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Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forward Patrick McGrath comments on the ‘tale of the tape’

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College Corner: Brad Emerick makes dramatic return to lineup

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; It&#8217;s certainly a striking image: Black students with rifles in hand occupying a college building, walking out armed after a settlement is reached. A photo of them leaving the building at Cornell University won a 1970 Pulitzer prize.But Frank Dawson, a sophomore who participated in the occupation of the student union building in 1969 &#8212; and who spent seven years with co-producer Abby Ginzberg making the documentary, &#8220;Agents of Change,&#8221; about the events &#8212; said once you see the film, the guns fade into the background as larger issues emerge.&#8220;These were different times,&#8221; Dawson said during a phone interview from California Tuesday as he prepared to come East to show the film &#8212; first in Syracuse and then at King&#8217;s College this Friday.&#8220;(Arming students) is not a tactic anyone would recommend these days, but in the context of that time it was very violent time. I grew up during the assassination of both Kennedy&#8217;s &#8212; John and Robert. I grew up with the assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Malcolm X, and the war in Vietnam.&#8221;Dawson will be present when the the documentary is shown at King&#8217;s Friday at 7 p.m. in the Burke Auditorium of the McGowan School of Business. Admission is free. He will talk with audience members about the film afterward.The movie focuses on events at Cornell in 1969, when students protesting a variety of campus problems stage what was initially a peaceful protest. Dawson said the protesters were attacked by white fraternity members, which led to the decision to take up arms.&#8220;When they were repelled we got reports they were coming back armed,&#8221; Dawson said. &#8220;That&#8217;s when they made the decision inside the building to arm themselves.&#8221;Similar events occurred around the same time at San Francisco State University, where future actor Danny Glover helped lead a protest, and the movement spread to protests in 49 states at more than 1,000 schools.The issues centered on the lack of minority representation in the lessons begin taught, particular in history. &#8220;It was a completely Euro-centric curriculum,&#8221; Dawson said. But it involved other problems.&#8220;Offensive remarks from professors who did not think twice about it,&#8221; he recalled. &#8220;A judicial system punishing students of color with no representatives of color in that system.&#8220;San Francisco State was the longest student strike in American university history,&#8221; Dawson said. &#8220;Students were really brutalized by police, even though that was also a peaceful protest.&#8221;The documentary made its public screening debut as a centerpiece at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival in Los Angeles last week. The King&#8217;s showing will be only the third public viewing, though Dawson said there have been showings of &#8220;rough cuts&#8221; before the final version was done.It took so long to complete the film that he and Ginzberg were able to add recent protests in the &#8220;Occupy&#8221; and &#8220;Black Lives Matter&#8221; movements, which he believes make the film a very timely &#8220;teachable moment.&#8221;&#8220;Students are demonstrating with similar concerns and issues of those raised 40 years ago,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think we&#8217;ve done a good job of connecting the two.&#8221;&#8220;Your not going to see a film about black people going crazy and running around with guns,&#8221; Dawson promised. The movement drew a wide range of people pushing for changes on campus in how minorities and women were both treated in the curriculum and in campus life.&#8220;During the question and answer session members of the audience share their own experiences, and how they love the film&#8217;s balance, and how the story that had not been told has now been told.&#8221;<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Mark Guydishmguydish@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</shirttailMeta></div>

Film on black student movement in 60s comes to King’s College