Los Angeles LO YOL AN^
VOLUME 46, NO. 2
A LOYOLA-MARYMOUNT STUDENT PUBLICATION
OCTOBER 14, 1968
Loyola Students Attacked At Meeting
Marymount to Begin
Film Festival With
'Le Bonheur/ Oct. 15
Frequently referred to as one of
the most beautiful films ever
made, Le Bonheur will premiere
at Loyola, Thursday, October 17.
The film will be presented for
Loyola and Marymount students
by the Associated Students of
Marymount College. It will be
shown in St. Robert’s Auditorium
from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. with cof¬
fee and a discussion following.
There will be no admission
charge for Marymount students.
Admission for guests is one dol¬
lar, Loyolans with ID cards, 25
cents.
“A poetic and sensuous hymn to
the happy life,” Le Bonheur is the
story of one man in love with two
women. Director Agnes Varda
portrays personal happiness as a
force “both self-gratifying and
pathetically destructive.”
It is described by numerous
critics as being both exceptional
and unusual. This French import
has already accumulated several
awards.
The New York Timeis com¬
mented, “Miss Varda’s dissection
of amour is strikingly adult and
unembarassed in its depiction of
the variety of love ... a Renoir
background ... A memorable
view of the male and female —
awash in familiar togetherness.”
Loyolan Interview;
Joe Thompson of P.A.T.
By Don Girard
“Westchester is no different from any other middle class com¬
munity. The general attitude of Westchester is against bussing.
Some of the residents are purely and simply racists. Some are only
afraid that their children will be bussed into the ghetto. ‘Bussing’ is,
in any case, a traumatic word.”
—Joe Thompson to the Loyolan
his personal viewpoint against
forced integration.
Throughout the evening at the
Thompson residence, the PAT
chairman fielded the Loyolan
questions with cordiality and
smoothness. He presented a pic¬
ture of forced integration argu'ng
convincingly that bussing is an
improper solution to a real prob¬
lem.
He also made statements con¬
tradicted by other sources, quoted
(Continued on Page 4)
BRIAN BENNETT, Loyola sophomore who was injured at the
Westchester meeting, addresses student forum, Tuesday, concerning
what the reaction of the Loyola community should be.
Campus Reactions Vary
In Wake of Incidents
By Bob Noonan
Campus reaction to the incident which took place between the
members of the Loyola University Community Action Program and
the members of the Parents and Taxpayers Association of West¬
chester, was overwhelmingly in support of the Loyolans.
The immediate and official response to the violence which disrupted
the meeting was voiced by acting University President, Rev. John W.
Clark, S.J., at a press conference held Monday night for CBS News,
KFWB, and the Los Angeles Free Press.
Father Clark read a prepared
Mr. Joe Thompson, resident of
Westchester for 14 years, and
chairman of the Westchester-
Playa Del Rey Parents and Tax¬
payers Association, granted an
exclusive interview to the Los
Angeles Loyolan to comment on
the violence of Sunday night.
The conversation dealt also with
the issue of bussing minority area
children into predominantly white
neighborhoods (and the converse
situation of bussing white children
into the ghettos) and on Thomp¬
son’s efforts to date to advance
Twelve Students Injured In
Community Center Melee
By John Armstrong
On Sunday evening, October 6, twelve Loyola students were in¬
jured by a chemical irritant sprayed on their faces and hands.
The students were injured at a meeting of the Westchester-Playa Del
Rey Parents and Taxpayers Association, a group opposed to school
bus integration programs. Eight of the students required hospital
treatment.
Some 26 Loyola students and faculty attended the session, adver¬
tised as an open community meeting and held in the Westchester
_ Recreation Center.
Crowther
Addresses
Assembly
Right Reverend Edward Crow¬
ther, deported from South Africa
for his attempts to bring equal
opportunities and treatment to the
black and “colored” majority of
the white-dominated country,
spoke to the Loyola-Marymount
convocation, October 8.
Bishop Crowther expressed his
strong belief that the Church must
statement outlining the position
of the University Administration.
His statement read in part: “We
are proud of our students. In my
opinion the students acted cour¬
teously and within their rights,
but they were treated with dis¬
courtesy in the hall and with vio¬
lence outside ...”
(See Page 5 for Text of Statement)
Student response was demon¬
strated at a Forum held Tuesday,
October 8, on the Lair Patio. At
the Forum three of the students
who were sprayed with a chemi¬
cal irritant, addressed the gather¬
ing and answered questions about
the meeting, the reasons that
LUCAP attended the meeting,
what happened there and after¬
wards.
Tom Weston, S.J., the coordi¬
nator of LUCAP, opened the
Forum by explaining that the stu¬
dents were at the meeting because
they had been asked to attend by
the Westchester Human Relations
(Continued on Page 4)
BISHOP CROWTHER
be relevant to the society that
it serves, and that it has a duty
to protect its members regardless
of color. He pointed to the re¬
ligious basis of the present racial
condition in South Africa: the
Dutch Reform Church, the pre¬
dominant church in that nation,
has retained the concept of the
“white man’s burden.” He argued
that this has resulted in suppres¬
sion rather than protection for the
13 million coloreds, or persons of
mixed blood.
Bishop Crowther gave illustra¬
tions of the problem. For ex¬
ample, there is no guarantee of
(Continued on Page 3)
The students who attended the
meeting represented all segments
of the Loyola community. There
were Young Democrats and regis¬
tered Republicans, six Jesuit ju¬
niors, seven Loyolan staff mem¬
bers, and three members of the
R.O.T.C. program. One of those
present was a Marymount co-ed,
and one the wife of a Loyola sen¬
ior.
Tom Weston, student coordina¬
tor of the Loyola University
Community Action Program,
(which put up signs advertising
the Westchester meeting) said
that he had received a phone call
from a member of the Human Re¬
lations Council of Westchester in¬
viting members of the Loyola
community to attend the session.
The meeting began with a
series of speeches opposing school
bussing into Westchester. The for¬
mat of the meeting required that
any questions of the speakers had
to be written down on paper and
submitted to the platform. No
comments from the audience on
either the speakers or the ques¬
tions were permitted.
When it appeared to the Loyola
students that the questions were
being screened and that theirs
were not going to be answered,
the students got up and left the
meeting, along with some 75
Westchester residents.
Brian Bennett, the Loyola soph¬
omore who led the walk-out, de¬
scribed his reasons in this way:
“We went to that meeting — it
was an open meeting — and we
wanted to have a fair discussion
of both sides of the issue. Accord¬
ing to the format of the meeting,
that fair discussion was not
allowed; and it was useless for us
to sit there when the fair dis¬
cussion was not being allowed —
and so we left.”
Mr. Joseph Thompson, the
chairman of the Parents and Tax¬
payers Association, said, “The
boys walked out after I denied
them permission to ask questions
from tte floor. That was contrary
to the ground rules of our meet¬
ing.” He further commented that
some of the students’ questions
were read later.
After the students left the meet-
( Continued on Page 3)
