Dr. Perry Bush will trace the history of “Race and Ethnicity at Bluffton University” at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, in Founders Hall. Six student presenters will also participate in the campus forum, which is free and open to the public.
Bush is a Bluffton history professor and author of the university’s centennial history, “Dancing with the Kobzar.” His presentation, he says, will move from Bluffton’s “more tarnished tolerance of racism” in its early years to its “forthright rejection of such attitudes”—especially under Lloyd Ramseyer, president from 1938-65—and to the “explicit antiracist and multicultural focus of recent years.” The 1960s will be a focal point, with a look at farm labor and black-nationalist organizing on campus during the decade.
Six students from Bush’s current African-American history class will join him to present smaller segments of the history.
