Perry interview [This should read Tape 2, Side 1] [Begin Tape 2, Side 2] Warren: This is tape two with Eugene Perry, April 16, 1996. Perry: I did want to say, I think Bob Huntley was a great president. He was the right man at the right place. Warren: I’m glad you brought that up, because I wanted to ask you that. 41 Perry: He was great. He meant a lot to us. We did a little protest, and we even took over his office one time on a dispute that we had on campus. He was cool. We came in and he said, “What do you want?” We said, “We’re going to take over your office.” And he said, "Fine," and he went home. He went home. We could always go to him. That’s one thing I liked about Washington and Lee. I could go to the president of the university and say, "I want to talk to you," or make an appointment, and he would see me. I mean, I didn’t make a habit of it. But he would listen to us. You know what I mean? And you can’t beat that, when the top man, at least he will listen and will make a fair decision. Sometimes he would tell us that we were wrong. "Why don’t you let me work on this? Let's slow down." He was a great leader, that’s what he was. Because we would go in to him with some strange requests. We weren’t always right just because we were an minority. We weren’t always right. He had a way of separating the good from the bad and the ugly. He did a very good job of that, and I always admired him. If I had a company, I’d make him the CEO. Warren: That’s what Sydney Lewis did. Perry: That’s right. I'd have done the same thing. I always admired him and his integrity, his sense of fairness and his sense of humor. The fact that we would go in there, we'd make him smoke a whole pack of cigarettes while we were in there. But I remember when they were going to name the Chavez House. They didn’t ask us, the black alumni, what we thought of that. We didn’t know who this guy was. Some black guy, I guess, who went to school there hundreds of years ago. And they did it on purpose, again, not wanting to make a stand. They could’ve named that house after Marjorie Poindexter, anybody. They could’ve asked us who we wanted to name the house after. Ostensibly it was our house for us, but they gave it this name of this guy, because they didn’t want to offend somebody. But the students there, they went along with that. I will not go in the house. 42 Warren: Tell me what the Chavez House is. Perry: I don’t know what it is. It’s supposed to be a house for the minority students. That’s where they stay. I believe they have pictures there of some of us, some of the alumni who’ve gone there. I don’t know. I know when they were having the dedication, I was actually in Lexington. There were a lot of us in Lexington. I think somebody was getting married. We were there, but we wouldn’t go, because it was stupid. They didn’t ask us about it. They had some lady there who thought she was doing the right thing. She got rid of the name Student Association for Black Unity. What do they call them now? The minority thing. What is that? They’re minorities now. So what is a minority? Which minority are you talking about? She wanted to take the emphasis off "black," because we’re all in this together. But what you find out when you leave school is that we’re not all in this together. You know what I mean? When you go for a job, you’re black. You’re what you are, and you have to deal with that. That effort to be somewhat color- blind, I think that’s a farce. She does that because she doesn’t want those kids to stand up and be what they are. She doesn’t want anybody protesting. She doesn’t want them to be activist. You know what I mean? I don’t think that’s what Robert E. Lee would want. I think he’d want you to come there and be a man, be a woman, be what you are, but be honest. You have some integrity. You have your beliefs. You be the best that you can be, but you are what you are. I don’t think that’s what he would want. Warren: You say that they didn’t ask your opinion. What was your role being on the alumni board? Perry: I think that actually happened just as I got on the board. I was asked my opinion. I told them I didn’t like it. I thought it was a cop-out. I told them in the alumni meeting, I said it was a cop-out to do that. There were some other names that you could’ve found. They could use Martin Luther King, for all I know. But who was 43 this guy? They found him in history someplace. They did it on purpose. They didn’t want that house to have any real meaning. It was a cop-out. You look at the people who built Washington and Lee. You don’t build a school like that with cowards and people who want to take the easy way out. You build schools, institutions, businesses like that with some integrity, for people to have something, not like that. So that doesn’t represent me and my group at all. I will not go in there. It’s meaningless. If they want it to mean something, they could’ve put Marjorie Poindexter’s name on it. It would’ve meant something, not only to us, but the community. It would say, "Wow! Washington and Lee recognizes the contribution of a black person, a real black person, not somebody that stumbled on the campus 150 years ago that they admitted into the school, that they had forgotten about until they dragged him up for this." I don’t mean to be disrespectful to his family, but that’s the way I see it. That’s the way it is. If I win the lottery, I’ll give them a building to put somebody’s name on it, but it wouldn’t be someone—it will have some meaning. It has no meaning. The lady that’s there now, she wants it that way, Anece McCloud, she wants it that way. They like having people like that around. Okay? It's time for me to go. Warren: Okay. All right. Thank you. This has been really wonderful. I could keep asking you questions for hours. Perry: I have a lot to say. Warren: But you have given me loads and loads and loads of time, and I'm really grateful. [End of interview] 44