Ripon College Days

Media Credit: Photo by Andrew Krajewski Remembering MLK. The memory of MLK will continue on campus due to a lounge name change. [Click to enlarge]

David Minor was in his final semester at Ripon College when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated the evening of April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray. Upon hearing the news, Minor, his peers and professors were astonished.

"Assassinations didn't occur. [We were] shocked as a nation and a college because public leaders weren't assassinated," says Minor, now director of corporate and foundation relations.

As the nation engaged in discussion and reacted to the shooting, so did the college. Shortly after, the name Martin Luther King was used in the renaming of a student lounge in the campus' Union as a way to honor the civil rights leader who was well-known for promoting nonviolence.

According to information from the college archives, what was renamed the MLK Lounge was formerly known as the Crimson or Mint lounge.

Jerome H. Thompson was the college's chaplain at the time of the renaming.

"The name was changed to honor Martin Luther King, to have a constant reminder of him. I thought it was very fitting and an appropriate thing to do," he says.

Though many agreed with the philosophy behind the renaming, others had reservations that resulted in campus contention.

"Folks [students] who were opposed to the renaming of the lounge came up with opposing views about why it shouldn't be accepted. That was the controversy," Minor says.

Invoking First Amendment freedom of speech rights, students petitioned college administrators. But, according to information from the college archives, College President Bernard Adams made the final decision in the debate over renaming the lounge.

"The college was at unrest. College officials looked at [the naming of MLK lounge] as a way to provide some easiness," Minor says. "It's college space and administration prevailed."

After the name change was okayed by administration, Adams requested a group of interested students and faculty gather materials about King and his work. This material was intended to be available to students in order to stimulate interest and increase the availability of media concerning civil rights and urban problems.

Professor of English Douglas Northrop was on sabbatical during the spring of 1968 and came back to the new MLK Lounge.

"I thought they did it nicely. It is dignified with some sense of King's life and what he contributed to our society," Northrop says. "I thought it was fitting as a memorial to King."

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