Canvasopedia

Something smelled funny as soon as it was proposed -- the union of a proud black university and a top Republican strategist and troublemaker credited with one of the most racist presidential campaign schemes of recent memory.But there it was in news accounts carried across the nation: Howard University names Republican Chairman Lee Atwater to its board of trustees. Atwater had just engineered the 1988 presidential victory of George H.W. Bush and had crafted the racist Willie Horton ad that helped seal his win. ...
As a journalism student at Rutgers University, the news hit me and every black student I knew on campus like a ton of bricks. We were already a little depressed that Bush won and would likely continue the backward politics of the Reagan administration. But why, we wondered, would Howard University sell out and give Atwater a platform for his policies?
Luckily, the Howard student body came to the rescue.
A small protest of Atwater's appointment turned into a firestorm as Howard students took over the school's main administration building for a sit-in. After a tense four days, and with campus police threatening a violent takeover of the building, Atwater resigned. Later that year, Howard President James E. Cheek, who hatched the failed Atwater appointment, also resigned.
Atwater died in 1991 of a brain tumor.
The Howard University Alumni will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the student protests March 26 and 27 at the Blackburn Center on the Howard University campus. And it is an event well worth remembering. Those were days when university students seemed far more interested in providing a moral compass for school administration and government leaders than is the case now. Whether the issue was divestment of university holdings in apartheid South Africa or the appointment of a suspected racist to a leadership position at a black university, students wasted no time in making their voices heard. One hopeful sign was the overwhelming support President Obama received on college campuses across the country. Maybe that burst of activism will ignite another wave of student action like the one that saved Howard University from Lee Atwater 20 years ago.

http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2009/03/12/nonviolent-protest-anniversary-howard-students-told-atwater-no/