When I read a story like that, it leaves me with the sense that we simply have to get past this, get beyond it as a country. If we can't look to our elite institutions to train future generations to have a strong instinct to be bigger than race, so to speak, to define themselves much more broadly, if we don't get that out of our elite institutions, I don't know who we would expect to provide that leadership. The story behind the Perkins Prize reflects those aspirations. It was established by Jones, a leader of the 1969 student protests at Cornell. Jones says his goal is to highlight and encourage proactive efforts at improving race relations at Cornell.
People are happy to have relative peace.
Jones expects to be on campus when the 2001 Perkins Prize is awarded, April 18.