"We must have Dr. Maucker's full support before we can deal with the Regents on the cultural center." Palmer Byrd, President of the Afro-American Society

Black students at the UNI were very upset with the Board's failure to  approve the cultural center at the March meeting.  Applying another tactic of civil disobedience, nine members of the Afro-American Society came to the President's home at approximately 10:00 P.M..  They asked if they could discuss the matter of the cultural house and the President invited them in.  For more than an hour, they discussed the matter.  At the perceived conclusion of their conversations, President Maucker asked them to leave, which they refused.  Thus, on March 16th, the "black sit-in" had begun.  After several requests for the students to leave, President and Mrs. Maucker, in a form not usual at sit-ins, retired to an upstairs bedroom and the group sent the night on the first floor and had several pizzas delivered to them during the night.

The black students demanded of President Maucker that he write a that the University will commit the University owned residence directly north of the President's  home be made available as a cultural center upon the retirement of its occupant, Dr. Lang, which would take place in June, 1970.  The next day, Palmer Byrd, the president of the Afro-American Society, told a reporter while the sit-in continued, "We must have Dr. Maucker's full support before we can deal with the Regents on the cultural center."

On the second day of the sit-in, the nine protesters were joined by ten other blacks and twelve whites at the Maucker house.  Twelve high school students from East High School attempted to enter the house through the front door.  Mrs. Maucker locked the front but the teens made their way into the house through a side door.  For 17 hours, the participants sat, played cards, studied, took turns and went to class, and were relatively civil to the Maucker's.  Outside, reporters assembled and interviewed students on both sides of the issue.  An injunction was sought by the University to evict the protesters.  Before the injunctions could be served, the students left the house.

The event was not taken positively with many of those who questioned the wisdom of the cultural center now became its opponents.  Even those who supported the center felt the sit-in was a poorly thought out action.  A prevailing thought was that the sit in was "an insult to the persistent and his wife," "a disrespectful thing to do, particularly to one who, demonstrably, was their friend."

The events of the sit-in were far from over after the 17 hours.  State Senator Francis Messerly called for the sit-in participants to be subjected to the civil laws. He felt there was two systems of justice, "one for those on the university campus and one for those off campus"  Messerly also concluded that "it seemed ridiculous that the Regents would be talking of establishing a separate minority center with a $20,000.00 budget which includes two $700 davenports, a $1,000 stereo, $3,000 for traveling expenses, and $100 for ash trays."

At the conclusion of all of the disciplinary controversies, 28 of the protestors, 25 University students and three non-students, were sentenced to seven days in the county jail.  In sentencing the original nine, the judge told them, "The duty to obey the law is a continuing one."   The Waterloo Community Action Council recommended the University students sentenced to jail be given a "work release permit" and Judge Blair Wood agreed for a portion of the students. The work release permit sentence was canceled because of the students' conduct.  Nine of the students were put on a bread and water diet for misconduct in the Black Hawk County Jail, particularly for their "abusive remarks to the jailers and refusal to do as they were directed."

Next: Regents approve the Ethnic Minorities Cultural and Educational Center

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