A Look Back: April 28

50 Years Ago

■There will be a meeting of the newly formed Emphysema Club Thursday at James House on Gothic Street. Persons having chronic lung conditions are welcome, as well as their family and friends.

■Black revolutionary leader Stokely Carmichael told a crowd of more than 1,000 students yesterday that Africa is the only land for the black man and declared that America is “rotten to the core.” Speaking as part of the W.E.B. DuBois series at the University of Massachusetts, Carmichael assailed the American economic system repeatedly in his address and received an overwhelmingly favorable response from both blacks and whites who attended.

25 Years Ago

■Some rooming house managers and owners say a high vacancy rate in their Northampton buildings goes beyond normal seasonal or market fluctuations — and is a cause for worry. Over three dozen of the city’s inventory of 267 rooming house rooms — or more than 13% — stand empty, according to a Gazette survey.

■On Monday, House Majority Leader William P. Nagle Jr., the Northampton Democrat, announced that the budget submitted to the state House of Representatives again includes $535,000 to pay the city’s cost of tuitions for local students attending the Clarke School for the Deaf. Without this money to help stretch an already tight budget, the schools would have face “a tremendous number of layoffs,” said Superintendent Bruce Willard.

10 Years Ago

■President Barack Obama vowed Friday to join Planned Parenthood in fighting against what he said are efforts by states to turn women’s health back to the 1950s, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide. Obama asserted that “an assault on women’s right” is underway across the country, with bills introduced in more than 40 states to limit or ban abortion or restrict access to birth control or other services.

■During the inauguration ceremony Saturday for University of Massachusetts Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy, speakers praised the man they affectionately call “Swami” for his academic brilliance, personal warmth and commitment to leading the public research university. The celebration was part of Founders Week, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the university’s flagship campus.

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