An excerpt from a memorandum issued by the Provost's Office, discussing the challenges likely to be encountered by the first black undergraduates at Duke. Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Dean records, 1911-2003.
This is the report of Whitman’s phrenology examination performed by Lorenzo Fowler at Clinton Hall. Fowler wrote his assessment of Whitman's traits and dispositions based on measurements of the poet’s head and an examination of the skull for different enlargements and indentions, which supposedly indicated the strength of different traits.
Duke Students & Workers in Solidarity (DSWS) formed in 2016 in response to grievances from employees in the Parking and Transportation Services department. Students partnered with staff and issued demands, staging “A-Ville” outside the Allen Building, and occupying the administrative building for a week. About their employment experience at Duke, one staff member said, “Although I have managed to survive, many of my beautiful brown coworkers have not.” DSWS’s activism is part of a history of student-employee coalitions around worker issues at Duke.
