With more than 4,000 trailers that were delivered for Hurricane Katrina relief on the Gulf Coast a year ago still in storage, Vanderbilt students and alumni react to FEMA’s response to the storm.

It’s not every day that Vanderbilt students have to incorporate a presidential visit into their daily routine.

However, as Bush campaigned Wednesday on behalf of Bob Corker at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel, students and Nashville residents faced numerous parking and traffic problems.

Vanderbilt Dining has opened a new natural food store, Nectar, on the first floor of Vanderbilt-Barnard Hall as part of its larger Eat the World, Save the Earth campaign.

In his 55 years of employment at Vanderbilt, August Johnson has seen Vanderbilt, Nashville and the nation reject the politics of racism and move into the modern era of acceptance.

At 75 years of age, Johnson, a custodial worker in the Plant Operations Department, can still remember his first experience with racism and the ways of the old South.

“When I was about 10 or 11, I was in the grocery store about to write a receipt when an older white fellow turned around and snapped at me,” he said.

“This guy called me everything but a child of God. I go home, and I’m crying. My mother told me, ‘Don’t worry. He’s got a day comin’. She told me not to hate.’”

According to Johnson, the outburst itself was less surprising than the perceived normalcy of the event.

“The people in the store just stood there,” he said. “People looked at one another but didn’t say anything.”

Other instances, while less blatant, demonstrate how pervasive racism was before the Civil Rights Movement.

“When I first started working here, I worked on the Swing Crew,” he said. “We would do whatever needed to be done around campus.”

Johnson described one day at Chancellor Harvie Branscomb’s residence that particularly stood out in his mind.

“One day, Chancellor Branscomb’s wife wanted us to clear some brush for a party,” he said. “She was hollerin’ and shoutin’ at us, afraid we wouldn’t finish. After a few minutes, even though I was scared, I asked, ‘If you could just be quiet, we could finish.’ She understood and went inside.”

“I guess at the time, treating us like that was just what people did, but afterwards she came out and took us in for Cokes,” he said.

Segregation was a common part of the society of the time, but many of today’s students may not realize that it also applied to the Vanderbilt of the 1950s.

“I remember when I first started working here, you could go in and order from Vanderbilt’s cafeteria, a white-framed building, but as a black man you couldn’t sit down,” Johnson said. “It was the law they had to go by.”

As Johnson described it, “it was a different world,” but Nashville was not as bad as some places. “I grew up in a mixed neighborhood. We accepted each other when a lot of places didn’t.”

Finally, after the long fight of many Civil Rights leaders, the tide began to turn. African American students had to protest their way into the school, but Johnson says he can remember seeing the first black student at the university.

Johnson explained that societal changes are always difficult, but “Vanderbilt came into the changes nicely.”

Despite his painful experiences, Johnson said, “Hating was never an option.”

“I’ve never had any bitterness,” he said. “Kids today don’t really know about all this, but I experienced it all. Now you can go anywhere, but I came up through the ropes when times were hard.”