You Say You Want a Revolution?

A handful of Nebraska Wesleyan students could sense what was coming in 2020; it reminded them of a time long before they were born.

Class of 2022 political science majors Taryn Smith (Omaha), Emma McGinnis (Central City) and Jason Ezell (North Platte) spent their first semester at NWU delving into the political and social world of 1968. Their Archway Seminar class, taught by Dr. Kelly Clancy, included a chance to interview NWU Alumni for an oral history of 1968—the “year America unraveled”—50 years later.

Now, more than two years after the class and their conversations with NWU Alumni, Taryn, Emma and Jason reflect on the striking parallels between 1968 and 2020—another year of global change and political and social upheaval—on campus and around the world. In short, they’ve been living through their own Revolution.

Revolution 1968 2020

The liberal arts experience has a way of asserting its importance in our understanding of the world. Taryn, Emma and Jason can all identify how their very first college class prepared them to understand, process and engage in 2020.

With her penchant for global politics, Taryn sees the striking parallels between 1968 and 2020 in the United States and around the world: “The events of 1968 and 2020 fundamentally changed the way people see the world. In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and protests erupted around the country. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who won gold and bronze in the 200-meter race at the Olympics, raised their fists while the national anthem played in protest of racial discrimination in the US. The first interracial kiss was aired on American television during an episode of Star Trek. Uprisings in Poland and the Czech Republic reveal the cracks that would break the Soviet Union.

“52 years later in 2020, demonstrations erupted to protest police brutality in the US, followed by similar protests against racial injustice across the globe. Poland, along with democracies around the world, experienced democratic backsliding. The COVID-19 pandemic strained an American healthcare system that never worked to begin with. Everyone feels like their world is unraveling. The events of both years challenged already existing fractures, and the hegemonic power of whiteness came under attack.”

Despite the striking similarities between 1968 and 2020, much has changed in the last 50 years. And Taryn feels a deep sense of gratitude for her college experience today when she remembers her conversations with NWU Alumni about what college was like then.

With her long-standing interest in politics, Taryn has often paid close attention to racial justice protests, glued to Twitter and the news. But she spent the summer and fall of 2020 removed from the daily national conversation and activism around police brutality and racialized violence. She was working at a lodge in Stanley, Idaho, population 63, with very little internet access or phone service.

“You can imagine what it was like for a political science major to only be able to read the news once or twice a week.”

Still, Taryn could see societal shifts taking place. She saw the handful of Black Lives Matter demonstrators making their voices heard often in the small town. Though she was not able to participate in direct action in Stanley or back home, Taryn found a way to apply what she learned in Revolution 1968 to her life:

“I think that class prepared us for 2020. It gave me a toolkit to listen to those who have different experiences than me, especially those who have lived experiences of racism. I came away with a much more robust baseline for understanding US history and the ability to have conversations about racism in America with my white family.”

When you talk about destruction, don’t you know you can count me out in?

Emma looks back on Revolution 1968 as the source of her ability to take the long view on current events. “We spent most of the course learning about all that had gone wrong and how democracy was crumbling. But the last two weeks of the course boiled down to ‘everything will be OK.’ In a strange way it was a comfort. Throughout 2020, it felt like every day brought something knew that was going to be harder to overcome. As it turns out, Revolution 1968 was a grounding experience for everything that was to come.”

Emma’s conversations with Alumni during Revolution 1968 offered her some wisdom she could rely on in 2020. Nebraska Wesleyan students had created an environment where they could be activists, involved in politics and government, but it didn’t have to consume their lives. “They found time to be college students. As a political science major it can be hard to strike a balance between being involved in policy change and living the other aspects of your life. But the Alumni I spoke with showed me that I didn’t have to be completely eaten away by all of what was happening in the world. Their experiences showed me that we can be aware and involved without turning a blind eye and trusted that things would get better.”

With the sense of hope for our collective future came a better understanding of the realities of life for folks with different backgrounds: “I’m from a small, homogeneous community where we don’t see racial oppression because there is no racial diversity. The Archway Seminar class was made up of a broad range of students from cities, from out-of-state and from small towns in Nebraska like me. I was introduced to so many new ways to think because of the major difference in opinions and lifestyles that I never got back home.

“We were talking about very political topics, tense racial times and our role in the global community. I was able to find the happy medium—no, completely throw out what I thought—to be able to hear what I needed to hear, and it transformed my political and social beliefs.”

Emma began her semester-long research and writing process on “civil” protests versus “violent” protests and which was more effective. By the end of the semester, she found herself drawing conclusions that she didn’t agree with anymore. “I just had to finish it, but my views on how we get what we want from our government had changed.” By the end of the semester, Emma had developed the skills to research and form a new opinion.

Emma credits the class, and her research paper in particular, with how she engaged with the racial justice movement in 2020. “It was a lot easier for me to understand than my peers who hadn’t learned that the fight for racial justice and debates around public demonstration tactics are historical, cyclical and systemic issues.”

Knowing the history has pushed Emma to believe that we must pay more attention to racial injustice. “We’ve come far from 1968, but this can’t be a cyclical thing where we have huge demonstrations every 50 years but then forget about it. Knowing that we’ve come through massive shifts like 1968 and can continue to build better gives me a little hope. But we still have a long way to go.”

Despite not having any enthusiasm for the topic before the class, Emma is glad to have been place in Revolution 1968. “It turned out to be the greatest Archway Seminar I could have asked for.”

Peace: the absence of tension the presence of justice

“Revolution 1968 sounded like a trap.”

It wasn’t Jason’s first or second or third choice for an Archway Seminar. “I had never had an interest in history or politics. I voted for the first time in the 2018 midterms to earn extra credit for the class. I began to buy in because Dr. Clancy is such a good professor. Dr. Clancy and the class showed me the importance of history to current events.”

Like Emma and Taryn, Jason came away with the practical tools to be successful as a political science major, college student and professional: research methods, speaking skills and how to have conversations with other people who went to Nebraska Wesleyan.

But Jason also walked away with a new understanding of himself. “I have a strong sense of self and self-confidence, which comes from me being able to speak in my own voice. This class helped me learn that I have a place here and that I earned this place.”

Jason entered Nebraska Wesleyan with no clue what he wanted to do. “It was a nightmare trying to pick something to do or be interested in for the rest of my life. As I reflected on this class and everything I’d learned at NWU a few months later, I realized that what I learned in Revolution 1968 was more interesting than anything else. I’m basically in love with racial politics and politics as a whole.”

At least once a week, Jason thinks back to the conversations he had with Alumni from the class of 1968. He remembers what life was like for them and how Nebraska Wesleyan has changed. “It makes me more grateful for what I’m experiencing at NWU now.”

In the late 1960s, Nebraska Wesleyan was home to only a handful of Black students and no Black faculty. For a few years in the mid-1960s, NWU had a student exchange with Lane College in Mississippi, where four white Nebraskan students experienced life at a Southern, Black university and four Black Mississippian students experienced life at a white, Midwestern university each semester. Though the exchange had been fruitful for the individual students and both campuses, by 1968—perhaps because of all the stress of everything going on in the world—no students from either school signed up for the program.

“The Alumni stories stick with me. I imagine being one of very few African Americans on a very small campus at a primarily white institution. It makes me think of how much NWU has grown.”

Jason reflects on the conversation with NWU Alumni as a moment of knowing that racial prejudice has little to do with age or generation. “It isn’t an age thing. It’s a person thing. The Alumni were living here, in Nebraska, and they knew how important it was for African American students to be coming to Nebraska Wesleyan. We covered so much in that class and each took what we wanted out of it. For me, that was along the lines of race.”

Revolution 1968, the knowledge and the experience, shaped how Jason is involved at Nebraska Wesleyan. “I learned that I can act as a form of representation for underrepresented people. I am important to NWU and to society and there are things I can do to improve it. The class gave me a voice. And I mean that literally.”

Most of Jason’s involvement on campus has allowed him to speak directly to the student body as a Diversity Representative on the Student Affairs Senate, treasurer for Pride Alliance, treasurer for Young Dems and a member of the Wolf Fund committee, a group that delegates funds for diversity-related events and programs on campus. “Inserting myself into situations where I bring diversity allows me to say the most things that matter.”

“My proudest achievement was organizing last year’s Let Love Overwhelm fear rally.” The line-up of speakers, including Jason, shared their stories about diversity. “It was the most fun I have ever had doing anything. And it was heartwarming to see so many members of the NWU community listening to their students and peers share their experiences. Now everyone who heard our stories gets to be part of it because we were comfortable enough to share it with them. I think it brought us closer as a campus.”

In the ensuing months, the rally may have had an even greater impact. As racial justice demonstrations expanded in 2020, the Nebraska Wesleyan community got involved. Students organized a Black Lives Matter rally on campus in August and held a memorial vigil in the fall.

“As an African American I think I would have been able to understand the purpose of the movement and advocate in my own way. Still, Revolution 1968 helped me understand how the world really works in terms of how I perceive myself and how other people perceive race. It’s made me more mindful of the decisions I make and when I decide to say the things I say.”

The class shifted the way Jason communicates with others about racial injustice: “Martin Luther King Jr. said that the biggest stumbling block to racial freedom in America is not the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate. Because of what I learned about race from this class, I know that we have to educate people about systemic injustice, convince them that this has been happening for a long time and get them to wrap their heads around the struggle. Then they can begin to understand why demonstrators are doing what they’re doing.”

Taryn, Emma and Jason all became political science majors and continue to work closely with Dr. Clancy in their capstone class in the Spring of 2021. With NWU’s blend of remote and in-person learning, they learned of their peer working groups when Dr. Clancy assigned them to Zoom breakout rooms on the first day of class. Taryn, Emma and Jason turned on their cameras and laughed. “It all came full circle for us to be in a group together. Now I’m realizing that Dr. Clancy may have put us together on purpose,” Emma reflected.

Revolution 1968 gave three Nebraska Wesleyan students a formative perspective on their country and university’s role in seeking racial justice. It has shaped their identities, their beliefs, their NWU experiences and their professional futures. Through it all, it has helped them be better communicators and collaborators. They’ve learned to listen—to hear stories that challenge their beliefs—and to speak in their own voices to educate, on behalf of others and for themselves.

The time and talent the NWU community poured into Revolution 1968 contributed to its impact. The liberal arts environment creates space for professors to open new ways of seeing the world to their students and to push students to see their peers as valuable sources of knowledge. Dr. Kelly Clancy’s talent for sharing her passion for her field and her investment in first-year students shapes their academic and professional goals. The time NWU Alumni of the class of 1968 gave to first-year students left an impression and propelled them to make their NWU experience one that will be worth celebrating 50 years later.

To learn more about the Revolution 1968 oral history project and to hear recordings of Taryn, Emma, Jason and their classmates’ conversations with NWU Alumni, visit the class’s website: https://revolution1968.wordpress.com/

To learn more about Nebraska Wesleyan’s celebration of Black History Month in 2021, visit the Office of Diversity and Inclusion's webpage.

To give of your time or talent to support today’s NWU students, email alumni [at] nebrwesleyan.edu (subject: Giving%20of%20Time%20or%20Talent%20to%20NWU) (alumni[at]nebrwesleyan[dot]edu)alumni [at] nebrwesleyan.edu (subject: Giving%20of%20Time%20or%20Talent%20to%20NWU) ()