Lafayette Tolliver: Rehashing and Recording History

The story of one man’s impact and first-hand experience handling social and civil issues at Kent State University in the 60s.

Imagine. Back to a time when Daily Kent Stater headlines read more like time bombs: “Time for revolution”, “Kent Stunned by Walkout”, “Turning point for Blacks”. Looking at the campus newspaper here in the 60s prove that Kent State University has seen more than one struggle and turning point in its time as an institution.

Witnessing and capturing these events as they occurred on campus, as well as documenting black life at Kent State, was student photojournalist and black movement activist Lafe Tolliver.

Tolliver attended Kent State University from 68’ till 71’ and was one of the only two African American students in the Journalism and Mass Communication program at the time. During his time here, he used both his photos and columns to help promote change as well as document what black student life was like on campus.

“During the 60s, Kent State was seen many times as a boiling pot for a lot of student activism,” said Lafe Tolliver, “Nationwide, people would come to Kent because we were very receptive to those types of ideas and they found a very welcoming climate at Kent State.”

At the same time as the widely known anti-war protests leading up to the events of the May 4th shootings here on campus, the black movement during the 60s was a time of civil unrest for the African American students of Kent State. Who were fighting their own battle for equal treatment, equal opportunities, and more consideration by the administration here on campus, according to Tolliver.

“I would say it was more of a turning point for the times…Kent state was at the cutting edge of really being an activist college that really makes changes as far as the social fabric,” Tolliver said.

During Tolliver’s time here at Kent State, he was also apart of start of the student organization, Black United Students; founded on May 21, 1968 by Tolliver’s older brother, William Tolliver, and student Dwayne White, in 1968. The Black United Students, or BUS, was formed as a response to the inequality that black students faced on campus, as well as to create a place where African American students could come together to celebrate in unity their heritage, history and culture while furthering their involvement on campus.

As stated in numerous BUS publications, as well as reports in 1970 Summer Stater editions documenting their actions, BUS had a few goals they wanted to reach here on campus. They wanted the following fall semester to consist of: 5,000 Black Students Enrolled at Kent State, 100 black professors employed (or a quarter of the total staff at Kent State), a new facility for theBlack Cultural Center, and disarming of the campus police.

In the same article, titled “Black Students protest KSU’s Big Problem In Fall”, The University Commission to Implement a Commitment to Non-violence said it considers “The concerns of black students to be of urgent priority to minimize the prospects of violence generated by a lack of positive response to black student concerns”

Activists here on campus like Tolliver participated in walk-outs, sit-ins, and met with administration, such as Kent State University President, Robert White, almost regularly to discuss their needs as a black community here in Kent.

“I thought he [Robert White] was a very acclimatable, nice person. He wasn’t so-called ‘ugly’ or ‘bitter’ or ‘rancorous’. He was quite open and receptive and I think he was a very important ally in what we [BUS] were doing,” Tolliver said.

Though Tolliver wasn’t directly apart of creating BUS, after its creation, he was quickly labeled as what he calls being the spokesperson for BUS. Tolliver spent his time here at Kent attending BUS events, that were both militant and cultural, and documenting what he refers to as ‘Visual footprints’ in time.

BUS staged sit-ins, protests, demonstrations and walk-outs, one of which that was over the recruitment of police officers specifically from Kent State for the Oakland police force.

“We [BUS] were testing why recruiters would come to Kent State to get police officers,” Said Tolliver, “What kind of mindset did they believe was so called in-residence in mid-west Ohio that they could feel comfortable coming this far to recruit students to be officers in Oakland?”

At this time Oakland was a hot zone for different black activism groups like the black panthers according to Tolliver and officials there were likely trying to find a way to control the movement.

Tolliver’s photographs of protests resulting from this show black students standing in front the administration building and the large walk-out on campus in which large groups of black students refused to stay at Kent State and left campus all at once for days without return.

“I always thought as being a photo journalism major, why not use what I was being taught or trained in the actual practice of it,” said Tolliver.

Tolliver recalls with great detail his experience working for both the Kent Stater and the Chestnut Burr as a photographer, columnist, and reporter. He said that majoring in photojournalism made it possible to blend together his passion for the written word and photography.

Besides photographing militant movements in BUS, Tolliver also documented black student life on campus.

When asked why Tolliver chose to do this through his photography, he answers simply, “Because at the time no one else was!”

“He [Tolliver] was a trailblazer. I simply followed him. He was ahead of me in so many ways, that is where the respect [for him] is based,” said Gene Shelton, a communications professor here at Kent State, who went through most of his college career with Tolliver.

“Whenever you saw me at Kent State you always saw me with my camera, we were one in the same,” Said Tolliver, “That’s why I had so much access, because after a period of time people get used to seeing you with your camera…I was always taking pictures and after a period of time it’s almost to the point that you’re seen as the unofficial person that documents history.”

Though photos played a big part in what Tolliver did to document the era, he also says he found a weapon in words which is how he began writing his columns and articles for the Stater.

“When I was attending Kent state we had the shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and that was a turning point for me as far as using the so called ‘power of the pen’,” Said Tolliver

Tolliver addressed everything from social issues within the black community to his reaction to events that had taken place on campus.

“I always say that I think I addressed them [issues faced by black students at the time] but whether or not they were taken to heart is a different question as far as whether or not the students who read the columns actually took it to mind that there was change in the air and that they should be part of it,” said Tolliver.

Almost 50 years later Tolliver’s works get inducted into the University Special Archives with the help of university archivist Lae’l Hughes-Watkins. Watkins, who worked with Tolliver extensively to get his collection of photos into the archives, said Tolliver’s works were the first collection of its kind that documented black student life to this magnitude.

“I feel his collection gives insight to the life of the black students at that time, meaning that there wasn’t just one thing they were interested in, everybody wasn’t just militants, there were students that were just coming here trying to go to class everyday or that they were involved in going to different activities on campus,” Watkins said.

Watkins says that collections like these help us understand the time period better and let us be aware of the past so as not to repeat it, especially the negatives. She also says that the University Library is now actively seeking historical materials like Tolliver’s works in order to highlight different and important points in Kent State History.