European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 7, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Racial harassment at the Citadel Only an isolated incident by Dudley Clendinen new York times ate Friday As on every Friday the Cadet corps of the Citadel in Charleston s.c., gathered on the Parade Field and As the shadows of the battlements atop the Barracks were cast toward them by the Selling Sun. They hashed their Rilles lowered the american Flag and White or Black marched to Date the Confederate Anthem like the Confederate flags that erupt from the stands Al football games is part of the rhythm of me. God i hate them both said a Cadet Terry l. Adams a Junior from Washington do. Hate. Despise. Loathe like 116olhers among he corps of 2,000 cadets Adams is Black. Bound together by a love built by he mystical experience of this famous Academy hut sundered by skin color the racial history and custom of this place and the events of Midnight oct. 23, the Cade corps is laced with pain and resentment. Events of mat Ghl led to the resignation of Ablack Cadel the Fri has started investigation into possible civil rights violations Al the 144-year-old military College the boy is  said Leonard Fulghum. Vice chairman of the Citadel s Board of visitors its governing group. And i think the College is. Loo. They Are both  Black like Adams or White like the regimental commander David w. Macpherson. All the Young men in uniform Here have been distracted by the Tan like episode of oct. 23 and they have been engulfed by news reports about it. But the hooded and sheeted appearance that night of five White cadets at the bedside of Kevin Nesmith. A Black freshman May not be the Lone instance of blatant racism it firs appeared to be. Nesmith i brother Alonzo Nesmith or. A 1979 graduate of the Citadel terms the incident isolated but  but Black cadets Tell of other times and cases in recent years of a burned Cross and of being Lold by senior officers that they haled Black people and did nol want them Al the school. Nor is Nesmith s Case b Small or isolated Public problem for the Citadel. H is enlarged in the Public mind by its evocation of Pat Conroy s Best Selling novel and subsequent movie lords of  Conroy a Citadel graduate who is also the author of the great Santini a movie about a military i Pilot s conflicts with his son injected a special element into lords of discipline his late of tortured Honor in a famous military school in Charleston an file and secret White fraternity determined to drive out the College s first Black Cadet. It has been 20 years since the first Black Cadet wore the dress Greys of the Citadel. But after the confrontation in Nesmith s room and the juror it has caused on the Campus and across South Carolina Nesmith whose brother is the first and a Lull the Only Black member of the Citadel s governing Board has resigned. Kevin Nesmith s attorney is preparing a lawsuit charging violation of civil rights end the ministerial leadership of the Black Community in Charleston is determined to use the Case to win major civil rights concessions irom White South Carolina s proudest historical institution. The Citadel and the Virginia military Institute Are the lost state supported All male military colleges in the nation. From the school the institution whose cadets fired Cannon shot against a Union Schooner on Jan. 9,1861, three months before fort Sumter was fired on. Coal Ilki of ministers Bishops and Public officials wants concessions on a Range of racial issues. The controversy thus tar has entered on whether the live while cadets meant to make a racial statement by appearing at the Black Cadet s bedside and whether the heavy on Campus punishment they got was sufficient to compensate Lor their offence against the Cadet code the Citadel s enclosed gated Campus is in a Black residential area of Charleston. The Black ministers first called for the expulsion of  and the resignation of retired maj Gen. James a. Grimsley or. As the school s superintendent. But the Rev. James Blake pastor of the Morris Brown african methodist episcopal Church in Charleston said i think we need to look now at the number of Blacks in the administration the number of Blacks in the faculty at increasing the number of Blacks Here at the whole question of hiring minorities. We need to see to it that the Citadel has an aggressive affirmative action policy and a policy of hiring minority contractors. We want to Deal with the whole  Blake said that when Grimsley met with coalition members he agreed to negotiate those issues by forming a Large committee representing the school and the Black population in Charleston and across the state. I think that s a Lair statement said retired Marine col. Joseph p. Goodson. Executive assistant to Grimsley. Grimsley himself was not available Tor  001. Wolf Totok jes Mckyton quit Situm lit racial in met comment. Thus in four weeks a Briel event that has been depicted As either naive Cadet play or racial harassment has grown Inlo something More Complex. On the night of ocl. 23, shocked and shaken Nesmith and Michael Mendoza his Roommate who is of philippine descent went to the room of Adams the Only other Black Cadet on the first Llo Orol the fourth battalion s Barracks to report that figures in White sheels and klan like Cone shaped headgear had dredged them out of their sleep chanting me Smith Nee a mlle meet Smithl after a confused scuffle with Mendoza trying to turn on the room s lights the intruders lied leaving a charred paper Cross earnestly respectfully Nesmith s company battalion and regimental commanders All of them while insist that no racial motives were at play that night. I honestly believe it was t racially  said Macpherson the regimental commander a naval scholarship student from Maryland. It was wrong he said but it was just a High spirited offshoot of the system to which new cadets or knobs Are subjected a daily torrent of oth Frimoth incite tits Tori ecu Matt Tim Cut tort cachet to a. Verbal abuse against which they cannot defend themselves but which is supposed to drive them to conform and Excel. He had t been doing Well academically said James  jr., the battalion commander who is from Southbury Conn. It was Martor who gave Macpherson the names of the live intruders. They were just doing it to straighten him  Marior said William  Man Iii the company commander who had interviewed All five cadets separately and Ihen reported them to Marior. Explained that one had to understand the sense of humor in a pressured martial All male environment. It s nol Fust racial.,"he said. You joke about people s girlfriends about their families about their Cara. This place is so full of sarcastic he majr it s  but several Black cadets interviewed earlier offered a different perspective. Walch one said Billerts they la say they were just trying to motivate  Kevin Nesmith and he Roommate were not motivated that night a Black upper Assman said they were  other Black cadets asking that they not be named recalled their own experiences As freshmen. One came Back to his room to find a Cross made of pops de Sticks soldering on his bed. He suspected awhile upper Assman who kept telling jokes with epithets about Blacks. Another cad to mid he was summoned after lights out to an upperclassman a room where Lour senior officers waited Lor him he said. One braced him at attention leaned Inlo his face he said and told him i hate Black people. I Don t want you in my school and i m do anything i can to run you  it Hurt me really  the cadets id. It made a cry because i waa so Hurt by it bul ii made to a lot More determined to  a third Mack Cadet told of the same experience. You could see the agreement in their eyes he said of the White upper Wassmen. You could see the smug Loo son their  despite  experiences compared and a told among the Black cadets i love this place said Kenneth  Gordon or. Of win Ingeboro n j., the president of the Aero american society it the Citadel. I would t have been Here this Long if i did to Gordon said Rejust Welthis is Ulf Oft for years Nett was a joke. But after awhile it gets to you. Can t they took at me for anything other than my Doggone skin there is a disease in ills corps and Alt we have Todo is face  Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday. December 7. If