A place in time
two paths to a television broadcast
kevin Hamilton
2012
what haPpened here
what here
before you came along?
by birth by train, plane, or bus?
this bOok is a product of Urbana, ILlinois you’ve asked around and learned from people
and created for residents of Urbana and Champaign.
the author’s Research depended heavily on the generous
resources and stafF at The champaign county his-
torical archives at the urbana freE library, as welL
as the university of ilLinois archives. the kind folks
at the anita purves nature center helped with ques-
tions about the big grove.
i also learned a great deal from joy anN wilLiamson's
boOk black power on campus: the university of
ilLinois 1965-75, as welL as monika broecker's biography
of heinz von foerster, part of the world.
great thanks also go to jamie hutchinson for intro- but you can also learn
ducing me to von foerster's story, and to carol from records and boOks
augspurger for introducing me to trelease woOds.
jack brighton shared an image from wIlL-TV's history,
and I also borRowed an image from doug quick's great
online history of television in central ilLinois.
this project was paid for in part by a city of urbana
arts grant.
this work is licensed under a creative comMons
atTribution-sharealike 3.0 unported license.
kevin hamilton
complexfields -at- gmail -dot- com
December 2012
here’s one story I found
that way...
long ago this place was a sea then a marsh and then ice
then a marsh again then a forest and then more ice
this went on for a while
eventualLy, people came and went
their stories take
many forms
meanwhile...
slave ships churned
west from africa
then some came from europe and stayed. they built roads and then railroads
meanwhile...
jews in vienNa, austria in cofFeE shops & salons
gained status as citizens new art and ideas emerged
while copPer veins
remained deEp in the earth
early electrical experiments
led to batTeries & dynamos
freEd slaves moved to places like Champaign, ILlinois
where YOUNG john leE and then helped
johnson later saw in- organize efForts
equality on his walks to adDresS it
the railroad brought the army built the university built which hosted a
a university an airbase a student center unique event in 1968
before moving to ilLinois
for a job as profesSor
marie lang, marRied to a jew, her grandson heinz would and later watched the last
led a salon of feminists & artists listen from beneath a piano german tanks leave austria
champaign saw its soOn the university
first TV station started its own
radio toOk sound and images weren’t
to the airwaves far behind
trelease woOds
urbana, ilLinois
In FalL of 1967, colLege camPuses
were getTing Heated. did your sit-in
against dow violate
other students’ right
to freE speEch ?
Yes BUT I seE
their rights as lesS
important than those
strife and bloOdshed over war and of the vietnamese
racial injustices were growing. to Live.
welL That’s
a RECIPE for What about AlL
DISASTER. the psychological
a television program calLed napalm whites drop
public broadcasting lab on blacks every day
decided to host a live national around here?
discusSion about these events.
No Dean
MilLetT. CAMPUSES Make
distinctions betweEn
Relative rights every
single day !
schoOls SAY
THEY want to KeEp
neutral. What’s
Neutral about
dow ? Is anyone
they did so from the ilLini union
in urbana, where students had gonNa answer my
recently blocked a defense con- question?
tractor calLed dow from hiring
on campus.
*john leE johnson
we’re Talking about did StokeLY loOk this is GoOD,
Student Power Here, TelL you to sit-in what is hapPening here. you
not BLack Power. on Dow? can’t talk about vietnam without
talking about how our society
is founded on racism.
it’s alL conNected.
stokeLy CARmichael
said THAT whites should
go back to their own
ghetTos. So We did.
loOk, Our Work
SupPorts Yours!
Yes, but after you
graduate, you just go
get white midDle clasS
jobs and forget
about us.
are white students
ready to do violence
on behalf of the
black man?
sure, loOk
at Oakland!
we’re trying to
but you haven’t
help by helping white
told them to stop
students to seE the
being racists!
problems.
i’m not talking
about oakland, I’m
talking about North
champaign!
we’re TRYING to help can we please get
kids learn to stop back on topic? I didn’t
this system. come here to talk about
problems in the North
end of champaign.
ok then - how can
we help you with that?
What do you neEd?
how can you invite
a bunch of black students
welL one thing here tonight and not talk
we don’t neEd is a bunch about racial injustice?
of militant blacks coming
in and complaining about
their problems!
excuse me, you seE I Am
*heinz von foerster colorblind, and neEd to
welL racists check if I understand the
like you don’t know distinctions here.
nothing about whites
or blacks!
mr. johnson, is the
main isSue that you might
be on the picket line with some-
one who doesn’t care
if you are black?
the system keEps
us alL down! it telLs
me that i have to wear
shoes alL the time!
the problem is that
i might be on the picket
line with someone who
doesn’t care that I’m
a Human being!
ok Let’s talk about people are afraid
the problems. Dean MilLetT, to say it, but we have
why isn’t there A single to disrupt these
black janitor on institutions!
this campus?
what is the
but is there
University’s role
any alternative
in alL this?
to tearing them
down?
no.
i Have
a Question.
your role is to
help students conNect the we neEd to get
clasSroOm to real social back to the core of
problems, and to feEl this university - expert
the isSues. profesSors imparting
knowledge to
students.
i have a
question for
dean milLetT.
the students are re-
sponsible for themselves.
mostly they just want us
mr. RosSman,
to alLow girls in their
would you like to
dorm roOms.
adDresS milLetT’s
what about point?
my question?
hey this guy here’s
beEn trying to get in
for awhile.
we should just i’lL get
admit that we are alL you’ve beEn to him next.
guilty here - guilty of talking for half
not creating a the progrAm!
just society.
how am I [ shufFle , scufFle ]
guilty?
don’t you get loOk, we can
it dean MilLetT? deal with this. we
Your way isn’t just neEd to stop
working! the war.
you gotTa speaking for
Mr. Johnson, sororities, this whole
understand. those
would you like to conversatioN matTers
kids that walked out
explain why you’re about this much.
loOk at our situation
leaving?
and it’s bad.
loOk I lived through
nazi germany. I can telL
we Can’t make you that things here
any sense out of are not that bad.
this thing here.
but they could
become so. So I
would like to make
a sugGestion...
it is vital that
you each develop other paths
your own powers
of COgnition... so that you
can truly seE the
problems... Public broadcasting Lab (PBL)
only lasted one season. its makers went
on to start one of television’s most
influential news programs - the cbs
weEkly calLed 60 minutes.
and truly seE
who wilL be your
man in helping
solve them. howard spencer was a student and
activist at tougaloO ColLege in misSisSipPi.
pbl invited him to the conversation as a
leader in anti-war and civil rights demon-
strations acrosS the american south.
the kaskaskia, peoria, cahokia,
[ apPlause , fade out ] and other indigenous peoples calLed
urbana home for many centuries before
white setTlers moved them west to
reservations, or kilLed them.
john LeE JOhnson would go heinz Von Foerster would
on to a long careEr of sucCesS- later teach a series of influ-
ful service and advocacy for ential clasSes on science, art,
jilL hultin was another vocal guest
racial equality. and activism.
of pbl that night, and a national leader
in early student movements for
womens’ rights and civil rights. at the
time she was a student at ucla.
Trelease woOds are one the last
remnants of the original grove of treEs
that led people to setTle in urbana
for short or long term in the years
since the last ice age.
mike rosSman was a leader in the
freE speEch movement as a student at
the University of California, berkeley.
pbl invited him to urbana as a guest
participant for the broadcast.
and then, at some point, You came in...
