The Protest Chant "Hey Hey Ho Ho" & Two Historical Events: Protest Against Autherine Lucy (1956) & Stanford University Protests (1988)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents information about and examples of the use of the unison* protest chant beginning with "Hey Hey Ho Ho" at two particular historical events: the protest against African American Autherine Lucy's admission into the University of Alabama (1956) and the Stanford University student protests to change the requirement that all students take a Western Civilization course (1988).

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, folkloric, and political purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quotes in this post. Special thanks to Autherine Lucy for her courage and perseverance.
-snip-
*This post is one of several pancocojams posts on unison protest chants (chants that protesters say together) and call & response protest chants (chants that a caller leads with one line and other chants respond with another line). One pancocojams post in that ongoing series is http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/examples-of-black-civil-rights-chants.html Examples Of Black Civil Rights Chants & Black Power Chants

Click the "protest chants" and "African American protest chants" tags below or use this blog's internal search engine to find other posts on these subjects.

****
THE USE OF "HEY HEY HO HO" PROTEST CHANTS: AUTHERINE LUCY ADMISSION INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA'S GRADUATE SCHOOL
Background:
Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autherine_Lucy
for information about Autherine (born October 5, 1929), who was the first African-American student to attend the University of Alabama in 1956.
Here's an excerpt from that page:
"Lucy attended her first class on Friday, February 3, 1956. On Monday, February 6, 1956, riots broke out on the campus and a mob of more than a thousand men pelted the car in which the Dean of Women drove Lucy between classes. Threats were made against her life and the University president's home was stoned.[9] The police were called to secure her attendance. These riots at the University were what was, to date, the most violent, post-Brown [vs the Board of Education Supreme Court ruling], anti-integration demonstration. After the riots, the University suspended Lucy from school because her own safety was a concern.[4]

Lucy and the NAACP filed contempt-of-court charges against the trustees and president of the University; against the dean of women for barring her from the dining hall and dormitories, and against four other men (none connected to the University) for participating in the riots.[10] On February 29, the Federal Court in Birmingham ordered that Lucy be reinstated and that the University must take adequate measures to protect her. The University trustees then expelled her permanently on a hastily contrived technicality.[6] The University used the court case as a justification for her permanent expulsion, claiming that Lucy had slandered the University and they could not have her as a student.

The NAACP, feeling that further legal action was pointless, did not contest this decision. Lucy acquiesced...

In April 1988, Lucy's expulsion was officially annulled by the University of Alabama. She enrolled in the graduate program in Education the following year and received an M.A. degree in May 1992. In the course of the commencement ceremonies, the University of Alabama named an endowed fellowship in her honor.[4]
In a complete reversal of spirit from when she was first admitted there, the university named an endowed scholarship in her honor and unveiled a portrait of her in the student union....

On November 3, 2010, the Autherine Lucy Clock Tower was dedicated in a new space honoring her, Vivian Malone, and James Hood (the Malone-Hood Plaza)—three individuals who pioneered desegregation at the University of Alabama.[12] The Plaza is located beside Foster Auditorium, where, in 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace unsuccessfully attempted to bar Malone and Hood from registering at the University.[13] The 40-foot-tall brick tower has a base displaying bronze plaques that chronicle the individual struggles of Lucy, Malone, and Hood."...

****
The Use Of The "Hey Hey Ho Ho" Protest Chants:
From http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/hey_hey_ho_ho_person_thing_has_got_to_go_protest_chant Barry Popik, June 01, 2010
" “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! (Person/thing) has got to go!” (protest chant)
"Hey, hey! Ho, ho! (Person/thing) has got to go!” has become a standard protest chant. In the early 1950s, it was a sports cheer, with the familiar “got to go” replaced by “let’s go.”

Perhaps the first political use of the chant occurred in Alabama in 1956, when Autherine Lucy (a black student) attempted to be admitted to the University of Alabama. Variations of the chant (recorded in February 1956) that were shouted at the student by angry crowds were “Hey, hey, ho. ho. where the hell did the Negro go?’ and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine must go” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine gotta go.” ....

7 February 1956, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, “U. of Alabama Trustees Bar Negro Student,” sec. 1, pg. 3:
Many in the crowd waved Confederate flags and shouted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine gotta go.”

Google News Archive
29 February 1956, Milwaukee (WI) Journal, “Miss Lucy’s Lawyer Softens Charges at University Trustees,” pg. 1, cols. 1-2:
Birmingham, Ala.—AP—Autherine Lucy’s attorney retreated Wednesday from charges that the University of Alabama trustees and others had conspired with a mob to keep the Negro girl from the all-white campus.
(...)
Lucy said that she heard a mob chanting. “Hey, hey, ho. ho. where the hell did the Negro go?...Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine must go.”

Google Books
Go South to sorrow
By Carl Thomas Rowan
New York, NY: Random House
1957
Pg. 168:
...some drunken fraternity members chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, where in hell did the ni&&er* go? Hey hey, ho ho, Autherine must go.”
-snip-
*That word is fully spelled out in this sentence.

That blog's editor Barry Popik cites a 1933 band as the earliest source for the "Hey Hey Ho Ho" chant:
"21 February 1933, Mason City (IA) Globe-Gazette, pg. 4, col. 1 ad:
BIG DANCE
MASON CITY ARMORY
SATURDAY, FEB. 25
Snappy tunes by the Viking orchestra. Hot ‘cha! Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Come over and step ‘em off."

Popik also cites various 1950s dates that this chant was used as a football cheer, and later cheerleader abd uses and political uses for that cheer.

****
SANFORD UNIVERSITY STUDENT PROTESTS
[Italics added to highlight that chant.]
From http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/19/us/in-dispute-on-bias-stanford-is-likely-to-alter-western-culture-program.html?pagewanted=all
In Dispute on Bias, Stanford Is Likely To Alter Western Culture Program
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN, Special to the New York Times
Published: January 19, 1988
"PALO ALTO, Calif.— At Stanford University, they still talk of the day nearly a year ago when some 500 students, on a march with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, came up with a slogan for the next generation.

The students were celebrating a new course at Stanford, one that would stress the contributions of minorities and women to Western culture, and, they chanted: ''Hey hey, ho ho, Western culture's got to go.''

Students and faculty members these days assert that the slogan expressed no hostility to the likes of Plato and Saint Augustine, Rousseau and John Stuart Mill, all of whom are on Stanford's current list of required reading for freshmen. But in claiming a kind of equal time for minority contributions to American civilization, the chant did reflect a demand that is expected to be accepted by the faculty in the weeks ahead.

Responding to charges that the core reading list reflects what some have referred to as a ''European-Western and male bias'' and what others call ''sexist and racist stereotypes,'' the Stanford faculty seems likely to approve a measure that would eliminate the Western culture course that is required of all freshmen. The course, which has been offered since 1980, is based on a list of 15 acknowledged masterpieces of philosophy and literature.

In its place would be a new yearlong requirement called ''culture, ideas, and values'' that would include the study of at least one non-Western culture and ''works by women, minorities and persons of color.''

...The turmoil over the curriculum, with its overtones of 1960's protest, promises to reawaken a longstanding debate in American education."...

****
From http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433815/stanford-universitys-western-civilization-curriculum-restore-it
"When the American campus environment is shaken with protests supporting the solipsistic flavor of the month, university leaders should look to the demand of these Stanford students, who seek an invigorating curriculum that values honest dialogue, toleration, and context as a model for 21st-century higher education. The movement has reignited a decades-old debate over the value of studying a common Western culture. In the 1980s, under pressure from protesters – “Hey, hey! Ho! Ho! Western Civ has got to go!” – Stanford repealed its longstanding Western Civilization requirement. The aim was to institute a more “inclusive” curriculum that focused on multiculturalism, gender identity, and race. Engaged in the public debate were none other than Jesse Jackson and William Bennett, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of education.”...
-snip-
Here's an addendum to that 1988 protest:
From http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/04/13/stanford-university-rejects-requiring-its-students-to-take-racist-and-sexist-western-civilization-courses/ Stanford University Rejects Requiring Its Students to Take ‘Racist’ and ‘Sexist’ Western Civilization Courses, by Kathryn Blackhurst Apr 13, 2016
"Western Civilization lost its battle once again at Stanford University when the campus referendum to reinstate the class as part of the school’s humanities core was voted down by a 6-to-1 margin in election results released Monday.

Although some of the students at Stanford called for the campus to pass a referendum requiring all students to study Western Civilization, less than 15 percent of the student body supported the effort and the referendum was voted down 1,992 to 342, according to the Daily Caller."...

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.