months later, leaving his
house in Gvarv to the village to be used as a community "Kulturhus," a historic culture
center. We also re-visited two other elderly relatives whom we had come to admire and
respect--Bergit Aasheim and Anne Fjellheim. They too have since passed away.
While we are saddened by the passing of these dear friends and relatives, we are
glad that on this trip to Telemark we came to know more of our younger relatives in
Telemark. The Gaaras introduced us to several of Kari's family named Schia. They
lived in a neighborhood called "Sauherad," and their prosperous farm homes were
located near the Sauherad church where my father was confirmed. We of course were
pleased that one of the Schias could give us a tour of that church. One historically
fascinating aspect about our visit to this church and its surroundings was the presence
of small historic homes near by. They stand as a symbolic reflection of a long past so
dramatically described in Sigrid Undset's novel, Kristin Lavransdatter.
Our Final Days in Oslo
When we returned to Oslo, we had scarcely 2 weeks left of this our fourth trip to
Norway. Every day seemed filled with activities. Our friends Olav and Anne Marie
Odegaard took us for a 70-mile tour around some of the satellite towns that had been
developed by the Oslo Housing and Savings Bank Cooperatives since the late 50s.
Since Olav had for many years been that organization's environmental architect, he was
well informed about their developments. This was our last overview of some of what
might now be called the "Transit Villages" of modem Oslo. After the tour, we enjoyed
an evening dinner at the Odegaard home.
The following Sunday, after a relaxing morning we took the trolley to the
beautiful Holmenkollen area around the famous ski jump to re-explore that part of
93
Oslo. The rest of the day was spent strolling the familiar haunts around Josefinesgate
where we had lived in 1979.
On Monday, we had been asked by Astrid Torud to meet with her new SUST
class to tell them the story of how that program had begun. It seemed impossible that
that was already 15 years in the past. I think I shared Fran's observation that we
"almost wished that we were in charge again." Later that day, we went to downtown
Oslo to the Sons of Norway headquarters to leave them some copies of our new book.
The following day I had another meeting with the Summer School of the
University of Oslo regarding use of our book for the coming SUST sessions. Fran went
to Norway's Government Archives near by to explore more of her grandmother's life in
the Oslo region before emigrating to America. In the evening, we took the train to Mari
and Gullik Kollandsrud's home for a delightful evening with those friends who had
meant so much to us in all our prior stays in Oslo.
The following Wednesday, Odegaard took us to the headquarters of the Oslo
Housing and Savings Bank for a luncheon with its president, Mr. Maland. After lunch,
we visited "Silket0y," one of OBOS's newest developments within Oslo, which was a
sample of its new revitalization programs. In the evening, the Odegaards took us out to
a grand dinner in one of Oslo's most elegant downtown restaurants.
The next couple of days were spent preparing for and presenting a radio hour
conversation with Odegaard about my work with the SUST program and the new book,
Urbanization and Community Building in Norway. He also queried me on my general
impressions of modem Norway. Needless to say, my handling of the Norwegian
language was given a rather anxious test. He gave us a tape of the conversation for a
reminder of the event.
During the last few days, we spent an evening with Sveinung Fl6ten, a former
Augsburg student from Norway, who had now become a practicing attorney in Oslo.
Another evening was spent at the Dr. Kjetil Flaten's Bygdoy home. Kjetil was director
of the Oslo University Summer School during our work with the SUST program in
1979. We also spent an evening with Fran's Oslo relatives, the Dale family, after a
daylong visit to the Hadeland Glass Factory and its beautiful surroundings.
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The Sunday before our departure for America, we took our last long hike around
the beautiful "Sognsvatn" on the edge of Oslo's famous Nordmarka (Forest). That
evening we had our last meeting with Professor Rasmussen to make some final
decisions about the marketing of our book. Again, this meeting was combined with a
pleasant dinner and conversation. On Tuesday morning of September 3rd, we took to
the air for our flight back home to Minneapolis.
Continuity and Change Beyond Retirement
The preceding account of our last trip to Norway reflects both continuity and
change in our life beyond retirement. The most obvious change was the greater
freedom we had to pursue our more family-oriented and personal interests. But the fact
that the trip itself was occasioned by issues related to marketing a new book, just as
obviously reflects academic continuity beyond retirement. For one who was never
bored with academic life, this was a source of great gratitude. Upon our return home,
we found operative the same dynamics of continuity and change. We continued to have
more flexibility in the use of time and leisure. But because in our pre-retirement life we
had combined our academic and professional pursuits with community act,ion and
church involvement, continuing engagement in such activities became an essential part
of our life.
Our Life With Trinity
The most compelling arena for our continuing such community engagement was
the life and work of Trinity Lutheran Congregation. Throughout its entire history, the
life of Augsburg and Trinity had been intricately inter-related. Some of us as students
and later as faculty members of the college had found membership in Trinity both an
appropriate and satisfying extension of our college life. By the decade of the 60s,
however, such membership had become more than merely "appropriate and satisfying."
It had become for some of us both intellectually and morally compelling.
Both the college and the congregation had committed themselves to staying in
the heart of the city and emerging metropolis--spurning the many overtures to move out
to the periphery and/or suburbia. In a sense both institutions had come to share a
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common fate of doing their distinctive work in the same urban arena, even if much
changed, as they had done throughout their history. Both had come to share a common
challenge of responding creatively to what by now had been called an "urban crisis,"
compounded by a crisis in race relations, with all their implications.
For Trinity, the decision to stay had become particularly traumatic when the
builders of freeways across America had decided that one such "autobahn" would cut
right through the heart of its community and "necessarily" tear down its cathedral
church and parish house. The complex drama of Trinity's response to this devastation
of its life's center will inevitably become a major chapter in its long history. Here, we
can only note some of the bits and pieces of that drama.
First of all, what might it do about a new center for its work and worship? The
decision was made not to rebuild a large sanctuary on a $14.00 per square foot of urban
land, but rather to rent space from other churches in the area such as the Riverside
Presbyterian Church, then later from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, and
finally from Augsburg's worship and educational facilities in the college's Foss Center.
Perhaps the most compelling challenge was to re-examine the nature of its
ministry in relation to the rapidly changing social and cultural character of its
community. This meant both a careful study of the Cedar-Riverside community itself,
as well as a re-examination of both the essence and motifs of its ministry to such a
community. To become a participant in such a drama was both a privilege and a
challenge, both an inspiration and a joy. We came to experience membership and
participation in the congregation as a virtual community of shared hopes and dreams of
nurturing a good life based on the best of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
Participatory Roles in Trinity's Life
In a sense, there was considerable continuity between my past academic
activities and my participatory roles in Trinity's life. One of Trinity's initial responses
to the crises of the sixties was to lead in the development of Cedar-Riverside Area
Council to promote a sense of community and to prepare for its future development and
revitalization. I became a board member of that Council representing the Augsburg
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College faculty. I was also asked to chair its Housing Committee and to write a vision
statement describing its housing and community goals for the area.
~
When Trinity became involved in a church-sponsored Twin Cities Campus Area
Lutheran Study in the miEi sixties, I was asked to direct that study and, with the help of
other Augsburg staff, conducted a systematic demographic analysis of every census
tract in each of the campus area communities. The final 50-page document included an
important demographic profile of the Cedar-Riverside Community.
When Trinity created a new Evangelism and Social Action Committee to plan
for a series of speakers and programs examining its future motifs and ministries, I was
asked to be its chairman. I continued to chair that committee from 1965 to 1970.
When our friend and cherished leader of Trinity's Council, Professor George
Michaelsen, had completed his two terms as its president, I was chosen his successor
and served as Trinity's president for the first six years of the 1970s.
These were years of momentous changes in the community, calling for
innovative congregational responses. One such innovation was the creation of a Trinity
Neighborhood Research and Development Corporation, which later merged with a
Seward area group to form the Seward West Redesign Corporation which became an
extensive developer of housing and community amenities in that area. It was my
privilege to cooperate with such members of our congregation as Ron Duty, Dave
Raymond, Dick Blakely, Paul Steen, and others in this development. Perhaps the most
venturesome development during the 70s was Trinity's launching of a drive to establish
a Riverside Center on Block 185, which the Congregation had acquired by that time.
Gloria and George Nelson together with other members of Trinity's Council were the
leaders in that promising venture.
During the 80s, I was chosen to chair the Congregation's Stewardship
Committee. That committee too reflected Trinity's innovative responses to new
challenges. It went beyond the traditional role of raising money for the church and
husbanding such monetary resources; it developed a concept of stewardship of place,
community, and environment as essential ingredients of its responsibility.
Out of this was created the Task Force on Block 185 to conduct a systematic
study of the best possible use of that block for both Trinity Congregation and the
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community. Out of that committee, we explored many options and produced many
papers with proposed possibilities. By 1985, a decision was made to establish a ·
Planning Team for finding a workable development of the block and the best possible
developer for carrying it out. As chairman of that Planning Team, together with such
essential members as Nancy Homans, a professional city planner and energetic member
of our congregation; Brian Hanson, an invaluable architect; and others, I became deeply
involved in more meetings with more potential developers and other professionals than
I could ever imagine I would after retirement.
What has been so gratifying about these involvements in Trinity's life beyond
our retirement has been the fact that Fran also has been vitally involved. As the
innovator and continued leader of Trinity's quilters, who have produced some 3000
quilts for world relief, and as an active participant in many other aspects of Trinity's
life, she shares my gratitude for this Congregation's contribution to our life.
Among all these experiences in Trinity's life, we remember with special
admiration and gratitude the sensitive and creative leadership of our pastor, Sheldon
Torgerson. He was open to new options for ministry in a dramatically changed
situation. I was reminded of James Russell Lowell's lines from his The Present Crisis:
"new occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth ... "
From the preceding account of our life and work with Trinity, one can
understand why both Fran and I have sensed a natural affinity between our postretirement life and work at Trinity. I think this helps to make clear why fifteen years
after retirement I would write a document entitled Trinity Lutheran Congregation's
Response to the Urban Crisis and its Changing Cedar-Riverside Community.
In the fall of 1991 we celebrated the consummation of all our work and dreams
for Block 185 and Trinity's commitment to playing a leading role in the revitalization
of a central part of the Cedar Riverside community as a new housing development took
shape. Needless to say, there was much shared joy and gratitude. When in 1992 Fran
and I moved into one of the 35 new apartments, we not only shared in the fruits of
Trinity's dreams, we also became again full time residents of and participants in the life
of this inner city community. It was very gratifying for all ofus that this development
of 35 apartments and 17 townhouses around an attractive courtyard was honored by the
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Minneapolis Environmental Commission as one of the most beautiful and creative
neighborhood revitalization projects in the city.
A Note of Gratitude to Augsburg
Before concluding these reflections on the continuity and change in our life after
retirement, I want to make some comments on our continued relations with the
Augsburg community. We shall never forget the many ways we have been invited to
significant college events and even to participate in various academic and other college
related activities. We have been made to feel like continuing members of the college
community. We have been especially grateful to the members and chairpersons of the
sociology and social work faculties for the many ways they have made us feel as if we
continue to be members of their departments. Even though we have no intention or
expectation of participating in their departmental deliberations or decisions, we have
greatly appreciated being treated as fraternal friends and community peers. We were
overwhelmed by the special honors the HECUA related academic community showed
us on that organization's celebration of its 25 th anniversary, as well as similar events
celebrating the 50th anniversary of the development of Augsburg's Department of
Sociology.
As I reflect on these and related associations with Augsburg, I remember with
special gratitude the many academic colleagues for their friendship and cooperation in
our life and work together. I think especially of all those who participated in the
development of the sociology major and its related social work education, the social
science research center, and the trans-disciplinary metro-urban studies program.
I think of Dr. Gordon Nelson's creative helpfulness in developing the general
education course in The Human Community and the Modem Metropolis; of Dr. Robert
Clyde and his leadership in developing our Social Science Research Program both
within the college and throughout the metropolis; of people like Dr. Paul Steen and Dr.
Eddy Herzberg for developing a vital social work education program; and of all the
other members of our sociology department. I have been especially grateful to Dr.
Diane Pike who has led the department in recent years for the ways in which she has
extended to me the privilege of participating in its social activities.
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I cannot refrain from some special comments about how deeply grateful I am for
Dr. Gary Hesser's life and work at the college. I have always marveled at how
fortunate we were to find him as my replacement when I retired. Besides his friendly
and cooperative spirit, he not only seemed to clearly understand what our department
had developed, he also seemed to regard it with respect. He immediately proceeded to
build upon our programs and played a leading role in developing a nationally
recognized higher education program for metro-urban life. Both Fran and I will always
cherish the continued friendship and association with Gary and with his highly talented
wife, Nancy Homans.
To all these friends and colleagues and the many others I could also mention,
many, many thanks for everything!
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Part Eight: The Heart of My Life
Introduction
Throughout the preceding account of my life, there have been frequent references
to particular persons and situations that in special ways enriched my life. For all those I
continue to be grateful. But I have left to the last, some comments about the most
important people in my life--my immediate family. When I reflect upon the pervasive
forces of family disorganization in our time, I can only say how grateful I am for all the
ways in which my family has been a constant source of companionship and shared hopes
and dreams for the lives of each of us and for our family as a unit.
Some Notes on our Family's Beginnings
When in my sociology classes we would be studying comparative f~mily systems,
the question of the best method of mate selection would always be of special interest.
For the sake of enlivening the class discussion, I would frequently defend the system that
was still in practice in other parts of the world where family elders would select mates for
their children. I would somewhat flippantly argue that the old song about "love and
marriage, like a horse and carriage" naturally going together was fraught with all kinds of
hazards. It really meant, "falling in love, losing your mind and then making the most
important decision of your life."
But no such rational, sociological judgments were at work in my finding my life's
mate, Fran. It all began on that "enchanted evening" when we first met and went for a
pleasant summer evening walk in Riverside Park, which had become a favorite
playground and meeting place for Augsburg students and Fairview nursing students. It
nearly did not happen. When my two friends Harold Haugland and Adrian Tinderholt
asked me to join them for an evening party with some nursing student friends, I protested,
saying I had too much work to do--alluding to some unfinished papers for my college
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studies. I finally yielded to my friends' entreaties, joined the party, and for the first time
met my future life's mate, Fran.
Somehow, in our walk in the park that night it seems we experienced a mutual
attraction for each other that in the ensuing months led to a deepening affection for each
other much as the popular romantic dramas describe. But upon further reflection, both
Fran and I came to know that the first moment's enchantment was not the sole arbiter of
our continued love and respect for each other. During the following months we
discovered the many ways our separate social geographies contained many similarities.
We had both grown up in similar small-town centered rural communities in western
Minnesota and internalized many of the values of that region. We had both come to the
city to pursue education and training for future vocational roles in modem life. We
shared similar interests in music and song. I remember with fondness the many evenings
we would meet at Fran's residence home where she would play the piano, as we would
join in singing favorite popular songs and well-known hymns. The tennis courts and
skating rink at Riverside Park provided an excellent setting for our outdoor recreation.
The mere fact that my residence was but a block away from Fairview and the Park
facilitated relatively spontaneous get-togethers.
Even our politics were quite similar. Even though I had a Republican cousin,
Theodore Christianson, who had become governor of Minnesota in the twentfos, the
Great Depression had made a Farmer-Laborite out of me. When Fran's second cousin,
Elmer Benson had entered the political race for governor of Minnesota, we were both
supporters of the Farmer-Labor Party and its political orientations.
Our shared friends from both Augsburg students and Fairview nurses contributed
to our growing mutual attractions. We both cherish memories of our weekend picnics
and other activities with them. By the time Fran had completed her nursing degree and
been hired as a surgery nurse at Fairview, and I had graduated from Augsburg and
become history instructor at the college while pursuing a masters degree in history at the
University of Minnesota, we agreed to marry and establish a home in the vicinity of both
Augsburg and Fairview.
As I write this, it was exactly 58 years ago yesterday--June 10, 1939--that we
were married at the Appleton Lutheran Church on a very, very rainy day. It was an event
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that set the stage for our life together with much meaning for both of us. While neither of
us sought the approval of our parents or other elders, I think such support could be
confidently assumed.
2019
South Seventh Street- Our First Home
We had incredibly good luck in finding a place to live during the first years of our
marriage--an upper duplex scarcely a block from Augsburg's main building and only a
few blocks from Fairview was for rent at $27.00 a month. It was a well-maintained
apartment with hardwood floors, two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen, plus a small
study. It was a pleasant place to host our friends and relax after our days of work and
study. Lacking both a refrigerator and laundry, we had pleasant regular visits from the
"ice man" and "laundry man" who in many ways became our friends.
For two years we lived in this home. They were very enjoyable as well as busy
years. Fran's work at Fairview was critically important for our family budget. She had
regular hours plus occasional emergency calls at night; whenever we heard the
ambulance siren we could expect a phone call for Fran to come to the hospital. Besides
my teaching assignment, I would work some evenings and Saturdays at Sears Roebuck to
supplement our income. The rest of my time was devoted to graduate study and
preparing my research strategies for my master's thesis.
We found the Cedar-Riverside community a good place to live. We enjoyed
shopping on Cedar A venue and participating in the life of that historic "main street" of
the area. Our involvement in the life of the Augsburg community and our continued
activities with our Fairview friends continued as central foci of our socio-cultural life.
One ominous world development haunted our otherwise serene and happy life-the deeply disturbing developments in Europe. Like many others, we listened intently to
William Shirer's dramatic radio reports of the rise of Nazism and Hitler's frightening
adventures in Europe. As I have alluded to earlier, I had a long interest in the "peace
movement" and had become a part of an Augsburg student and faculty group deeply
concerned about issues of war and peace and their implications for appropriate
humanitarian and Christian responses to them.
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Our Encounter with the Peace Movement
Fran shared similar sentiments and, as the European crisis deepened, more of our
time and attention became absorbed in reflections about the appropriate response of the
peace movement. Our home became a convenient gathering place for students and
others who shared our concerns. In a sense, Fran and I had the privilege of serving as
hosts to the most sensitive and caring people we had ever known.
It was both appropriate and inevitable that we should share our concerns with the
larger "peace movement" in our Twin City Community. One of the most significant
events sponsored by some of the churches in the area was a visit by the world leader of
the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Muriel Lester. Several ofus heard her message and
were deeply moved. Coming from Europe, she understood the depth of the impending
crisis. At the same time, because of her commitment to the Judeo Christian legacies
regarding peace and justice, she spoke boldly of the challenges of a non-violent response
to the crisis. In response to Muriel Lester's challenge, Fran and I and several others of
our friends became active in a local interdenominational chapter of the Fellowship of
Reconciliation.
One of that group was our friend Trevor Sandness. Trevor was a student
of the University of Minnesota pursuing a graduate degree in English literature and
related studies. He had long been active in Lutheran youth work and was troubled by
what he perceived to be rather insensitive posture toward issues of peace justice. He
was an able and vigorous personality and succeeded in launching a Lutheran Peace
Fellowship, which would complement the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Fran and I
participated in that development, and I suppose it can be said that our home became the
place of that organization's beginning. With Trevor's vigorous, sensitive, and informed
leadership the Lutheran Peace Fellowship soon attracted to its membership several
distinguished faculty from our Lutheran colleges as well as from some prominent
leaders of the Lutheran Church in this country. Through our participation in the local
Fellowship of Reconciliation, Fran and I came to know people from a wider ecumenical
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circle, including representatives from such "peace churches" as the Quakers, the Church
of the Brethren, Mennonites, and the Amish.
In retrospect, I think it can be said that through our participation in the
Peace Movement, our experience of sharing similar concerns and passions about some
major issues of life contributed much to our sense of bonding during those early years of
marriage. Similarly, our expanding relations with people and programs of the larger
metropolitan community enriched our common life.
Family Life on a Cooperative Farm Community
Our most intimate friends, however, were Elliot and Eleanor Marston of the
Episcopal Church. As I have already described in an earlier chapter, this led to our
launching with them a cooperative farm venture for approximately five years on Bass
Lake Road in what was then an essentially rural township.
I shall not repeat what I have already said about that venture, except to comment
on Fran's important role. As I have frequently alluded to in our other ventures, she
entered into the life and work with characteristic zest and vitality. In many ways, she
became the leading hostess for its ever-increasing population. I think it fa,ir to say that
such a venture was more challenging for her and Eleanor as women, than for Elliot and
me as men.
But throughout all the dramatic developments at that peace-oriented community
venture, Fran's involvement kept intact our own family-oriented life. We joined the
local Elim Lutheran Congregation in Robbinsdale and made friends with members of
that sub-community. We continued to keep in touch with our friends at Augsburg and
Fairview and made important visits to our respective families in western Minnesota.
October 12, 1943
By the time our first daughter, Carol, was born on Columbus Day in 1943, we
were both delighted with that addition to our family. Fran proved to be a good mother,
and I did my best to play a new role as a supportive father. Needless to say, our lives
were both changed and enriched. I shall never forget those early days when I would
watch over the little baby in her crib and marvel at the miracle of new life. While I was
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never good at vocal prayer, I said many silent prayers that the little girl's life would be
both joyous and creative. I did the same over every one of the other three babies that
became a part of our family.
As Carol grew to be a little girl who could both walk and talk, I was thrilled to
come in the house from my work with our expanding dairy and poultry and be
enthusiastically welcomed by her. She had come to like raisins in a cup, and, as I entered
the house, she would frequently meet me with a cup and delightfully ask me for "raisin in
the cup." Our little family bonded from the very start, and when I took the new
assignment as educational director of an association of cooperatives in Southeastern
Minnesota, I remember well how hard it was to leave both Carol and Fran and be away
from them for the many months that it took to find a new home for us in Lanesboro.
During those months, Fran and Carol had moved to live with Fran's parents near
Appleton. By the time they could join me in Lanesboro, little Carol no longer recognized
me when we first met. But when she did, she leaped into my lap and gave me the hug I
shall never forget. Often when I left our new little home in Lanesboro for my many
assignments to other places, Carol would often cling to me as though she did not want to
lose me again. As I reflect upon all the family disruption that has become yharacteristic
of our time, I think of the many children who must go through deep heartaches, as they
are separated from their parents for years and years.
Our Family Life in Lanesboro
Although our little house in Lanesboro left much to be desired and we missed our
friends from the city, we were glad to be together again. Our next-door neighbors were
friendly--most especially the Ask family. From them we secured our water supply while
waiting for the plumbers to complete the connections with the municipal water system.
Since Mr. Ask was also one of Lanesboro' s leading grocers, we soon found that his
friendliness and helpfulness went beyond simple neighborliness.
Carol too quickly adapted to the neighborhood, finding congenial playmates. As
for Fran and me, our circle of new friends were, for the most part, associated with the
local cooperative or professionals working with the Soil Conservation Service and other
farm organizations. Francis Lair, the manager of the local cooperative, was especially
106
friendly. He and my brother, Ludolph, had become good friends and would often join us
for dinners and other occasions. Through them we soon came to know other people
associated with the local co-op.
Through my community relations work with the Soil Conservation Service, we
came to know one of its workers, Alf Jorgenson and his wife Lillian with whom we soon
became good friends. Since they too had found difficulties in finding adequate housing,
we soon began thinking about building a duplex and adding an adjoining 2-car garage.
Those plans were soon altered when Ludolph met Alfs sister Alpha, who had come to
Lanesboro for a visit from Rochester where she worked in the Mayo medical complex.
After a brief romance, they decided to marry and then joined us in planning our building
venture. The two-car garage idea was changed to planning for an attached apartment.
Post-war shortages in building materials and heating systems, coupled with difficulties
in securing skilled labor, made our venture rather frenzied. But after several months of
harried activities, the unit was completed and for the few months before Fran and I and
our little family moved back to Minneapolis, our three families enjoyed our new
cooperative habitat.
March 25, 1946
Several months before these building developments were completed, another
important development in our family took place on March 25 , 1946. That was the day
our second daughter, Ruth Ann, was born. It was a beautiful summer-like day. Fran's
mother came to our house a few days earlier to care for Carol and help Fran. On this day,
I took Fran to the Lanesboro Hospital, a large Victorian home that had been transformed
into a medical facility, and sat in one of its stairways waiting for the good news.
Everything went well and the following months our life in Lanesboro became more
exciting and enjoyable, as well as a bit traumatic--traumatic because, for some strange
circumstance, Ruth Ann one day swallowed a pin. For several days with regular visits to
our family doctor, we watched the pin's internal journey and were greatly relieved when
it was expelled from her body without mishap.
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Extra-Curricular Activities in Lanesboro
Even though the nature of my work and the complexities of our home building
activities demanded much of our time and attention, we did find opportunities for some
family life within the context of Lanesboro and its surrounding life as habitat. We joined
the local Lutheran Congregation and came to know its colorful pastor, Reverend
Nestande. He, of course, baptized Ruth Ann. We participated in many socially oriented
co-op meetings, visited some striking "prairie" and "valley" churches, and found
enjoyment in seeing the beautiful landscape variations in the region. We enjoyed hosting
our family and friends and showing them the distinctive prairie and valley
neighborhoods. I remember well the pleasure of taking my father to visit the Highland
Prairie Church and its colorful Scandinavian Lutheran parish. One of its residents was a
rather prominent sculptor from Telemark whom we visited.
Shortly before we left Lanesboro we were hosted at a farewell party at the home
of one of our friends in town; we were amazed at the turnout. We were of course
delighted to learn that our fondness for our newfound friends in Southeastern Minnesota
was apparently reciprocal.
The First Decade as a Full-time Faculty Member at Augsburg College
Although we had genuinely enjoyed our life and work in Lanesboro, we finally
decided that I needed to return to Minneapolis to complete my graduate studies. The
letter I received from Dr. Bernhard Christensen inviting me to re-join the Augsburg
faculty arrived just as I began thinking about a return. Naturally, we were elated by this
tum of events. To facilitate our return to Augsburg, the college had secured an old
house on
gth
Street between 24 th and 25 th Avenues about four blocks east of the campus
center. Its location was socially congenial for our young and growing family. Between
our house and the campus was a pleasant public park with appropriate play equipment
for children and other amenities for grown-ups. Next to the park was a small but
efficient neighborhood grocery store. Since many of Augsburg's faculty and staff lived
within the neighborhood our social interaction with them and their families gave us a
sense of being part of a cohesive community.
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A faculty colleague, Leland Sateren, and his family lived across the street from
our house. His wife, Eldora, and Fran quickly became good friends and since they both
had two youngsters about the same age, our families shared much in common. The
neighborhood Monroe Elementary School was only about three blocks from our house.
Terry, the oldest Sateren boy, and our daughter Carol began their public education in
that neighborhood school.
Trinity Lutheran Congregation with its Cathedral Church and parish house was
also within walking distance. Partly because of its long historic identity with Augsburg
College, we, like other members of its faculty and staff in the area, became members.
Fairview Hospital also was scarcely three blocks away. Thus it could be said, that our
young family now lived in what would be regarded a good cohesive inner-city
community that contained virtually all the basic elements of community life.
A less positive picture must be drawn about our housing situation. Our home was
an old house, which had been converted into a very modest 2-story duplex. We
occupied the first floor, which contained an old kitchen, two small bedrooms and a bath,
plus a living room and front porch. There was a small room off from the stairway
leading to the upstairs, which had been improvised as a tiny bedroom. This, unhappily,
became our young daughter Carol's bedroom, which, we discovered later, filled her with
fear and thoughts that she had been abandoned by the family. Our baby, Ruth Ann, slept
in the tiny bedroom next to the bathroom, and Fran and I slept in a bit larger bedroom,
which could hardly be called the "master bedroom." In a sense it can be said, that we
shared a fate common among young families living in old neighborhoods in inner city
America; at the very time their young families should have the most spacious and
accommodating homes, they have to contend with precisely the opposite.
However, Fran was a resourceful young mother and homemaker. While I am
certain she must have felt many frustrations, she quickly managed to make our very
modest dwelling into a congenial household. One of its advantages was its proximity to
the college. On many occasions, I would invite students from some of my special
academic ventures to the house for coffee and conversation. They obviously came to
like Fran and find special joy in playing with our youngsters.
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July 20, 1949
On the twentieth of July 1949 our third daughter, Linnea Kay, was born. Fran's
oldest sister, Evelyn from Albert Lea, kindly came to help Fran before and after her
birth. It was a very hot July, but both Fran and Linnea came through their shared drama
with "flying colors." At this point both Fran and I decided that we desperately needed a
more adequate home for our growing family, and through the assistance of one of our
Augsburg faculty colleagues who had begun a real estate business, we bought a threebedroom home at 3020- 42 nd Avenue South.
During the latter part of the summer, Fran's father came to help me build a garage
for that home. While I had always thought very highly of Grandpa Anderson, I learned
much more about him and came to regard him as a highly resourceful person and
craftsman from this experience. He became the "builder of the garage" and I his helper.
We also learned more about his varied interests, including his fascination with baseball.
I cherish memories of taking Grandpa to the Nicollet Ball Park to see the Millers in
action.
A New Home in the Cooper School Neighborhood '
Two major considerations guided our search for an appropriate home for our
growing young family. Perhaps the most compelling was an adequate house. The
second concern was a good neighborhood school within walking distance from our new
home. Our new residence met both considerations. Our first single family home was a
joy for all ofus. The upstairs had three bedrooms and a bath. The downstairs had a
pleasant front porch and an entrance hall leading to a fairly spacious living room and
dining room complex. Next to the dining room was a fairly adequate kitchen, which in
turn was linked to a back hall and entrance. While at first the home was heated by a
coal-burning furnace in the basement, which also had space for the family laundry, we
early converted the coal-burning furnace to one containing a gas-burning unit. This
made it possible for me to convert the fairly large coal bin into a reasonably adequate
study for a young college teacher and university graduate student. The back yard
provided space for a small garden and a clothesline, which were especially treasured by
Fran.
110
The Cooper neighborhood elementary school met all our hopes and expectations.
Both Carol and Ruth Ann responded well to its good teachers and met good friends.
Through our participation in parent-teachers meetings, Fran and I came to know
neighbors who like us were interested in education. Convenient neighborhood shopping
centers as well as a health clinic were within two blocks from our home.
Since my work at the college and my graduate studies at the university kept me
away from home a good deal, these neighborhood amenities were very important for
Fran and the family. Fran became the essential homemaker and as usual discharged
those duties with tenderness and efficiency. She found much good company and
pleasure from a very friendly next-door neighbor, Kay Rislov, who also had a daughter
Carol's age.
For me, the weekends at this home were especially enjoyable and meaningful.
Our morning and evening meals became more leisurely and festive--with lively family
chatter about all that had been happening during the week. As usual, I played the role of
a relatively quiet listener. Of course, the other members of the family might challenge
this. Both Fran and I were pleased that the girls were all interested in books, music, and
singing. All of these added much to our evening family life.
July 25, 1953
Fran's household and family care responsibility was increased when our fourth
daughter, Janice Marie, was born. Fortunately, Fran's mother came to help her in the
early days during and after her birth on July 25, 1953. While it is quite possible that the
new baby sister was at first received with mixed feelings by her sisters, I think it can be
said that Janice soon came to be cherished by all of us. Certainly Fran and I learned the
profound mystery that love generously shared grows rather than diminishes. When I
was often asked if I had not hoped for a boy rather than another girl, I could honestly say
that the thought never entered my mind. Of course the relations between the girls were
not all "peaches and cream." There were times when resentments and conflict between
them would cause concern for both Father and Mother. But we assumed that even if
these tensions were troublesome, they were to be expected and in time would diminish.
111
Our New Home on Standish Avenue
When Carol reached the age when she would soon enter Junior High School, we
began to think we should find a home where all levels of public education could be
accessible within walking distance. We moved into a stucco house at 4036 Standish
Avenue. The Standish elementary school was but a block away, and both the Folwell
Junior and Roosevelt Senior high schools were also within walking distance.
This new home also had the advantage of more adequate space for our growing
family--with an upstairs that would provide bedroom and bath space for the three older
children and the first floor contained two bedrooms and a bath plus a fairly spacious
living room, dining room, and kitchen. A large entrance hall became our music room.
The fairly large basement was upgraded to become a much-used family room and its
large coal room was converted into another study, where over the years I spent much
time with my academic work and finally pounded out my Ph.D. dissertation.
In many ways, the ten years we lived on Standish Avenue were perhaps the most
important for our family's bonding. We all enjoyed our new home. It provided
adequate space for both festive family events as well as considerable individual privacy.
Our children soon found close friends nearby. A small but vital village center was but
two-three blocks away and an excellent neighborhood grocery but a block and a half
from our house.
The schools played an important role in our family life. Both Fran and I were
naturally pleased that all our daughters did well in their studies and participated
creatively in extra-curricular activities. Fran and I sought to do our part as participants
in PTA activities and other school events. A branch of the Minneapolis Public Library
near the senior high school became a pleasant family service center. While we were
surely not fully aware of all that was going on in the schools and of all our children's
involvement is in them, there was much that we shared.
I remember with special delight the day Linnea came home with a new book from
Standish school and exclaimed with delight " I can read Daddy" as she climbed into my
lap and proceeded to read. I think something like that happened with all the girls.
Both Fran and I naturally enjoyed the many special musical events that Ruth Ann
and Carol participated in at Roosevelt High School including the High School Chorus
112
and the special musical group called the Grenadiers. Perhaps one of the most exciting
and creative musical experiences shared by all our daughters were their piano lessons
with Sam Michaelsen. Besides being an excellent teacher, Sam was a gracious and
delightful person. I think all ofus cherish memories of his coming to our Standish home
to give those piano lessons and stimulate our daughters' interest in music.
Even though our linkages with the Anderson and Torstenson families were
somewhat limited by the sheer distance separating us, our regular Christmas and
summer trips to visit them were always celebratory family events. This was especially
true of our Christmas time trips. The planning and packaging of all the gifts and
clothing that needed to be packed into the trunk of the family Oldsmobile became a
regular ritual. Never to be forgotten was the packing of the crinoline petticoats that had
become fashionable for girls of Carol and Ruth Ann's age, as well as the bed pillows for
each, and one particular Christmas the new life-size baby dolls which three of the girls
insisted on bringing along with us.
The singing of Christmas carols and other popular tunes along the way to the
grandparents became traditional. And of course, spending Christmas Eve at Grandma
and Grandpa Anderson's house and the following evening with the Torstenson family
were always high points of the year. On such occasions, our "nuclear family"
experienced some of treasures that can come from linkages with an "extended family."
Much as we cherished those Christmas festivities with the extended family, we
always made Christmas a special season within our nuclear family. This was expedited
by the holiday vacations built into both Augsburg's calendar as well as those of the
public schools. Thus, the whole family could participate in the trimming of the
Christmas tree, while one of us might read from Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. We
could also share in decorating the rest of the house, do the shopping for Christmas
presents, and all the other kinds of pre-Christmas preparations.
All these Christmas activities had special meaning for me since the very nature of
my work at the college plus my graduate studies at the university during the rest of the
year kept me away from many family activities. Perhaps this was one of the negatives
of my work during those years. This was also compounded by the fact that the rest of
the family had little opportunity to know much about my work. This was acutely
113
dramatized one day by Linnea's asking what kind of work I was in. I of course told her
that I was a teacher. To which she replied that I could not be a teacher because I was a
man. All her teachers obviously were women. She knew little about our college
situation, but obviously a lot about the status of women in the 1950s.
From 1958 to 1968
When I finally completed my postgraduate work and received my Ph.D., new
opportunities for joint family ventures emerged. Summer became particularly freer for
family activities. Among the most exciting summer ventures were our long trips
coordinated with the annual National Convention of the American Sociological Society.
The first such trip was planned in connection with the 1958 Convention in Seattle,
Washington. Since my sister Marie and her family had by then established their home
and Bayside Motel venture on the pacific coast in Nehalem, Oregon, we decided to
combine a visit with them with our trip to Seattle.
For all of us that was our first trip across the prairies of the Dakotas and Montana,
as well as our first encounter with the Rocky Mountains and the beauties of the Glacier
National Park. Needless to say all of us shared the joys of such new experiences, even if
Carol and Ruth Anne pretended to be a bit too "sophisticated" to be excited about every
new mountain scene that came along.
All of us enjoyed our visit with Marie and her family at Nehalem and seeing the
great Pacific Ocean for the first time and enjoying one of its beaches. We also visited the
beautiful city of Portland for the first time before going to Seattle where I attended the
sociological convention. We enjoyed our brief stay in Seattle and coming to know
something about the charm of that beautiful city.
The following summer we took a similar trip to eastern U.S.A., combining a
family vacation with my attendance at a sociological convention in Washington, D.C. On
our way we stopped off in Chicago while Carol and the Grenadiers participated in a
musical event, then we traveled to Sisterville, West Virginia for a visit with Fran's sister
Ione and her family. Ione's husband, Ralph was a chemical engineer with Union Carbide
in that area.
114
From Sisterville we drove to Washington, D.C. where we stayed with one of our
family friends while we explored historic places in and around our nation's capitol.
Besides the White House and the congressional buildings, we visited Washington's
Mount Vernon and Jefferson's Montecello. We took an excursion to Richmond to see
the University of Virginia, which reflected much of Jefferson's spirit.
My cousin, Curtis Christiansen, who had become editor of the Congressional
Record, hosted us for a delicious dinner and lively conversation about our common
heritage from Minnesota and what was going on in our political capital. As brother of
our congressman Theodore Christiansen he obviously had many insights into its political
life and culture.
What the rest of the family did while I attended the convention, I cannot recall.
We returned home on Labor Day just in time for getting back to our children's schools
and my academic work at Augsburg.
California - Our Next Stop
Somewhat fortuitously, the National Sociological Conventions during the first
years after I received my Ph.D. were held precisely in cities that we especially wanted to
see and which had family relatives we would like to visit. When the convention was held
in Las Angeles, it gave us our first chance to visit relatives in both the San Francisco
area, as well as the city of Los Angeles.
We visited Fran's sister Barbara and her family in Santa Cruz, where her husband,
Bill Andreasen, was a public school administrator. Besides coming to know better their
family we had a chance to see some of their beautiful seacoast city. Bill took most ofus
to San Francisco for our first brief introduction to that city. Our youngest daughter,
Janice was left at home with her cousin Gudran of the same age--which I later learned
was a great disappointment to her. We very likely under-estimated her interest in seeing
new sights and in taking part in all her family's ventures.
From Santa Cruz we drove along the coastal road to Los Angeles--stopping on the
way at San Luis Obispo for a brief visit with Fran's Aunt Jo. We enjoyed our first
experience of picking oranges directly from the tree and savoring the juicy flavors.
115
From Aunt Jo's home we traveled to the Los Angeles metropolis where we stayed
at a home secured for us by my nephew Lowell Larson, who had become pastor in a
Northridge Lutheran Church. From that Northridge residence Lowell and his family
helped us see bits and pieces of the fabulous "Fragmented Metropolis," as it was later to
be characterized by a prominent urban scholar. Included in our sightseeing was a visit to
Disneyland, giving us a foretaste of that bit of emerging fantasy Americana. As I recall
our two budding sophisticates, Carol and Ruth Ann, chose not to demean themselves with
such trivia.
We were very grateful to Lowell and Acky (his wife) and other members of their
family for their hosting us all during our stay in Los Angeles. This was especially
important while I was attending the convention.
On our return trip our family got a first glimpse of such fascinating cities as Las
Vegas and Salt Lake City, together with experiencing for the first time some of the
realities of the vast desert landscapes of the west.
I think it can confidently be affirmed that these and other summer trips during the
last years of our life in the Standish community contributed much to the cohesiveness of
our family.
However, it would be a mistake to conclude that our life was like that of a cocoon.
Each of our children developed their separate friendship connections and special
interests, even as I spent much of my time working in the academic community and Fran
did part-time work as a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital. Carol also began working parttime at local shops in the area. Fran had also become an active leader in the Camp Fire
Girls organization, as well as an active participant in school-related programs and
functions.
When I had completed my studies for the Ph.D., Fran and I decided that it was
time for us to assume responsibility for more active participation in the political life of
our city and state. Hence we attended the local caucus meeting of the Democratic
Farmer-Labor Party. To our surprise and very likely because oflow attendance at the
meeting, I was elected local caucus chairman and Fran its secretary. Perhaps most
importantly we were elected delegates to the party's up-coming convention. As it turned
out, our votes proved decisive in a very close contest between two candidates for the state
116
legislature. Our candidate was later elected to and served in the State House for many
years: Needless to say, we became convinced of the importance of political participation
and over the years became quite active in the party of our persuasion.
Shenandoah Heights - Our Last Family Home
In 1964, from a strictly sociological point of view, we made perhaps the most
incongruous and imprudent housing decision we could have made. We moved into a new
home on 4800 - 1ih A venue South in what came to be known as the Shenandoah
Heights neighborhood.
It was a more stately home than our Standish house. It had a large living room
with an attractive fireplace, a dining room, kitchen and eating alcove, plus two bedrooms
and a bath on the first floor with three bedrooms and a bath on the second floor. It also
had a spacious basement with an attached 2-car garage and a large attic. Even though the
home was far from ostentatious, from a typical "American" point of view, our move was
a definite "upward step." In many ways, such perspectives were alien to our family's
developing social ideology. But we were enchanted by the architectural style of the
house and the more spacious accommodations.
In a sense we really "stumbled" upon this house on a Sunday afternoon drive
around our part of town, and were so charmed by it that we almost agreed that very
afternoon that we should try to buy it. I think we gave relatively little thought about the
fact that we were moving away from what had been for us a very good neighborhood,
with the best possible linkages with public schools and other amenities of a friendly and
cohesive community. Nor did we seriously think about the fact that our family would
shortly approach the "empty nester" stage of development, since both Carol and Ruth
Ann had graduated from high school.
Perhaps even more important, we really did not give much thought about what the
move might mean for Linnea and Janice who would have to leave what had become for
them pleasant school connections together with their associated friendships. The new
home was much farther away from the schools to which they would now go than was the
case at Standish.
117
I am not certain about how much the economic aspects of the move played into
our decision--in many ways we had begun to berate sheer market determinism. Never the
less the economics of the move were clearly favorable. The family selling the home had
to make a move to Washington, D.C. because of a job assignment there and hence was
eager to make a quick sale. Furthermore, our credit union thought the relatively low
price for the house a good investment and provided us a favorable loan contract. Our
own home on Standish was also easily sold at a good price. In retrospect, from the
perspective of the 1990s when we sold the home, the purchase of this home was perhaps
the best investment our family ever made.
Economics aside, as in our other family moves, we fairly quickly made the
necessary adjustments to the new situation. We of course enjoyed the spaciousness of the
new home and gradually came to feel "at home" in the new place. Its proximity to the
Minnehaha Parkway and Lake Nokomis became a special attraction for the whole family
and remained so for many years. The shopping amenities at 4gth and Chicago were also
attractive, reflecting a kind of small-town main street atmosphere.
The spaciousness of the basement provided me the opportunity of developing at
long last a pleasant study for my academic work and library. I had graduat~d from
transformed coal bins. Our whole family soon came to enjoy the many special amenities
of the home--its large screened-in porch over-looking the backyard trees and shrubs, the
garden space and clothesline, the attached garage, etc. All in all this became our "family
home" for nearly thirty years.
The Growing "Empty Nester" Aspects of the Home
Since Carol was already in her third year at Augsburg College and Ruth Ann was
ready to begin her first year, the "empty nester" phase of our family life had already
begun. Three years later - after graduating from Washburn High School, Linnea left for
Northfield to begin her studies at St. Olaf College. Four years after that Janice began her
college studies--first at Augsburg, then at St. Olaf.
While I think our whole family gradually became attached to our new home. We
never again experienced the cohesiveness we had enjoyed at Standish.
118
The Counter Culture and Family Dynamics
The usual family tensions between parents and children during this stage of
family development was further complicated by the generational estrangement associated
with the "counter culture" developments in our country during the 1960s and 70s. Out of
the understandable youth revolt against the tragic follies of the Vietnam War, there
developed a virulent youth culture that tended to divide our country into two cultures--the
older generational culture which was identified with all such events as associated with
Vietnam and the youth culture in revolt against that older culture. The counter-culture
found an attractive outlet and symbolic representation in exploding "rock culture."
Our family was not immune to these forces of intergenerational tensions. I think
that in a sense it was caught in the crossfire between these two cultures. Both Fran and I
shared many of the judgments of the counter culture vis-a-vis our governments Vietnam
policies and many of the injustices associated with our materialistic culture. On the other
hand, we had also been nurtured in what we perceived to be the better aspects of our
historic cultural and democratic heritage. We were in a sense living under the tension
between these two orientations. It was likely no accident that two of the books that I was
reading had the following chapters: "Living Under Tension" and "Fighting the Tensions."
As our daughters approached adulthood they inevitably had to relate somehow to
these two cultures and their tensions. There were times when some of them took what we
perceived to be a rather strident counter-culture posture. Thus there were many anxious
moments and many tears shed, but throughout those troublesome years the fundamental
family bonds survived the forces of estrangement, and as of this writing, both Fran and I
are deeply grateful for the family bonds of affection that sustain our latter years of life.
Family Adaptations in the Empty-Nester Stage
The preceding comments about tensions in our family during the counter culture
era were not meant as an over-all characterization of our life together at that time. Our
family in many ways continued to function in ways typically expected in this stage of its
development--celebrating birthdays, Christmas holidays, and other special events. Our
home continued as a place for hosting friends and enjoying the special amenities of life
associated with our new home.
119
For Fran and me, perhaps the most significant change was our increasing travel
and joint participation in special innovative educational programs of Augsburg College.
The most dramatic and rewarding travel related educational ventures was our launching
of the Scandinavian Urban Studies Term at the University of Oslo in 1973 and the
follow-up participation in the continuing SUST programs in 1979 and 1984.
What was especially gratifying to me was Fran's zestful participation and
helpfulness in the innovative ventures. This deepened my awareness of how much she
had meant to me throughout our life together. I sought to give expression to some of that
after our participation in the 1979 SUST program in Scandinavia. I think it appropriate
that I conclude this chapter on our family by combining those comments from 1979 with
a general tribute to Fran.
January 1980
Shortly after our return from Oslo where we had spent about five months codirecting a 1979 Scandinavian Urban Studies Term, I heard for the first time Roger
Whittaker's song "You Are My Miracle." I immediately sensed its special poignancy for
me as I reflected on Fran's importance as a virtual partner and helpmate throughout that
academic semester. Even though there had been some difficulties in directing the
program, especially conducting the study trips to the capital cities of Scandinavia, the
program altogether was both a success and a joy. I realized in a special way the
importance of Fran's contribution to the entire venture.
First of all, as in so many of my special innovative ventures in education, Fran
joined in the venture with zest and total support. Of course she was my constant
companion and lively traveler. But beyond that, she helped make our fifth-floor
apartment on Josephine's Gate a cozy and comfortable home for us during our stay. She
became a special friend of the students and often hosted them at our apartment. They
loved her good cooking, as well as her congenial and friendly hospitality. She zestfully
joined me in walking in the people-centered streets of Oslo--especially Kati Johansgate.
Within the limits of our time she helped plan our social and cultural life in the city that
we had come to love. I cannot imagine how our venture could have turned out to be so
enjoyable, creative, and generally successful without her.
120
A decade or so later, as I returned home from a rather major surgery at the
Fairview Riverside Hospital, Whittaker's song came back to my consciousness. "You are
my nights, you are my days, you are my miracle in so many ways. You give me hope,
you carry on, you are my miracle. You make me strong."
The more I reflected on this--as she cared for me both as a nurse and homemaker--I came to realize that Fran has indeed been my miracle oflove and support
throughout our life and work together for more than fifty years.
While I have enjoyed my work as a college teacher, I realize that much of that joy
can be attributed to her loving support and cooperation. In many ways she was a T.A,
even as she served as a social director for our part in academically related social
functions. She made our home a welcome place for student visits, as well as for social
events with faculty colleagues.
When on that "enchanted evening" in Riverside Park we first met and discovered
a mutual attraction for each other, I could never have dreamed that it would culminate in
the good fortune of sharing my life with Fran-- "my miracle of love." For all of that - a
thousand thanks!
121
Torstenson family farm. Lac qui Parle County, MN
122
Joel's Family: Standing from left to right--Selmer, Tilla, Ole, Lena, Marie, Bud
Seated from left to right-Olaf, Esther, Joel, Oscar, and Ludolph
123
College Graduation
124
fl,•
Joel and Frances in Minneapolis 1937-1938
125
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Joel's Family 1989: Upper row from left to right-Ruth Ann, Linnea, Carol
Lower row from left to right-Joel, Frances, and Janice Marie
128
Show less
I
The Church Related College in the City*
Joel S. Torstenson
Professor of Sociolo9,y and Director of 1-'letro-tJrban Studies
Augsburg College~ Minneapolis, Minnesota
Introduction
~,lhen a few months ago I was asked by David Gimsrud if I would be
interested in speaking to this conference on... Show more
I
The Church Related College in the City*
Joel S. Torstenson
Professor of Sociolo9,y and Director of 1-'letro-tJrban Studies
Augsburg College~ Minneapolis, Minnesota
Introduction
~,lhen a few months ago I was asked by David Gimsrud if I would be
interested in speaking to this conference on "The Church Related College In the
City" I believe that I was almost enthusiastic in my affirmative response;
Not because I believed the assignment would be easy or that I thought I
possessed the special competency and understanding needed~ but b0cause I
intuitively felt that such a topic deserved a serious consideration at a con~
ference such as this and that some of the recent experiences we have had at
Augsburg College ought to be shart~d with our colleagues from other Lutheran
institutions of higher learning.
My response was also influenced9 no doubt, because of my own particular
involvements in a church related college's encounter with the city.
For more
than a quarter of a century I have been involved in these.contemporary relationships of urban t\merica.
In my doctoral studies in Sociology much of my attention
was focused upon the interact·ive relationships between changing society and its
constituertt institutions.
sought to promote the
In my role as professor at Augsburg, I consciousl_y
deve1opment of a major in sociology which would be
creatively related to the social
*Paper presented at the American Lutheran College Faculties Conference
at Augsburg College~ Minneapolisj
Minnesota9 October
3~ 1974.
·
.
'
.
.
contexts of an 11 exploding 11 modern metropolis.
The complexities of this task
prompted me to devote my 1965~6 sabbatical to a more systematic study of higher
education and urban affairs.
I visited many leading cities and centers of
higher learning that were developing new pro9rams of urban emphases'.
Out
of these inquiries~ I wrote a paper on 11 The Libera'I Arts College in the Modern
Metropolis".
Since that time I have continued to be involved in Augsburg's
developing urban programs.
I
Durin9 all these years I have been a resident of
Minneapolis and participated fairly actively in church and community affairs;
such as being chairman of the 1.loint Committt)e for Equal Opportunity 9 a member
of the 11ayor 1 s Commission of Human Relat'ions11 secretary for Greater [-'linneapolis
Counci 1 of Churches Human Rigl1ts Committee~ and a member of the Minneapolis
Welfare Board.
From these and other academic and community experiences I have learned
something about the relevance of both the cognitive and experiential dimensions
of knowing and perceiving col'lege•-comrnunity relations in a metro=urban world.
In .addition to Ev<plaining my interest
i11
this conference~ I hope that
these -fragments from my 11 social map 11 may serve to inform the meanings and motifs
of this paper.
It is impossible to speak meaningfully abmAt "the church related college in
the contemporary city 11 without first saying something about the socio-cultural
situation that gave birth to a nationwick~ concern for the role of higher education in urban affairs.
crisis.
The most obvious consideration is of course the urban
On February 28~ 19GU~ in a message to Con9ress, President Lyndon
Johnson made the foll owing observation~
"Today American cities are in cr1s1s. This clear and urgent warning
rises from the decay of the decades - and is amplified from the harsh
realities of the present. 11
As
tt,_-:! Carmic1ie·Cumnrission mJ.Hi~Jher Education noted9 few would take issue with
this assessment.
(The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education~ 1972~ p. 11).
The major dimensions of the crisis art1 too \:Jell knotm by an audience such as
this to warrant an e><tens i ve e1aborat·i on here.
But it is important to emphasize
that urban co 11e9es and universities tiirourih-out America have com11 under sharp
criticism for their alleged failure to respond to the challenges of the c"ities.
Some of the sharpest criticisms have come-from within acadc~riia.
One of the
most poi9nant criticisms appearecl in a paper deli ver~:d by Paul :.1. Eberman ~ Dean
of the College of Education at Temple University at the 23rd dational Conference
on Higher Educat'lon sponsored by the /.\merican Association for Higher Education
in Harch of 1968.
He opened his remarks with the fol 1owing observation:
11
• • • I feel compelled to begin with the flat statement that all or
most urban institutions of higher learning, including their respective
colleqes of education 9 have failed to relate themselves in meaningful
and constructive ways to the urban comrmmi ties which contain them-~and ~ in particular 9 to that port ion of the urban context which has been
variously designated as the inner city~ deprived, culturally dis~
acivanta9ed and the 1i ke. Rather~ the urban institution has been !!!.
the community in the geographic sense~ but not of the community as a
concerned participant in the identification and solution of critical
community problems 11 ( Ebe rman ~ '1968).
While the central city is usually seen as the primary locus of the urban
crisis~ its travail and trauma cannot be fully understood apart from the
relationships between the central cities and the larger metropolitan areas
which have grot1m up around them.
As .the Carnegie Commission Report affirms~ it
is the interaction between the central city and the suburban ring that 11 has
given rise to the sharpest manifestations of what 11e novJ call urban prob1ems 11
(Carnegie Commission 11eport on Migher Education~ 1972~ pp. 9-10).
The central
city's erosion of its ta)< base by the movement of businesses and people of highand middle income families to suburban areas~ coupled with a simultaneous
concentration of poor and minority families within the central city9 have created
desperate conditions for many of America's central cities.
/-\nd there can be no
relief from these difficulties apart from a ml~tropolitan-regional appraoch to
problem solving,
Such an approach~ however9 runs contrary to pervasive historic
values of local autonomy, and encounters the stublJorn resistance of the multiple
web of political ·units and districts that 11 balkanize 11 virtual'ly every metropoli=
tan region in the cocmtry.
As Gibson l~inter has so cogently statedj two funda~
mentally conflicting principles of social organization have been at work in the
birth of the metro po 11 s:
one 9 the princi p1e of interdew
pcndence which has woven industries, jo!Js ~ sarvi ces and other techno~economi c
activites into a complex web of relationships typical of community~ and two,
the priryciple of communal insulation has developed a pattern of segre~Jated resi ..
dential communities of personal associations and exclusiveness based on social,
racial~ ethnic, or religious similarities which seem to fragment and polarize
the metropolis (Winter~ 1962, pp. 22-23).
Donald Canty has elaborated similar and other critical problmns of the
modern metropo1 is in the fol lowing ·1an9uage~
'Tt is a profligate socfoty, t·1asteful of its resources, which
must some day pay thG price ..• It is a malfunctioning society. The
qua 1i ty of pub 1i c services dee 1ines even as 1oca 1 ta>ces continue to
rise ... It is a divided society9 by class and race. This has been
the price of e><clusivity. ThEl pattern of metropolis is a pattern of
de facto apartheid ... The new pattern of metropolis has moved us to=
ward beinr, an unjust socfaty. It is deeply implicated in all of the
forms of injustice wroucllt by poverty and racism 11 (Canty 9 1972).
Whether one focuses upon the acute problems of the central cities or the
'
pervasive long.-.rang(1 challenges of the incongruous mc~tropolis~ the issues
raised have pertinent implications for virtually every aspect of higher learning.
Mi gher: Education's Respons.€U.
But our institutions of higher learning were not well prepared to respond
very creatively to these challenges.
As has already been alluded to~ most
Amerf can colleges and uni varsities had been nurtured in the pervasive "anti-ci t.v 11
ethos of Amer·ican culture.
ly establishing
Following the Oxford and Cambridge way of deliberate=
themselv,~s 01.rtsidf~ of t!1e urban conte,ct that had originally provided the setting
for the rise of the universities;, they typically d1ose rural settings for their
educational ventures.
In the founding of Harvard~ for example~ rural Cambridge
was chosen to excape the "moral rot" of Bostol"l.
And as the population moved
westward other colleges and universities acted similarly.
The University of
Michigan~ for e><ample ~ was 1ocated in Ann Harbor~ then far from the city of
Sevtm other universities 1n the 11 Big Ten" were also located in small
Detroit.
cities.
Even some of the universiti,:?s we now consider totally urban have a
h1 story of
efforts to excape the spread of the~ city; s tAch as Col umb·i a~ the
University of Pennsylvania~ and Johns Hopkins (Slayton9 1964~ pp. 2-3 and
l<lotsche~ 1966~ pp. 1-9). and9 as florton and Lucia hlhite have so systematically
documented~ this ge0iJrapl11cal aloofness from
tf1(1
city was accompanied by a
pervasive anti-city orientat·ion on the part of the intellectuals themselves
(Hhite9 Horton and Lucia9 1962).
· In recent years hm•Jever~ and particularly after the massive outbreak of
9
violence in our cities in the 1360's9 colleges and universities were incrEfasing·1y troubled by their alienation from the social realities of the modern urban
world. /\s would be expected~ universities that found themselves· in the center
of the troubled cities were the first to reexamine their relationsfrips and their
consciousness vis ! vis the metropolis.
Some of them t<Jere in deep distress about
their -own predicaments resulting from the urban decay that was enveloping them;
such as the University of Chicago~ the University of Pittsburghj the University
of Pennsylvania~ !·Jestern Reserve~ and Co1umbia9 to name a few.
J\s early
as 1945~ Chancellor Hutchins of th<~ University of CMca90 obse.~-yed:
For the last fifteen years the w1·iversity neighborhood has
steadily deteriorated until today, I am ashamed to say? the university
has the unfortunate distinction of havin~1 the worst housed faculty in
the United Sta.te::; 11 (S'I ayton O 1965, p. 4).
11
Be might well have mused about the cosmic justice that should have brought this
plight to that particular 1,miversi.ty that had distinqu·isheJ itself by its urban
studies for decades.
Boyond their institutional predicament~ it must also be emphasized that
these urban u~rfversities began to seriously rethink their whole system of town ...
gown relationship in the conte><t of the 20th century urban situation.
Trad"ition ..
al patterns of teaching and research were questioned for their 1ack of contr:rnt-
ua1 congruenc~1 with the "real world".
Furth~~rmore9 their historic posture of
corporate aloofni:?ss frcm these enveloping communities appeared increasfoqly
indefenseable.
i'~ew patar1115 of town .. gown relationsMps in grappling with urban
prob 1ems w~re es tab l ·i shed:
In urban research~ in innovative programs of urban
education~ in social wefare~ in corrections~ -and in health care-to mention bu·t
a few.
Perhaps the most innovative of all were the new int,~rinstitutional and
commu.nity partnerships established for urban renewal itself.
Section 112 of the
Housing Act o'f 1949 provided the legal structure and financial possibilities for
this development.
The University of Chicago's involvement in tl1e 1-iydenPark-
Kenwood developments; !:Jestorn Reserve and Case Technical Institute's leadership
the "University Ci rcle 11 program in Cleveland; Cohimbia University's, leadership
in i-'lorningside Heights of New York; and the University of Pennsylvania's role in
· t!tie West Philadelphia Corporation are notable examples of the new patterns of
complex ttiwi,~gown relationships that were develop'lng around the delicate and
troublesome problenw. of rene~dng and/or rebuilding our central cities. All
of these developments reflect a changing urban consciousness. The city was
affirmed as a positive good.
l·ligher education 1n all its aspects could be
enriched by a conscious orientation to its multiwfaceted urban contexts.
The new orientation was accompanied by innovative programs of urban research
and education as well as by new corporate structures and
proceduv-i:::i~
for
relating academia to urban community systems. The spirit and character
of these new developments are clearly reflected in the promotional .1 iterature
of the new structures that developed. One of the annual reports of the
West Philadelphia Corporation11 for example~ opens with the following
quotations from Victor Hugo:
"Nothing else in the world ••• not all the armies
••• is so powerful. •• as an idea whose time has come (West Philadelphia
11
Corporation9 1965).
The virtual explosion of new urban programs in colleges and univer . .
sities during the last decade suggests that a transformation of the relationship between higher education and urban affairs is indeed "an idea whose
time has come". We can only name some evidences of these developments
here:
1. The proliferation of undergraduate urban studies programs in
the United States. A 1972 inventory describes 74 such programs
and lists 60 other universities and colleges considering similar
programs (Bhchoff St. Peter's College~ 1972).
9
2. A similar proliferation of post graduate programs in urban studies.
3. A comparable development of urban research centers. A 1971 .. 72
directory lists 217 such centers (The Urban Institute5' Washington»
o.cq
1971).
4. An increase 111 the number as well as substantial changes in the
character of post graduate programs in urban planning and community development.
5.
A phenomenal expansion of the literature on higher education
and urban affairs9 including books9 periodicals, and special
reports. A relatively new publication by the Council of Planning
Librarians provides a good illustration (Council of Planning
Librarians i 1973).
6.
A growing interest and activity in comparative urban studies
on an internationa'I level.
II. ~ugsburg's Re~ponse to the City
It was inevitable that Augsburg College should be influenced b.Y the
socio-cultural contexts that I have described.
Located in the heart
of one of the core cities of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area and at the
very center of· that developing metropo1 is~ it would have been v·I rtual ly
impossible for the College to
it should
A.
have made
frtc:ufoLe itcc1
r
from such
influences$ even if
that its conscious policy.
Towards an Urban Consciousness
While there were moments of vascillation in Augsburg's history
vis~ vis its orientation to its developing urban environmentN-and certainly
long intermittant periods of relative neglect in its hundred years in the
city-.. the college did not develop an official anti-city posture.
On the
contraryi it had deliberately chosen the city as an advantageous location
for the pursuit of its goals; and at various stages in its developments,
it sought to relate creatively to the city's developmentsa-such as fo the
development of its public schools11 libraries~ parks~ and various a-spects
of
the fine arts.
·.
\
In a recent history of Augsburg, appropriately entitled f!:Q.m. f.JQr.ct
to_ freeway~ Dr. Chris lock documents some of these responses to the city
(Chrislock, 19699 pp. 121 .. 134). Me notes that the tradition established
by the 19th century religious awak~ning in Norway which served as Augsburg's
most significant guideline~ had underscored the civic responsibilities of
committed Christians which called for full involvement in community life.
The vitality and cons·istency of this relationship to community were at
times tested.
Perhaps the most serious test came when organized efforts
were made by some to have the College move out of Minneapolis and locate
in the outskirts of the city.
In May~ 19129 the typical arr,uments were
presented. The deterioration of the college's immediate neighborhood
was lamented and the need for "more room and fresh air 11 was emphasized.
It was noted that the old neighbors, who were supporters of the school~
had already moved out to "more desirable locations" and their place had
been taken by 11 a more or less undesirable class of people of varied race
and color". Chrislock observes that this parochial view "correctly
represented Augsburg's selfpimage in 1922 11 {Chrislock? 1969i p. 133).
It was not until 1946 that this lure of the suburbs was put at rest by a
unanimous vote of the board of trustees committing the college to a long~
range campus expansion within its historic ·Inner city location (Chrislock~
1969:i p. 201).
While the rationale for this commitment no doubt involved several
considerations~ there is good reason to believe that
by
this time under
the leadership of President Bernhard Christensen "education for service".
had come to have specia1 positive meaning for Augsburg's relationship ·to
the city of Minneapolis.
Christensen's leadership was not only reflected
.. 9..
in his words of encouragement of faculty and students to become involved in
church and community affairs.
on his own.
He assumed many significant responsibilities
Of particular relevance to this paper was his role on Mayor
Hubert H. Humphrey 1 s Council of Human Relationsj created in 1946 to work
against racial and religious discrimination in all areas of Minneapolis
life.
As chairman of that council from 1948 to 1950 and as an active member
two years thereafter he contributed much to Augsburg's sensitivity to one
of the most critical issues of American urban life and also provided a
model for college-community relationships in other contexts as well. Both
students and faculty sensed that their interest in and concern for the quality
of life in the city had the unequivocal and sustained moral support of
the President of the College.
~Jhen the so-called 11 urban crisis 11 came? this positive support for
11
community service and good human relations 11 had left its mark upon both the
College's curriculum as well as its general orientation as a college in
the city. During the turbulent sixties$ with the vigorous support of its
new president~ Oscar Anderson, the College articulated this orientation
more explicitly and developed new programs to implement its emerging metrourban consciousness.
By the end of the sixties, this consciousness had been both publicly
affirmed and internally adopted as one of the official ,policies of the
College.
~Jhen9 in 1969!1 the College celebrated its hundredth anniversary~
it organized its centennial symposium around the theme "The Challenge of
the City 11 • This historic event provided a strategic occasion for publicly
affirming the college's developing urban thrust.
In the same year~
President Anderson wrote in Au~sburg College Now about the metropolis as
the "unlimited laboratory 11 , affirming the educational uses of the city,
-10-
and the idea of the college's partnership with it as an expansion of its
9
educational role.
Internallyg this orientation had worked its way into the
Academic Blueprint for Augsb.urg College which had emerged out of long and
comprehensive institutional self-study and had been officially approved
by
the faculty and Board of Regents as the academk agenda for the 1970's.
The following statement from that Blueprint was identified as one of the
four basic presuppositions guiding the College's future deve·lopment:
Augsburg Co 11 ege shou 1d deve 1op the greatest educationa 1
benefit from its urban location and shou'ld contribute to the enrichment of the life of the city. The College recognizes that the
city is simultaneously a most important educational resources an
appropriate context for the College 1 s participation in the life of
the community and9 itself9 a most timely object of study. However9
the Co 11 ege must not forget that it is a bearer and preserver of the
trac!Hfon of humane studies; as such it should continue to be a
distinct educ;ational community within the city even as it d·irects
some of its energies to tile needs of the city" {Academic Bluepririt_
For-Auqsburg Co11e~N? .1970).
11
9
B.
An Experiment in New Forms and Strategies
As these new attitudes toward the city and towards urban oriented
liberal learning were developings many new "urban programs" were initiated
and tested.
One of the first was an experiment in metro-urban communication
known as the "Town Meeting of the Twin Cities".
It was one of the first
educational ventures in Minnesota that was financed under Title One of the
Higher Education Act of 1965.
Consistent with the goals of that act the
9
program was interinstitutional in auspices and community-oriented in its
9
purposes and concerns.
The Board of College Education of the A.L.C.
9
Augsburg Colleges and l<TCA-TV were the chief sponsors; but a vast network of
churches, schools, social agencies9 adult educational organizations etc.,
9
-11-
became significant participants in the venture.
It was perhaps the first concerted~ cooperative venture between the
college and its sponsoring church in articulating their common concern for
the city. And of course it made Augsburg's emerging urban orientation
visible to many new audiences in its midwest metropolis.
C.
Augsburg's Response to the Urban Crisis
11
~Jl1en the time for burning 11 came to Minneapolis~ a new spirit of
urgency was introduced.
On March 27~ 1968~ following a luncheon.with
Andrew Hatcher, former Associate Press Secretary for President John F.
l<ennedy ~ President /~nderson called an impromptu meeting of several faculty
members present to discuss how the college might best respond to the urban
crisis.
Out of this meeting came the idea of "A Day In May" when the whole
college community would listen to the voices of despair and revolt from the
inner cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The impact of that dramatic experience of students and faculty learning directly from its surrounding
community about some of the deeply felt feelin9s of frustration and anger
of hurting people in our cities was intense.
usual" seemed no longer defensible.
Educational "business as
Something had to be done! A couple
of days later President Anderson received a letter from Dr. Loren l-lalvorson
from the Board of College Education which set in motion a program of response
to the urban crisis.
It laid out a preliminary design for an Augsburg
"Center of Urban Care" to be funded for two years by the American Lutheran
Church.
By the fall of that year (1969) the Reverend ltJilliam Youngdahl i1
known for his "Time For Burning 11 film~ wns on the scene directing the
affairs of such a center.
The special competencies and particular personal passions of Bill
Youngdahl were strategically important for Augsburg in this period of
inner city turbulence.
the
var1t1u:,
He became an important link between the College and
sub-communities that
urban crisis.
had bcum1e ·dcep1y
involved in the on-going
He served as a member of the Communications Task Force
of the Minneapolis Urban Coalition and represented the College President
at such meetings of the Board of Di rectors of that Coa 1i t·i on that the
President was unable to attend.
He was a member of the Minneapolis Com-
mission on Human Relations and gave that body sensitive and creative
leadership.
He was involved as a speaker and consultant to a great many
civic and religious groups in our metropolitan area.
Internally, he worked
with students and faculty and administrative leaders in developing new
college responses to the challenges of minority education.
A new program
called FAME (Fund for Assistance to Minority Education) was created11
and several new courses. in Black Studies were initiated.
Special linkages
were established between the college and "The ~Jay"=-a Black community
center that had emerged in North Side Minneapolis fol"lowing the riots
in 1967.
In cooperation with Antioch College in Ohio9 some of the leaders
of that organization created "The t1!ay University 11 •
Some of Augsburg's
"Black Studies" courses were cooperative ventures between The Way University and Augsburg College.
Augsburg's Dean11 Dr. Kenneth Bai1ey9 is a
member of tl1e Board of "The ~Jay Uni versi ty1' and 1i nkages between the two
institutions continue.
North Minneapolis also became the locus of another innovative educat1 onal venture in the summer of 1968•=~ "The· Crisis Colony".
It was an
experiment with a 11 live-in 11 learning program in which students from
various A.L.C. Colleges shared in the life and work of a ghetto community
whi'le studyin9 the nature and dynamics of modern urban 1i fe for college
credit.
Major leadership in this
Ewald Rash
fi-0111
pupnV'imcnL
came from the Reverend
the Youth Office of the American Lutheran Church.
regh ttffed for the program through Augsburg Co11 ege.
Students
Dr. m1es Stenshoe1
and Dr. Joel S. Torstenson of Augsburg College were faculty participants
in the program.
Ghetto 11 s treet people"~ indigenous leaders of local
community organizations and civil rights leaders were hired as "adjunct
professors".
Each student was engaged in volunteer work in strategic
agencies~ organizations9 or situations which would provide a sensitive
11
parti ci pant~observer 11 situation.
The rationale for the Crisis Co'lony was not only related to the
Urban Crisis9 but was rather a response to a larger "societal crisis"
and the "educational crisis" related to it.
As 11 Joe 11 Bash put it9 the
"Crisis Colony" experiment emerged out of "new understandings of the
university's relation to society" (Ewald Bash9 1969~ p. 9).
No longer
was objectivity alone an adequate approach to learning9 he emphasized.
Teaching and learning must happen in dynamics of experiential encounter.
The Crisis Colony was continued in the following year for a second
"semester in the city 11 •
Living in the third floor of what was once a
Jewish Synagogue and participating actively in a Minneapolis political
campaign~ the students e><perienced what it meant to encounter the wrath
of city political leaders who regarded their activities as inimical to
their best interests.
They learned first hand {e>eperientially) about
politics and power in an inner city community.
This "Crisis Colony" program has since become the Metropolitan Urban
'
Studies Term (MUST) of the Migher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs~ of
which more will be said later.
D.
The Conservation of Murnan Resources Program
J\nother educational strategy for articulating higher education with
community that was initiated at this time was a new "co-learning model"
or education.
A brief description of the first experiment provides its
b~st explanation.
was staged
In the fall of 1969 9 a course in "Crime and Society"
fo Stillwater
Prison.
The class was made up of 17 Augsburg
students 9 11 prison inmates 9 and 4 correctiona 1 officers.
same basic readings.
A11 read the
In this sense it was a traditional college course.
But the class situation was substantially altered.
All students became
teachers as well as learners of and from each other.
The instructor9
Professor Cal Appleby~ put a main emphasis upon his role as an enabler
for learning~ rather than a "giver of 1<nowledge 11 in the area.
(Incidentally~
it is appropriate to emphasize that Professor Appleby was the guiding
spirit in the development of this program.) Role playing~ role reversals~
etc.~ became important strategems in learning about the culture and dynamics
of crime and criminal justice in contemporary America.
The student reaction
to this experiment--both of the prison inmates and the college students--
was enthusiastic.
The following year other college coursest from several
disciplines, were similarly taught at Stillwater.
Substantial funding
support from the Governor's Crime Commission in 1971 has helped expand tile
program at both Stillwater and such other correctional ins ti tut ions as the
~Jomen I s Prison at Shakopee and the St. Cloud Reformatory.
Some of the
-15inmate students since paraled~ have become full time 11 free 11 students con-tinuing their liberal learning in various colleges.
A similar program was
developed in two metropolitan mental hospitals where college students joined
selected hospital pat'ients and staff personnel for the study of 11 1\~ental
Health and the Social Order".
In the following year (1970-71) the program
was introduced at Trevilla of Robbinsdale
physically handicapped.
~
a rehabilitation center for the
Mere too people formerly deprived from college
education have now been given such opportunity.
This innovative strategy of college e,ctension into the community has
~ow become an integral part of Augsburg's educational program and is being
directed by a special studies structure known as the C.M.R. {Conservation of
Human Resources).
Further details of this program will be described at
another session of this Conference.
E.
f\ugsbur9 1 s Social Science Research Center
During the 1960 1 s Augsburg 0 s Department of Sociology became involved in
the management and direction of several Twin City Community studies. The
experience gained from these studies led to the creation of the Social Science
Research Center with a full ... time faculty director - Dr. Robert Clyde.
The
following brief digest of some of its developing activities indicated its
e>cpanding involvement in Urban Affairs~
1.
Metro-Urban Comunity Studies
a. .carr
Areas in Midwest Metropolis.~ 1964.
b.
c.
2.
3.
.
~
~
·
1
Pha enPark~ An Ur~~D~CommunJj:Y in a Midwest Metropol i,e.s 1965.
A Profile and Pros ectus of Summit Universit ~ An Inner Cit
Commun 1 t,l~ 19,. 6
d. The l~orth End Communit~~ 1967.
Leadership in obtaining Title I funding for an intercollege, interdisciplinary analysis and assessment of the Minneapolis Model City
experiment. The director of The Research Center guided the research
done by faculty members of the various colleges making up the Higher
Education Consortium for Urban Affairs.
Direction and Administration of an Intor .. Institutiona19 inter-disciplinary ecumenical Young Family Studies Program.
-16-
4.
5.
6.
7.
F.
Social Area Analysis for the Fe••era11y Funded 11 E,<perimenta1 Schools
Project 11 in Southeast Minneapolis.
Evaluation of a "Black Voices Television Series 11 supported by l<TCA-TV.
Development of a white rllcism scale and the application of it in
various social situations involving sensitivity testing and training.
Current involvement in a new program of 11 social cost accounting" of
leading metropolitan corporations.
~.urg 's Metro~Urban Studies Program
J.\11 the above .. mentioned developments inevitably influenced thinking about
their relationships to the over-all educational program of the College. Were
they to be perceived as special programs on the edge of Augsburg's principal
tasks; or were they somehow to be integrally related to the development of an
entire co11ege approach to higher education in tho contt-?i><t of a metro-urb.an
world?, If·the first option was chosen9 the logic might have led to the
creation of a separate Augsburg center for urban affairs 9 as has been done in
several institutions of higher learning.
jected.
This opt·ion was donsidered and re-
Instead$ it was assumed that all of liberal learning had me,aning for
an urban world and that liberal arts in the 20th century becomes fundamentally
education in the urban arts.
Tht:i do11ege•s challenge was to see to it that
its liberal arts program would be made more congruous with realities of the
world about it.
Out of this orientation the following recommendation for
curricular development was written frito the Acaderni c Bl uepri!)t for Aug§J)~t:.9..
College
.1n. 1970:
"During the early part of the ne><t decade Augsburg College
should develop a more extensive and coordinated program of urban
studies. The program which is already under way should include.
an interdisciplinary major and minor in Urban Studies".
9
To implement this recommendation9 a student-faculty committee was·
created for the purpose of preparing a proposed Metro-urban studies program.
The pa rti ci pa ting facu 1ty members represented every aca demi c 'division of the
College.
At the outset~ the committee examined urban studies programs that
had been developed in other
colleges and universities. A file of such
~ 17-
programs had been started by the committee's chairman during his years as
chairman of the Higher Education Consortium For Urban Affairs.
Special
attention was given to inter~disciplinary programs developed
l'iberal arts
by
oriented institutions; such as Columbia University~ Dartmouth Co11ege9 and
Saint Peter's College.
Out of these exp1orationsj together with counsel given
-
by department chairmen and other members of the faculty$ the Committee
established the following guidelines for its proposed profJram:
1. The Urban Studies program should as far as possible be integrated into Augsburg's over~al1 educational structure and not
be set apart as an addendum to it.
2. The program should reflect a creative input from every academic
division of the college.
3. Systematic strategies should be dE.weloped for making maximum
use of Augsburg's metro-urban environment as a learning laboratory.
4. The program should contribute to the achievement of the following
objectives:
a. An increased appreciation of the creative role of the city in
. modern 1i fe and culture.
b. A keener perception of the nature of the modern metropolis ·
as a.community system.
c. A fuller understanding of the organizational structures of
modern urban life.
d. A firmer grasp of the dynamics of urban change and its concomitant problems.
e. A stronger motivation for responding creatively to the
problems and opportunities of urban life.
f. A greater competence in a variety of human resource sl{ills
typical'ly required in urb,:m living.
The Metro~Urban Studies Program~ which was adopted by the college 1n
January 9 1971 o included the fol lowing major components:
1. An interdisciplinary Metro ... urban Studies major made up a list of
required core courses and suggested electives from various
disciplines.
2. t\n urban studies 11 concentratio11 11 which could ,be linked with various
majors in the college.
3. A genera 1 education requ·i rement in urban concern for a11 students
of the college.
The fo 11 owing 1is t of course offerings in various departments is in-
dicative of the interdisciplinary character of the program:
Art
- Urban Environmental Esthetics
Biology - Man and the Urban Environment
Economics - Economic Issues of the Urban Environment
Education
- School and Society {Special Attention to
English
Mi story
Political Science
- The City in Amer'ican Literature
Sociology
Urban Education}
- European Urban History
- American Government and Po 1i ti cs~ Metropo 11 tan Complex
- The City and Metro~Urban Planning
Students:· majoring in Metro ... Urban Studies are required to take a core
program in research and have at least one course of community-based
internship or independent study.
The opportunities for an urban intern-
ship has been improved during the last two years by the establ'ishment of a
college~wide Metro~Urban Studies Internship Program {MUSIP).
Other programs have been developing out of the various academic
departments for making strategic use of the city as a learning laboratory:
such as a new 111ajor in human services, systematically articulating social
9
work theory and field experience in a wide variety of agencies and organizations of the city; expanded and innovative uses of the metro-urban school
situations for the teaching of teachers in the department of education;
the
development of a new.program in geriatric social service worked out in
cooperation with the appropriate agencies and organizations in the area;
the development of new recreation leadership programs of great importance
-to inner city youth~ etc.
The pervading motif in these developments is the perception of the
metropolis as a laboratory of educational resources.
The challenge has
been to identify these resources and to dev~lop structural strategies for
their effective use.
One of the latest developments of such strategies
has been the initiation of a "Professor of the City" program~ funded by
the Hill Family Foundation? which makes possible the use of specially
talented persons from the larger community in strategic courses designed
to add new dimens·ions to the curriculum.
G.
Inter-Co'll,~.ge Partnerships in Urban Affg}r,§_
As the College's involvements in new urban relationships and programs
grew~ the more acute became its awareness of the comple>cities and the need
for cooperative partnerships with other colleges and institutions of higher
learning~ sharing s imi 1ar concerns. · One of the organi za ti ons that emerged
out of this need was the Higher Education Consortium For Urban Affairs
(HECUA). The initiative for the development of this organization came from
Dean Bailey of Augsburg College in the summer of 1968 in the hopes of
Ernploring the possibility of inter-co'llege sponsorship of such e><perimental
learning programs as the "Crisis Colony 11 •
By the fall of that
year enough
colleges had become involved in the emerging organization to assume joint
sponsorship of the "Crisis Co1011y 11 which had now moved to the Model City
Neighborhood in South Minneapo'lis. The following year the organization was
legally incorporated as the Higher Education Consortium For Urban Affairs.
The five goals of the corporation were: 1) develop urban--related curricula
for students
by
establishing and operating inter-,institutiona1 programs and
by assisting member colleges in planning their own programs; 2) collect~
discuss and d·lssem·iV'late information about the programs 9 resources 9 and need of
the member colleges; 3) provide structures and procedures for fostitutional
. participation in programs which might be developed in cooperation with urban
organizations; 4) identify research necdss resources and interests~ and
encourage interinstitutional research in urban affairs; 5} develop other
programs consistent with the interests and resources of the member insti-
tutions and urban communities as the consortium deems useful.
The following is a list of some of the major programs developed
by this Consortium so far~
l.
2.
,
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The continued sponsorship of the Metropolitan Urban Studies
Term (formerly the Crisis Colony) located in the Model Neighborhood of Minneapolis.
11
An Urban Planning and Community Development" seminar which
brought together 10 college students and 10 resident planners of
the Model City for an examination of inner city planning with
maximum citizen participation. Th'is was partially funded by a
Title I grant and operated for two terms in 1971-72.
A course in Criminology called 11 Issues in the Reform of the
Criminal Justice System 11 11 jointly sponsored by HECUA and the
Correctional Service Association of Minnesota~ and taught by the
Commissioner of Corrections of that state. In the first two
semesters that this course was taught~ 80 students from eight
member colleges participated.
The development of the Scandinavian Urban Studies Term (SUST)
jointly sponsored by the Consortium and the University of Oslo's
International Summer School. The program was begun in the fall of
1973 under the direction of Joel s. Torstenson of Augsburg College
and is continuing in the fall of 1974 under the direction of James
Brother of St. Olaf College. Plans are al ready under way for
continuing the program in the fall of 1975.
A Conference on 11 Urbanization and Migher Education 11 at Macalester
College in 1972.
Acted as fiscal agent for a Bremer Foundation funded scholarship
program for ex~offenders at MECUA member colleges.
A research venture analyzing and evaluating the Model Cities program
in Minneapolis. This venture too was funded in part by Title I
funds of the Higher Education Act. .
The following institutions were listed as members of the Consortium
in the spring of 1974: Augsburg Colleges Augustana Colleges Bethel Colleges
Carleton Colleges College of St. Catherine~ College of St. Thomas O Macalester
Colleges St. Olaf Co11ege9 and the Urriversity of Minnesota through its
'
Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.
Last year Augsburg became a participant in another inter-college
partnership for urban affairs which emerged as part of the new cooperative
-2111Take-Five11 program between Mamline University~ College of St. Catherine 9
College of St. Thomas~ Macalester College and Augsburg.
Major attention so
far has been focused upon tlrncher education in inner city schools and the
development of cooperative urban library resources.
III.
Augsburg and Urban Renewal~
The Role of the College as a Corporate
Citizen of the Metropolis.
In the preceding section of the paper I have reviewed the development
of changing or-ientation to historic to1,rim-~gown relations and described its
impact upon the changing roles of the college as 11 educator 11 ~"researcher"~
and to some extent9 "communi t.Y service agents II in the context of its changing urban environment.
But the picture of th"ls changing college in the
changing city would be incomplete without a sketch of its changing role as
a corporate citizen of the metropol·is.
Augsburg's recent history has been
replete with illustrations of virtually every kind of e,cperience that the
new literature on Higher Education and Urban Affairs describes under the
rubric the 11 University 1 s Role as a Corporate Citizen".
The most dramatic has been its experiences as an inescapable participant
in the turbulent drama of the developments that have occurred in its immediate neighborhood
~
the Cedar-Riverside Area.
If the college ever did enj'oy
the 1uxury of p1anning its own campus community with ·1 i tt 1e or no concern for
its impact upon its surroundinrJ coummunity setting9 that has long since
ceased to be a corporate option.
Further mores the college could only with
_P-eril remain indifferent to the dramatic developments taking place all around
it:
the freeway development on its southern border; the expansion of the
University of Minnesota into the Cedar=Riverside area to the north of it 9 the
expansion of the two hosp·itals on the north and east; the growing obsolescence
of the commercial and residential properties throughout the Cedar-Riverside
Area; and the host of problems related to the socio-cultural incongruities
that accompanied these developments,
Time will not allow a documentation of Au9sburg 1 s corporate role
as full participant in a long and complex chapter in the Minneapolis Urban
Renewal history.
Suffice it say:i Augsburg representatives joined those of
other private corporations~ neighborhood residential groups the University
9
of Minnesota9 business institutions on Cedar Avenue9 various units of local
government~ churches9 and social work agencies in a long and complicated
process of assessin_g the commun-i ty's prospects for the future.
This led
eventua 1ly to the adoption of an Urban Renewa 1 p1an for the area in which
such private insitituions as Augsburg were given the opportunity (perhaps
mandate would be more accurate) to be a participating agent in the CedarRiverside renewal process.
In 1971~ largely through the efforts of one of Cedar~Riverside associates:i
the Cedar-Riverside area was desi9nated by the Department of Housing and
· Urban Development as its first "i~ew Town=In Town" in the United States;
dras ti ca lly a1tering the projected shape and composition of Augsburg I s environment.
Burton Fosse :i Augsburg I s Vice President For Finance and Management :i
who together with Presidents Chrisbmsen and Anderson~ has been intimately and
deeply involved in all these developments~ indicates their meaning for Augsburg
in the following observation:
11
Augsburg 1 s investment in the community has
been more than an investment in buildings and improvements to suit its own
needs.
Through its representatives 9 it has participated for a decade and a
half in the p1anning9 the community organizing~ and the politics which set the
stage for the development of a net1 community" (Augsburg College Mows 1972~ p. 9).
Si nee this is a Lutheran Fa cu Hi es Conference it is appropriate to
9
note that a similar statement could be made about the role of Trinity Lutheran
Congregation which has had a long history of special relationships to the
college as well as to Cedar-Riverside.
During the last decade or so 9 this congreation has assumed important leadership responsibilities in community care and concern for this inr1er-city
community.
It has helped bring together the multiplicity of groups and
institutions its the area for the purpose of finding a means of making a
viable community for the future.
Both the congregation and Augsburg helped
prepare the way for the urban renewal dedsions.
Both played an important
role in helping to create the Univerity Community Development Corporation
in 1965.
This brought together virtually all leading institutions and social
organizations in the area for joint thinking and action in commw1·lty bu'ilding.
This essentially a "cultural borrowing" form the west Philadelphia
Corportion alluded to earlier in this paper.
In recent years both Trinity
and Augsburg have been active in the "Mest Bank Process" which brings together
the private institutions and churches in the area for communication and shared
deliberations and action.
of this organization.
President Anderson of Augsburg College is chairman
Anyone familiar with the local situation knows that
there can be no turning back for the college from its role as an iV'lstitutional
participant in these urban renewal developments.
Every informed person also
knows that it has been and will continue to be a difficult and delicate
corporate role of decision-making in the context of deep and pervasive community
conflicts.
If Augsburg's involvements in the Cedar-Riverside developments have been
most immediate and pervasive? they are far from being the complete story of
its role as corporate citizen in the contemporary scene.
They are rather
illustrative of all the new corporate linkages being established between the
college and the entire web of private and public corporate systems in our
time; such as the federal~ sate~ metropolitan~ and local governmental units
=24=
·Involved in urban redevelopments 9 as well as such other structures as the
Urban Coalition~ the Model City 9 civil and human rights organizations? etc.
The new and increased demands upon the administrative officers of the college
that has accompanied these developments are formidable? and no doubt puts
special strains on the limited resources of the colleg(~.
There new roles of corporate citizenship also become special challenges
rur·
we ~oard or
Regtrnts.
New perceptions as well as new perspectives have
been required of them too.
In order to assist the Board in responding to
these challenges? the present administration of the coHege has made it a
po 1icy to seek out persons with special experiences and understandings vis £..
vis the metro-urban world to serve as members of the Board when new members
are selected.
IV.
Some Issues and Assessments
This account of /-\u9sburg 1 s response to the city has of course been
written from the perspective of a participant observer with a spirit of
11
sympatheti c understanding. 11 As I indicated at the beginning of the paper~
such a perspective flows naturally from my particular social geography.
I
have understood that my primary task here has been to give as meaningful a
picture of the complexities of the chan9ing responses of a particular church
college to the revolutionary changes taking pl ace in the larger metro~urban
world of which it is a part.
Many aspects of the college's life have~ of
· course 9 been over1ooked9 not because they are less important 9 but because they
have not been thought to be as useful in accent·ing the drama of change which
was being documented.
It should also be noted that in th1s documentation I have purposely
avoided dealing with the conflicts and tensions that have inevitably accompanied the changes.
There have9 of coursei been debates about the appropriate
-25~
roles of a liberal arts college and its ,~ncounter with culture.
There have,
of course 9 been divergent views about the destiny and meaning of the modern
metropolis; ·Involving differing conclusions concerning the appropriate re-
sponses of the college to it.
11
The tension between the
11
locali te 11 and
cosmopo1ite 11 orientations to the world I 1 m sure has been a source of psychic
at\"'1..19910
witl"11n. as well as between9 individual members of our academic
community.
There have~ of course~ been the typical misundc:rstandings between
the departments of the college~ and presumably people in every acaolemi c
discipline have been torn between their loves and loyalties toward thErir
particular disciplines and their sense of obligation to engage in the
difficult task of a 11 trans-disciplinary 11 response which seems to be demanded
by the crises of
contemporary times (Jacobson9 19729 p. 295).
Of course9
there have been controversfos concerning educational philosophies; such as
the controversy over experiential vs. cognitive learning9 or the debate
between '°liberal learning 11 and 11 cm"eer:..oriented 11 education9 etc.
And~ of course 9
there have been considerable differences of op-inion concerning the implications of the college's developing responses to the city for theo1ogy9 and
for the special responsibilities that derive from the fact that Augsburg is a
church related co1J;·ege.
One might lament these tensions and seek to avoid them9 but from my
limited study of theology and my more Erntensive {though limited)
sociological understandings9 I'm persuaded that the tensions have been and
will continue to be inevitable~ and that they ahve been and aan continue to
be creative.
It is my hope that in the next few years the college wil 1 be
allowed a bit more serentiy~ so that it can reflect more deeply about the
issues that have surfaced~ sift out the changes that have been the most
important and constructive9 and find appropriate ways of assimilating them into
the life and culture of a college that has made its commitment to the
metropolis an integral part of its theological faith and educational philosophy.
REFEHEf\lCES
Bash, Reverend Ewald. A Rationale For the Crisis Colony.Jl0ll:oach to
Education. A 103 page mimeographed document prepared by Mr. Bash
in 1969.
Bischoff, H(.mry.
Urban Studies Now.
St. Peter's College, Jersey City~
1972.
Canty, Donald.
11
Metropolity 11 ? Cit,~.
March-April, 1972, pp. 29~44.
Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. T_~e Campus and the City.
!1Jew York~ McGraw-Hi 11 Book Company, 19 72.
Council of Planning Librarians. Institutions of Higher Education and
Urban Problems~ A Bibliography and Review for Planners. Center
for Urban and Regional Studies~ University of North Carolina, Chapel
Mi119 1973.
Chrislock, Carl M.
From Fjord to Freedom.
Augsburg College9 r1lfrmeapolis,
1969.
Eberman, Paul. 11 The Urban Community: laboratory for the Preparation
of Teachers for the· Inner Ci ty 11 • A paper presented to a Secti ona 1
Meeting of the 23rd National Conference on Higher Education~ sponsored
by the American Association for Higher Education9 Chicago9 March 59
1968.
Higher Education and Urban Affairs - An Approach for
Metropo1 i tan ~Jashi n ton. l~ashfrlgton Center For Metropo 1i tan Studies
Washington9 D.C.9 69.
Jacobson9 Elden.
Jacobson9 E'.lden. "Urban Curricula and the Liberal Arts Colleges 11 •
Education9 Vol. 589 pp? 286-297 ~ May9 1972.
9
Liberal
Klotsche~ J. l'-1artin. An Urban University and the Future of Our Cities.
Harper and Row 9 New York 9 1966.
Slayton9 Hi11iam. 11 The University& the City9 and Urban Renewal 11 in Charles
G. Dobbins The University9 The Ci~9 and Urban Renewal 9 American
Council on Education, Washington9 D.C.9 1964.
The Urban Institute.
University Urban Research Center.
~Jashington9 D.C.
9
1971.
Torstenson 9 Joel S. "The Libera·1 Arts College in the Modern Metropo1is"9
a paper presented to the Augsburg College faculty on January 12j 1967.
~Jest Philadelphia Corporation.
University City:
The Fifth Annual Report
of the West Philadelphia Corporation, Philadelphia3 1965.
~Jhite 9 Morton and Lucia. The In_1;e1lectua1 Versus the City.
University Press, Cambridge9 1961.
~~inter~ Gibson.
The Suburban Captivity of the Churches.
Company 9 New York 9 1962.
Harvard
The MacMi"llan
Show less
I
rnS,S.F"f
"]
Arts..cg.Ilggg
j4 SE l{ode{n
Metropolis
A Paper presented to the Augsburg College Faculty
January L2,
L967
ftre very pret^entiousness of the subject to which this Paper
addresses itself
it
came
reguires at the outset
some explanation
of
how
to be written as wel... Show more
I
rnS,S.F"f
"]
Arts..cg.Ilggg
j4 SE l{ode{n
Metropolis
A Paper presented to the Augsburg College Faculty
January L2,
L967
ftre very pret^entiousness of the subject to which this Paper
addresses itself
it
came
reguires at the outset
some explanation
of
how
to be written as well as some indication of the limitations
I have arbitrarily set
upon
it.
is most appropr i ate Iy perceived as some reflections
frotn my sabbatical study of 1965 and 1966. My decision to use that
academi"c occasion for a study of the liberal arts college in the
lltre paper
rpdern metropolis was influenced by several considerations. In
the first place, the metroPolis is emerging as the do:ninant community
society. whatever role an institution of higher
learnlng seeks to play in such a society, it rmrst do so in the
context of that reality. fn the seconrl place, the location of
reality in
modern
at the heart of one of the fastest grotring
, metropolitan areas in the United States gives it a strategic setting
Augsburg College
, for deliberately developing an educational program responsive to
..
the opportunities and challenges of- such a cotnnunity. Thirdly, if
'
Augrsburg
is to develop such a program, it nust give careful attention to the forces at qrork in the ripdern metropolis and learn all
it can from the experiences of other institutions of higher learning that have consciousLy sought to resfond creatively
'
imaginatively to
them.
and
,
*',
-2were
,,he readings and travels rnade possible by m)' sabbaticar
therefore focused upon the social realitj es of the metroporis and
the responses of co 1Leges and universities to them. I'ty rernarks
ref lect some of my f irst irnpressions of my study '
I.
Sorne
PerspeCi:ives and Issues of the study
such a study of school and sceiety is of course not a new one '
of
The reraticnsirip between learning and J-iving has been a rnatter
interest to phil,osophers, historians, sociar scientists, and educators for ages. I'los-t schorars have assunted that nei-'her education
nor society can be adequately unders*'ood tJithol'r-t examining the
interactive rerationships between them. The modes by rn'hich these
rerationships have been perceived, however, ancl the ways they have
theorogibeen examined have variec i.;ideIy. The philosophers, the.
alr
ans, the historiansr eild the various sociar scientists have
brought clistinctive intelrectuar orientations, conceptual tools,
contriband knowledge skilrs to bear upon the subject. Alr have
uted substantial literature that is relevant'
j-nteractive
My studies have been primarily fccused uPon the
relationships between community anc co13-eEe (university) as
dynamic and adaptive sociar institutions
responding to each other
and to the social forces within and beyond the local- community.
whire this focus perhaps rnost accuratery fits under the rubric of
soeiorogy of education, r irave found helpfur materiars frorn
sources other than soeiologieal.
many
,
-3-
of the major assumptions of the study has been that higher
education is dynam j-c a lly influenced by changing cornmunity realities.
Even tthen the intelLectual corurunity seeks to affirm its autonomy
One
from corulunity it does so in the context of what is going on within
it.
It has been agsumed that major transformations in coutrunity
life inevitably alter the character and the functions of, the academic
conununity as we11.' It is from this perspective that the current
relationship between college and metropolis has been examined'
Historical records Provide suPport for this Perspective' Ever
since the emergence of the universities in twelfth eentury Europe'
of the important aspects of the relationshiP between education
and society tras been the interactive encounter between college and
one
conununity. Whether those universities developed through an expansion of cathedral schools as l{as typical in Northern Europe, or gtr ell^'
as voluntary guildls
of students
and teachers, as was the case
in
places like Bologna, their very emergence reflected a major trans'
fornation of the structure of comnunity life.
students anel teachers
alike were exposed to the cross-fires between ttre claims
and expect-
ationsofthehistoricmanorialandmonasticcommununitiesofthe
past andl the claims and expectations of the rapidly rising urban
in the future. In fact the very exPansion and development of the universities were in large measure a
response to the rapid increase of the range of activities for which
communities whose hopes were
the literary skills beca e essential in the growing urban commrni'
ties.l ftte inevitable tensions produced by the major conununity
t
-4transformations gave rise to a heightened sensitivity to both
actuar and potential reLationships between the earry universities
and their resPective communities'
that
The reccrd of the ongoing accomodations and adaptations
institutions of
h
er
earnl-n9
ave
twelfth century constitutes a
It is nainly
major chapter in the history of western civilization'
in the context of that history that one can get an adeguate aPprecommunity transformations since the
ciation of the intellectual heritage of higher education' Both the
constantly changing curricula and the ever-changing academic social
of
structures are appropriately perceived as indices or reflections
college and cornmunity encounters'
2
In our day, the emergence of the modern metropolis presents a
city in which
ner,r chapter in this history - Neither the historic
the university was born nor the agrarian villages to which so many
of the colleges and universities leter withdret'r fully encompasses
the dominant corununity realities of the modern world' In the course
of the revolutionary changes that have brought an ever-increasing
both the
nuniber of people into the orbit of great urban centers'
structural and the cultural characteristics of urban life have
the
changed. The o1d boundaries between the city' the suburbs'
surrounding
indistinct.
viltages,
and the oPen cotrntry have become increasingly
region' a configuration of aII
the dominant community reality in the mod-
The large metropolitaa
these Parts, has become
ern worLC- It is in the context of this great world-wide community
-5transformation that higher education finds one of its major chalIenges in the twentieth century. rt is with the compelling chalIenges of this metropolis and the college responses to them that r
have been primarily concerned.
II
Some
Major Impressions From My Studies
In this presentation,.I can only summarize briefly some of the
major impressions that my studies have made upon me. Some of these
relate to the changes in the forms and cuLture of modern conmunity
l-ife and some to the innovating responses of colleges and universities to these changes.
A. The Revolutionary Implications of the Exploding lletroPolis
One does not have to read very much of the rapidly grovring
Iiterature on contemporary urbanization to be impressed with its
revolutionary character. The first and most obvious fact can be
represented in terms of the grorrring numbers of people and propor-
tionE of the population living within the context of the metropolis.
TabLes
I and 2 provide
some
these demographic dynamics.
elementary
statistical data concernirg
-6Table I.
Population Growth in the United
States and in Standard Me'EroPoliLan Areas, 1900 2000.
Population
(
1, 0O0 )
1900
19 10
192 0
As A Per-
PO
1 ation
cent of U.S.
Year
I'. S.
SMA
SMA
75,995
24,l.05
3L.g%
9L,97
34, 5L7
46, O59
37
2
.5
43.6
49.7
195 0
1e6 0
1o5,7LL
L22,775
131,669
151,326
L79,323
67 , L27
84, 854
LLz, BB5
I9EO
2 000
245, 000
320. 000
171,500
235,000
Source:
The Research and Policy Cornrnittee of the
Cornmittee For Econonic Development,
Developing I,letropo Iitan Transpo rtation
.P-o1lc.ies, (New York: Commi.ttee For Economic
Development, 1965 ), p. 18.
1930
1940
Tab1e 2.
61,005
51.
O
.1
62.9
70.0
56
74.O
Percentage Increase in Population
States, in l,letroPolitan Areas and
side of MetroPolitan Areas, 1900
in the United
in Area Out-
I 960.
1950-60 1940-50 1930-40 L920-50 1ero-zo Ieo o-10
Total U.S.
14.5
7.2
16.1
L4.9
21.O
22 -O
B. 1
28. 3
26.9
34.6
r.5
13.9
5.
22.3
25.2
33.6
6L.7
35-6
15.1
44.A
32.O
38 .2
6.1
6.5
9.6
L6.4
18.5
Population
A1I lvletro-
politan Areas 26.4
Central
Cities
Suburban
Areas
Area outside
of Metropolitan
Ar eas
Source:
'l
.L
r
'7
.g
Gist and SYlvia Ftois I'ave, Ufban Soc ietv (New
York: Thornas Y. crowell Company, rifth Edition, 19 64) ,
p. 73.
Noel
P
-7Americans (at least 2'l3) notp live
most
tlat
These data indicate
within regions described by the census Bureau as Standard Metropolitan Areas and that more v,iIl do so in the future' lDtrey also indihave becate that since I93O an ever increasing Percentage of them
a
e areas surrounding the
of the Census Bureau indlicate that
of
by now tbe number of those residents is greater than the nudber
is
residents in central cities. What is most important, perhaps'
central cities.
that the
Recent reports
produceil a
emerging metropolitan concentrations have
history' Ilans
"socletal scaIe" which has no precedent in hunran
a
Blurnenfeld has noted that the moclern metropolis contains Population
city
which is up to ten times the size of the largest pre-industrial
city of
encomPasses an area up to lOO times that of the largest
and
former times.
Tinre
3
will only allow a few observations here concerning the
of
irnplicatlons of these demographic and ecological transformations
exploding metropolis
modern community 1ife. rn tl.e first place the
of historic cornmunity identifications
jurisdlictions that still
and made obgolescent the multiple political
persist as legal realities in metropolitan areas' lFhe incongruity
of the
between the tect.nocuLturaL interdependence of most asPects
the
metropolis with its political "Balkanzation" is indicated by
data concerning the number of political jurisdictions in
has meant a blurrihg
follorving
various metropolitan regions
:
-8I"letr opolit an Area
New York
Chicago
Approx imate Number of PoliticaI
Ju.ri sdictions
1000 +
950 +
Philadelphia
Los Angeles CountY
San Francisco BaY
T\din Cities
No one has
7OO +
600 +
750 +
200 +
better described the conseguences of this political
fragmentation than professor Robert Wood in the following excerpt
from his book on suburbia:
This superimposition of provincial governraent on
cosmopolitan people provides a strange pattern of
incongruity. Inlithin the sipgle economic and social
complex we have eome to call a metropolitan area, ?rundreds
and hundreds of loca1 governments jostle one another
about. Counties overlie school districts, which overlie
municipalities, whieh overlie sanitary and water districts,
villages. Except
which sometimes overlie townshiPs and
t
for the special purpose 'd.istricts , each suburban government maintains its own police force, its fire station,
its health department, its library, its welfare service'
Each retains its authority to enact ordinances, hold
eleetions, zone land, raise taxes, gfrant building licenses,
borrow moneyr E;1d fix speed limit,s.... By ordinary standards of effective, responsible public services (this)
mosaic_of suburban principalities creates grovernmental
havoc .5
As Gibson winter has so cogently argued,
similar incongruities
the dj.fferentiated religious, raciaL and socialclass enclaves and the interdePendent technical and economic realities of the metropolis.6 The urgency of the guest for political
persist
between
and social structures which are eppropriate and adequate
for the
rearities can hardly be exaggerated' such a guest
constitutes an immense challenge to institutions of higher learning'
An even more compelling challenge is raised by the way in
which the sprawling metropolis threatens to wipe out aLtogether
new community
-9both the structural and cultural rudinents of all conununity life
other than that of the nation-state. !'odern man's communityiessness
the tendency of his becoming imnersed in an amorptrous "mass
society" which is increasingly dominated by the nation-state has
and
become a
familiar
theme among atudents
of
modern society.
lbst scholars have ernphaaized that the forces of coununity transformation have their roots in massive historical changes in the form
and structures of human association. Sir Henry Maine salr' these
changes in terms of a general rrcvement away from the centrality of
their attributes of status and mefibership to the
"primacy of the Lega11y autonomous individual and the accomPanying
funpereonal relations of contract. "T Karl Marx perceived the changes
in terms of a dialectical process in which the bourgeoisie, in the
social groups
and
interest of its
tions that
ovrn
class, put an end to all the feudal social rela-
bound men
together, leaving no other nexus between
rnan and
self-intereet and a cal!-ous cash Payment. simmel in
his perceptive essay on "Ttle Metropolis and Mental Li-fe, " focused upon
the impact of noney as the dominant medium of social exchange, noting
man ttran naked
hot it transformed ttre relationships betLreen men and suited the
eighteenth century call upon man to free hi:nseIf of all the historical
bonds
in state
and
rerigion, morals
and economics.
t&nies described
the changes in terms of a continuous weakening of the ties of
"cemeinschaft" (community, family, guild and village) and the increas-
ing importance of the
more impersonal
tionships of "Gesellschaft".
atomistic and mechanical rela-
Max weber accented
the powerful pro-
- IO-
of rationalization
cesses
and bureaucratization upon human
relations.
He observed that, neither love nor hate had a place in the values of
the bureaucratic model that was becoming the typical organizational
structure of modern society. Durkheim emphasized the atomizi-ng
effeets of technology and the division of labor upon the social
fabric.
He was deepLy concerned about
the possible development of
a society where the "naked individual" would confront the
"naked
state" without communities between. Contemporary rvriters
have
elaborated upon these rnore classical works in terms of the development of the "organization
man
rt
, the
"
Icne l-y crowd
" and the
"power
elites " .8
A persistent theme of all the literature here alluded to, has
been that of the eclipse of the locaI conmunityr Es modern man has
sought to maximize his individual freedom. It seems appropriate to
note that his accent on individual freedom has often been aecompanied by a relative indifferenee coneerning the development of
social and lega1 struetures within which such freedoms eould be
made
secure. That is certainly part of the community crisis of the
modern
metrotrrolis. Perhaps no cornmunity in
so critically
challenged by such complex problems with such inap-
propriate social and political
ropolis.
human history has been
institutions
as the modern met-
To expect to redeern the situation by merely muddling
through with piece-mea1 solutions to particular problems such
as
those of pollution, autosclerosis, crime, poor housing, or inadeguate inner city schools without creating the structural order
-1rcongruent urith the net{ realities i6 to fail to understand the nature
of the crisis of
B-
comrnunity
in the
modern metropolis.
Toward An urban Renaissance
one
of the most hopeful signs of recent years has been the
e
to the realities of
metropolitanization, accompanied by a re!-uctant accePtance of the
fact that neither a revival of agrarianism nor the search for its
In part this
may
be but a delayed response
counterpart in suburbia affords a promising basis for a viable
comnunity in the modern world. Beyond this however, there have
positively affirming the merits
of the metropolis and celebrating the "gIories of the city". In the
light of our historic anti-city stance, this does rePresent a new
spirit in our country which is extremely important for its future.9
emerged some new spokesmen rdho are
c. A New Rapprochement Between College and City
It is in the context of this urban renaissance that the recent
historic linkages bettreen higher education and
urban life can best be understood. Irlhi le at first urban instituti.ons of higher learning were perhaps reluctantly driven to a recrevival of the
o1d
ognition of their community of fate with the city, they have noq'
come increasingly to recognize the creative potentials of the urban
for their highest educational aspirations.
This recognitign has led to a rapid development of joint planning on the part of educational and urban leaders throughout arcrica.
some notable examples of such joint ventures have been the univer-
commrnity
sity of chicago's involvement in the
P4rde Park-Kenwood urban
-L2-
in Chicago; the "University city" development in
Philadelphia involving among other institutions the University of
Pennsylvania, Drexel Institute, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy,
rene$raI program
institutions; the "University Circle"
including 28 institutions of higher learning,
and certain medical-teaching
project of
C1eveland
medicine, fine arts and religioni and "Morningside Heights IncorPo-
rated" in
New
Iege, Columbia
School
City involving such institutions as Barnard ColUniversity, The Jewish lfheological Seminary, iluliard
York
of Music, Teachers Co!.lege, Union Theological Seminary
other religious and charitable institutions.
An examination
of these
10
and other developments among urban
leges and universities provides substantial evidence that a
nuniber
of Leading educators
and
and educational
coI-
grorruing
institutions are coming
to identify their highest expectations with the renewal
and
revitaL-
ization of the American city.
lfhus even as the
rise of the western city
gave
birth to the
universities in the first, place, colleges and universities in urban
America are looking to ttre renaissance of the citiee as an oPPortunlty for their own renewal and development.
IIf uajor uotifs of Academic Response to Metropolis
Both the lack of time and the incompleteness of documentation
at hand m6ke irnpossible an adeguate inventory of the character and
the extensiveness of these innovative academic responses to the
modern metropolis. To indicate some of the major motifs of these
responses, and to present some illustrations of them must suffice
for this presentation.
-13-
A.
The Metropolis As a Laboratory For
Perhaps the most pervasive
Liberal Learning
motif has been the perception of the
metropolis as an integral part of the universityts (or collegers)
comlunity of learning. Though not a new idea, the deliberateness
and extensiveness
of the programs, together with their conscious
orientation to the spirit of the urban renaissance, reflect a nen
Etance. Leading urban colleges
and
universities are seeking to
establish creative interactive relationE between
in virtually every aspect of their
campus and community
academic programi
in the fine
arts, the social and physical sciences as well as in religion and
philosophy. They are implementing what Professor Dyckman recommended
a fer', years ago in an essay on "The Changing Uses Of
The
City" by consciously designing the metropolis as an educative
experience and regarding it as an essential part of its institutionaI
mL].r.eu-
lhe
11
modes and
depending on
and the
volved.
day
particularities of these programs vary widely,
historic
interests
academic legacies,
and imaginativenesa
On one campus
the subject being studied,
of students and faculty in-
the students of
1aw may
learn
some
day-to-
realities concerning legal problems of housing through care-
fully arranged interneships in legal service centers in
depressedl
housing areas (University of Chicago).
et Monteith College, a course in "Art and the City" emerged
out of an interest in the Detroit urban setting and its technologica1 culture as they rclated
to art and the artistic process.
-L4Cornbining ttre study of the city in works of art with field trips to
old and new urban developments and visits with urban planners and
architects the students developed new perceptions of life in the
rnodern
12
"ity.
At othar leadinq collecres and universities religious grouPs
in urban ministries such as
that of the alohns llopkins YMCA which has now become the center for
28 volunteer grouPs engaged in tutoring programs throughout the
entire metropolitan area of Baltimore. one does not need to visit
have spearheaded dynamic new ventures
long ririth C'trester L. Wickr,uire. the director of the Hopkins YMCA
to have dispelledl such sterotypes as one might have
acguired of l&lcA! s naieve middle-class perceptions of reality.
programs,
For
that matter a relatively short visit with him night well modify some
of the images one may have of Johns HoPkins as a university that
prides itself on its aloofness from the world about it and celebrates
its indifference to the needs of both the undergraduate students and
the metropolis in which most of them live. such ventures aa the
Mercy College Program in Detroit, the Hunter College Program in New
York, the Master of Arts in Teaching programa at places like
"ohns
Hopkins and Temple are providing new motivations and orientations
for the student in teacher education. lfhey are encouraged to
perceive their roLe as one of critical importance for the renaissance
,.3
of urban America.' Sirnilar illustrations of educative uses of the
city could be recited which indicate that virtually all the academic disciplines o? higher education are discovering the city as
a resouree for learning. The participant-observer strategems of
-
Is-
student involvement in the study of life in the-1trâ¬ltrqrolis - wtrether
or paid work experience - have become virtually
comnon-place in such varied fields as government, community organization, social sen/ice, church uork, business and industry. reform
through volunteer
mrlrramant s - trrh:ln
B.
r:lannino
ete -
The Metropolis As a Laboratory For Research
closely related to the motif of the city as a laboratory for
liberal learning has been the development of an increasing interest
and involvement
of
academia
in urban research-
lEhe
rapidity of
of the emerging "technopolitan" culture
have given research an increasingly imPortant role. Conventional
change and the cornplexity
and inherited wisdom are challenged everywhere by the imPeratives
of ne!, social realities. In the context of such tensions betareen
the imperatives of the new and the claims of the historic, institutions of higher learning have been inescapably driven to more selfof their relationship to the world about them.
Furthermore, economic and political leaders of the metropoLis are
turning more, and more to institutions of higher learning for "unconscious reassessment
biased" and "dispassionate" information about the crisis of our
cities. fhey are counting on their developing the resources of
knowledge and research technigues which can guide them
in their
perilous decision making. whether the response to these challenges
in the culture of what Mumford has
called a "technics civilization", or provoke it to an increasing
concern for the larger issues of man and culture in more humanistic
will tend to
immerse academia
contexts will depend largely on the imaginativeness, resourcefu lness,
- 16-
and sensitive responsiveness
of the
academic communities themselveg'
helpful response of academia to these chalUrban studies centers
Ienges so far has been the develognent of lfhe
Perhaps the most
nov' imPortant
at our leading urban universities ' Such Centers are
parts of the academic rife of such reading institutions as the
universitiesofHarvard(jointlywith!tIT),Pennsylvania'chicago'
and
Pittsburgh, Berkeley, North carolina' New York' wayne State'
others. In most instances these Centers are becoming interdisciplinary in their approach; getting historians' political scientists'
sociologists,architects,anthropologists,geographers'aswelIas
pursue
philosophers and theo!.ogians into the act' students may
as
their postgraduate degrees within their particutar dlisciplines
with
they participate in a core of urban-studies courses shared
students from other disciPlines '
On a more inodest scale undergraduate programs
of special urban
years'
studies also appear to be getting some impetus in recent
researctr
Special courses in urban affairs w:ith seminars and linitedl
join toprojects are emerging- rn some cities' several colleges
the
gether to promote these studies through such structures as
area and
Higher Educational Council in Urban Affairs it tl'o Baltimore
District of
the Washington center for Metropolitan Studies in the
Columbia.
l"letropolis As An opportunity For community service
developed
Another motif of town-gown relationship that has
rt is of
considerable currency is that of "community service" the motifs
course serf-evident that this is not unrelatec to
c.
Thre
I
.,--.--
'-
,
-17-.
.
a.lready discussed. But the enptrasis "ie r4ron the idea that both
students and faculty - besides being scholdrs - ir⬠menbers of
corununities which not only need their help but also have some
legitimate claim upon thern. Besides this, it is argued, the irudeochristian legacy supports the notion of community service as both
a mora
19a
on
an
an express
virtually every urban c ampus many atudert grouPs
are becoming ipvolved in comnunity service ventures: whether on suctl
prestigious campuses as Harvard, Radcliff, and lt{i118 College or on
such massive urban campuses as Temple anil Ner!, York, or on less
On
prestigiouE colleges in other PIaceE. In recent years, service
projects in the inner city have become particularly current'
D.
:fhe Metropolis As An Occasion For corPorate Scademic Responsi-
bil-itY
uodern urban society has become essentially a corPorate one.
$he corporation has become the predominant Pattern
of organized
!.ife. :fhis is true in virtually every selrment of 6ociety, including education. It is inevitable, therefore, that corporate decisions of large organizations will play a leading role in fashioning
thefutureofurbanll.fe.underthesecircumstancestheindividualistic persPectives and ethics developed in the era of the private
entrepreneur are no longer adeguate. sensitive corporation leaders in virtually every sector of our society are acknov'ledging this
to rethink their corPorate leadership responsibilities
One manifestation of this has been the growing involvement
of urban colleges and universities in urban rene!"aI' This has aland beginning
-18ready been alluded to in an earlier part of tllis report where
reference was made to the rapprochement between academia and metL2
The point to be noted here, is that urban universities
rotrrcIis,*o
and colleges, acting as corporate bodies can play an important role
in revitalizing urban community Iife.
f'here is a grovring convic-
tion that their corporate decisions reguire considerations that 90
beyond the strictly academic concerns: that every building they
erect wi.L1
.nlaV
a part in the over-alI urban imagery; that their
cooperation rrrith over-all urban planning and renewal can contribute
inrneasurably
to the renaissance of the city.
In the very
process
of playing a responsible role as a corporate citizen, the urban
college and university teach by example aII who corne in contact
with them lessons for corporate citizenship in the larger society.
Beyond such corporate decisions concerning the development of
within the context of general urban revitalization, colleges and universities have begun to play a more active role in
the
c
arnpus
conununity organization and
problems and hazards
leadership. While there are lots of
in this
new
role, the alternatives of corporate
passivity and isolation are neither very attractive nor inspiring
to say nothing about their practical viability.
closely related to this more active role in corununity leadership, has been the
development
of college
and university-sponsored
seminars, forums, lectures, etc. on modern issues. In most instances
these have been developed in cooperation with other groups
institutions of the surrounding netropolis.
and
I
-19-
IV
Some
Implieations For Augsburg College
It wil1 be obvious to anyone acguainted with recent developments at Augsburg College, that many of the academic responses I
have noted in my year's study of college-metropolis relationship
have already been begun at Augsburg College. This might well be
cited as one of Augaburg's strengtns.
Hovrever, like most urban universities and colleges, it haE much
unfinished work to do before it can claim to have maximized its
Etrategic location at the heart of a rapidly emerging metroPolis.
Last faII, when thinking about some initial steps r.rorth taking; I
set out the following suggestions and submitted to the
Dean
of the
College as an addendum to my rePort concerning my sabbatical' They
may perhaps serve as
a stimulus to discussion which in turn
may
lead to actions tnrch better thought put than tttese- are at this
atage. It is in this spirit that I submit themA. Augsburg shou Id establish a task force on college and
metroPolis. It should be made up of repreEentatives of
Administration, Faculty, Students, and Board of Regents for
the purpose of findinq and proposing ways and means of
maximizingitsurbansetting.Thefourmotifsofacademic
response described in this rePort may serve as a means of
dividing the areas of work for the task force.
B.Intherecruitmentofneqrfaculty,thecollegreshouldseek
to draw to its teaching staff people who are interested in
and concerned about the collegets role in the modern
-20-
metropolis (of course this eannot be a substitute f9f-"'scholarly competence). In at Least the folloruing fields
it should be possible and desirable to add scholars with
particular urban specialties and concerns:
. po lit ic a L science and Publ-ic Admini stration
2. Education
3. Sociology
4. Economics and Business Administration
I
c
The college ought to explore the trrcssibilities of adding
a limrted
number
of courses to its curriculum which reflect
its concern for urban affairs.
Some
of these miqht well
be taught by highly competent specialists in the metropol-
itan area
who would
Iikely welcome a chance for a more
intimate touch with the acadernic community.
specialists that
I.
2.
3.
4.
D.
come
to mind are
Among such
3
Urban Planners
trublic Administrators
Architects
Journalists (columnists
An interdisciplinary
)
Program on Man
in the Metrolrclis
should be developed. There are several options for this;
but it ought to go beyond the social sciences to include
some aspects
E
of religion and the fine art-s.
Efforts should be made to expand the field experience progranns
into areas beyond those developed for students en-
rolled in the collrses in education and social vrorkfollowing are illustrative
might prove desirable:
The
of areas where such developments
-2L-
1. Business and Industrial Relations
2. Political Science
B. In urban government
b. In urban politics
c. In public administration
3. SecretariaL Studies
F. An expanded student
employment,
service might be devel-oped
which takes more complete advantage of
u
an se t D9.
The service should carefully consider the educative func-
tions of employment, such that the worl< experience will
complement the studentrs academic work and aid him in his
'
explorations of alternative vocational goals. If this
service is well conceived and effectively operated it might
well- be self-supporting
.
G. The college.'ought to carefully determine the format
type of annual public programs it should foster.
and
Some-
thing like the Annual Seminars sponsored by Boston College
for 10 suecessive years might be considered. An Annua1
Augsburg College Serninar on "Man in the Modern Metropolis"
might be a vray of regularly proclaiming to the eommunity
its coneerns for the future of its metropolitan community.
Over the years, virtually
academic life
every segment of Augsburg's
could become involved in some aspects of such
an on-going public service.
H. Efforts should be made by the College to get as many of its
faculty living wj-thin walking distance of the
campus as
possible. To this end the College should eooperate with
the University
Community Development
Corporatlon, the
(
--.:'*.-
"h,^
4-Z-''
Minneapolis Planning
Commis
sion,'and ot?rer appro'Ilriate...'
public bodies in gathering land around it for suitable
housing and coillmunity development. Both owner-occupied
town-houses and 5ental apartments should be developed,
e9e
e
indifference the faet that such great universities
as
the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsyl'vania have seen fit to make such housing for its faculty
and staff an integral part of their institut j-onal policies.
At Chicago, about 85 percent of its faculty now live within walking distance of the university
campus.
The extra-curricular programs at Augsburg should be care-
I
fuIly examined in terms of maximi
tion.
zi.ng
the College's loca-
A great many resources for enriching the extra-
curricular program are very lik-e1y still
untapped. Per-
haps too rnueh of Augsburg's extra-curricular programing
still
follows models developed on isolated small-town
campuses. Both its academic and social clubs might well
explore ways of relating their programs more sharply to
the on-going activities of their interest oriented
counterparts in the rest of the city.
J
a
In the field of Community ReLations, Augsburg Faculty
and
Administration (perhaps through the Faculty Senate ) should
give eareful study of the imagery the college wishes to
have ref lected; the media it r,vants especially to use;
and
I
-23-
the particular publics it wants to eultivate.
It must be
that the metropoLis by its very nature provides
remembered
ready-made structures for such public relations; that
virtually
all sophisticated institutions carefully take
these structures into account when planning their public
relations programs. Ttris is particularly crucial for
a
small institution at the heart of a major metropolis.
K. As another
means
of building bridges bet$reen Augsburg's
Academic Community and
the life of the metropoLis
around
it, advisory councils made up of leading aLumni and other
people engaged in particular vocations and pursuits should
be created who could meet occasionally rdith representatives
'
of students
and
faculty of appropriate departments in the
college. Itris could help relate students and faculty to
recent developments in fields they are particularly
interested in and representatives of those fields to
ac ademia.
llhe above recommendations are at best sonre suggestions for
acti.ons by which the eollege might more adeguately implement
some
of its currently developing rhetoric about its unigue opportunities
as a liberal arts college at the heart of a metropolis.
In alL that I have tried to say in this presentation, I have
been mindful
of the larger context of the metropolitan challenge.
I agree with llenry Steele Commagerrs remarks made a few years ago
when he said that if "our universities (and I would add colleges)
are to enjoy the advantages of their urban position, if they are
t
-24-
to be to American society what ths great urban universities of
.-.-- --Europe hawe ibeen to qheir societies, they must assume responsilrlltty
for the developnent of an urban and regional civilization....
what
they need is an awareness of their opportuni.ties and potentialities;
what they need ie a philosophy.
o14
--JoeI S. Torstenson
Professor of Sociology
t
a
t,
FOOTNOTES
1
See Don
New
Martindale, Social
Lif.e_ and Cultuqa1 Chanqg (princeton,
Jersey: van Nostrand company, rnc.r L962) pp. 424-43s
for an excel-Ient review of the rise of the universities.
For
more detailed accounts see Charles Homer Haskins, Iltre Rise
of Universities
(Uew
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1903 )
and 'Jacob Burkhardt, ELre civilization
(ttew
2.
of the Renaissance
York, Oxford University press, 1945).
For a convenient review of the evolution of the college cur-
ricula in America see Willis Rudy, TIrS Evolglnq Liberal Arts.
Curric ulum:
A Historical Revie.w of Basic rhe.meF_
(wew
york:
Bureau of Pirblications Teachers College, Columbia University,
1960). For more comprehensive aecounts.'see George p. Schmidt,
rhe Libqr_al 4rts Co_Ilgqe: A Chap_te_E in 4glgrican Cultural
Historv
(New
Brunswick, N.J. 3 Rutgers University press,
1957
)
and Richard Hofstadter and $Iilson smith, editors, American
Hiqher Educ tion
Press,
3.
Volumes
I and II (The University of Chicago
1961)
Hans Blumenfeld, "fLle Modern Metropolis,,,
Scientific
VoI. 2L3, No. 3 (September, 1965) p. 68.
See also Scott
Greer, the Eryelrqinq Citv
(New
Amerie an
Yori<: The Free press of Glencoe,
L962) pp. 33-59 for an insightful discussion of the importance
of the increase in "societal seale,,
4.
.
Mitchell Gordon, Sick Ci!i,es_ (aattimore: prnguin Books,
pp. 331-333.
5. Robert Wood, SuFurbia: f ts People ang Thei{. politics
L963 )
(Boston:
t
t
Iloughton Miff lin Company,
6 (t
See Gibson
(wew
L958
)
pp
.
3-87 .
Winter, The S\rbufbqlq Ca.plivitE of the
York: IvlacmiLlan
paperbacks
,
Lg6Zl .
7. See Robert A. Nisbet, Tlre Ques.t for
University Press, 1953 ) p . 78
Churches
Much
C.ommunity (Iqew
york; Oxford
of this section on the
erisis of community is based upon Nisbet's' exCellent review
of classical works concerning it.
B. see t,rlilliam H. whyte, Jt.,
Th,e
olqaqi.z,a,tio} Maq (uew york:
Doubleday Anchor Book, Lg57), David Reisman and others,
The-
Longlv
C-Towd (wew
Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), and
C. Wright Mil1s, The Power, Flite
Press,
(wew
York: Oxford University
1956 ) .
9. Ilhe major work describing the anti-city orientation of
intellectuals is Morton and Lucia White, Ihg
Intellectual Ver_qus the. CiF,v (Camtrridge, Mass.: Harvard
America I s
University Press,
10.
L962).
For further details on these developments see Charles G:
Dobbins, The
uniyersitv,
ington, D.c. !
The
cily,
eng urpjlg Bgqewel (wash-
council on Education, Lg64), and J.
Martin Klotsche, ?he Urban Universit (ttew York: Ilarper and
American
Row, Publishers , L966 ) pp . 61-87.
'
11. John Dyclcman, "The Changing Uses of the City" in TI:e Future
Metropolis
(Daedalus: Winter, 1961) pp. L?3-LZS. See also
Eugene Hohnson, "continuing Education
Elizabeth
Geen,
gt. aI (editors)
for urbanism" in
Man a4d Modern Soe
(university of Pittsburgh Press, 1963) pp. 97-1I1-
iety
>
I
L2. For a brief account of this university involvement i-n urban
renewal see Charles G. Dobbins,
Rene}^ra1
The
Universit t, Ttre Citv, gng
(Washington, D.C. 3 American Council of Education
Lg64) .
13. Robin Vil. Eichleag, â¬t. BI.,
(Detroit: Monteith College,
Coopera tive Self-Education
Wayne
State University, 1954)
PP. 12-13. ftris is a brochure describing the lttonteith
CoII-ege program
of "Cooperative Self-Education. "
L4. See American Assoeiation of Colleges For Teacher Education,
Strength Throuqh Reanpr aisal (Washington, D.C.: The Sixteenth
Yearbook,
1963
) pp. 135-49.
15. Henry Steele Commager, "Is Ivy Necessary" Saturday
(Sept. L7, 1960) p, 89.
Review
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.
A RATIONALE FOR THE CRISIS COLONY APPROAOi TO m.JCATION
THE SOCitTAL CRISIS - 1969
''The
:tnr:,n!
things change, the m:,re they N!'Jilain the same," black people say when
ever they read ptogzess 1epo:1-ts issued to reassure people that all is well with
minorities.
One has a feeling that the grandiose anmuncements, prog?'SfflS and post
The
urings of the past decade can be meas� rather accurately by that sumnary.
Soaring Sixties 8I'e ending with the Sanber Seventies
in Jm:)spect.
seem to have skidded off Dike Bridge at Olappaquiddick
and
Liberal dreams
disappeared
in the
murky waters beneath.
The End of the
At first glanoe
the
F.dwaro
Kennedy
Liberai Era
episode seens to be only an appendix-
not germane to the central narrative of the Sixties. A genuinely noble aney of
martyrs
have gone
And salutory.
of today's
before.
But in
another se.nse
it
is quite
integral
to the
era.
It cxmnents on a ranantic aura that has lurked beneath the surface
generation.
Not long ago one of them wrote, "We are the
first p.;eneration
that :earned
fran experience in our innocent twenties that things were really not getting
better, that we shall oot ove:raJne.
had
glimpsed
had
all
We f�lt by the time we were thirty that we
the most cx:mpassiona.te leaders our nation could produce,
been assassinated."
The despair is deeply touchin�, but a.so quite naive
Qther
generations have likewise. been
s�htly maudlin •.
stunned by events and the despair is not
lacking in parallels at other times in history.
reveals
am
and they
The Fmartl Kennedy incident
ambiguity, slxMs the vulnerability in liberal and n:mantic visions.
The Frontier Mythology of white-hatted and black-hatted characters is revealed.
The episode is symbolic and the flaw of the L:i.bere.1 is discerned.
derronic dimensions have not
been
The
understood; in fact, the liberal tendency to
demythologize
has
stripped us of the imagination to cope with such forces.
I was among those who strongly supported Adlai Stevenson, but it is clear that
"talking sense to the Pimerican people" was not enough for the Age. And satire
---the one weapon in the Liberal artillery---was insufficient in a time when people
became_essent�ally humorless. �e mystery of Black pc:&er, of course, was the
which
,,c�tance
.
made__the. .Liberal deficien�_
�11t.
-
Meanwhile, generational despair registered in the earlier statement still
carries force.
and complexity.
The problems to which there is no solution are gr<:Ming in number
As W. H. Ferry asserts,
"I am aware that mankind has gone on for a long time with a considerable
backlog of unanswered questions•••but it seems that today's backlog is
different in important ways. Yesterday's questions tended to be local
••• today's questions, on the other hand, are nearly universal in their
significance. 11
In Holland a certain group demanded the rip,ht to vote in the American
election in 1968 because they felt that the American president was as important
to the Netherlands as to America.
The fact that .America did not hear does not
cancel out the logic of what they were saying about the interrelation of people
and events.
No one can escape the bundling of humanity now so evident.
But the Liberal answer seems ban]q,upt. As Rosemary Reuther put it about
a bemused and erstwhile set of revolutionaries:· "The tides of causes had ebbed
and flowed, washed over them too many times, until they all looked alike and all
equally leading nowhere."
Assessment of Conservative Answers
for- the -Ti-rne
Early ------- --
Na., we are listening again to the Conservative answers.being unwrapped by
Mr. Nixon. The Nixon Pause
Just the delay in action
has
has
approach seems to be simply,
been more refreshing than many had thought.
given time for reflection. A caI'dinal tenet in his
How
can we find a way of accarmodation to things as
they are'? His unwillingness to make dcrnestic promises
2
has
made any initiative_
••
EXHIBIT Q
-
he
indicates in the area sane� of a mnent of hope._.
tmexpected
bonus
'
. since nothing has been pn::rn:i.sed.
At this time an Inccme Supplenent p� seens to
proposal for
the
premises, but
Any
be
gain would
be
an
caning as a Nixon
danestic situatian. The program canes out of oonseivative
it does represent a rather diffenmt app�ch to the whole mioo�
ity question. If it does cane to pass and does not get emasculated in Congress,
it could stamp Nixon as a conservative in the style of Disraeli or Bismar'Ck.
Other signs about consezvative, Nixon answers, ha.rever, make one hesitant and
fearful.
'Ihe process of going through the .AR-1 machine
Metternich
has begun.
The style
of
and Talleyrand is waiting in the wings. But, whichever way his admin
istration evolves, the bent of it is tooaro reestablishing the status quo.
Nevertheless, the clear effort to sloo cla-m the pace, even if successful,
has a
different kind of dilemna. in the making.
By
reversing the rubrics of the
opening statement of this article, another strange but forceful truth emerges:
"If we want tirings to stay as they are, things_will have to change."
.Acccmnodation and compromise to preserve the good that we have seems praise
worthy, but "the good that we have11 is loaded with questions
and
the manner of
preservation becanes a key concern.
Taking the latter first, those who noo clamor for a seat at the Carmunion
Table--spread with the earth's bread and wine for mankind---can be answered only
by
suppression, . if things are to remain the same. That means change. Military
and police f.orces for our
more as we are �raced
land
by
and for our world will have to
the heavy arms of law
and
accepted Fascism as an appropriate fonn for Greece
e
World
be
relied on rore
order. _We have already
and
Brazil
and
many Third
countries. 'Ihe logic for such a goverrmental approach is at the doorstep
of the l.hri.ted States itself. Essential elements are all around
a final mix. Even the phrases that
SUIIIIIOTl
us, waiting for
us to such a government are pre
scripted: "The streets of our country are in turnoil. The universities are
and
filled with students rebelling and rioting.
Corrmunists are seeking to destroy
our country. Russia is threatening us with her might and the :republic is in
danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order." These
woros of Adolf Hitler in 1932 seem highly applicable for some in our own day.
If an unagreed-on peace without justice is declared and enforced both here
and abroad, the fires burning may be shielded fran our view, but the fire burns
nevertheless, and the day of truth is inevitable whether that day is five years,
ten years or even 100 years away.
In the words of Scripture, "The poor will not
perish forever."
But the gravest obstacle to keeping things as they are lies within the
credo of the .American Way of life itself. The carmitment to unrestrained indi
vidual initiative coupled with the acceptance of technological change means that
a Viking atm:>sphe:re always prevails in the American---and therefore world economy.
Whole areas of life are constantly threatened by new industries which rise un
checked. Vi.king raids are the oroer of the day. Occupational catastrophes hap
pen at an accelerating pace--laboring forces drop from sif.,ht, disappearing like
Atlantis into the sea. Japanese cheap labor threatens the Textile industry;
American Capital is at the edge of controlling European Econany. Such chaotic
and uncontrolled disruption, which is at the heart of our economy, prunises that
things will be changing even if one wills them passionately to remain the same.
With the largeness of unchecked industrial forces one sees the possibility
of sudden events as being the final occasion for the close of society.
Santa
Barbara residents testify to their helplessness as the oil swirls against their
beautiful beaches; the entire fish supply of the Rhine was poisoned by unkncwn
sources this stmmer;
years ago,
a thousand people died suddenly in Pennsylvania smog sane
a grim hint of what lies ahead;
raped unhindered by strip miners.
the mountains of West Virginia are
EXHIBIT Q
Conclusions
Fron a Christian perspective the crisis can be handled only by beginning
with eschatalogical, even apocalyptic categories.
In fact, if the dynamics of
the conservative society have apocalyptic events native to them--and I have not
dwelt on atanic war possibilities or world-wide depression--one has to operate
basically with such futures rushing in on-the present. Eschatology and Christian
Hope then are the starting points for a life that seeks meaningful existence in
this time.
It is in the context of this kind of crisis that·-one can begin to sort out
the meaning of the educational crisis •.Those who atte:npt to speak of an intel
sis apart fmn the societal crisis only contrib� to the fragment
_lectual :5t
ation of our society. In tr'l..lth, fragmentation is a significant characteristic
of its disintegration.
But we shall rave to turn our attention to one form of the societal crisis
which is to be found at the universities.
Initially we shall be on a different
track but eventually we shall arrive at Grand Central Station again.
�
EIDUCATIONAL CRISIS -- 1969-)
In the space of ten years the docile, silent student of the SO's has meta
m::,rphosed into �ildering person who has rocked the whole educational institu
·----------
..
ion--and the nation. At first there was a feeling that the disturbances were
}
temporaxy and needed only sane fatherly ministrations of sane sort, but the
spe� has not gone away.
Wfth the introduction of violence on the campus the
very life of education is threatened.
The crisis is no longer a conference
subject or a theoretical dis�ssion over coffee, it has erupted into highly
unpredictable activity with mace and low-flying helicopters, truops and jail.
-
The phras�, "It's.only academic", is on the way ou:t.
5
When an older man peers timidly through University windows at his son who
m3kes revolution, he can scarcely identify this student with the student he was
in the 30 's and 40' s. His mind boggles. Even recent alumnae fran the 50's or
earlier 60's find themselves utterly confused. The violent 30 1 s with their
labor union warfare had had student interest and University discussion, but student
involvement in any degree was quite minimal. Post-war days brought an occasional
student cafeteria strike or a GI-led housing battle, but no one would Hnk such
activity with the new student emerging.
Violence then was a panty raid or a wild
party that cuJminated in stuffing students en masse in a telephone booth.
In
retrospect there is more relationship bej:ween the strange protests of the beat
niks and the absurd antics of campus pranksters
than
met the eye in those days.
Both were testifying to the essential meaninglessness of much of campus activity.
No brief statement can hope to do justice to what is nQ1,1 occurring. The
pie� emerging---which by the way cannot be shot with a still camera--is one
of enormous complexity.
In essen�jhe issues gather mainly about two f�i:@ Institutional
Maladjustments
and@
New Understandings of the University's Relation to Society.
The two are interfaced to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish at
times, but much of the educational future depends on which of the two centers
gains ascendancy.
/t
The Institutional Maladjustments
At the heart of student quarrels within the gates of the University it
self is his rejection of the in loco oarentis appn:,ach to education and the
-- .:,II
�
institutionalization of the theory.
The prenise that a school operates "in place of the parent" may have some
validity for the early years of a child's schooling.
Certainly it has venerable
roots in the Christian teaching of the Fourth Comm:mdment. Likewise it must be
6
-
EXHIBIT Q
said that
the fonrulators of such a style have been men of integrity, well
intentioned and often possessors of awesane intellectual equipnent.
In fact, with
the development of psychology it would seem that the University would be. at the
very edge of knowing how to be a fatherly counselor.
Finally, the intellectual
storehouse of the fathers has to be transmitted sanel'laJ and all acknCMledge that
the acaEplisbnents of the
traveling to the m:xm?)
but in
view of
the
educational establishnent are formidable,
(Are
mt men
The price of being a child even for a decade is great,
rewards, it seems worth paying.
. .
Na-, day by day the theory is being challenged even at the Junior High
School levels. Sane wonder if it has any place at all in educational approaches.
lDoking over the shoulder
one can see the protest caning fran a long way back.
While supposedly inferior, non-college young adults have lived unencumbered
by fatherly advice in urban ocmnunities, the young "elite" of exactly the same
-
age have lived under exceedingly una.dult circumstances at the University. Iron
ically, the freedan at college has often
school.
been less than that experienced
in
high
The chafing at hours, alcohol regulation, courting hindrances, the
impossible grading systen or
have been
food, all seeningly trivial in and of themselves,
symbolic of a benign tyranny that has beocme insufferable.
"Father
knows best" has becane absurd.
The farcical nature of the theory was revealed
in
predicted large numbers of students came to the campus.
the Sixties when the
Relationships between
student and any university personnel--acbninistra.tor, counselor or faculty
was
alm:>st canpletely lost. The student was "parented" through IBM
institution, unencumbered by human beings had becx:me the father.
woro
of such a father was at the end when the
cards.
The
And the only
point average was spewed forth
together with �gistra.tions of student visits to psychology clinics and other
extraneous infOim:ltion.
7
On the
small college campus the situation was sanewha.t better, but even
tl1ere college a.aninistrative personnel were engulfed in financing the new build:ings that were
necessary far survival and relationships � quite tenuous. The
harcied small school professor, often still seeking to climb_the academic ladder
to a later stardan, tended to be preoccupied with his own ascent.
� excepti1?11S to all of this depersoralization process on
and the large for
That there
the small
campus--
that ma.tte%'--is a tribute not as much to the system as to the
indefatigable spirit.
The_student re-maated into serious
questions about his am existence and
"Who am I?" became an obsession.
�.f" -
Meammle,
in tbe oort:,_student �� of the University th� faculty as an
���as rore and m:,re bo� by the nece_ssitie� of status and salary. The
ultimate objective seemed to be to escape teaching either in a reseanm paradise
or in an administrative post, which carried the professor into a totally different
realm.
Administration too became an island of public relations caught in the
necessities of the next building program, teacher's salaries and relationships
with the oamunity.
Finally that 11\YSterious body called the Boa.ro of Trustees
was only beginning to reveal
its am distinctive isolation fran the campus scene.
Under the circumstances the explosion was inevitable, only waited for
apocalyptic events to shatter and
educational
thereby reveal the gaping cracks in the
s't:nletures.
But when the events�f which we shall speak shortly-began to occur,
the JOOSt pz:ofO\.D'ld challenge of all in the in loco
.
. .
'
by 't!le s�t popul�tion.
parentis theory was hUI"led
The notion that father even had the right inform
ation to jmpart to �. stud.en� about his world became questionable.
serene majesty of the f�ty
revolutions occurred
The
"1aS shaken to the oore, especially since the
at the very finest of our centers of learning� The one
8
-
EXHIBrr Q
area of dignity left, that alm::lst everyone acknowledged, had been 5hot out
fran under the educational institution.
The student had doggedly paid the price for the keys to the k:ingdan of
American institutional life for decades.
He had been servile and malleable when
he knew there was a� at the end through the power of the degree and its
autana:tic passport to the blessings of American enter'1)t'i.se.
But a sheepskin was
no key for the kingdan of a world inhabited by Viet Cong or South Viet Namese,
or for that matter the world of the black man who fnlquently lived at the edges
of the urban university.
f? �
Understandings of� University's Relation� Society
Students were al.reagy involving thenselves in extra-� activities by
the end of the 50 • s.
U) flowered
The small clusters in those years gradually grew and
in the early years of the succeeding
decade • . It is a little hard to
remember the high tide of the initial years of the 60'.s when Kennedy reigned
in Camelot and everyone enjoyed the wannth of. folk songs and sang confidently,
''We
shall overcane." The day of victory did not seem far off and among the
fella-1-tra.velers of those who marched. ta-1ard the new era were many students.
They registered voters and integrated �uses and restaurants.
They went South
to discover the enemy and even died bravely in the·sure and certain hope that
integration was near.
�.
It was a great dream.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy and the advent of Black P<:Mer changed
----
all that.
'lbe enemy was found within the Northern gate.
Sla-,ly it was discov-
ered that the demons even grinned fran within one's own soul.
slogans paled.
The�i�f rally !"Jlat occurred when Goldwater and the Far Right
were ove��-Wlls was quickly eclipsed by the
-
Civil Rights
liar
in Viet Nam.
dem::ms were rising fn:m the distant waters of the Bay of Tonkin.
9
The
_j
----
T!le ���-tmare of Viet Nam JTION than aey other single apocalyptic
event broke the students out- of their ioonastio preser.,es. Even the Black Revo.
------ -------- ---------·----
-
-
.
---·- -
- - -- -
lution had not touched then that totally and Black sepanrtistic impulses.even
pranised to .let many a white liberal off the hook of involvement.
But Viet Nam was a genuine student dilemna with
meaningless
death at the
end. No one would finally be soldier for him. r H$ ro1yj find�� shelter
at campus but the missive fran General H h would find him later if not sooner.
And many of his friends had not been able to escape. It was clear that he had to
find
his own way.
In such straits the student turned to !)is fatherly__ counselor and found
nost
- - - educato?"S strangely ·silent. Academic freedan had becane only· a phrase.
,_
Who would teach in this hour'? A few professors were found, but basically students
had to educate themselves in the face of their own death. Suddenly· the educational
�s _;eened
rem:>��the
��d.
Other wars had brought protest but governmental cases had been manged for
them. In it individual meaninglessness, Viet Nam cast an odd and meaningful
-
light on the pathos of the whole Thiro World. In f�ing a case for the North
C.Ong, the students found they had stumbled on what the
black man� knew: That the colonialism of the Third World and the
Vietnamese and the Viet
co,lQ__nialism_praet;igd on minorities in their own land bore remarkable resernblances.
Besides this the arrival of new black recruits on white campuses opened up
.
issues of white racism dixectly.
faculties had
in
.
:rebellion in the ghetto had becane a fact
with guns and jail and other appropriate effects,
the
apocalyptic events, � University and its
on University carrqruses·
Hereagain, as
The
other
a fearfully divided� of advice at best'and sheer muteness.at
the other end of the spectnm. Many professors and administrators proved to be as
10
.:
EXHIBIT Q
-
bigoted as their unlettered ne.:ighbqrs;
they were teaching.
cer:tainlY. much m:>re so than the students
Others suff� a diff�t agoey.
Their pose of obje�
ivity and neutre.lity had beoc:me unbearable but hcM then does one act if aie
never acted before?
As one
woo
has
'Ihey found themselves psnu.yzed·by their monastic stance.
lives
in the
institutional church it must here be said clearly
that churcll institutional reactions have not been much better than educational
oounte%parts, but our attention is on the University and many students had long
.
.
ago shrugged their shoulders at the church's inadequacies.
'1he University had
been the shelter for their secular faith.
(S_i
�(�
The � point of despair for students came with the revelations of
collusion between the i�"."'!_�ered �versities and the ln<:fustrial-Military
----
Canplex.
CIA infiltrations into the student camrunity shook then even nm-e deeply
and finally when Columbia and others stood revealed as institutional pa,,7ers
indiffeNnt to minorities at their doorstep the cin:le was canplete.
bankruptcy had
A kind of
appeared.
This is not to say
that all colleges have been touched by the struggles or
that good men have not sought and secured reforms, but it can be asserted that such
isolated islands where a calm prevails have not fashioned alterra.tive thinking.
Rather· the
force
of the issues �sed has not yet arrived.
As for refonn, it is
clear that the questions raised by students have becane m:,re and mm-e total in
their quality.
Fran Viet Nan students have turned their fire on the inadequacies
of the political system, the kpiications of
the Aaiing
of
American
life and. a host
of other questions to which .. English 101 may seem quite unrelated. ..
It is possible that �pared students can be'greduated with ccmparetive
ease for sane time-but not forever.
pregnant with apocalyptic qualities.
The prob1ems are too grave, imnediate and
The black student and
11
now
other minority
:s tu<lents
..--...------
as well have heen saying for sane time that the white man's education
.
was not mearu.ngful for·ghetto existence. How then can a student be educated in
----
�?
�
.
Evaluation of the Two Centers
With whichever of the two centers one begins, he. finds his w.ay to the other,
but it is imperative to see that deciding on the priority of one or the other
has
profound implications.
It must be said that if the maladjus1Jnents of the University as an institution
becanes the center of educational efforts, a patch-up job might be done that
could at least superficially seem to answer the needs of the situation.
could be made.
Concessions
In fact, the student might be once more anaesthecized by lessened
strictures that would return him to the kept status of former years. He might get
rost of his student rights
and
then settle
back
into complacenC'/ all over again.
That happened with Labor Unions. He might be stopped at the threshold of societal
problems
he
has been asking about. After all their very size could drive him
back
into the sanctuary and sen!nity of the monastery. In truth the chances are quite
great that students are not different
:m:m
their elders; one usually chooses the
easiest bed in which to lie.
But if the second center gains ascendancy a truly new foI'Ce is let loose into
society
and
a new style. of education•. . becanes inevitable.. 'The :onnidable strength
'
of students in the Affluent Society with
all of the pa-ver they have will
be directed
.
.
toward,the overw:helming questions raised by the new visibility of the Third World.
In loco parentis will disintegrate in the face of .societal urgencies.
student
and
All of us--
professor .and peoples of the non-educa�ion world--are in the fmmdeI'
ing ark together.
Who is .the father and who is the son? And where is the dove
of the .Spirit? Jesus once s�d,
11
cau
no man father."
12
EXHIBIT Q
It
is
int�stirig
to note that in suoh·clrcunstanoes students i«>uld have drawn
alongside most of the other student populat� of other countries all around the
world. A television shew in Germany on their educational upheavals has remarkable
similarities to one that might sumnarize the ltner.i.can educational situation.
In
France students oontr.i.buted �ctly to the da-mfall of DeGualle. In Japan the
t.m.versity of Tokyo has been shut cb-m for over a year.
The role of the student
behind the l1"a1 nJI"tain is JmJ.Ch nore of an enigma, but Czeclcslovakian students
and even Red Chinese students have indicated there is a� restlessness in
such cnmtries too.
What I am trying to say is that the search
stretching around the
for a new way is
world and beyond the curtains that divide. If students can
ber persuaded that the other person is roore :inp,rtant-that the seoond center is
indeed the centeI'--they will have perhaps unwittingly taken up the peculiar way
of the Galilean who talked about losing life to find it.
-
that said he wasn't just saying nice
woros.
And
there was a cross
IDJCATION -- CRISIS 001.0NY S'IYLE
While students.can be faulted for fuzziness in their frantic groping tOltlard
a new age, the outlines of their directions might be seen, if one can look �t
tear gas haze. Three major concerns .seem to danina.te what they talk about:
the
1.
They hunger after justice.
underly oc:mbine
'Racial division and white excesses mi.ch
with the Viet Nam War to pull aside an illusory veil that allOltled
Pmerica many pretensions to which she was
have been as hungry,
but
not
Perhaps other generations
'Ibis genemtioo kncws
the future can
finite, that it can be dealt away by others before they even have a chance to
live in it.
-
entitied�
few eras have had the harsh atanic· light, which outlines
i«>rld death, keeping the� so clear.
be
.
'!he ·end of the l«>t'ld is no longer just a mythological category.
The
Peace Corp, VISTA, and the McCarthy legions signal their concern on the one side
and
the drug scene indicates their despair on the other.
13
B
They hunger after ocmnunity. Hippie colonies with all their wiero aspects
are prophetic in their desire to form up the alienated (the strangers) into new
kinds of
camrunity which nevertheless carry the traditional flavorings of familial
love and devotion. This lies beneath the long hair and beads and oriental preoccupations. It is more and more apparent that the style has not matured. But
the streams of youth do not
enamored of
a
diminish. Perhaps those who flee are not so much
its beauty; they are runaways from heme, mute protesters against
meaningless society.
@
jJ1ey hunger after an education that relates then to society and ccrnmunity.
They have grown suspicious of an educational world that talks of objectivity and
neutrality when conmitrnent seems so badly needed. A Free University does not
autanatically produce
education of a new and different quality, but the range of
subjects indicate that the interests of students reach far beyond what they are
able to
encounter in the ordina?Y curriculum. The acccmplishments of the Draft
Resistance Movement make clear that their teaching can be both theoretically
and practically sound.
Crisis Colony is more than two past experimental events; it is a style of
educ�ting.
Hcwever,
th� is � intention � � advocating
.f! that
this style
should replace present education. What is here suggested is that it becanes an
ant�phon for present approaches to education.
_
--
The Monastic Form of Education
The
ideal of obj"ectivity as the center of learning is evaporating. . Perhaps
there never
was
understand the
as much objectivity as was thought. It would be well, hc:Mever, to
genesis of such an ideal. The investigation would need a book and
what is suggested here is• simply a clue to hCM the preoccupation came about.
14
-
. . - ·' ·
EXHIBIT Q
When. scientists began_"objective"
examination of
the
Universe several
,
.
..
;
centuries ago, they sought to forge a style that would keep then alive in the face
of treditionalist attacks.
approach enabled
them to
The
neutralist stance and the "nothing but the facts"
tilt the ma.clw'le of civilization into new patmmys. This
indirect approach gradually eroded certain glaring deficiencies in the world-view
of the West.· When Galileo was forced to recant his notia,.s of sun and earth move
ments, he ooul.d murmur under his breath, "Nevertheless, it m::wes"--if the legend
is tnle. And eventually the earth "m::,ved." SUcceeding decades brought a series
of spectacular occasions, ending in the m:x>nflight,
..
.
mere pranise. was
equalled by
performance.
Under
the circunstances the scholar mmk
and
the detached observers we.re in
hani¥:>ny. The monastic antecedents of the University
enhanced
the possil>ility of
quiet investigations that could bring change. Monastic form and mathematical con-
templation---the well-spring of
being which pleased the mind
modem
and
science--brought
an abstract world
into
did not openly �ten the slON-paced world
about the scholars. However, the subtle force of change was working through
their efforts and in the 'Iwentieth Centuxy, the lead fact had becane "the explo
sion of facts." Mary McCarthy speaks of the atanic fact of Hiroshima "exploding
fact into myth." The one tmeontainable ''fact" in the equasions---the inconstant .
K--was mankind.
Today facts in the eyes of the younger generation oo longer admit of·ne:u
trality. Facts are."prpvocational."* Like stones they ery out. Consequently the
place of learning_ had fallen. out of the educational perserve. The Word of
could � heard in the streets. Hidden
thought him dead, his
to define their
God. .
Word seemed to
•
thqugh
God
God seemed to a \t,,10I'ld that sanetimes
be found
e�. Youth� were reticent
·t .
._!
were nevertheless passiooately cauni.tted to what
was his truth
.
for the time.
*At the same time it m.1St be said that fairness in dealing with facts is an
important kernal that remains fran the perfectionist work "Objectivity."
15
Worldly Discipleship
The retreat or monastic fonn of teaching can be clearly seen in the teaching
style of Jesus. He often led his disciples "away fran the Jillltitude."
The Upper
-
Roan became symbol for this style as the place where much was imparted to the
disciples fran the Master.
There was also the Mount of 'Iransfigu:ra.tion where his
disciples would be filled with wonder by the vision of Moses and Elijah.
Yet in
the midst of the Upper Roan conversation another style of teaching was announced:
"'!be h:>ur is at hand when the Son of Man is given into the hands of sinners.
let us be going."
Rise
And his word to Peter was that a tabernacle for a place apart
on the Mount of Transfiguration was not the ultimate response to the sublimity
of the vision. He led the disciples dam the motmtain.
The tmiqueness of
learning
"worldly discipleship."
:m::rn the Master lay
in a style one could call
Taken as a whole his educational course consisted in
leading the disciples into the eye of the stonn.
His teaching tunbled out of
earthy event and out of experiences of a Father's world that was to be received
sacrementally.
"Behold the lilies of the field.
They do not work or spin.
in all his glory was not dressed like one of these."
But Solaoon
The world had becane a
teacher. A fig tree, a fishennan's net, a man sowing seeds became the occasion
for
learning.
Even more significant were the events that crowded around him. A wanan was
taken in adultery and, while flying stooes were halted, he reflected with his
disciples on the scapegoat quality of punishnent.
But all in the deed of decla%'
ing, "Let him who is without sin oast the first stone."
One could scarcely call
the first word of Christ on the cross-''Father, forgive them for they know not
what th� do"--didactic. Yet it was a profound m:ment of teaching one hCM to
live in the face of the enemy.
at Dmla.us.
Or,
he was knaffl to them "in the breaking of
bread"
The teaching was happening in the dynanics of enootmteI'--all in the
16
-
EXHIBIT Q
midst of the spontaneous action.
'lhe Crisis Colony
wouid seek to recapture this style of learning as a central
necessity for this t:ime.
For
this reason
the
Colony is set in the midst of crisis,
wherever the crisis is to be found.
� Ghettoed � Northside
2f Minneapolis
Becanes
! University
'lbe first two colonies in connection with Augsburg College were situated in
the Near Northside of Minneapolis.
In the latter experiment the Colony also con
Nevertheless,
cerned itself in the fonn of the crisis as it appears in a suburb.
the :root crisis was the crisis of
uroan life.
In the rapidly changing relationship between black and white peoples few
words can be discovered to carmunicate the type of relationship needed for health
in our day.
It is certain that words like salvation and help ftan the white can
nn.mity are anathema to many black people.
-
teacher fran white society feels more and
The helper, the social worker, the
im:,re
alien in such a role.
A diffe�
ent description of relationship is needed.
Essentially it would seem that the only ro_le for the white person at this
stage would be that of learner. . And the role of the ghettoed man is to be
teacher.
Such a stance can enable the white and black man to have sane integ
rity as they approach each other in � context � � ghetto.
But such teaching cannot be organized in the older styles.
person has not been trained to impart information.
ing
it.
The minority
'Ihe l� will find teach
caning at.him around unexpected comers and at t�s when he leasts expects
F\Jrt:herm:::Jr the detached
obs� cannot finally :+earn here. In sane fashion
he must participate, becane what Kenneth Cl.ark calls. a .. "participant observer."
As a footnqte it must be said that the white .person sanetimes has technical
skills to convey and this can be received by the Black Camnmity.
wish it.
But only if they
At this stage it is �rtant to support their oonviction that � have
tmique things to say.
And it must be a.an.itted that their teaching us with refer-
17
ence to the hungry 'T'hirn WoY'ld,_.the.. hurts of our am society, the quiet camrunity
of concern they have gathered under the oppression and the new understandings of
�ul � spirit seem far roore important .far, learning in this day.
!!!!, "Crisis" in Crisis Colony
Crisis refers then sinq)ly to a t:ime of judgment, when ''hearts are open and
all desires known." It is both a time of fear and trembling and a time of oppoI'
tunity, far when the real can be openly imagined and encountered, the gospel can
roove and hope is possible.
By standing alongside a carmunity in the toils of open crisis, the stud�ts
in their ''hungering after righteousness (justice)" learn of size and shapes of the
powers to be overcane. They can be baffled by the shadowy quality of the demons
and cane to see necessities far their vocational cannitment. The most astonish
ing aspect of the two experimental periods at this point lies in the awareness
that the crisis was inside the life of the learner and his own people.
A Comm.mity Fonned Around Those Outside the Ccmnunity
If the crisis induces action learning and learning by revelational encounter,
the learning through the colony form also lends a peculiar shape to this style of
education.
'lhe oth�centeredness of the ccmnunity is one of the roost important elements
.
.
.
of the education as it has operated to this point. Such a basic, beginning axiom
prevents the group fn:m regarding its own life as the JOOSt important aspect. The
Colony receives definiti6n fran the encounter with
the· questions
of the oamrunity
to which it has cone. By subsi.mdng its personal preoccupation the
group
discovers
its CMri significance. It loses life to find it.
The premise that group dynamics is
the
chief concern leads (l)'to withdrawal
fron the· camruni:ty outside and (2) to preoccupations about what the best utopian·
pattern for 'the colony might be. The Colony does not
18
'seek perfection---only to ·get
-
•
EXHIBIT Q
beyond itself •
This means that, though sane wisdan as to how the structure sln.11.d be fonned
is bea::ming evident, the exact pattern for all future oolonies is not realizable.
.
.
Exact patterns should not even be att�ed or sought.
Turning t� the significance of oolony educational dimensions, the follCMing
seems
to be .inq:>ortant:
1.
In the C.Olooies of the two experiments ea.ch person has had a different
assigrunent in the camrunity. (It should be enphasized that we have not yet
discovered the best method of developing each assigrl'nent to its fullest extent.
Sane
have been rich and others have not worked out and have %'8quired switching-
even this latter has had its blessings, h:Mever.)
with its bearing
At this point we are ooncerned
on the educaticn that goes on. Such diversity of experience is
brought back to the
colony, so that each person to sane de�e is learning 't.hrough
the experience of others as well as himself.
2.
In sane other matters the Colony works together.
(In the two experiments,
there has been colony parti<=:ipation in a political campaign and construction of a
liturgy for churohes to which the group has gooe.)
and possibility of corporate action.
3.
100tifs.
Elimination
of grades_except
in
Here the group learns the nature
the pass-fail sense take
aMey canpetitive
No one feels suspicious at being asked to "give aw�" infonnation to a
fellaJ student.
The intensity to learn incrieases because the student does not
worry whether he is learning exactly what the professor �uires.
.
4.
.
Sanething also is said by the unity of the experience and the totality
of the learning about the integration of what one learns.
'
-.
The campus experience
-
tends to �t; the Colony experience affinns the relationship of all areas of
-
learning to life.
5.
While the C.Olony creates a unity of experience, diversity is equally
balanced in the equasion.
'Ihe individuality of each task gives each person a sense
19
of doing his
CMn
thing.
to shape
0o1n
reactions.
his
The reflectiai diaIY also gives each person
opportunity
Hazaros � Need Mentioning
No hun:m
venture is
to a discussion of
l.
Putting
without
the�
vulnerability
and the follCMing seems pertinent
of crisis colonies:
students in areas of risk and crisis will
draw sane reactions
fR:rn
parents who sent their soo to college precisely because they thought he �d be
insulated ftan
such matters. The school itself will have sane long thoughts about
a free style of student life.
The form will die if it is canpletely controlled, but
not being able to oanpletely control also invites occasional problems.
2.
It is certain that developing meastlnfllents for such an educational imnersion
is a different task. There are preceidents, however, in intern approaches and field
work of the past.
This should not be ir.surmountable.
t-1hat is happening is that
certain liberal arts disciplines, which have always been classroan in orientation,
are being asked to rethink hcM they might give credit ·fori this approach in education.
In both experiments there was a morning seninar and books to be read arx1 a
reflection dully as a requirement, plus
papers for, independent study in the field
It may take sane time before one can establish
in which the student had his major.
the requirements far this approach.
3.
A corollary of the
above hazard is that the situation gives possibility
for students to "take advantage."
Within the two
experiments· three
out' of the·
thirty-four students might superficially be judged in such a fashion.
one wrote one of the finest papers of the first
ried
"teaching implications"
within the experience.
about_
experiment
themselves that
The crisis itself
and the other two
stipulations
ca.I\
made then exceedingly valuable
prevented
them fl'Qn ever being severed
fron the Colony, and no one there would dismiss them as .irrelevant
But certain
However,
to the
group.
about participating �uld help prevent a misunderstarid,,:
ing in th�_future.
20
-
EXHIBIT Q
-4. If Crisis Colonyappn::>aches continue and broaden, there will undoubtedly
to bring off
be a need. for developing the peculiar non-student leadership required
'
the situc!,tions of the future.
5.
financed.
Superficially th� might be a question about ha-1 such colonies could be
It is the belief of the author of this paper that the great share of the
financing could cane fIQil student fees if the oollege is willing to separate such
funds from the general budget of_the_ college.
6.
11
�ic to the approach is the notion that students can be involved in
the creation of knavledge." This has never been questioned at the graduate level;
the time has cane to demolish the myth as Theobald calls it, that students can only
be taught by dispensing facts to them. But the
mrth will
this involvement will require curricular adjustments.
-
go hard and ac�ptance of
In other
woros,
the appn,ach
will have to be •
has implications about hCM teachipg
.. on campus
.
In-conclusion, it will have to be said that in the eyes of the students there
was a unanimous view that Crisis Colonies should continue. Without question there
should be m:>difications and experimentation oontinuing in whatever efforts the
future might
. bring, . but the basic style has been endorsed by those who participate
.
without exception •.
SHAPES FOR THE FUI'URE
The possibilities of the Crisis Colony in the future are unlimited; the
pra.Qtiqal oourse to follCM so that sane of these pos�,¥>ilities are realized
is much oore difficult to_ chart. The progn:un of action to realize such pro
�: will have t(? be planned and improvised. We will list here sane of the
implications. .. ..
The premises of letting an urban camiunity becane a teacher, of forming
a carmunity around the shape of a crisis, of colony cooperative learning
on many vistas:
21
open
The Colleges
At Augsburg
l.
The developnent at Augsburg.
Augsburg has a.greed to attempt another
Colony in the spring of next year with the clear poss:il>ility that a year-round
Colony on a pennanent basis will be established.
This also �resents a hesitation as well.
I had hoped they would be much
mre willing to invest student fees and much earlier�
If it becanes only an
unusual class experience, I am not interested personally.
2.
Augsburg, hc:Mever, has developed a Center· for, Urban Studies on campus
which has involved six other colleges and invisioned six or seven m:,re colleges
of the area joining in a consortium. Basically this originally was conceived to
be
an institute with reseazcl\ experts and an 'ins�t availahle,to the 'Iwin
City ccmnunity.
However, the Crisis Colony falls under its
a part of the program.
unbreila as well
In fact, to this point the
and has becane
Colony has been its m:,st
tangible progrem. The rest of its concrete efforts are only now taking shape.
If the seven to thirteen colleges could each be persuaded to sponsor
a crisis colony
in
various crises areas, an exciting possibility arises.
With
students given an option as to which Crisis Colony they might join·� a new day
might be arriving with large
implications.
At Other American
If -th� concept of the Crisis
I.utheran Church
Colleges
Colony, which is not unreia:ted to other Urban
Crisis programs at other'Af.£ �chools, �uld
be adapted .and adopted
in
its
various possibilitie� (this would have to be very flexible of course), an inter
college program could be
developed, f�reaching in scope and variety·for AfC
students.
22
�IT Q
F.acb scbocL..bas-tangency-to .unique aspects of· the JOOdem crisis.
operation, a r.i.ch variety of experience ooul.d be provided so that
By exr
ali /iJ.c
stu
dents OCR.lld have those possibilities in his years at an Af£ school.
To number a few of the crisis dimensions nearl:>y
PW has urt>an neamess, oriental cxmmmities and the
iiearoy.
-
SCJile
of the schools:
sea as
critical areas
CI.C borders on L.A. mq, the grape strike, Watts, Mexioan laborers.
TLC
has the ?Ural South at its doorstep and
iinerioan studies for Af£ students.
oould be
the Gateway to Latin
CAPITAL would nmction at the heart of a metropolis, near a wealthy Jewish
and as OUI" �est.l"epresentative of the Url:>an East.
carmuru.ty
AOOUSTANA, IY\NA, WARI'BURG and llJI'HER have the Midwestern farm scene close.
Aiigustana. histhe� Indian scene nearby.
ST. OlAF and .AtGSBt.00 are set to tackle Twin City concerns.
CONCORDIA has the Northern cotmtiy, Indians and Canada nearby for crisis
developnent.
Undoubtedly, if they brainstonn., many new dimensions of which I am not aw�
would
emerge. 'Ihese are only passing guesses.
A
network of such colonies
Conference.
Af.C
Or
could be
developed
through
a National Institute.to develop could
the
Al£ Student
be established through
college adnini.stra.tians.
Seninaries
1.
The seninaries might also present possibilities for Crisis Colony forms
and aptm:)aches.
the
Northside
Perhaps a group could live and nmction with Black
pastors
of Minneapolis, for instance, as a fom of mutual education.
Black pastors could educate
about
minority life
and
Black
church
life
in
The
and think
ing white and the Seminarians could mediate to sane degree the theological training they were :receiving in :return.
.
The latter
quite carefully, of oourse.
23
would have
to
.
be thought throu�
EXHIBIT Q
IN 'IHEIR
cm �ROO
A narrative of the Spring E>cperiment, 1969
The stooents � required to keep a
reflective diary of their Spring activity.
A running narrative is constructed to keep
references clear, but the main stoty will
be told by the stooents thenselves.
24
2. A trailer camp Crisis Colony with husband-wife teams joining ''wagon
train" style might be developed. This would be quite different and would need nn.ich
- � before it was begun, of course.
3. The seminaries could ._aj-So be a place to dev�lop young leadership for the
Crisis Colonies' staff. One seraj.narian and his wife, for example, were used in
Crisis Colony II (Spring Quarter, 1969) of the Augsburg experiment •
. State Campuses
.An approach such as this might be adopted in sane form by the Campus Ministry,
led by Campus pastors and interested faculty members.
Non-College Possibilities
..
1. In the Young Adult field the most obvious place to·turn is in the area of
Conscientious Objectors. Many are looldng for places to do their alternate service
to the Draft. The possibilities of gathering such a cammmity seems quite open.
Here, with no college funds available, other methods of financing would have to be
operating. Perhaps a three synod approach would be good•
. .
2. The vocational schools might be approached to develop a Crisis Colony.
Here again, the fonn would have to be adapted. The m:,st obvious illustration of
a model would be the Ccrrmunity of Christ in Washington, D.C.
3. The ministry of the church to younger youth in High School might also
seek to adopt from the Crisis Colony moqel. Probably it would need a different
name and have m:,re limited objectives •.
4. . The developing metro clergymen might be looking for such Crisis Colonies
for their urban areas. Such outposts could be cultivated.
5.
The idea will also be projected in ecmien:i,cal circles.
These possibilities are �lightly grand and certainly absurd for a $10,000
budget in the Youth Office. The question is: How can such a situation, as it is,
- here be utilized to bring such a "fonning up" of the rai:iJ<s of youth in the years
ahead?
24
\
I
EXHIBIT Q
IN 'IHEIR OWN vl>RDS
Aworo.about the Crisis Colony
Recruitment
Recruiting students during the school year for a
sanewhat ambiguous experiment called Crisis Colony proved
sanewhat difficult for one who's main work was elsewhere.
·: ·.·Sane of the best enlistment efforts were made by interested
professors and it would be the opinion of the author that
this is the best souroe for stirring student interest. The
time for recruitment was brief and the dislocation of actu
ally using a School Ye.ar quarter rather than the Summer
proved to be fonnidable for a nunber of very interested
students. As a result the final crew oonsisted in the
group that could bring off the academic adjustments and
those who would do it because they finally thought it was
too important to miss. In other words the Colony was not
a selected group but those who would cane.
In a certain
sense there was a randan quality about the gn:,up rather
than
an elite set of students.
Initially it was thought that the program should be
for Juniors and Seniors but the cireunstanoes required
us to take whanever we could get.
(Five students who
had enrolled had to drop at the
last minute. ) The group
was predaninantly Juniors ( 8).
Five were Sophcmores,
two were Freshmen, and two were Seniors.
Probably the
Fres:tmen revealed sane hint of :inmaturity, but in general
the maturity of the group was
universally even and
acceptable. The l�est majority of majors was concent25
-
T'l'\Te<l in the · SOC'i r1.l
Sci('>.nces
(10) , with
a student
fran
the Hunanities, one� Elementary Education, two fran
American·Studies,
and a,e
up her mind yet.
The breadth of the group
increased
if students
fn:m Finance. One had not made
would. have
of other disciplines could have
been persuaded, but the group gave us evidence of how
students other than those in the Social Scien� would
react.
Finally the
·a 2.84 average;
vXJnen
the
students
men,
of the
2.67 with
the
cxmmmity had
whole gJX>up
registering a 2.79 average. Point average seemed to
have little
bearing
on
the
learning
that
occurred.
Securing the Residence
Obtaining a residence for 17
difficult.
students proved
to
be
The City insisted on treating the Colony in
terms of campus regulations with reference to the dwell
ing req�ts.
But part of
what was desired was to
feel the experience of poverty in every way, but such
houses
were
quite
ing became quite
unlike campus dormitories and so
frustrating.
more thought here.
hunt-
(The future will require much
Though the coed nature of the
was much liked by the gI'()up, it
.. · .
may
group
be necessary to
separate the sexes just to get facilities.)
A number of buildings were examined. Eventually
we negotiated with Kenneseth
Israel
Synagogue, whose
congregation had relocated in St. Louis Parle. A large
third floor, needing. a partition would serve as girl's
_
dorm and seninar meeting roan.
former kitchen
..
There was also a large
that would be utilized for Mr. David
26
EXHIBn· Q
fbristman and his wife fran wther Sam.nary, who were to
live in with the group. The basement contained the
kitchen, space for the nx:m and a curtained-off section
where the six boys could live.
Bunk beds were used and
the rest was furniture fran the synagogue.
The staff consisted in Ewald Bash, Project Director
--fran the Deparbnent of Experimental Ministries in the
Youth Division of 'The American wtheran Church. His
worl<: had centered in similar endeavors in the near North
side
for sane three years previously. His assistant was
Nathan Schiotz, who had worked with him in the earlier
forms of the experiment and Peter Hayden, who had formerly
been the D�ctor of Thee Whole, a black teen center in
the North Side. Mr. Hayden functioned as Carmuni ty
Resource leader. He obtained speakers for the morning
seminar, introduced the group to various ccmnunity activ
ities, and informally educated the students with regard to
si:z'leet life on the North Side. Nathan Schiotz had also
been Director of Thee Whole and then lately Director of
Our Place, a teen center in large troubles in the suburb
of Crystal. The latter became a focal point for under
standing the nature of the urban crisis as it reveals
itself in the suburbs.
Essentially, the week days consisted in seminars
in the rorning.
(Speakers are listed in the appendix,)
In the afternoon the students went to their various
projects in local ch\.ll"Ches, social agencies and schools.
Evenings were spent on the political campaign of Bill
27
-
Smith, black candidate for aldexman in the 5th Ward of
Minneapolis.
(He
was badly beaten.) Or the students
attended meetings of various groups in the Northside
a "Plain Truth FC>nlTl" for police and ccmnuni.ty, the
Center for Urban Enoounter's weekly program in the
Churohes, etc. On the weekends, after several Sundays
of attending ghetto area
churohes, the Crisis Colony
pNpared a liturgy which they led at three wtheran
Churehes, one Catholic and at Al.Jgsburg College. They
also gave the service at a special Conference of College
F.ducators at the Hilton Hotel in ··St. Paul.. ( See appen
dix.)
Meanwhile, they also read eight books--see the
appendix---and had long distance telephone conversations
with various national figures through Dialogue, Inc.
'lbese facts can help one understand sane of_ the refer
ences made as the narrative of the Colony unfolds.
28
EXHIBIT Q
Maroh 9, 1969
__ am ccmnencing .this diary of
"On this Sundey, March 9, 1969, I,
.--,..-my action and reactions in regard to the Crisis Colony. The purpose? Pernaps
I can understand myself better ••• Then too, it shall serve the purpose of being
an outlet for my erotions--1:ruthfully, sincerely and without pretense.
My first enoounter with the synagogue, our new hane. It's not as bad as I ex
pected--surprise! Basement is rather chilly, sanctuary-very inq,ressive (also
off-limits), upstairs-large, open, perfect for a reeling square dance •••
I 'find myself questioning everything.
they do--including myself."
Why people say what they say and do what
29
March 10, 1969
·••·•
.
"I don't really have too many reflections on the cxmmmity tonight because
haven't been in it that much yet.
we
To be perfectly honest, I have to adnit that rrr:, chief reaction to black people
who are strangers is fear--which means I'm prejudiced. For instance, if I
see a black person caning towarcisme.da-m the street I'm afraid and I wonder
if they're going to hurt me or taunt me, etc. I �ly feel threatened. I tell
ieyself it's silly, and it is, · but I still feel that wa:y. Towanis the blacks
who are part of Crisis Colony I feel uncertainty. I'm afraid to a�ch them,
don't know what to Sel.lJ.
·1 hope, and this is. one of my main goals for this quarter, that I can overcane
this."
"We have an immediate crisis concerning where we are living. The few Jews who
still worship here follow the traditional practices. '!hey strongly feel that
by us being here, they can't \�hip here. They must view their synagogue dif
ferent than we do our church---it is 100re of a holy house."
"Our Place 1'r board of Directors meeting at 8:00 p.m.--wild; two kids arrested
for not leaving ••• all the kids wanted to do was to stay and listen, we defi
nitely have to provide channels for them to get involved in running the ope�
ation."
"I wondere::l why we would be infringing on the Jewish camrunity that worships
in this synagogue if we lived here. It must hurt them deeply that sanething
so sacred to them has been changed into a carm,n facility which is for the
most part secular."
"Teen center in Crystal. Several students
were assigned to work at the Center. It
was having tremendous problems with fin
ances and with the question of what its
function as a youth center really was.
30
EXHIBIT Q
March ll, 1969
''There was a guy who sat by me on the bus who I suspect is mentally ill. He
talkeq to me about Biafra, Vietnam, and a lot of other things. The resons
I sense h�.\1as·mentally ill are that his speech·was fragmented and sort of
unrelated at tines. He dressed funny (which probably doesn't mean rruch) and
seemed hyper and anxious. I wonder if he was just acting to get my reaction.
He said he was just back � Vietnam, he wanted to go fight the Nigerians,
because he believed you.couldn't save people-you could only kill them.
a
W
-'Ibnight.for awhile I felt like I didn't want to be in Crisis Colony anyrrare.
It's because I'm being fota!d to look at myself and as a result I'm being
foroed to gn:M--which is painful."
"Olurch is sanewhere I haven't been or wanted to be in an extremely long time.
Thewhole thing was like a boa constrictor, naybe ingrained guilt. And "the
idea of giving a warship service panics me.
I knew it---I feel extremely out of place like I usually do. The girls
are really sweet but they are �letely different fron people I'm used to-on the surface at least. 11
Well,
"Jesus, looking at those kids I am afraid for them and fc:1:' all of us,"
"Amazingly, JOOSt of us students appear to be agnostic. Changes will be great
to observe."
"About Our Place•••kids should run it all. They have to becane a viable foroe
in the camrunity. A congregation of invisibles made visibl�?"
"-- said he felt one of "tle rrost important things was just loving one another
--people needing each other. I said I agreed and also felt it was an answer for
a lot of people. __ disagreed and asked me what the questions were. I said
questions like those on life and death, heaven, God, etc. wet"! answered for a
lot of people. He shook his head, but I said thats what I t:hcught. He told me
I was on the Northside now and not in school and I should keep J1rf big roouth shut
and J1rf ears open. The sooner I learned that "the better, or I wtuld get my
sweet ass kicked out of here.
Before this he told us sane of the things that were against us like ·11e were
between the conservatives•••and the Black militants. He said we'd be watched.
I think I learned rro:re in that one night than I would in
else."
31
many
weeks sanewhere
a
W
March 12, 1969
"A bunch of us went to Thee Whol�---we really stuck out like sore thumbs."
"I sanetimes feel awfully old when it seems like all our youth are being cynical
and negative because I seem to take a more middle-aged, m:::>derate view••• I have
to respect sane things about WASP just like I do about a:ey other group.
I think I must be less redical righ-:t now than I've ever been."
"The title of Christian seens to be difficult and for sane of us (myself included)
to reconcile what is done in the churches by se>-called 'Christians' • They will
know we are aicistians by our love, not by our christian church attendance.n-"Went to Our Place (nothing out of the ordinaiy, a lot of kids and no police
all night. ) II
"Tonight we went to Thee Whole. It was haro to feel at ease or natural because
again it was kind of faky just walking in to see what went on. This can't
be avoided though. You have to start sanewhere."
and was glad to be where lot·s of kids were gathered. I was able
"I liked
--.�
to talk to
than again. College interrupted my dialogue with kids--rn.unbers of
them. Few children are seen at Augsburg. I . think it is important that eight
een to twenty-five year olds do not lose the ability to relate· to people ruch
younger than themselves and to people ruch older than thenselves."
*Black teen center, North ·side.
Several were assigned to work
here.
32
EXHIBIT Q
March 13, 1969
"I can ·-feel-for the last two days I have been absorbing••• I thought about
my reactions... I'm upset, depressed, sad about all that I have learned.
It's l)opeless--or is it?""
"I would rather have absolutely no color. I am repulsed and nauseated with
whiteness. I wish God had made me black. I identify 100re with their sin
cerity, their unity with their brothers and sisters, their oppression, their
refusal to eat shit any longer than with my white 'brothers and sisters' who
continue to 'cleanse' thenselves with the whitew�h of hypocrisy and facades."
my
"I sat in on the Matt Eubanks trail for assaulting a police officer, juxy
was out deciding on a venli.ct. I got about � hours to just sit and watch
Eubanks •••vertlict came after I left. It was NCYr guilty."
"I also met with the director, �-- __• He is interested a great deal in
this center. He asked why I wanted
to go there and oot only told me about the
center, but sariething about black people in general. He's very open and honest
and told me to be strong and to expect anything. He said I might hear a lot I
didn't like, but it would be sanething I'd never forget."
33
-
March 14, 1969
"The Jewis:h rabbi spoke to� concerning the change in the Jewish population
and the feeling of the residents to the incidents on PlynDuth Avenue. He felt
the Black youth's accusations were unjustified. He said the ma.jority·of the
residents moved out of fear, not wanting to. Also when they got their stores
bumed---hcM are they supposed to accept it--'if it's my eye, it's my eye.'
Most of the reasons for JroVing were naturel reasons-lack of new housing for
young_and the ability of reformed Jews to·travel on Saturday."
''Met at Thee Whole•••was struck by the great age-renge. Felt it was a sharp
oontrast to a typical white teen-center."
"Hoving to the funeral hane* for sure ••• C.ould be more interesting--a little
more cozy and together, srooky, canfortable. I'm excited."
"Started a book on children in the ghetto •••Sane very poignant ideas and em::>
tions are expressed by some disillusioned children. A sixteen year old ended
his piece by this advice to himself: 'Get the hell out of here before I'm
trapped just like the rest!'"
(l0-15 people)
�e synagogue ccmnunity that was left in the
Northside became aroused by our living in
their sanctuary. We had to leave even though
the synagogue council had voted 13-1 to have
us rent the premises.
We roved across the st::r'8et into a funeral
chapel that had been abandoned after a fire.
The entrance and upstairs were thoroughly
blackened with smoke. The basement was
untouched and quite livable with a kitchen,
a library nook, an office and a large meeting
roan. Upstairs the chapel itself was part
itioned so that two separate donns could be
created. There was also a roan for Mr. and
Mrs. Horstman and three bathrocms with sha-7ers. We knew the situation was unorthodox
and consulted a city building inspector. He
agreed it was unorthodox but thought the
situation would be okay since it was only
temporary.
•
EXHIBIT Q
Marcil 15, 1969
"Today we introduced ourselves to several people and incluq.ed 'We're fran the
Crisis Colony. ' I hope that doesn't bec:rne a free ticket we use. Just because
we're in the Crisis Colony we are good and right•••I don't want to think I'm
righteo� .just because I'm, ass;oc�ted with the Crisis Colony."
_ meeting. i( Was really keyed at first. They were rapping
"Sat in on the
about Youth and__
tfie church and the generetion gap. MY BAG� Then they got down
to bus:iness. 11
''More and more I feel ccmfortable with blacks and finally after so much stupid
ity on my part, I can talk to them, do things with them and it's just like being
with whites. 11
have
"Crisis Colony is one of the few things I
been able to believe·:in totally
and advocate so canpletely. TTave a lot of enthusiasm for this term."
*An ecumenical group which does much in
the Near Northside.
35
March 16, 1969
"Prince of Glory's�� service got through to me a little. Wasn't helped
fact that I haven't been to churcli in three J1Dnths."
by
the
"Folk service•••Wc:M! f get so keyed everyt:ime--especially the last song. I
feel as if I want to hug everyone in the congregation."
•
"This afternoon we moved·. The kids were all good-natured about it and there was
little canplaining••• This former f\meral home is really nice. Saneone said
it wasn't really living like sane of those in the cannunity arotmd us•••with
poorer conditions. He )Tl,3,y be right, but I'm not sure.
Another new learning experience was learning hCM to handle hustlers."
"F.eceiv� free tickets for the play, 'Threepenny Opera' at the f.astside Theatre
in St. Paul. .It was a biting satire an s09iety and politics."
*A church of the ghetto, integrated but having a
predaninantly poor white constituency. The service
was folk in style�
36
•
EXHIBIT Q
Marcil 17, 1969
"What will. I have done but spied -on people · and disrupted their lives. But if
I becane aware ••• I ha� got to leain to question and try to becone aware."
"__ fears an Uncle Tan camrunity if Blacks .in .America beo:me part of the
"'capitalistic
systen which oppresses much of the Third World."
"Left early and went to .the Montessori school.* FANTAm'IC! Kids, kids and
m::,re Jd.ds, all running around, FREE, spontaneous, absolutely beautiful. Most
of the actual 1 structured' teaching is on a one-to-one basis when the child ·
canes to you. 11
Tonight I was a little disappointed. Here we are in a comnunity with op�
tunities for learning everywhere and most of the Jd.ds watched television and
sat around."
11
*One of the assignments.
37
March 18, 1969
"I felt like I was sitting on the fence between them. I was brought up believwanted to work within. I can
ing in the establistment anc;i this was what
also see the faults of the establishnent anawith my generation. I want to
change this drastically."
"In the afternoon I went to the teacher,s meeting after scho61---and they voted
to accept my presence."*
" ••. It's as IIDlch a learning expeci.ence for the teacher
as it is for the kids.
.·
Arxl the teacher is 'one of them' • "
�Another of the assigrments.
38
EXHIBrr Q
March.-..19,-. -19 69
-
"I'm just beginning . .to_ see haf lilmlY: ills our
39
courrtiy
has."
March 20, 1969
"Our morning worship time was spent di_i:;cussing whether or not we ought to have
worehip, since sore of the kids don't know whether or not they believe in God."
"The basic problem with devotions and worship is---there is no foundations for
m:>at of us. Most of us haven't read the Bible for years. Joe keeps saying the
rnearring and word is there--all we have to do is read it •••its hard to say since
I haven't, but it seems understanding the Bible is a little harder than that."
"•••am
in the afternoon I went to Thee Whole to type."
''They came to our ootmtry and taught us how to pray
knees praying they stole our country." Van White*
*One of the black speakers.
40
and
while
we
were on our
EXHIBIT Q
March 21, 1969
__ is a very nice gcy, very polite,· got class, honest f!},Xf, loves
"'..-- _
everybody, and can get along with everybody. He is ab� muslim. He works
at G.H. Tenant Canpany. He is an executive. He is also with the American
Friends. He has a lot of problems and he hopes he can really get to knew me
and the groupbecause he likes to work with organizations. He can't say he
doesn't have arr:/ prejudice 'cause everyone has prejudice, not prejudice outside
but prejudice· in the hane.'
asked me to write the above quotationbecause he wanted tobe in my diary
-ana--he didn'tbelieve I would write about him unless he dictated it. I think he
is trying to hustle me.
I guess I just take negatively tobeing hustled. I like to get to kn<X>J people
as people, without any games---and then if there's a mutual attraction, it's
based on honest friendship and not infatuation. �- far as dating black guys,
I think it's O.K. I do think a lot of girls dateblack guys just 'cause they're
black, and they want to rebel, or shock people, or maybebecause of the myth
aboutblack guys being sexier. But in these cases, the guy isbeing usedbecause
of hisblackness; . he's not liked justbecause he's a person. But I do think
the.re are honest, genuine relationshipsbetween seses of different races. And
I think these are good."
41
March 22, 1969
"God help
US
all. 11 )•r
"The overwhelming feeling dur:ing the time was fear and depression because
of the why behind the act."
"Had the rudest awakening of my life!! I felt the blow of black tension on
my own chin. I think I've begun to understand fear in a real way. You can't
learn that in books."
"Education, as it stands today, tries to generialize and standardize things and
people all too much. Everything is geared to the 'average student and average
progress. ' But hCM can one dete.nJline what is 'average' or what is 'nonnal'?
Sure you can manipulate test.scores and I.Q.'s but what about the rest of that
individual? There's a hell of a lot that's being ignored •••
just came in and revealed another side. I don't know why I'm writing •••
---1-•m :incapahle of putting into words my thoughts and feelings because they're
o::ming fn:m a thousand different directions all at once. I can only say that
I feel anger, hate, shame, intense sensitivity to the point that I feel almost
smothered by it. The smallest fraction of Christ's suffering while he prayed
in the garden of Gethsemane ••• "
"I found that sane of the students would speak first and then think. Because
of this there was friction between me and a couple other fella-JS. Such as one
of the fellows referring to me as 'sunshine', which was very much to my disliking."
)fOne reaction to an altercation that occurred between one
black and several whites within the colony. The event
was quite a shaking experience since rost had not realized
the anger building in our black brother.
4-2
A
W
EXHIBIT Q
March 23, 1969
-- is really sensitive.
II
He looked like death wanned over that day.
I'm finding myself questioning a lot more. Partly the Colony••• It's really
paranoiac an>und here; maybe being paranoid is being aware."
I think I can see why they feel this way, yet personally I feel detached
from their accusations. 'Ihis is sanething I'll have to think out. Object
ively, I don't feel afraid of death. That would be an easy out. To live and
try to work tlrings out, face encounters, these are muchJOOre frightening than
death."
11
"__,_ was ready to scratch the whole project and move to the subUI"bs. I
prefer to stay even though I'm still shaking."
"Sane felt we shouldn't be here because whites belong in white communities
and blacks in the black. This person felt we couldn't do anything here and
the main concern was merely to humanize people arrl we shouldn't have to cane
here to learn that. I felt I had to stay here because I wasn't getting enough
in the world in which I was living.";'<
*Continuing reaction to the alterea.tion the night before.
43
March 24, 1969
"If he keeps this up I � going to hate him likP I've neveri hated anyone
·
·
my life•.•I just can't take hi::; clannations-..
w
tnrearor
After Noth� But a Man I started thinking . what l'd said about
••• I'd
only Uvedwi
sanething like it for a few days, those people dCMl
South and blacks most all over, I guess, live with sane kind of fear all their
lives •..and all kinds of insults. . '!hey }:lave much 100re reason to hate than I
do."
"-- came ba.ck--not much was said and everyone tried to act different. He
gave another speech damning all white people and saying he had a friend who
wanted to kill all white people. This really makes me feel up tight and scared.
I'm not sure I want. to live with it."
4-4-
EXHIBIT Q
March 26, 1969
EVICI'ION1'
"It p:robably is the greatest, best thing that could have happened to,us-
made us a colony•••
It's wild, I like it. But I don't like what they're.doing to us� Damn--
the 'student as nigger'.� .Damn--no, I'm a human being and I won't stand for
it so why should a Black. Better? I can see why."
"But looking beyond this I think I was confronted with the paver and authority
of the government for the first time•••There weren't many things that I was
ever confronted with that didn't work out right. Just contact the right people
or give them the name. Na,., I kna,., what people hez,e have to fight against.11
''Malcolm Boyd at Augsburg--a scmewhat inconsistent talk--for being in the
church I wonder why he felt the chll!'dl wasn't worth trying to change•••
Today at 3:00 we received an eviction notice to be out by 5:00 that day.
Inmediately everything was in an uproar•••Becky Finch was the most exciting
--a fiery little girl.11
"Joke of the day: We 're evicted. Ha! Ha! No joke.
Fran pa.rents : r,1e don't want your name in the paper, where are you getting
all these ideas? Who's putting this stuff in your head? ••• Why don't you
cane hane to reality? (Reality? Huh?)"
"
and I toured Pilot City Health Center and as we sat talking to _, '""'
--about facilities and social services, __ and __ burst in t_o t-ell
us we got an eviction notice at 3:00 p.m••••"
''c<Toe Building Inspection Department gave us
two hours to leave the premises because it
was unfit for human habitation. We were
amazed in a sense because it was really
nicer than the residences of 2/3 1 s of the
area. The group debated the prus and cons
and decided to stay. We would wait and see
what City Hall would do.
45
Mardl 28, 1969
"Saturday I met a person who really cut up the Crisis Colony experience
into pieces ••• "
"I had a hassle with my parents on the phone and I was deeply hurt. I love
them rore than I can express in words and I'ealize all they've done for rre arrl
I've done almost all they've asked of me. I've always told them what I did and
why and tried to respect their judgment, but nr:M they seem ashamed of what I'm
doing and ask me what's happened to me.
talked to a couple of· us again. He was. lo.nd of mad at us for making such
_a_h_i_g thing of this eviction notice."
46
EXlllBIT Q
Mardl 29, 1969
-
"Went to Our Pl.ace (150 kidc:; > good band). Caught two guys drinking in tbe
I didn't kick them out as I don't think that solves the basic
problem. We talked for about an hour before I asked them to leave •. I �ally
don't knew how to deal with such cases. I do think that kicking them out does
not solve the real problem."
furnace roan�
"I feel the eviction was the link that unified our colony with the canmunity.
We were living in far better canfort and conditions than the average people
in the area and yet we were the blunt of a northside p<:Mer play. The students
were able to W'lderstand a bit of the politics involved in the northside strug
gle for better living conditians. 111�
*One of the black students of the Colony reacting.
47
March 30, 1969
"I remember thinking sanetime last night that I'll never make the grade. I'll
never be .independent and innovative enough to stay in the fight. It was a very
depressing kind of thought: ••Tonight I'm not so pessemistic. I think there is
sane hope."
48
EXHIBIT Q
·.. Marcll 31, 1969
"Today one of the kids here described sane. of us as tdipshits' fr.an the fann.
I do think sane of the people in the group think they � superior. If they
are preju.di.ced against us, how can they help humani.ty at all.:.• "
"He took us back a little because.he said
He had expected.us to put him on the spot
young colt.*
he was a little disappointed in us.
and really see our spirit like a
Most of us are starting to drag sanewhat••• "
�Reaction fRm a black speaker.
.April 2, 1969
"I was just amazed at the people frun the Northside. I can't get over ha-, they
care for·their neighbors in time of crisis •••A pl.ant of crocuses were delivered
to OUI' door� They·were fran a gentleman in the neighborhood (whan we did not
kncM) and they bore a card with the message: 'God is still alive in North Min
neapolis.'
and I were out getting people to register to vote.
A depressing rnanent. ·
An AFOC mother said, 'Oh, I can't vote, I'm on AFOC ! ' People don't know their
rights or privileges.*
•••I really feel the draft for killing is wrong. There ought· to be other ways
of serving your CO\IDtry besides killing. I'm not sure if prison is the best
way of protest. The consequences are huge••• It gives a person a chance to
read and think, a chance to get oneself together. But I still ck>n't know."
"We had a good discussion this morning on whether we want to present a program
at Crystal, etc. I think, as _______ said, a lot of us are getting lazy
and we've turned the churcil etc. off so long that we refuse to listen to anyone
else on it.
I really didn't want to go hane, but I felt I should talk to my parents."
�°'Bill �th' s campaign. This was a
neutral activity, however. Students
were trying to persuade people to
register.
50
EXHIBIT Q
April 3, 1969
EASI'ER VACKITON
"I'm hane and it's a diffeI'mt world.
I visited with my Grendpa and we discussed my situation. It is still hard
for me to believe that my Grandfather is so willing to listen to a person
four times younger. He still believes he I s learning •
••• My
parents were better than I expected. Not upset, just wondering."
''Went to school for the first day. Mrs.
seemed very wann."
--, the teacher I'm under,
"I realized in a new way that the place for me to be working is back in
hane community."
my
"Participated in the Morrill Hall March fran the University to the Mall. It
was really great---3,000 people."
''Tonight I had my parents read the articles on our eviction and tried to talk
to them about what was going on. I had my father read sane of this diary. He
got very angry. He told me he could read between the lines and I should wake up,
gra,., up, and go back to school, because I wasn't going to help or change the
Negro. I told h:im I knew that and I wasn't trying to. I just wanted to learn
about them as human beings. 11
51
April 7, 1969
"I' 11 have to make a n!SOlution••• to keep up: .tbi:s ..dialy."
52
EXHIBIT Q
April 8, 1969
"So she told her parents that her black friend was there and they might like
to meet him and talk to him. Well, you can bet they got over to her apartment
darn quick. After very stiff introductions they sat da.,m in the living roan.
Her father just sat there and refused to say anything. Her boyfriend tried
to ease the tension by recognizing it and talking about it. He said he 1 felt
electricity in the air.' But the tension wasn't eased and they refused to even
see him as a person. After a while they left. The next day her mother told
her that her father had had a vision about 'that man.' 'And you must believe
it because your father does get visions, he is a man of God and God reveals
things to him. God told him that that man is the devil, is Satan himself, and
when he talked about electricity tna:twas the holiness of Jesus caning through
your father. That's why he was uncanfortable about the electricity. He is evil ·
and he felt hol;t: rays.'
My friends reaction was ccmplete astonishment at this, and also shame that her
parents actually believed sanething like that and denied a person hunanity because
of his color."
"
is
doesn I t seem to think I'm doing a good enough job of what I think
kids.
--r
1 -the
Ir1.d...
ing
-- shoos her stress by changing the seating arrangement every day."
"Back to the grindstone. I almost actually dread going to Montessori some days.
Like today."
53
April 9, 1969
"Today.I'm disgusted with sane people in the oolany who don't
of the work."
do
their sharie
"And if black is so beautiful how cane the black man is after so many white
chicks? And I'm fed up with all the.hustling that goes on•••sure I love to
sit down and rap with people, get da-m to the nitty-gritty but just because
we happen to fall on the same wave length doesn't necessarily mean I want to
date the guy. And every time so far, if I've said, 'No thank you•, the feed
back is that I don't want to date black men because I cane fran a nice white
middle class background and rey parents object. HEIL, oo� •••• just because I
don't like to be hustled."
"The :reading center with talking typewriters was fascinating."
54
EXHIBIT Q
April_ll, 1969
"The lectures are just beccrning
of them."
IDOI'9
boring •••haven't been getting much out
"It may mean it's better to work through the system rather than outside it.
These two ways of effecting change are cx:mtinuously being brought up. Sane
times I feel I want to give up the system CCJIJpletely and other t:imes I want
to alm:>st grab it by the hand and pull it along.
Later in the afternoon, right before supper, we called up Bill Green, assist
ant p:rtlncipal at Ocean-Brownville School in New Yon< and talked to him on
Dialogue."
"He made an interesting point about things appearing to be opposite, saying
they may not be anti but may be other."
55
April 12, 1969
"So I went to Rleep--my favorite means of escape. 11
"I love the wilderness. I don't know what to think about this•••the metropolitan man is the man of today and the future. In the wilderness I feel closer
to God and man. In the city I feel stifled and boxed in and totally frustrated.
Maybe the Northwoods is my escape. But if I can't make it in the city, shouldn't
I try the country, or am I running af/ay fran it?"
"'Thirty miles south of Minneapolis our old buggy started dying•••put it to rest
•••decided to.test our fellowman and attempted hitchhiking•••watched ladies Aid
groups, felloo constituents of the liberal white front go by••• (sane had the
audacity to wave). Ib not fear•••our Good Samaritan finally arrived•••skin
colo:P--black. 11
''i-lorked at TCM'lhouse Apartments trying to organize the residents.* We passed
out flyers and checked to see hCM much interest there was in a resident's
council. It is fun and exciting starting a thing like this. I feel like an
inventor."
�'fOne of the projects of several students.
56
EXHIBIT Q
-ApriL.14-., ..1.969
"I never thought of··it likerthis before, but he said there was no such thing
as culturally de..Prived. He said evefyone had a cultun?-they were just dif
ferent cultures."
57
Apr-il 15, 1969
"With regard to the system---it's like walking a tightrope to be sensitive to
your feeling � stick to your guns on what you believe. 11
11 • • •we left for a city COJ.ncil meeting. i:
Father Podvin and Pastor Hinrichs**
presented a proposal for a city youth street worl<er and an advisory canmission
on youth made up by a majority of youth workers. It was absolutely rena.rkable
but the city council didn't react at all to the proposal •
••• talked about nmaways and three of us decided the Crisis Colony couldn't
take the risk of fostering nmaways."
*In Crystal. The group attended many meetings in the
Ccmnunity.
*i:'I'he Father and the Pastorw� able leaders in the
Crystal Canmunity.
58
EXHIBIT Q
April 16, 1969
"I guess maybe to �ly find myself I have to lose myself first.
wierd but I'm beginning to think it's true."
Sounds
"People are really going to have to organize to get what they want.
At the Residents Meeting tonight I really recognized a lot of people. '!hat
was sort of neat because I felt like I knew what was going on. On the other
hand, it was sort of sad. - These same people were worlci.ng on all sort of things
for changes in the'systan;·but there was only a small handful."
"Kids at Our Place have given up••• Board with rules pouring out of their heads
like paper fron a teletype machine ••• the final eviction notice (for Our Place)
hanging over our heads, bringing the end ever closer."
59
April 17, 1969
11Three kids frcm the Fascinators* in St. Paul rapped to us this morning.
It wa.c; kind of different ftml 100st of what we hear an:>U11d here. Like the
two guys still talked about colored people instead of blacks•.. And they spoke
against the black rnilitants•••They didn't like Afros on most girls. 'Who wants
to wake up in the morning and think he's sleeping next to his br>other?' One
guy read sane of the poems he wrote while he was in the workhouse and the
other talked about LeRoy Gardner's barber sh:>p. It was quite a session."
"We saw four films on sex education or rether human relations. A group like
POSE (Parents Opposed to Sex Education) is very fcightening---they kept making
:renarks like, 'We don't have acy problems here, rrrf children don't even knoo
what prejudice is.'"**
*A canbo
**An
experience in Crystal.
60
EXHIBIT Q
April 18, 1969
"Ton:i.ght I also decided I was a fence-sitter and on top, but not on one side
or the other. I'm involved but I'm not'involved. · I believe but I don't believe."
"One th:iJig I have to be ver:1 careful about--when·talk:ing to people about the
problems with the structure, church, etc.---I have to not be judgmental of other
people�lea.� myself out.".
"Sat in on sane small group sessions at Cooper High School* •••has really changed
•••I wish I could have taken part in sane of this •••when I was back in high
school."
Ain Crystal area.
6,1
April 20, 1969
"Tonight we went to the Soul Passion in White Bear Lake.* It was kind of great.
A _five-piece band and al� with dancing around the ch�." ·
"This aft�rnoon I had nr:J first serious disagreement with nr:J old -rocmnate•••I
want:ed her to
with me to hear John Ylvisake:r present Soul Passion.
cane
At the outset of Soul Passion I had mixed feelings. I'm so used to the trad
itional••.Maybe the loud electric guitars turned sane people off, but if I were
walking by outside the church (it). would have sounded loud and joyful? And joy
is a real
. part of F.aster. It was
. a great worship experience."
"The Fabulous Fascinators were over and rapped. It was hilarious hearing about
the talk that goes on in the barber shop••• _ ·
read sane of the poetry
he wrote while he was in the workhouse. Ya,_he sees it too. There's sanething
about frustration and depression that enables a peI'SOn to express himself."
*A service led by John Ylvisaker on the Good Friday
Faster Story.
62
A
w
EXHIBrr Q
April 22, 1969
It is no �er a questioo of the redemptiat of Negroes but of the redenp
tian of .America, and of the lrner.l.can image in the world.
11
'.��·It is difficult for Americans to be p:j.fferent ••• Our value system is such that
we e,q,ect difference to reflect sane kind, of superie>!'-inferior polarity."'. · ·
.
. ·
Quotes fu:rn THE BI.ACK .AMERICAN AND '!HE PRESS*
" - and I are observing the Minneapolis Public Schools Task Force at
-Emerson
Elementary.·"
"'One��eboaks�thebilil.iognlphy
63
April 23, 1969
"It felt:good to,be silen� for awhile."
"Board of Directors met at Our Place. But only a couple showed. We agreed to
petition .the city of Crystal voters and kids in an attempt to pers\1ade the City
Council to take a responsibility for their youth by first of all providing a
place; then a staff and program."
"I got my first letter ftan my pa:rents since· Faster. rt··was factual, but nice."
�BITQ
April 2'+, 1969
"Sane of the kids think we got· threatened tonight. l guess it happened before
I got back. I don't quite understand it all. So I think I'll go to bed!?"
"We talked at Augsbq today•••I was disappointed with our presentaticn•••We
wasted. a lot of time. Also not nuch toought was put into it•••"
''We talked about the sit-in to be held on Sa:turda.y ••• I am really caught in the
the petition on the one hand as
middle over the whole thing. I am supporti.pg
0
the irethod to pressure the city fathers. And at the same time I feel the kids
are right in their methods of exposing the issue."
65
April 25, 1969
"I 'rn s�e,irig a
lot
about Jlo/Self ••• I'm, Jl()t very tolerant�,•."
learned three letters today---we had a feeling of accanplishnent, which
"
he-despara.tely needs."*
"I went to the Police Department Cannuni:ty Relations Branch and was ve.ry upset
by the passive and even racist tendencies of the 'liberal' pelicemen. These men
really don't tmderstand so many problems of the Black carrnunity. For instance·,
the seven deman:ls •••have really been ignon?d••• o;,uldn't even find a copy of the
demands today."**
*At the school where one worked as an aide.
**A project of one of the students.
66
EXHIBIT Q
April 26, 1969
"Tonight was the last night Our Place, the teen center in Crystal, was open.
I knew the kids were planning a sit-in because after tonight they're out in the
streets again, but I decided not to go because __ half-joked that th ey might
be in jail tanorn:M when we're supposed to be giving the church service.
and __ finally got back---! was getting worried and wondered if maybe
,-..,..th
re
ally were in jail. __ is all bruised up---his head, face, arm, and
ey
hand because the cops took bl.ackjacks to then."
"We rehearsed at St. James.* I thought the a:rohitecture was the Lodge. It
was :really awesane and frightening."
"A debate in the colony•••Never trust anyone over thirty.
Should I be questioning �s Joe or any adults do JIDre than I do. I guess I
belong more to the old school.••Sane people I'm sure I disagree with and question,
but I don't think every established person or structure should be torn apart
just because it is that."
"Confrontation** ••• 9:30 or 10:00 •••40 •••police didn't shoo right away•••number
of kids cn-m to about 20 ••• with the entrance of the cops a few started leaving,
so we sat doon and started singing, 1 We shall overcane. ' The oops started
threatening certain members of our group with court appearances for curfew
violations and probation violation as well as phone calls to parents. Sane of
the kids had to leave.•• only eleven left•.•we continued to sing and link anns
in a small circle on the floor. The police blew their cool••.
accused ...-.....- __ of breaking a curfew ordinance and then he_p_roc-eeded to
try and haul __ out of the circle•••__ started twisting necks••• -:r--,-,:
began to use his blackjack. His first swing hit me right on top-of the
head. __ __ arrived and sent most of the other cops home•••chatted awhile
••. since there was no immediate confrontation it would be of little use to stay
around •••we left on our CMn accoro."
-----
'�e first church in which the liturgy of the
Crisis Colony was presented.
**At Our Place
67
April 27, 1969
"The first service lasted fore�-the second one was exciting--now I knew
there can be emotional fervor in religion. The congregation didn't seem
thrilled."
"One guy wondered why we had done this on Sunday morning. He thought it
would be Okay in the evening but not Sunday m:>:rnµig. __ tried to explain
to him that we had kept a lot of the old and added the new and didn't want
the new to replace the old or take over and thra,l out the old. But the guy
didn't believe that. One guy who is a pretty concerned and involved guy was
mad because we were saying, he thought, that he should be ashamed of 1iving in
the suburbs. He said he's getting sick of hearing this because he doesn't
believe it. He took the whole tiring as a personal insult•••One couple has been
taking sane kind of course at the University which they said had really helped
them to see a lot.
One of the Fascinators�" said afterwar>ds that that was really clean!---really
great.
One fella-l asked if the service was to shock. We said, no, we didn't think it
had any shock value as such. It was what we really believe•••"
"I don't Jaia-, how the Fabulous Fascinators, with their loud music and equip
ment all over the alter (area) went over••. Mrs. Thorson said she saw the
Fascinators at the altar offering the best they had to God. That really
struck me. Was the, rest of our group doing that?"
"The Fascinator's gloria was beautiful---This is My Counm and right in the
middle they stopped, lxMed their heads and raised.their 1.sts in the black
pa-,er sign. There were quite a fev, jaws that dropped, but it was beautiful
to me •
•• • two alternatives in the way we present our liturgy: we can be subtle,
cautious, walk on eggs; or we can sock it to 'em! The first is rrore rational
but I don't think we have time to be careful."
"Got to Our Place about 3: 30 p.m. and helped haul out furniture•••Sane of the
kids were really perplexed about whether to help•••or whether to resist•••I
was no longer in favor of a sit-in because I felt that we had adequately
demonstrated our concern Saturday night•••The kids had a hard ti.me understanding
this, I think, and maybe in the end sane will never••. I have no previous
experience with ar-rJ of this."
1:rhe
Fascinators played during the service
68
EXHIBIT Q
April 27, 1969 · ·
(cont.)
"When. I fir::;l encounle.re<l ·the ser'Vices ••• I thought it was crazy to have guitars
and drums in a church. The songs they sang were fran pop music and I just didn't
understand. I felt the church must really be in poor shape to hate to bring
rock into the church to bring people closer to God.
When we had our services I began to understand that people should be •••reached
and since more people partake in religious services than any other it was prime
time to attempt to reach the minds of people.
I felt that when I spoke to the church that I wasn't trying to indoctrinate the
people but more to cause them to reflect upon their past and present life.
I believe the services in general were to cause people to think of what existed
exists in the world ••• I think quite a few people try to live around the
problem."
and
"I feel we were unfair to the people at St. James by having the Fascinator's
play at their service. They were out of place. I felt they added nothing in
the religious or socialogical aspect. Our liturmr is meaningful but was not
listened to because of the soul band."
The service had been constructed during
the weeks before. A real attempt was
made to give roan in the woros so that
there were portions the agnostics could
say meaningfully. As it turned out, no
one specifically repudiated the liturgy.
Ylvisaker helped technically in the
musical portions and often led the music
ians.
69
April 28, 1969
"This was the last day to do campaigning and I-must say we did a lot� .. I think
we can win---both the primary and the final•••Tano?:"lXW will tell the .ta.J4. Vote
Bill Smith! "
70
EXHIBIT Q
April 2_9, 1969
"Poll-watching this morning from 7...11. ·· Real fun. Bill came a far second to
Joe �enstein! That means we have a hell of a lot of work to do before
June 10.
It really gets to me sanetimes--the Colony---no, maybe its
people I can't take."
a
couple of the
"A hideous night•••Stenvig, 15,000? *
Hoo could arry
human
hl.lllB11 being vote for Joe (;yleenstein over Bill Snith?
Today I read MY PEOPLE IS 'IEE ENEMY. There are sane really terrific statements
and insights in the book."
"Stenvig wiped out Hegstran!--on a law and order platform. 'We need to take
the handcuffs off the police ••• ' God that's scary. Hitler here we cane."
�s was the primary. The group also
worked for the main election later.
71
April 30, 1969
''The Colony is good in that we must interrelate and possibly clarify our· thoughts
for camnmi.cation. Ht:Mever, one oan'tbe alone. There is no place to go to sit·
quietly and reflect and just be still." .
72
-
EXHIBIT Q
May 1, 1969
"I spent the evening with :_ • We had a canforrtable time listening to music
and talking about everything._____We_ have a• lot in camion even-though I'm
considered rich and he's considet'e<;f poor. It's an attitude about our posses
sions that is not shared outwardly by say the in-between econanic strata."
''We went to Target to interview sane kids. With a group of fifteen kids and
Target cokes in hand, we engaged in conversation for about thirty minutes before
the store manager kicked us out. He said he wasn't running a teen center•••"
"A cheery 'phantan' left May baskets for all of us."
73
May 2, 1969
''Man and I talked tonight� •• such a hassle. .Ahlays. 'no they're not all that w�,
but' ••• told her about the HW\C bill ••• oonfinement of redicals, etc. , in already
rejuvenated
concentre.tion camps•. · I . think, I started to .get tllI'QJgll to· her."
'
74
EXHIBIT Q
May 3, 1969
"To be truthful, one of the . things I hate �st is keeping this journal.
I kn01,,T I have no self confidence or a sense of personal worth and I guess
that helps explain why I hate to write."
"The northside has changed nCM that the surriner temperatun!s have arrived.
The teens stand on street comers until � or three in the TJOming on week
ends. Destruction of windows has increased•••maybe the thief is not such an
inhuman character after all. We've placed machines over men instead of vice
versa."
"Discussed police with the parents. Amazing h01,,T well they keep up with sane
things. Tl
75
May 4, 1969
"Its so hard for me to get to knCM people. Tonight I was really mad that
it takes me so long•••so many interesting people•••and there isn't time•••
and I'll have lost something without·even gaining it."
"The more aware one becanes the hartler it is--for me it's hard to keep a
sense of hU!OOI'•••laugh to keep fran crying."
"The Danforth Foundation gave our service a warm reception at the Hilton in
St. Paul this morning. A pleasant change ccmpared to the previous Sunday.
A small churd"l in New London hearo our service and Peter.
re�ptive."
They too were
"The part titled 'New Visibilities'* is my favorite part."
1rin the liturgy of the Crisis Colony
76
EXHIBIT Q
Mays, 1969
"Remember that little old lady we talked to who had eleven dogs and was voting
for Greenstein because he gave her some pt.Dllpkins Hall™een and she made a pie
and he said it was good? She got on the bus with me today and started talking
to nobody in particular. 'There's nothing Wl'IC>ng with the Northside. I like the
Northside--lived here all my life. I can't see why people say there's anything
wrung. No sir, etc., etc., etc.' People who don't admit that- theres a prob
lem of poverty, tmempl�t, health, prejudice,
etc., . are the problem."
.
*.
"It's sad when a little
.
�~.+h;�'g•••
.-..Ul:f""'�-
boy
.
is so convinced that he is dlVIlb---and can't learn
Today hl.Bilall relatioris had beccme a responsibility---what I mean is that when you
cane into a critical situation like the one we're :in you really have to be to
gether (kna-1 yourself) or you can do a lot of damage. Unless this can be taken
seriously I wish people would stay out of the situation."
"The Human Behavior Camri.ssion together with the Park Boa.rd Carmission jointly
are working out a long range program for the teenagers in Crystal, including
a youth ccmnission and a staff of street workers."
i,At the school
77
May 6, 1969
"The colony is just getting dam far·enough to make sense. Everyone has over
cane sane of their basic confrontation fears ••• Scmetimes I think five lectures
a week is too much.
The lecture of an Indian on police corrmunity relations really came into focus
in what happened Friday night. __, __, .....-- and __ and I were in the
Shell Station on Olson Highway gettJ.ng gas---the police car was there also. As
we drove off the police fella.red and stopped us. The car was a ' 54 Chev, not
in top condition. He asked me for rrrJ license, which J gave him. He asked me
if that was ITrf mailing address, etc. I asked him why· he had stopped me and he
mumbled sanething. Then he asked_
_ ...,..... and_.....,... their names. Not the girls.
,
got
out
and
talked
with them---1t turned out one of the tail
and
..�ligh�ts was out and there was no light on the license plate---OKAY---so they
called davntoon to find out if __ and ·
had records---! got out and
asked why they stopped me---no answer---then I, said -?- don't you guys (there
were two police cars) have anything better to do and he looked at me and said,
'Don't you have anything BEITER to do?' He might as well have said--- you
whore, excuse the expression."
f
"There was a police-ccmnunity relations meeting---a panel spoke---it was not
representative of the canmunity at all. There were outbreaks fran the audience •••
they were mad and frustrated .•• the panel didn't recognize them•••Matt Eubanks
took over. Quite a few people left---he called people fran all diffe�t view
points to sit at the table."
78
EXHIBIT Q
May 7, 1969
I'm glad I got involved in the Tenant'� Union. I've met sane great people :through
and I've re.ally learned about the poor in the. city •••I helped with all the busy
work of surveying and talking to the residents but no,, its in the hands of the
residents and organizers. I feel sort of useless."
11
it
''Hoo..oo you justify a school day that is canpletely a mess?•••'Ihe issue in educa
tion .1s survival (Not if he is behaving OI' adjusting) or if he is learning."
"-- __ , blac::k pastor, 'I wouldn't march for anyone, for anything. '"
79
May 8, 1969
"I think I've realized a few things frcm all of this. The first is that we're
not really accepted by the ccmmunity. We 're just sort of tolerated as long as
they qan get places to stay, free meals, swipe stuff every once in awhile, and be
able to hustle white chicks. But cut anything off and ·they're angry, they get
destructive but they expect to be able to came back anytime for more. But I'd
say the biggest attraction is white chicks to hustle. Perhaps we're not always
genuine, and we're phony but are they really genuine with us? The saddest thing
about prejudice is that it causes people to be other than themselves and canmunications breaks down and people can't relate."
"I believe I'm more me n<M and I see myself becaning older for all that I have
learned•••I'm becoming more aware of the world.
--, --, -----irost of the guys who stop by have taught me a lot about me."
"Last night, after __ left,
's $40. 00 camera was gone. , • (__ knew he
had the camera.) The fact that she didn't know what to say to him reveals a
fail� and makes me ask myself, ''Have we really accanplished anything?'"
"On a conversation with a policeman: Lately I think I have been tending to
stereotype a lot of people and as a result all cops are 'mother fucking racist
pigs? ' Instead of holding an intelligent conversation on law and oroer and
even justice, we ended up indicting the guy for all the wrong-doings of the
police departments around the world."
80
-
EXHIBIT Q
May 9, 1969
"Sanet:imes •.•he gets drunk and then he has to turn on saneone and he finds a.
different person each time. I couldn't take it if it turned out to be me•••So
I just avoid h:im."
"In discussion in suburbs one guy said you have to have concern be;fore you can
love; that' you have to know the 'love of God' be;fore you can love others. NO!
NO! NO! By sharing and giving you <ii;scover. love and. it's �aning •••
The problem in the suburbs, as I see it, is that families have JJX)Ved there
because it's a good place to bring up kids. Fa.ch family is an entity .to itself
and doesn't see beyond it."
81
May 11, 1969
''We did the church service again*•••It . hit me 1111.lch nore--what
.
doing�" -
and
we
were saying
"I was �ly disappointed because he holds sane of the ideas which are white
.Ametj.ca's rationali7.a.tions for the position of the poor people, 'They can get
oork if they were willing to worlc'---but who wants to spend the rest of his life
as a janitor · if he would rather be a doctor."
"Just the experience of worshipping with them was meaningful. to me. I guess
maybe I was prejudiced against Catholics•••I've always been segregated fn::m
•II
theJil. •
'rAt a Ranan Catholic Church
1
82
EXHIBIT Q
May -l2 ;t 1969
interesting.
''My in::lependent study i&-�y.
.- .
. ..
got the hang Of .it."
I enjoyed
- . my' intervia,tjng
. .once I\T
' .
"Voter l'egistre:tion is int�ting but disheartening. Most of those who are
not l'egistered don't intend to do it-this_year ar in years to cane."
83
May 13, 1969
"Only two weeks left •••Less freedan with paper pressure.
I wonder hoo I've changed. I'm looking at the world in a broader sense---my
eyes are open--I'm sympathetic to larger m.nnbers of people and I'm hopeful of
a changing future."
"Police and carmunity relations aren't."
84
EXHIBIT Q
May 14, 1969
"I thought of man's ;i,nhunanity to man. Then I talked to a lawyer who pn!sented
just a cool, logical face to me. And I despair."
''Went to the library. Strange how unoan.fortable I used to feel in a library
when I had books to read. -Now when I chose to go I'ead I really felt at bane."
85
May 15, 1969
"The faculty
"Overwhelmed.
was
here
••• the ocmnents and discussion. was fantastic."
.
Do I have the discipline and responsibility to get things done."
''The question of freedan and' the youth struggle is frightening. For, if
discipline is left out and its only rebellion we will not have what it takes
to effect change."
86
EXHIBIT Q
May 16, 1969
"The thoughts I have had concerning the slow destruction of this country-this
world. And sanetimes I feel so danm helpless."
"Today the thought struck me that radicals and militants might·be sane of the
only real hunanists ther-e are."
"Everyone is getting tired� Saw Joanne--message---life must have a meaning-
you nrust be cxmnitted to sanething. My dad asked in the last lettel'---what is
the purpose in life?"
"Played the Ghetto game. Not ba.d---but doesn't compare to living in poverty.
Profs came. They still worry about credits and the possible 'r-ebellious natures'
that Crisis Colony may create.
Appeared on Cyril Paul's television sha-7."
87
May 17, 1969
''Tonight + w�nt to see Oliver!
JTOJSioal. "
"Read Doxiadis and fbuglass*
am.
to me. it was depressing.
aU aftenxxm-fascinat:ing?"
lrOne of the reading list.
Not just a light
-- ---- 7
EXHIBIT Q
May 18, 1969
-- whipped through his lessons-he just pretends he's dumb."
II
"Put our service on at House of Hope Lutheran Church in New fupe. The I'eaction
wasn't too bad. They seemed to like certain parts of it. ____ said that
when he read the service he was sure that 'Give a Damn' was out of place. But
when the service had gotten underway, then he thought it was very important. I
think it's �ant to note his change of attitude and willingness not to judge
canpletely on first sight. I mean to put all suburban men into one big bag and
fail to treat them as hunan individuals."
89
May 19, 1969
''When we go back to Augsbmg next year its going to be hard talking to people
about: these ideas...;;,-for they ck>n't want to hear them am will likely find many
reasons to turn us off. Yet we JmJSt try with a positive attitude."
"Marshal Mcwhan's film and perception of the wor-ld around us seems very
prophetic." ..
90
E»!IBIT
May 21, 1969 .
"They (black men) constantly test.
painful game• II
It's really a game. Very cruel and very
"Tonight the tcMnhouse apartments were to have a residents meeting with the
But the manager's wife was rushed to the hospital to· have her baby•• �
We have been working so long•••All our Saturday surveys, all 'the resident's
meetings, the tenant's union, and I didn't get to see••• "
manager.
91
Q
May 22',. 1969
"Profs! Fron sane people I get the feeling that intellect and humanism are two
different, separate things. The u1timate in life is developing one I s intellect
to the fullest. .And it• s logical. But how can you separate ••• " ·
''Went to Chinwag at Augsburg and it was filled with kids. That was beautiful,
but even better, half the kids were black and fu:m the 'U' or Augsburg. It
seemed right. However, I was disturbed when a friend said, 'Black boys are .
all right but when that many � in our school I just get a creepy feeling. ' .
Those people are sane of the hardest people to change."
92
EXHIBIT Q
May 25, 1969
''Well, this is going to be my conclusion� · Cri.'sis Colony is over. I've been .
doing a lot of thinking about it. One t1ring I have to say is that even though
this was a treme.rrlous learning experience for me, in a way I'm oot sure if it
was good for the .cc:mirunity. We care in, make ties, and take off. They're still
living there. I think what I have to do is renember that this is only the first
step, arrl the real test of my feelings is caning nc:M. hn I really going to be
ex>ncemed and do sanething? . I think the .best thing for me to do these next few
years is work through Augsburg with the FAME program and pushing other Crisis
Colonies.
I guess if I described Crisis Colony in terms of my experience I'd say it was
a baptism. It was a dying of the old ideas arrl attitudes that didn't worlc and
a · birth of new ones.
END POil1:
"You who are wholly holy
You who have no forgiven sins to :repress
are an empty cha.lice
Were you ever filled with the
fulness of life
Or did you pray them away before puberty
Gr<::Ming in what the. ancients
thought to be
The image of God."
"___,...., ___am. I ended up doing al.Joost all of the labor in our clean-up
operations. It was a long afternoon , ending with a chocolate malt at l.etofsky's
and a final farewell to the Gerst Funeral Chapel. For once more the building
had :returned to loneliness and darkness. The S1Wky odor which for nine weeks
had gone into hiding, once m:,re appeared on the scene. Life had left and death
had returned.
was talking about our contemporary worship service. Never before had she
.........-ed like this. She had given up on God and the Church a couple of� ago •••
-taik
and ncM she was just w.a.mning with new possibilities.
In many ways the · Crisis Colony was a catalyst. After ten weeks we had becane
action orientated."
"I feel we all delve into problems more in depth than before. That we under'-
stand that problem is always deeper than what it appears. The problems that
exist cannot be solved by the federel gove.rmient. We the people must be aware
of the injustices enOO\.Dltered by millions of others. Time is very important•••
93
May 25, 1969 (cont.)
We know that usually the person who has•••lived the problems is the only
one with a sound solution to it.
To tell the truth I didn't expect to learn anything ftan the colony because I
am black and we were going to live in conditions that were very familiar to me •••
When I first started, I knew only a couple of people and that was just 'speak
ing people. ' As the time went by everyone got to krn:M much m:>re about each
other. I don't believe anyone in the oolony disliked anyone else. We became
like a large fanily. Everyone was doing sanething else for and with the carrmmity.
We all tried to share our ideas with one another and discuss various points in
depth if there was a question•••
But I felt the colony was very helpful to me. As loog as people try to ccmnun
icate with each other with the sharing of ideas and differences of opinions then
problems can be feasibly wo:ri<ed out. I think the colony is very beautiful in fact
and thought and the experience that is gained can never be replaced."
"It's funny, but I'm not sad to leave here because everything
· · I've gotten will
stay with me for life."
"The Crisis Colony is an effective way for a person fran a background like mine,
with limited contact with the problems and troubles of :i.nner'-city living to
lea..vn to respect the values and attitudes of these people."
94-
EXHIBIT Q
URBAN ENCOUNTER SEMINAR SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS:
Charles Lutz, Center for Urban Encounter
Gordon Nelson, Augsburg College
Rabbi Jerome Herzog, Kenneseth Israel
Spike Moss, The WAY
Bill Smith, Political Candidate
Coselle Breedlove, Political Candidate
Van White, Employment
David Preus, School Board Chairman
Earl Bowman, Schools
Pastor Ron Hinrichs, St. James, Crystal
John Doyle, Urban League
Scotty Stone, Student Leader
John Warder, Plymouth Bank
Austin Coleman, Midwest Services
Lejeune Johnson and Nancy Hawks, Civil Rights Department
Mrs. Marlin Hendrieth, Basic Skills Center
Mr. Charles Nichols, Work Opportunity Center
Milt Williams, Way University (several times)
Lucy Clark, AFDC Mothers
The Fabulous Fascinators, A Northside musical combo
Pastor Rollie Robinson, Chairman - WAY Board
Marvin Trammell, Assistant School Supt. - Lecturer Mankato State
Dan Pothier, T. V. - "Black Voices 11
Dick Cunningham, Minneapolis Tribune
Leonard Weaver, Community Worker
Floyd Scott, Family Services, former Juvenile worker
Mr. Wally Neal, W.E. Neal Slate Company
Pastor Ron Terry, Sabbathani Baptist
Pastor Orpheus Williams, Grace Emanual Community Church
Pastor Marlin Mendrieth, Wayman Methodist
Pastor John Schultz, Coffee House Extempore, Director, ALC Youth
Felton Mathison, St. Paul Police Force
Matt Eubanks, Citizen's Community Center
Pastor Bill Youngdahl, Augsburg's Center for Urban Studies
Mr. Boynton, Robbinsdale School System
Vivian Jenkins, Phyliss Wheatley House
Father Richard Podvin, Crystal, St. Rapheals Catholic Church
Pastor Bob Samples, Director - Artist Culture Center
Pastor L. David Brown, Former ALC Youth Director
DIALOGUE ON TELEPHONE:
Mr. Bill Green, Ocean Hill-Brownsville School, New York
Gordon Parks, Author, Composer, LIFE Photos, Hollywood Director
Mr. Boyd, San Francisco State College Administrator
Senator Mondale
95
SEMINAR SPEAKERS (cont. )
IN PUBLIC MEETINGS, SPEAKERS HEARD:
Larry Harris, Urban Department, Minneapolis Public Schools
Joe Greenstein, Political Candidate
Chief Dwyer, Captain Lindbergh - Police
Father Janicke, Milwaukee 14·
Malcolm Boyd, Writer
DIALOGUES:
Dialogue with League of Women Voters, Crystal
Dialogue with five Suburban Human Relations Commissions
Dialogue with Mayor and City Council of Crystal
96
•
EXHIBIT
A PARTIAL LIST OF ORGANIZATION
WHOSE MEETINGS WE ATTENDED OR
ENGAGED IN DIRECT DIALOGUE BY
BEING THE PROGRAM
.Q
MARCH EVENTS
Our Pla.ce - Board Meeting on March 10th
Minicue Session, Bethlehem Lutheran on March 11th
Westwood Lutheran Luncheon on March 13th
Matt Eubanks Trail on March 14th
Northside Ecumenical Ministry on March 15th
-·Prince of Glory Folk Servioe on March 16th
Thee Whole -A.Board Meeting on March .18th
Lincoln, Jtmior:High l>TA on March 20th
Representatives - Crystal Human Relations·- March 21st
Grace Emanual Baptist on March 23rd
Human Behavior Meeting on Marph .24th
Minicue Session, Bethlehem Lutheran on March 25th
S Suburban Human Relations Commission's on March 26th
Crystal. City Hall Police Harassment Case on March 28th
Bill Smith Campaign Meeting and then Campaigning on March 29th
Various Black Churches on March 30th
With Tom Beach on u. of M. Summer course on March 31st.
APRIL EVENTS
Meetings of Commission on Human Behavior, Crystal on April 1st
Discussion of Police-Community Relations on April 2nd
Tactics of Northside on April 3rd
VACATION - April 3rd - 7th
Bil'i Smith Campaign Meeting· on April 8th
Tactics material passed out on April 9th
Our Place - a�ard Meeting on April 9th
Tactics - Board Meeting on April 10th
Pilot Medical Center on April 11th
WAY on April 11th
Bill Smith, Campaign Meeting_on April 12th
Tenants Union on April 12th
Blooming Prairie �nee.on April 12th
·Blooming Prairie Sunday School/Dialogue on April 13th
Mason City Luther League_9n April 13th
Housing Redevelopment Agency on April 13th
Sandbagged in 'Flood Ar�a on April 14th
Work Opportunities Center on April 15th
Eastside Tenants Union on April 15th
Thee ifuole - Board Meeting on April 15th·
City-wide Residents Meeting on April 16th
AFDC League on April 17th
Screening of fo�r films for Crystal people on sex education
etc. on April 17th
Bill Smith Campaign meeting on April 18th
Teen Center - Highland Park on April 18th
Bill Smith campaign meeting on April 19th
Northside Clean-up campaign on April 19th
Minnesota Studetjt Meeting on April 19th
Northside Ecume�ical Ministry on April 19th
Tenants Union on April 19th
Ylvisaker's us�ul Passion Service" - White Bear Lake on April 20th
97
MEETINGS/Page_2
Father Janicke, Milwaukee 14 on April 20th
5th Ward Alderman Candidates on April 22nd
Board of Directors - Our Place on April 22nd
Tenant's Union on April 22nd
Human Relations Commission - 5 suburbs on April 23rd
Tactics on April 24th
Augsburg Convo on April 24th
Tenant's Union on April 24th
Citizens Community Center on April 26th
Bill Smith campaign on April 26th
Conference at First Congregational on April 26th
St. James Lutheran Church - Our service on April 28th
Luther League at Prince of Glory on April 28th
Blooming Prairie Youth on April 28th
Minicue at Bethlehem Church on April 29th
Mr. Wally Neal on April 29th
MAY EVENTS . ;
Hospital Auxiliary on Hay 1st
Our service, Hilton Hotel, Danforth Regional Con£. on May 4th
Our service, New London on May 4th
Plain Truth Panel on May 6th
Catholic Renewal Couples Group in Crystal on May 9th
Our Service, St. Raphael's Catholic on Hay 11th
On Crisis Colony, 1st Unitarian Church on Nay 11th
Meet with City Council and r.layor of Crystal on Nay 12th
Bethune School Dedication on May 13th
P.T.A. at Willard School on Hay 13th
Our liturgy rehearsed at Calvary Uethodist on May 14th
Augsburg Professors on May 15th
Generation Gap, 1st Unitarian Church on May 15th
Education Fair, University of ainnesota on May 16th
House of Sojourner on Hay 16th
Peace Conference at Augsburg on May 17th
Protest at St. Paul legislature on l•1ay 17th
Our service, House of Hope Lutheran Church on May 18th
HCAC Art Festival on May 18th
.Minicue, Our Pentecost service on May 20th
Colony to a School class, Robbinsdale on Nay 20th
DFL Ward Club, Crystal on Hay 21st
Robbinsdale Human Relations Club in High School on May 22nd
Tenant's Union Demonstration at Capital on May 23rd
A.B.M. Debate on May 24th
Our service at Augsburg on !-lay 25th
98
LITURGY !Qa CRISIS COLONY!!.
EXHIBIT Q
The Fabulous Pa.scinators
"The ·Fool on 'the Hill" verse· 1-
L.
Day after day, alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin 1s keeping perfectly still
Nobody wants to know him, They can see he's just a tool
And he never gives ari answer but the tool on the hill
sees the sun going down
and the eyes in his head see the world spinning round.
This service begins in the Strong Name or the Trinity,
Father, Son and Spirit.
C.
Amen
L.
It must be said, some or us think of ourselves a.s Christians;
others or us are not sure what to think---especially about
the Church. Some of us wonder almost to the point or despair
whether the Church, or any of the institutions or this time,
for that matter, will race up to the profound changes that
must occur in our day. This liturgy then is given with mixed
feelings. We must be honest •.
I believe; yet help my unbelief.
CONFESSIONAL, A Word of Honesty
C.
-
PSALM OF CONFESSION (130) - Gelineau
CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE:
I place my trust in you, my God.
All my hope is in your mercy.
INTROIT, Episode in a Timeless Valley
I • . The hand or the Lord was upon me, and h� brought me out by
· 'the Spirit or the Lord, and set me down in the midst or
the valley;
II� It was full of bones.
I. And he led me round among them; and behold, there were
very many upon the valley;
II. And lo, they were veey dry.
I. And he said to me, Son or Man, can these bones live?
II. And I answered, O Lord God, You know.
I. Again he said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them,
II. o dry ones, hear the word or the, Lord.
I. Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
II. Behold, r·w111 cause breath to e·nter you, and you shall live.
I. So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied,
there was a noise, and behold, a rattling;
II. And the ·bones came together, bone t·o 1ts bone.
I. And as I looked, tlesh had come upon them, and skin
had covered them;
II. But there was no breath in them.
I. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son
or man, and say to the breath,
II. Thus says the Lord God: Come rrom the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
99
I.
II.
I.
II.
I.
II.
So I prophesied as he· commanded me,
And the breath came into· them, and they 11 ved.
Then he said to me, Son or Man, thes-e bones are the whole
house of Israel.
Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is
lost; we are clean cut orr.
Therefore, prophesy, and say to them, Thus -says the Lord God:
Behold, I will open your -graves, and raise you from your
graves, .0 my .peopl.e';
. ..
And I :will bring you home il)_to the land or Israel.
KYRIE,
The Shape of Our Tomb
"The·: Sounds of Silence"
(Join us with the text)
L.
L.
In
peace let us pray to the Lord.
But there can be little peace when along the street
we live are buildings, empty, burnt, deserted because
all econ_om1c interests, long ago left the area. The
street is a scar.
C. Lord, have mercy. (Response, SBH, page 18 at the bottom)
R. There can be little peace whenthe houses and land
of the area are owned mostly by absentee landlords_
who are little interested in the people in their ho.uses.
C. Lord, have mercy.
R. One woman said she wouldn't let a daughter of hers live
where we are for five minutes. But 77,000 people must
live their whole lives here.
C. Lord, have mercy.
R. Another woman said she thought maybe we could teach
black people something by our living in their part
of town. How corifus·ed can you get?
C. Lord, have mercy.
For the peace of the whole world, let us pray to the Lord.
. .R. .A National Guard force,. 97 percent w_hite, patrolled the
city of Wilming.ton, D'el'aware;_with·a 40 percent black··
population every night· from April 9, 1968 to January
21, 1969. Was this the first portent of a police state?
C. Lord,, have me�cy. .
. .
..
. . . .
· ·:
R. In my town 1n nearby Wisconsin,' ·a blac� man moved to town.
First they burned his shed, the�_h1s barn, then his house.
That was. three year� ago. No Nati<;m.al Guard wa_s called.
C. Lord, have mercy.
.
·
: ·
conform have
R. In two suburbs, centers f'or y_o_uth w,ho 'do not·
(
been forced to close.· Intere�tingly,'.
A,pril 12, 1969,
came news that Russia too is:· forbidding long hair and·
non-conforming clothes. Will :the· Gene�ation Gap turn into
a War of' tlie Generatione all. 0,ver. the worl.
· d· 1··
·
C. Lord, have mercy.
Help, save, pity, and •. defend us; O God, by·yo�r _grace.
C. Amen.
R.
or
L.
.
'
.I . .
100
. ..
A
W
EXHIBIT Q
"The Fool on the Hill" verse 2
Day after.day. alone on the street
The black and the Indians wait and wait but we never meat.
Nobody wants to know them 1 each would seem a tool
And he never gives an answer but the tool on the street
sees the sun going down
and_the eyes in his head see the world spinning round.
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS, The New Visibilities
.
.
'l'he powerless are everywhere becoming visible. Some are only silent,
but still others are speaking with remarkable, unforgettable words.
And some are acting. The faces are red, brown, black, and white
paled by poverty. Their appearance 1s a judgment, but it 1a also
mercy, for they are new---a hope for our bankrupt time.
The are being joined by the powerless young. And the powerless old
are also becoming visible, saying that judging a man's worth by how
much he is able to produce is a blasphemous word of a god who 1s a
devouring idol.
••• Dimly we remember there was a powerless, speechless child, unable
to lift his head---Jewish, a refugee along the road. He never pros
pered, left nothing but a cloak when he died. The death was the
lynching of a man pronounced criminal. Yet the angels sang when he
was born, singing that God is celebrated by the powerless:
A Celebration. The Fascinators
The Gloria in Excelsis
A
Gloria or Celebration trom the Tradition.�. Number 25
THE WORD, Invocation or Resurrection - eviction notices for the dead
Luke 16:19-31
Gradual: Hymn of Reasurect1on (join with text)
-
John 11:1-4; 11-1�; 32-q4
Song from the tradition announcing Resurrection, SBH
Number 99. Verses l, 2, and 6.
THE CREED, A Day of Fools
0
The Fool on The Hill"
verse 3
Day after day, alone on a hill
The man on the crooked cross is keeping perfectly still
Nobody wants to know him, They can aee he's Just a tool
And he never gives an answer but the tool on the hill
aees the sun going down
and the eyes 1n his head see the world spinning round.
101
What shall we say or those who through faith conquered kingdoms,
enforced Justice, received promises, stopped the mouths or lions,
quenched raging fire, escaped the edge or the sword, won strength
out or weakness, became mighty 1n war, put foreign armies to
flight? Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were
tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again
to a better 11re•••They were stoned, they were sawn in two•••
Others were assassinated with guns or buried in swampy places or
Southern towns or fell in the streets of Northern cities. Others
were thrown in Jail or fled their native lands•••They were destitute, afflicted, 111-treated---or whom the world was not worthy--
wander1ng over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of
the earth.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud or witnes
ses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so
closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne
of God.
THE WORD ALIVE TODAY
11
I.
II.
III.
A Time for Burning"• Daniel 3:
The Golden Idol
The Three Men or the Furnace
The Fourth Man
SBH, Number 343, First Tune, Verses l and 2
"The Fool on the Hill"
verse 4
This 1s the day, the day of the fool
The Man with the bearded face attends a different school
But nobody seems to notice, uritil'he makes the news
Then they begin to wonder but the fool on the hill
sees the sun going 4own
and the eyes in his head see: the world spinning round.
OFFERTORY
The Fascinators
Offering, The Crisis of our Time as the Bread of our Communion
"Give a Damn"
PRAYERS AND·BENEDICTION
SONG:
"I Will Sing Unto the Lord u
102
Arranged by Ylvisaker
A
W
EXHIBIT Q
-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PURPOSES
1. To inform ourselves or varying perspectives on minori
ties in preparation for the speakers of th.e coming week.
2. To educate each Dther about more than one boOk in each
weeks topic.
.
To
understand the connections between emotions. and
3
1ntormat1on.
Basic Books
(One or several ot these books to be read in advance.)
Carmichael, S. and c.v. Hamilton. Black Power. Random House,
· · 1967.
Clark, Kenneth. Dark Ghetto. Harp·er, 1965.
Greer, Scott. Governing a Metropolis. New York:. John Wiley and
Sons, Inc. , 1966.
..
Haley, Alex and Malcolm X. The Autobiography or -Malcolm
X. Grove,
.
1965.
Kerner Report Summary
Schaller, Lyle E. Community Organization: Conflict and Reconcili
ation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1966.
Silberman, Charles E. Cr.isis in Black and White. Random House, 1964.
Week one - Politics
Student Seminar Books
.
Cleaver, Eldridge. Eldridge Cleaver, Past-Prison Writings and Speeches.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched or the Earth. Evergreen, 1966.
Hughes• Langston. History of the NAACP.
..
King, Martin Luther. Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
Malcolm X. Malcolm X Speaks. Grove� .. 1968.
Week two - Education
Coler, Robert. Children ot Crisis: A Study or. ·courage and Fear.
Dell ,. 1964.
Holt, John. How Children Fail. Dell, 1964.
Kozel, Jonathan. Death at an Early Age. Bantam ,. 1967.
Powledge, Fred. To Change a Child.
Trubowitz, Sidney. A Handbook for Teaching in the Ghetto School.
Chicago: Quadrangle Books, Inc., 1968.
Week three - Business and Economics
Hunger,. U.S.A. A report by the Citizen's Board or Inquiry into
Hunger and Malnutrition in the United States. New Community
Press, 1968.
Larner and Howe. Poverty: Views from the Lett. William· Morrow, 1968.
The Negro and the Cities. A Fortune Book, Time-Life, 1968.
103
...--------------------
------------------ -I
·Week thre� (cont.)
Riessman and Popper. Up from Poverty, New Career Ladders for
Nonprofessionals. 1968.
Spero and Harris. The Black Worker. Athenum, 1968.
Week four - Black Culture
Baldwin, James. Go Tell lt on the Mountain. Dell, 1968.
Baldwin, James. Nobody Knows My Ns.�e. Dell, 1962.
Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. McGraw-Hill, 1968.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Random House, 1952.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skil'}, White Masks. Grove Press, 1967.
Jones, LeRoi. Blue People. Apollo, 1968.
Jones, LeRoi. Tales. Grove Press, 1967.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. Signet :, · 1964. (reissue)
Week five - Minorities .and the Press
Fisher, Paul L. and:Lowenstein, Ralph L. Race and the News Media. ·
Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, 1967.
Lyle, Jack. The Black American and the Press. Ritchie Pr�ss, 196a.
M1nneapol1s Courier
Minneapolis Spokesman
Minneapolis Star
Minneapolis Tribune
Week six - Minority and Police
Gerlach. "An Unarmed Intermediary Force" (unpublished paper)
Hersey, John. The Algiers Motel Incident. Bantam, 1968.
Sauter and Hines. Nir.tmare in Detroit: A Rebellion and Its Victims.
Henry Regnery, 196 .
Sauter and Hines� Police Power Abuses 1n New York City.
Week seven - Inner City Religious Life
Drake and Caytor. Black Met':i:•opolis3· Volume I. Harpel', 1962.
Lincoln, C. Eric. The Black Muslims in America. Beacon, 1961.
Stringfellow, William. My People is the Enemy. Doubleday, 1966.
Washington, Joseph. Black Religion: The Negro and Christianity
in the United States. Beacon, 196_4.
Week eight - Eye Towards the Suburbs {to be announced)
Week nine - Eye Towards the Suburbs ·(to be announced)
Week ten - Metropolis
Doxiadis and Douglass.
• Press, 1965.
Stringfellow, William.
1966 ...
Winter, Gibson.
The New World of Urban Man. United Church
"The Myth or the Great Society". Dialogue,.
New Creation as Metropolis.
104
-
.-- __
,.
Reflections from a Crisis Colony Experience
I f1nd 1t very difficult to relate to ot�ers the depth and
meaning or the experience I had this summer but I'd 11ke te try.
Unfortunately, 1t was an experience which 1s d1ff1cult to adequatel=r
evaluate 1n words.
It has arr�oted my life 1n many ways, a person
There
could not live this experienoe and not be changed deeply.
are• rev changes, which I would like to expl.&in as my reasons for
the necessity of educat1on and colleges to "link-up" with this type
or
czper1ence.
The best way l can describe the major chang� felt by myself
one
as well as every
of the students 1nvolvsd 1s tho.t I no
apeak of things simply as "I think ••• ".
both "I !.,!u and think ••• ".
And this
11
longer·
Now everything colr!es ou·;;
feel1ng11 for other peopl�
and whe.t they reel 1s the major eleL:.ent that can make the differcn0e
1n life.
One oan know a problem, such a� a problem of minority
persons, and its every oause and outcome but unless h" c&.n £.e�,l
then he has
that problem too.
essary
to
have
nothing.
Ana.
7et, 1 t 1s still
m�c,.
botn or one would be in the se.ms posj_tion a.s th€,
m1nor1t7 person and could
be
of no real help.
These two &sp�ets :•
both absolutely neoessary. represent the e.csdemics and the e:.tpert�•
enee or
&
venture
suoh as our
Crisis Colony.
students are feeling the irrelevancy cf acsciem1c!'l today.
The:::.r
are searching for 11fe and sooner or later (too often sooner) are
thrust 1nto 1t.
A progn.m such as the Crisis Colony is. f o:r· the
-
first time. an opportunity ror students to see and feel 1,.re as
it
really 1s, without the "screened protect1on'1 we &re so e.ccustomed to.
"Screening" of an
experience such
a:, ti1iE would onl�,. t1.si.lt<?.
and therefore just another uselees �.tte�pt..
it
ertif :1 cr·.l,
And yet the ver·y fi:·\-:.t
of hav1ng a college strueture "in the background" ie necessery s.s
something to "fall be.ck on" so students are net thro'P-.T. into this ".r:.�·,.,· 11
-
11te completely alone.
In the beg1nn1ng of th1s summer I muat admit, almost e?ery
T&lue we eTer held was questioned and knoc;ked down but we were
;r;�i:lil w1th1n the "structure of society" enough that we were able
to lean somewhere while we figured things out rcr ourselves.
1• where we need the struoture--the college.
college needs usl
And this 1s where the
Instructors keep telling us now,
a new thrust 1n education.
This
11
we 1 re starting
We want you to question. to !eel free
trom our tr&d1t1onal hangups and be free.to really learn." so m:.ny
textbooks help ua question our ideas an:S. values.
So where does that
experiences, where the questions are really rromt
Too :mEml' st1.,.de;nts
leave ua--where &re the answers? These have to be foU!ld in
are g1v1.ng up on aoadem1c�s.
llil
Some of us try to co11t1nue, only t;.c
reach the point or contusion, full of questions e.nd when we wcY.!i°• to
f1nd some answers, we're cut off short.
Studei1ts who f1nd ccl1c-.:g-::
totally irrelevant seek the learning a.r.ad e:per1ence on their 01-::r.
but I reel the majority want, .s I do. both the aoadecics and the
exper1enee: both the questions and the answers!
refuse to answer th1s call?
two?
.;o why do coJ.ies;cs
Why do they insist on seps,rf'�tin;; th�,
One of the speakers we heard this summer seemed to sum up the
one and only b&.s1o reason for the necessity of educe.tion
11
bec0Ein5
1nTolved.". • "We need to teach the hes.rt ••• for minds become closed s,:ni
Th1s is whst is happening today 1n ace.de!!!ics-�
commun1eat1on ceases."
we •re closing our minds.
open.
Maybe by the very fact that we think they r �e
Like so many students, we take all the good courses perteJ.n,,
1ng to our fellowman, maybe psychology, aociology o hume.n1ties. even
• course in raoe relations.
know what's going on.
Then we graduate thinkirLe; we reai lr·
We find a Job� me.ybe even 1n. a ghetto are&�
and proceed to show these people how
we are about their problemsl
11
open-minded" end "well-aducat'7ci n
Will colleges answer our call and help us get a true education
about 1uch problems. about l1fe? This seems to me to be the question at hand.
In the experience
or this project we were h1t •1th
aome ultimate questions, and hit hardl
t1on and •ought a few &J1Swera.
We "got
.But we stayed in the s1tuaourael-vea
together". or started
to. and that was what made the exper1enae only- a beg1nn1ng for :me:
Made 1t that one portion or 11.fe that mat.es all the rest aean1ngfu.l,
llke the "one 11 th1ng which De1tr1oh Bonboetter called
"God n i
In add1t1on to th• situation of the area, was the experience
or living together w1th1n "our" communitf. a Chr1st1an community.
It la d1ff1oult to convey the full religious s1gn1f1oance or our
relations with one another, but I guess that's the best I can sey
for the entire venture--1t
WQ.S
a "religious" experience.
-
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Crisis Colony, the Original
Prospect of Youth Division
for the Augsburg Progrant
"CJ
._
~
The Inner City Teaches
CJ
cu
c::
~
.Q
co
2
.&
U)
cJ
c::
All leave after first
summer.
No monies left.
Not essential
i
'&, >,
~~
c::
.£9
"CJ
Q)
Cf) ~
~J
(l)
.:t, ~
(/J
:i"ro ... Show more
Crisis Colony, the Original
Prospect of Youth Division
for the Augsburg Progrant
"CJ
._
~
The Inner City Teaches
CJ
cu
c::
~
.Q
co
2
.&
U)
cJ
c::
All leave after first
summer.
No monies left.
Not essential
i
'&, >,
~~
c::
.£9
"CJ
Q)
Cf) ~
~J
(l)
.:t, ~
(/J
:i"ro >-o
v,.2
..c;:
~
-i ~~ ~
.- -<
Q)
c5
::i
Ill f--.c 0
(/)
Cf)
O students from all over the U
Sojourning Students &
Wayfarers All Learning From City
Theotogica
A LEARNING COMMUNITY
on the Inner
Tried to Define What
the Colon Was
3 Motion Pictures on Inner Cities
Augsburg 's
entrance under
the leadership of
Joel Tortenson &
the Urban Staff
Leadership & Associates
Teaching Leaders ,
Orfield, Ylvisaker
Student Leaders
Crisis Colony
name emerges
~
All supported
by Youth Division (ALC)
&
Lutheran Social
Services (ALC)
Paul Boe
Joe Bash
Lived at Plymouth
Youth Center
(Soon Torn Down)
Original author Joel Torstenson
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