‘Last Negroes at Harvard’ traces lives Class of 1963
Kent Garrett ’63 and Jeanne Ellsworth are authors of the new book “The Last Negroes at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever,” which is equal parts memoir, group biography, and history of a turbulent era. They will speak at the Harvard Coop on Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. Following is an excerpt. Arrival Day, Sept. 18, 1959. The new boys trudge along with their suitcases; attentive fathers carry trunks, mothers in flats and autumn coats tote desk lamps and portable typewriters, and kids trot along carting bags and boxes. Harvard Yard is a verdant quadrangle of well-tended but simple elegance, boxed in by fine old American buildings, sequestered behind sturdy ivied brick walls and wrought-iron fences of fine design. Even on a busy day like this, the Yard is serene, as if over 300 years of arrivals have inured it to any disturbance. Proud parents...