Alabama State University News January 24, 2014 Roundtable Discussion Held on Knight v. Alabama Lawsuit By Tina Joly More than 30 years ago, a group of faculty and students from Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University, led by John F. Knight Jr., decided to risk it all and fight the state's segregated system of funding in higher education, filing a federal lawsuit that became known as Knight v. Alabama. The lawsuit was filed in 1981, and after years of legal wrangling, Judge Harold Murphy ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and issued a consent decree in 1995 that brought an end to the vestiges of segregation and racial discrimination in the funding of Alabama's higher education institutions. Many of the key players from that historic lawsuit visited ASU's campus for a President's Roundtable on Thursday, Jan. 23, marking the first gathering of the group in nearly 20 years. They participated in an open and honest dialogue about the lawsuit. The event was hosted by President Emeritus William H. Harris, who became ASU's president shortly before the 1995 consent decree. "I think that in the history of American jurisprudence having to do with (higher) education, there is no case more significant than Knight v. Alabama," Harris said. "(The decision) transformed the institution (ASU) from a teachers' college to a regional university. It laid the foundation for us to move from what was then level IV to the idea that we could become level VI. It created graduate education throughout the University. It changed what Alabama State University is today." Former ASU President Levi Watkins Sr. was the person who encouraged Knight to be the lead plaintiff in the case. His son, Donald, one of the attorneys fighting on behalf of ASU, said the case began when ASU's very survival as a university was threatened. "This is a major chapter, not only in this University's life, but also in the lives of all of the public colleges and universities in the state of Alabama. The transformation that came out of one case is beyond what words can describe ... at this University, it has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars that never would have occurred but for the case. It resulted in programs at the Ph.D. level ... and it has increased the stature and visibility of Alabama State University nationally and globally," Watkins said. Dr. Alma Freeman joined the lawsuit on behalf of ASU's faculty and alumni. She recalled her own personal experience with the state's segregated system of higher education. "When I look at what was accomplished as a result of the lawsuit, I'm very proud of what we did. I know about segregation in this state. I lived 20 miles from Auburn University, but I could not go to school there or the University of Alabama after high school. After I graduated from ASU, I still couldn't go to those schools," Freeman said. Knight, who now is ASU's executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the University still struggles with some of the same issues that prompted the lawsuit. "We've made a number of accomplishments because of the lawsuit, but there are still so many obstacles," Knight said. "The lawsuit is over, but there are people who feel that we got too much out of the lawsuit, and they are trying to take back some of the gains that we have made. It's important for our people to understand that this was not given to us by the state of Alabama; we earned this through a federal lawsuit that we were in for 20-plus years, fighting the entire structure in the state of Alabama." Carlos Gonzalez, an attorney Judge Murphy assigned to serve as court monitor after the 1995 ruling, had not visited the campus since the decree was issued. He said one of the critical things the ruling did was to keep the state off the backs of the institutions. "I came to this campus the first time in 1993 ... it is truly transformational what has occurred here. The Board of Trustees, the leadership and also, I would say, the state of Alabama, all did what was expected and required, and this is the result. It took courage to do it. It was not an easy task," Gonzalez said. "Dr. Knight exemplifies courage in his personal life and in his service to this institution. I look around here and the whole institution is shot through with the history of its founding and its future. I know if Judge Murphy were here today, he would be absolutely overwhelmed with what was accomplished." The other panelists who participated in the roundtable included the Honorable U.W. Clemon, the retired federal judge who first heard the case; Solomon Seay, Fred Gray, James Blackshear and Kenneth Thomas, attorneys; and Lt. Gen. Julius Becton, oversight committee member. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.