NASHVILLE, TN — Since 1946 John A. Gupton College has offered a professional curriculum in funeral arts and sciences. The small liberal arts college located on Church Street in North Nashville is a little more than a mile from Fisk University but it seems the environment and personalities of the two schools are worlds and, decades apart.
Less than a five minute drive from Historic Jefferson Street African-American students attend an institution of higher learning where they feel isolated and abused. Unfortunately the institutional bias black students feel and, it seems in some cases experience at Gupton are not new according to Rosetta Miller Perry, publisher of the Tennessee Tribune and honor graduate of Gupton.
“This is the same discrimination and racism I experienced in the ‘60s years ago,” Perry said. “When I was on campus I experienced bigotry in the classroom and on campus.” “My life was threaten through mail and the FBI had to come in” said Miller Perry. She went on to say, “these were rich white boys who couldn’t get into college so the next best thing was mortuary school if their dad owned a funeral home. But what they didn’t realize was that science is science and if they were too dumb for college than there were also too dumb to be a mortician. My grades were so high that a few failed and they retaliate but against the wrong sister of color.”
One half century ago those obstacles were expected and relatively normal circumstances on campuses across this country but reports emanating from Gupton’s campus in the last month are truly disturbing to many fair minded Nashvillians who believe times have changed from those dark days.
According to multiple sources on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 a 19 year old white student at Gupton physically attacked two female African-American students on the campus. The alleged assault took place in front of several students and was captured on the school’s video surveillance system.
“We had just taken a Chemistry exam and a lot of us were outside the building chatting when a first year student walked up to me and hit me on the arm,” Jasmine McRoy, a 22 year old student from Huntsville, Alabama recalled. “I told him to stop playing and not to touch me, you don’t know me. He then hit me a second time on the arm hard enough to leave a bruise.”
At this point the student, who is from Rockwood, TN about 135 miles east of Nashville, turned to Lisa Groves, a 31 year old student from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
“I heard him say, ‘She looks like she can take a punch.’ and then hit me in the jaw,” Groves said. “I started to walk towards my car and he came up to me from behind and pushed me so hard that I dropped my books and almost fell. Then he said, ‘I’m just playing.’”
After talking to her mother, a law enforcement officer in Rutherford County, Groves returned to campus and called Metro Police who dispatched officers who took statements and cited the student for a misdemeanor.
“He admitted to the officers that he hit me,” Groves said. “They took a report but the officers seemed to not take the incident too seriously. In fact they were laughing and joking with him.”
A hearing was held on July 21st and a court date of October 6, 2014 was set at that time. It is possible that the student will be charged with felony assault.
The incident was reported to Gupton College President, B. Steven Spann who took action against the student but only after protests from McRoy’s father and step-father. Although he would not confirm details of the disciplinary action taken it seems the student was suspended two weeks for his actions.
In a telephone interview Spann said the incident sparked a rash of complaints from black students ranging from derogatory remarks by white students to biased practices by school staff and administrators. Spann went on to say the school, “to my knowledge” does not have a race problem and, speaking of the alleged assault and overtly racist comments by some students he attempted to diminish any problems on the campus. However, several students tell the Tribune that they have heard and have been called racial slurs including the ‘N-word’ and ‘colored girls’ by some students and have reported the incidents to school officials including Spann.
President Spann said the school has a “zero tolerance on that type of incident.” He also said the school deals with discipline matters “as they arise.” “We have talked to multiple parties (regarding alleged racially tinged misbehavior),” Spann said. “When we find that students have made jokes and said things that were inappropriate, those students have been placed on probation or have been suspended.
“We have talked to multiple parties (regarding alleged racially tinged misbehavior),” Spann said. “When we find that students have made jokes and said things that were inappropriate, those students have been placed on probation or have been suspended.
Spann, citing privacy issues, refused to say how many incidents he has dealt with this year or which students were involved.
Mr. Spann, downplaying the scope of the problem on campus said reports that black students were treated different that whites were essentially groundless.
However, some black students complained to the Tribune that the school’s rather strict dress and appearance codes are unevenly enforced and black men are scrutinized more severely than white men. One student recalled an incident when another African-American was told to leave a test because the instructor detected some facial hair, which is prohibited, by rubbing her hand on his face. He said the same instructor then walked up to him, grabbed his chin and rubbed his face also and told him to leave her class. He refused to do so but the instructor gave him a zero when she collected his test answers. He went on to say that in his opinion there were white men in the class with obvious facial hair but were not approached or punished.
Spann says he has met with students to talk about the allegations.
“We have heard comments. We met with 12 or 13 students to see if there is a culture (of discrimination against black students). Most African-American students said they thought the dress codes were applied equally.”
When told about the meeting and the president’s conclusion, the Tribune could not identify a black student that knew about or attended the meeting with school administrators about the issue.
Spann did confirm the fact that the school is intolerant to the inevitable friction that arises when an institution attempts to diversify its student body but insists on continuing certain codes that can be restrictive to non whites including a code that essentially prohibits black women from wearing ‘natural’ hair styles including locs and twists. Black women enrolled at Gupton often resort to straighten styled wigs to adhere to the school’s policies.
“The school has had this dress code since the beginning,” Spann explained. “(Students can) abide by the policy or find another school.”
The intolerant policies, perceived disciplinary discretion and alleged student misbehavior on Gupton’s campus has taken its toll on many black students according to Andrew Cole a white student currently enrolled at Gupton.
“The African American students are really bothered and uncomfortable in this school,” Cole wrote in a letter. “They do not feel they are treated fairly by the school staff and that they are disrespected by the rest of the student body.”
Mr. Cole’s views are echoed by former student Adolph Groves.
“During my time at Gupton I experienced a lot of racial discrimination,” Groves wrote in a statement. “[A] white student told me personally that white students get special dress code and attendance privileges. This racial matter (at Gupton) has gone on way too long and it needs to come to an end.”
According to Verno Booth, a student from California, the bias against African-American students goes beyond the campus and is tolerated by school staff.
“I took Directing, which requires you to learn and attend different type of funeral services,” Booth recalled in a written statement. “We were told to go to a Catholic funeral. Once there we had to find a Licensed Funeral Director and have the sign an obituary showing we attended. After finding Jim Brewer (licensed FD) he said to me, ‘How is it going? I remember seeing you somewhere,’ and I said, yes, at the Woodlawn Mortuary during my clinical. He turned around and said, ‘Are you sure I didn’t see you a Post Office on one of the mug shots?’ The next day I went to Tracy’s (Allen) office to talk about the situation and her reply was, ‘Well he didn’t mean anything by it Verno, that’s Jim being himself.’ I told her I was very offended by his remarks and she smiled and said, ‘Nothing to worry about he’s just an old man.’”
Although he does not acknowledge widespread problems on his campus, when asked about the school’s response to the alleged assault and derogatory comments,
Mr. Spann did say he was bringing a consultant on campus to address the issues that have bubbled to the surface.
“We are in the process of contracting with a lady for sensitivity training for staff and students.”
Incidences of discrimination and racial division are not unique to Gupton
and may be on the rise in the country. In February of this year the New York Times examined the difficulties of students of color nationwide. The Times story said racially insensitive or racist episodes and tensions have hit campuses such as Arizona State, UCLA, University of Mississippi, the University of
Michigan and Dartmouth. Statistics gathered by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Education Department seem to confirm the claim that there has been a rise in racists incidents: Complaints related to race and ethnicity files against colleges and universities rose to 860 in 2013 from 555 in 2009.