The AAm Was Our Home
No Place Like Home
There's truly no place like home. For Ricki Fairley and the other Black students on campus, there was no place like The AAm [The Afro-American Society] building. What is known today as The Shabazz Center for Intellectual Inquiry, was the hub of Black life on campus.
Ms. Fairley holds warm memories about planning parties at the AAm... even on nights that knew they should have been studying. Nothing compared to the support she felt from Rick Jones '76, who was her big brother at the time and remains her big brother to this day. He looked out for her and made sure that she had all the resources that she needed to be successful in her classes.
In fact, most students felt an overwhelming sense of support from other members of the community. With lots of programs like the society for Black pre-med students, a Big Brother Big Sister program, and other volunteer tutor programs intended to help Black students navigate academics and life at Dartmouth, people looked out for each other.
Ms. Fairley added that this sense of unity is one that was unique to just that time. Though she didn't realize it until after her daughters Amanda '07 and Hayley '14 matriculated, she was living in a moment of peak unity and appreciated all the moments she once shared with her Black peers.
"Well you know, we didn't know it was that moment. It was our life, it was our normal. I can look back on it now and compare it to my daughters and compared to now, but we didn't know we're in a moment. We just knew we were in the space that was like Camelot. So we didn't know we were... I know we were starting a lot of things for the first time ... you know, that's when BADA started and BUTA started but we didn't really know we were making a moment."
