In the midst of racial tension, OU professor emeritus George Henderson sees a saving grace: change.
OU's Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter was terminated in response to a leaked video that shows its members chanting racial slurs. The situation has made national headlines.
Reactions to the closure of SAE from students have been overwhelmingly positive, and student minority group Unheard was joined by a cluster of students at a peaceful protest the morning after the news broke.
"What I'm seeing now is what I hoped would happen," Henderson said.
Henderson joined OU in 1967 as the third full-time African American faculty member. He and his wife, Barbara, were the first African Americans to own a home in Norman, according to his OU biography.
He can relate to students.
"We had our time, we had our day, we had our targets," he said. "Today, the students are saying 'It's our time, it's our day, it's our place, it's our house, and we're going to help clean it up.'"
Society has changed since joining OU, Henderson said. But things still seem to come full circle.
"The Unheard individuals are doing some of the things that the Afro-American Student Union did back in the late '60s," Henderson said.
Despite the step back, Henderson said this is a pivotal point for fighting against racism.
"The arrogance of the individuals who were spewing that racist stuff was to think that everybody there agreed with them, or they didn't care whether they agreed with them — that's even worse," he said.
"But the unsung heroes are the individuals on that bus who videoed it and then leaked it," he said.
As far as where to go from here, Henderson said, the students are already there.
"This is our moment of truth," he said. "We're at a crossroads. We can move on from here and say, 'OK, it's all done.'"
But this isn't the case.
"It is almost as if, symbolically, the torch has been passed from my generation to this generation and they're holding it high," Henderson said. "They're shining the light on racism."
