The Missing Years

The history of the IU Homecoming Court can be traced back as far as 1940 with the crowning of the first Homecoming Queen, but in 1968 the tradition was discontinued for a period of ten years when a discriminatory racial scandal unfolded in the laps of University officials. \nIn October 1968, a three-hour hearing was held before the Joint Committee on Discriminatory Practices after five African American students filed a complaint after they were not selected to the Homecoming Court on what they suspected to be racial discriminatory terms. \nFinding in favor of the students who filed the complaint, the committee made a recommendation to then-IU President Herman B Wells to declare the Homecoming Court void. \n"The Committee concludes that any contest which holds out honors, distinctions and rewards to students of this University should hold forth opportunity on an equal basis to all students of every substantial ethnic and other identifiable group," the Joint Committee on Discriminatory Practices said in an issued statement. "No one entrant should be elevated about the others." \nAccording to University Archives, 70 percent of the Homecoming Court judging was based on beauty alone, followed by a distant 20 percent on personality and charm and lastly by 10 percent on interview questions selected by the judges. \nAccording to a report issued by the committee, the judging criteria was thought of as a type of "institutionalized racism."\n"The committee believes that subconscious acceptance of dominant social beauty standards influenced the decisions of the judges," the report stated. \nDue to minority protests and recommendations from the committee, Wells then gave the order to suspend the Homecoming queen elections until plans to include all races equally could be determined. \n"I regret any inconvenience and disappointment to any individuals or groups," Wells said in a written statement to the public. "But, the customary procedure is no longer adequate in representing a campus which grown cosmopolitan and which itself represents people of nearly every national origin, creed and color." \nAfter a ten-year absence, the Homecoming Court was reinstated into IU tradition in 1978. No longer a beauty contest, the Homecoming Court was turned into a scholarship and recognition program for outstanding seniors in the IU community. Currently, there isn't a single section that deals with beauty, said Chris Gatchel, director of this year's Homecoming Court.\n"Beauty is not what this contest is about," Gatchel said. "In my eyes that's a shallow practice and I'm doing the best I can (with creating judging requirements for this year's Court) according to the way I was raised and for what this University stands for." \nAccording to records in the IU Archives, five years after the Court's revival, the first believed black Homecoming queen, Debora Jackson, was crowned. A black Homecoming queen was chosen again in 1996 when senior Erica Hart's name was called. \nOther minority homecoming queens may still be unknown.\nAlthough progress has been made, there is still far to go, said Eric Love, IU director of Diversity Education and Black Student Union adviser.\n"As a campus we are still quite segregated," he said. "A lot of the students of color who are interested in getting involved find that many of the environments around campus are not welcoming." \nValued as an essence of the campus community, cultural diversity brings character to the Homecoming court, said Elizabeth Roush, president of the Student Athletic Board. To ensure an equal opportunity for all to compete, questions of race, sexual orientation or religion are not included on the applications for the court. Judges do not discover these details until a face-to-face interview session, she said.\n"The Student Athletic Board encourages every senior to participate in the Homecoming court competition regardless of race, religion or ethnic background," Roush said. "The winners will be a best representation of the embodiment of IU, and that decision won't be one of race"