SWARTHMORE

MARTIN NATVIGsuit who won. The others lost. But theday before I was to go on the stand,the College granted me tenure. I wenton the stand anyway. After that, theCollege started hiring more women—but not African-American women. Ithas taken them 20 years to hire 4more! Here I am, disturbing the peaceof racism in the Swarthmore CollegeBulletin! I hope they let us print this!I was tired and worn out from all thefighting. A lot of friends and familysaid, “You ought to leave after this isfinished.” It was hard to stay, knowing Ihad not been wanted, but some peoplehad wanted me to stay, and I felt I wasneeded. And my early lesson stayedwith me: Disturb the peace of racismby not moving when they want you tomove. Eventually, I mended relationshipswith people who had foughtagainst me. I stayed almost 24 moreyears! I knew I was respected by thestudents, and that is always what hasmattered most to me. I am a teacher.My reward was the excitement ofteaching here. I mean, the studentskept me going!I can still get angry about racism;injustice is something to be angryabout! But I remained at Swarthmore.I didn’t have to stay, did I? I could have“I CAN STILL GETVERY ANGRY ABOUTRACISM; INJUSTICE ISSOMETHING TO BEANGRY ABOUT.”IN 1991, MORGAN WAS THE FIRST RECIPIENT OF ANAWARD NAMED IN HER HONOR. THE KATHRYN MOR-GAN AWARD, HONORING SIGNIFICANTCONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BLACK COMMUNIT Y AT THECOLLEGE, WAS PRESENTED ON BEHALF OF HER FOR-MER STUDENTS BY CAROLYN MITCHELL ’74.gone somewhere else. I stayed becauseI wanted to stay because I actuallyliked the place. I liked the fact thatSwarthmore encompassed the Quakerphilosophy about the Light inside. Thephilosophy is that there’s an innerLight inside each one of us. And thisgoodness within you, if you workedhard enough, you’d get to that Light.At least Swarthmore was trying to dosomething about moving toward thatgoodness. It wasn’t and isn’t perfect,but at least you had people up herewho were trying. And I had white alliese ven from the beginning. Swarthmorehas that sort of Light, and it made itpossible for us to work together—evenwhen I was disturbing the peace ofSwarthmore College. I don’t regret aminute here. ■La ura Ma rkowitz ’ 85 conducted athree-hour interview with Ka thrynMorga n on June 30 a nd selected theportions of tha t conversa tion publishedhere. During her senior yea r,Ma rkowitz took Morga n’ s course onora l history. She ha s used interviewtechniques lea rned in tha t coursethroughout her ca reer a s a n a wa rdwinningjourna list a nd editor/publisherof In t he Family ma ga zine.S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 023