Panelists:  Michael Hawkins (Current Amherst ABC Board President and Admissions Officer at Amherst College), Frank Anderson (Co-founded Amherst ABC in 1968), Jay Silverman ’69, Fred Hoxie ‘69

The Amherst ABC Program was founded 40 years ago. In its senior year, Amherst College's class of 1969 decided to contribute to the founding of Amherst ABC by choosing to divert its yearbook-dedicated funds to ABC.  The Class of 1969 is the only class in modern Amherst history without a year book.  This workshop will explore: 

• The events leading to the Class of 1969’s decision, and reflections 40 years later.
• The founding of Amherst ABC from the perspective of the Town of Amherst Community. 
• Reflections on a Summer of 1969 On-Campus Orientation/Tutorial/Camp for ABC students.
• The need for programs such as Amherst ABC 40 years ago, compared with today.
• Reflections by Amherst ABC graduates on the impact of the program on their lives.
• Opportunities for Amherst College and its alumni and students to make transformative changes in the community (in this case focusing on racial inequity and educational opportunity for low income youth) in Amherst and beyond.
• The fundamental importance of philanthropy and non-profits in American society, and grassroots organizing, in the context of Amherst ABC as an example. The dialogue will be followed by a reception at the ABC House at 3 pm.

 

Reflections of the Amherst College Class of 1969 on our role in the founding of the Amherst ABC Program

From: Dick Aronson
To: Fred Hoxie, Jonathan Tobis, Bob Brown, and Robert Fein
This is an awesome conversation...To challenge and to question underlying societal values that are rooted in injustice.  To communicate that the times in which we live are equally urgent and timeless, that they call out for doing things in a different way - both within ourselves and in relation to the rest of the world. To take action,  non-violent action,  that involves risk and that may seem like a small step, but guided by a long-term vision and aspiration for a more just society...and to go forward in spite of the odds.  

This, to me, is Amherst at its best, inspiring humane idealism and action, but not arrogance, challenging us to turn and travel previously unlikely roads to "illuminate" ourselves and give our best to move humanity in a positive direction, and to enable young people to receive a good quality education and pursue their dreams. And, we hope, not to take ourselves too seriously on the journey.  And the incredible thing is that, in mentoring and advising current Amherst students who are interested in public health and who just founded a public health collaborative on campus, I feel all of that come alive once again in the present moment "in the light of Amherst eyes".

Thank you for sharing all of this.
Dick Aronson

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From: Robert Fein
I wish I had something substantive to add. My (vague) recollections are similar to Jon's and Fred's. I remember feeling that we should do something, take some appropriate action to say that "things are different." I think we met in a room in Chapin Hall. And I remember thinking that some in our class would be quite displeased with our decision, but that our action was worth doing. I also remember the context of protests against the war, George Kateb's rejoinder to Mark Rudd, "Curse god and die!", long talks with Ted Greene and Gordy Levin, complicated discussions with Cal Plimpton, and the moratorium. 
These events seem long ago, but the feelings of fondness and respect that I had for my friends and classmates remain powerfully with me.

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From: Fred Hoxie
In addition to reminding me about how indeterminate history is (why I prefer it to simpler fields like medicine!), Jon's wonderful statement underscores another important feature of my discipline: context. I often say that historians are "in the context business." You can'tunderstand an event without understanding its context. And the context of our little moment of political power was a feeling of both unease and potential. I will never forget sitting in Frost on an April night, reading, and hearing the voices of protestors outside, crying in anguish over the murder of Martin Luther King. There I was, indoors, studying, thinking, and there they were, outdoors, acting.  I think we felt that tension.  These memories are untrustworthy, but I also think that the tumult of those months in 1968 and 1969 were moments when I began to feel that Amherst had affected me. I understood some of the complexity of what "acting" would mean and so I hesitated, pondered, wondered.  I can't claim that any of this was a conscious part of our decision to reallocate the student council budget, but I do think that we felt it was a smart move, that it was timely, and that it signaled our willngness to suspend the rituals of our cosseted world in recognition of events "out there." (This thinking was also part of our proposal for the moratorium).  Of course this reallocation caused us no personal discomfort (other than the resentment of the people who had counted on producing the yearbook). One might call our decision charity on the cheap. But I guess I would reply that we did it--no one else had done it before and apparently no one else has done it since.
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From: Jonathan Tobis, M.D.
Trying to remember what happened 40 years ago is proving to be very taxing, even if I am not aware of other forms of Alzheimer's disease creeping in.My general recollection is that we felt acutely, not just because we were young and relatively naïve, that the country was gripped in a political and cultural series of profound changes if not actual revolution.  The relative importance of traditional nostalgic memories of college provided in the yearbook seemed to be overwhelmed by the moral and political necessity to make the world a different and better place.  It was in that sense of asking ourselves what could we do at a privileged elite school such as Amherst, that framed the debate about the relative importance of having a yearbook versus using the funds to support an attempt to change actual people's lives in a direct manner.  Although some of us may have participated more actively, in general the Amherst students didn't go down to Mississippi or work directly in the freedom movement.  Perhaps more of the student body participated in the antiwar movement.  Unlike the New Englanders of the 1770's, we chose not to take up arms against the government, but yet we felt moved to do something to voice our displeasure with the way things had been; against the conservatism of the traditional community that was in power, against the overt as well as covert racism within the society.  I am proud that we made that decision to use the student council funds to support the ABC program instead of the traditional yearbook.  I believe it is small steps like that, magnified throughout the country, that eventually led to the capacity of America to elect a black person as president.  This is something that I never thought would have happened in this complex yet on many levels bigoted and unenlightened country.
 
These recollections are my attempt to re-create the urgency which we felt to make a dramatic statement and try to do something concrete to change the society. The actual process are just details.

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From: Richard Aronson
As you know, this year Amherst ABC is celebrating its 40th anniversary. On May 29 at 2 pm (See below for the description), we are
going to have a workshop at Reunion on this remarkable program. It will include a brief "history", to the extent that such a history is
possible, of the events leading up to the class's decision to give yearbook-allocated funds to the start-up of Amherst ABC. In various
forums and articles put out by Amherst ABC people, our Class is referred to as the "Founding Class" of the Amherst ABC Program.  I am
trying to find source materials in the Archives at Frost Library and checking out some articles from The Student, but there are missing
threads, so Fred and I are hoping that you can help.
 
Along with Fred, you were part of that decision as a member of the student council. As described below in an earlier e-mail, you were
members of "the ticket," the gang of four who were elected to fill the four senior slots on the student council as it then existed and who
therefore came to set the direction for the council's proceedings. It was your heavy-handed administration that produced the decision
regarding the year book-- much to the chagrin of hard working classmates who expected to put the book out again.