Note: some readers may find historical images in this story to be offensive.
Anne Dueweke worked at Kalamazoo College, her alma mater, for more than twenty years in various roles, including director of faculty grants and institutional research. Dueweke thought she knew her beloved K as well as anyone, and probably better than most. But when she took a closer look at the racial history of the college, she realized her experience was a lot different from those of students of color. What she discovered became the new book Reckoning: Kalamazoo College Uncovers Its Racial and Colonial Past (Myers Education Press, 2022).
“I at first thought I would write up some fifty-page history because there have been so many histories written up about the College already,” Dueweke says. “I thought I would just add this perspective. But as I got into it, it became clear that there was a lot to say. And it grew into a book project.”
Reckoning begins in 1833, when Kalamazoo College was founded on land that was home to the Potawatomi people during the era of Indian Removal. Dueweke addresses the changing racial climate through the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s and Black student activism on campus, as well as activism today and efforts to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent years.
Dueweke says at first it was hard for her to see the disparities in the way people of color were treated at Kalamazoo College while she was a student there. Dueweke graduated in 1984.
“That was hard for me to see, as a white person who felt very comfortable at Kalamazoo College,” she says. “I began to see how it was a very difficult place for students of color when I did a focus group project in 2013. That was very eye-opening for me. That’s when I really began to understand the deeper issues involved and why the campus climate could be so alienating for students of color, and people of color generally. Then I became much more immersed in that work.”
Dueweke says her findings at K were not much different from what they would be at any institution of higher education over the years. She devoted six years to researching and writing the book.
“Sometimes the college would be ahead, sometimes it would be behind, and sometimes it would be right there with the rest of the country,” she says.
Dueweke says she got support, encouragement, and guidance from Mia Henry, the former executive director of the Arcus Center, and from Lisa Brock, the center’s former academic director, among many others. She says K College leaders have also been supportive and contributed to publication. Today, a third of the college’s student body are students of color.
“It’s been really wonderful that they’re willing to embrace a history like this,” Dueweke says.
Dueweke and former Society for History and Racial Equity director Donna Odom will host a conversation about the book at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29 at this is a bookstore. Registration is required.
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