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This Week in Princeton History for March 25-31


By April C. Armstrong *14

In this week’s installment in our recurring series, a student defends himself and a campus organization against accusations of fabricating discrimination, an administrator vows that Princeton will comply with Prohibition, and more.

March 25, 1965—History professor Martin Duberman joins the last leg of the five-day voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

March 27, 1997—Suman Chakraborty ’97 defends himself and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance from accusations of fabricating discrimination against sexual minorities on campus.

In my four years here, I have been called a faggot to my face, had the words “FAG” and “HOMO” deface my message board, received anonymous hate e-mail, had innuendoes made about my sexual behavior in the pages of The Sentinel, had posters advertising LGBA events ripped from my bulletin board and watched as students tried to tear down an LGBA banner hanging above McCosh walk. In this latest chapter of my saga at Princeton, I have been referred to as a media-manipulating, free-speech-hindering, political demagogue by two men who do not know me. All they know is that I am gay, and they read two quotes in the “Prince.”

Clipping from an online newsletter, The Gaily Princetonian
The Gaily Princetonian, March 1997. Digital archive available via the Internet Archive.

March 29, 1910—According to the New York Herald, Princeton student Sewall Frederick Camp (Class of 1910) has crossed the Atlantic as a stowaway on the Kronprinzessin Cecile from New York. “At night he was discovered and explained that he had come on board after a quarrel with his parents, intending to abandon his prospects.”

March 31, 1926—Dean of the College Christian M. Gauss has taken a firm stand in favor of Prohibition, and has vowed to make Princeton “clean as a hound’s tooth and dry as a bone.”

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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