Freedman discusses race issues
By Jaime M. Bedrin | February 27, 1996About 25 people gathered at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity last night for a fireside chat, where College President James Freedman discussed race relations, both through his personal experiences throughout his life and during his time at the College. Freedman began the discussion by examining his own experiences with race relations since his childhood in New Hampshire. "Very few of us talk about our own lives when discussing life," Freedman said. Growing up in Manchester, Freedman recalled that despite a large number of diverse ethnic groups in his town, there were no African-American families or any Asian-American families. The first time Freedman ever met an African-American was when his parents took him on a trip to Boston, he said. Without a television, Freedman lacked almost all exposure to African-Americans while growing up in New Hampshire, something that left his generation very ignorant of race relations in the country, he said. Things did not change that much for Freedman when he attended Harvard University, as in his class of 1,157 there were no women, and just one African-American and one Asian-American student. A few years later, at Yale Law School, Freedman's class of 170 had just seven women and two African-American students. It was not until he clerked for Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice to sit on the United States Supreme Court, that Freedman said he finally learned about African-American life. Freedman also discussed his career as a professor and as dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where he worked for 18 years. Even at Penn, one of the renowned law schools in the country, there were still no black faculty members in 1964, Freedman said. When the discussion was opened up for questions, many asked Freedman about the recent decision by the California Board of Regents to discontinue affirmative action.