Common Ground prepares for multi-cultural event

Common Ground began as a passive response to a racially heinous event that took place in the town of Davidson over two decades ago. In 1986 the Ku Klux Klan led a march down Main Street. Instead of a bustling street of friendly shops, the road was filled with Klansmen.  

While the Klan had intended to raise a stir by terrifying onlookers, they were unable to receive any reaction. Students of all ethnic backgrounds came together that day, and Common Ground was born.

Today, few students have any knowledge of this event, but many current faculty members were teaching at the time and vividly remember that day.  Dr. Job Thomas, Director of the South Asian Studies Program, was one such faculty member.

"At that time, I was conducting the Gandhi seminar, and we were discussing the conquest of violence and the Gandhian techniques of conflict resolution," he said. "The students were offended after hearing about the upcoming march and wanted to know what kind of response they could organize.  The next week, one of my students provided a wonderful response.

"He suggested that there shouldn't be any audience to the march," Thomas said. "Students went from store to store, asking them to close during the march so no one would be on the street."

Besides the police, there were very few if any witnesses to the march.  As Thomas said, "No one wanted to see it." In fact, there might even have been more officers than Klansmen.  There were 37 Klan members marching, including women and children, but they were greeted by an empty street.  

According to Steve Davis '87 who videotaped the march, only six Klan members were actually wearing their robes, and one was even arrested for possessing a concealed weapon. He described them as "bedraggled" with hand painted signs, wandering the empty street.  There were no protesters, shocked onlookers or terrorized minorities.

"The march didn't even make it the entire length of the street," Thomas said. Davidson students, local elementary school students and various community members were instead at a town-wide activity day taking place behind Commons.  

The student from the Gandhi Seminar and many others organized this campus-wide event, which had over 500 attendees, to provide a positive, non-violent response to the KKK march.  The restaurant owners along Main Street provided food, and SGA and the Union Board provided entertainment. The day came to be known as Solidarity Day, and, in subsequent years, was extended to provide events for a whole week.

While the Klan had intended to raise a stir by terrifying onlookers, they were unable to receive any reaction. Students of all ethnic backgrounds came together that day, and Common Ground was born.  

The students responsible for the event called themselves Common Ground, alluding to their belief in basic human rights and equality.  This group of students was predominantly white, but did include students from a wide spectrum of backgrounds.  

Unfortunately, after several years, when the students who founded Common Ground began to graduate, the movement dwindled.  As time passed, the miraculous day of multicultural unity and solidarity fell into the past; students began to forget the force that brought them together.  Recently, however, students began to take a renewed interest in multicultural awareness.

While the campus is not likely to be considered a place of racial violence, most will agree that there is some apathy towards raising awareness of multicultural issues.  Last year, as a result, efforts were made to revive the Common Ground movement.

The Black Student Coalition, the Asian Culture and Awareness Association and the Organization of Latin American Students came together to host a week's worth of events promoting multicultural awareness.  A committee was formed, consisting of Jesse Johnson '12, Justin Hua '11, Aaron Goodson '11 and Darrell Scott '10, as well as select individuals of the Diversity Coordinating Board organizations and administrative supporters Ernest Jeffries, Cristina Garcia and Fuji Lozada. Unfortunately, fewer students than expected attended the week's events.

"We put a lot of time and energy into it. It was a big deal. I think that is what multicultural apathy looks like at Davidson," Hua said.

After feedback from peers and conversations with the Community Connectors of the Multicultural House, and the President and Vice President of Student Government Association, OLAS, the ACAA and the BSC, Common Ground applied to the Improve Davidson Fund and received a generous grant. Since last year, the committee has grown to include Amanda Menjivar '12, Tamara Munroe '12, Eileen Klaiklung '13, Jannat Khan '14, and Dr. Tae-Sun Kim, Director of Multicultural Affairs.

In March, the committee hopes to hold another week of events to commemorate the 1986 occurrence. "The students were inspired by that day, and they wanted to pay homage to that movement," Kim said. "Now that the campus is more diverse, there is a different kind of poison, one of multicultural apathy. So to drum up some interest, the students involved thought this would be the perfect way to commemorate that event and put a modern twist on it." The committee hopes to attract a larger turnout and to inspire students to continue the legacy of Common Ground.