We were not naive
By his own admission, it was a blessing for Larry Simpson, vice president of BUS in 1969, that he never had to face the draft. He wasn't a BUS officer in the spring quarter of 1970, but he remained active in the organization. Like Pittman, he urged black students to avoid confrontation with the National Guard.
"We knew the National Guard had real guns and the possibility of using them," Simpson says. "Many white students couldn't conceive of the National Guard using their guns on them. Some believed they had rubber bullets or blanks. That's never been the African-American perception of police and armed services.
"It wasn't that we supported the war. We demonstrated in our own way our disapproval. BUS had a rally that Friday before, protesting the war. When it came to Sunday, we were strongly encouraging our black students to refrain because we were not naive."
Simpson describes the language of BUS protests as an edict of Black Power. If the war in Vietnam weighed heavy on their minds, even more pervasive was the government's treatment of African-Americans in their own country.
"We saw the government oppressing folks in Southeast Asia as well as African-Americans in this country," Simpson says. "The tenor of the time among blacks was more militant than the civil rights language would lead one to believe. We saw the (social and political) issues as joined."
Now provost of the Cuyahoga Community College eastern campus, Simpson remembers clearly the talks during BUS' Sunday meetings. While they formed a strong position against the war, there was still some distrust toward the National Guard among BUS members. Some of the lead characters - BUS President Erwind Blount, Vice President Charles Eberhardt, members Rudy Perry and Curtis Pittman, Bob Pickett, and cohort Brother Fargo (born Dwayne White) - stayed on guard like field marshals to ensure that no black brothers or sisters were near the scene of conflict.
"Our logic proved to be true," Simpson says. "We were not shocked."
Simpson stayed in his Glen Morris apartment, (now called Eagles Pointe apartments) at lunchtime when the shooting occurred. He was worried about his own brother, who lived in a dorm.The two caught up later that day.
Given those circumstances, Simpson says nothing could have carried him toward the hill.
"Had those issues been directly related to blacks, yes, I would have been there," he says. "But we had our own issues with the university and the government we were dealing with."
  
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