Taking a Stand / Speaking Out

Joan Cooper: Taking a Stand

Join us for a series of stories from the Center for Local History highlighting members of our community who made a difference in ways that helped shape our history and created positive change.

Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Joan Cooper

Joan Cooper (1940-2014) was an Arlington social and civic activist, community leader, and passionate anti-drug campaigner. Born and raised in Arlington’s Green Valley/(Nauck) community, Cooper first became an activist in the 1960s as a member of the Action Coordinating Committee to End Segregation in the Suburbs (ACCESS). In July 1966, ACCESS participated in sit-ins and pickets demanding that fair and equal housing opportunities be made available to all apartment renters in Arlington County.

Joan Cooper, date unknown

Shifting her focus to her immediate community, Cooper tackled issues of drug abuse, crime, and poverty/unemployment, worked to help drive out drug dealers, sought to increase and provide treatment and counseling for addicts, and endeavored to find positive alternatives and activities for young people.

She challenged her community to make changes as well, stating, “People have to realize, that we as community members have to do our job, too.”

In 1970 Cooper led a series of marches and held informal “rap sessions” in Green Valley, focusing on the dangers and extent of drug abuse in the community. She also founded an antidrug facility called the Community Inn, which functioned as a counseling and treatment referral center.

With her message of “Be persistent, consistent, and insistent,” Cooper helped launch an initiative called “Crackdown on Drugs” in July of 1992. Cooper’s dedication and leadership in this campaign were hailed by then-President George H.W. Bush upon his visit to Drew Model School. Her efforts included driving individuals to drug and alcohol detox programs, helping to patrol corner blocks of the Green Valley neighborhood, and serving as a liaison between residents and police.

In response to what Cooper and others in Green Valley felt was often an inadequate police presence in the area, the Community-Based, Problem-Oriented Police (CB-POP) unit was established at 2430 S. Kenmore St. in March 1992 because of her advocacy.

In that same year, she was named a Notable Woman of Arlington by the County’s Commission on the Status of Women. The Arlington Community Foundation continues to maintain a fund in Cooper’s name which supports a variety of endeavors, including student scholarships, sports programs at local schools, and repair efforts for Lomax A.M.E. Zion Church.

In 1993, Cooper was the first recipient of the William Newman Jr. Spirit of Community Award, given by the Arlington Community Foundation. She also received a William Brittain Jr. Community Appreciation Award from the Arlington branch of the NAACP. In addition, she was a member of the United Way of the National Capital Area and remained an active presence in her community until her passing in 2014.

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Dorothy Hamm: Speaking Out

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Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Dorothy Hamm

Dorothy Hamm was born in 1919 in Caroline County, Virginia. The only school that accepted African-American students was six miles away from her home, and in 1926 her family moved to Fairfax County where the children could attend elementary school. When Hamm graduated from primary school, the family found that there was no accessible junior high or high school for African-American students. Because her mother was a government employee, Dorothy attended secondary schools in Washington, D.C., and went on to enroll in Miner Teacher’s College.

Dorothy Hamm, date unknown. Image courtesy of Carmela Hamm, from the Library of Virginia.

Hamm married Edward Leslie Hamm, Sr., in 1942 and the couple moved to Arlington in 1950, where they raised their three children. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal in the public schools in Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1956, the Hamms became plaintiffs in the first civil action case filed to integrate the Arlington Public School system. When no action had been taken a year after the suit was filed, Dorothy and her husband took their oldest son, Edward Leslie, Jr., to enroll at Stratford Junior High School, and were not allowed to admit him to the school.

A few days after the opening day of the school year in September 1957, crosses were burned on the lawns of two Arlington families and the Calloway United Methodist Church. The church was a central location for desegregation organizers.

Due to the efforts of Dorothy Hamm, in 1959, Stratford Junior High School became the first school in Arlington to desegregate. This made Arlington the first County in Virginia to desegregate its schools.

On January 19, 1959, Senator Harry F. Byrd’s policy of statewide “massive resistance” was outlawed by the Virginia Supreme Court. On February 2, 1959, Ronald Deskins, Michael Jones, Lance Newman, and Gloria Thompson were enrolled in Stratford Junior High. Hamm’s sons entered Stratford later that year.

In 1960, Hamm was a plaintiff in a court action to eliminate the pupil placement form, which was used to exclusively assign African-American students to certain schools to get around the Supreme Court’s ruling on desegregation. In 1961, Hamm was a plaintiff in a court action to integrate the athletic program of the Arlington Public Schools. Hamm’s son had been barred from participating in Stratford’s wrestling program because of the physical contact between Black and white students. As a result of the court action, discrimination in Arlington athletic programs was declared to be illegal.

In 1963, Hamm was the plaintiff in a civil action case to eliminate the poll tax and remove the race designation from public forms and voting records in Arlington County. The same year, she initiated legal action and helped to organize picketing efforts in protest of segregation of Arlington’s theaters. Along with four other protesters, Hamm was arrested for picketing at the Glebe Theater. Their efforts were ultimately successful, and Hamm and her son Edward Leslie, Jr., became the first African-American customers to be admitted to the theater.

Hamm continued her political activism as an officer of elections in the County for more than 27 years and worked with the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). She and her husband also participated in the 1963 March on Washington and the Poor People’s March on Washington in 1968.

Hamm passed away in 2004, but her legacy in Arlington lives on.

Dorothy Hamm Middle School, which was named in Hamm’s honor in 2019. Image courtesy of Arlington Public Schools.

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Arlington Council on Human Relations: Speaking Out

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Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Arlington Council on Human Relations

On December 1, 1958, members of the public were invited to a meeting held at the Rock Springs Congregational Church. The meeting was organized by Pastor Sidney Lovett, as well as Hubert Beckwith and Paul Rilling, President and Executive Director respectively of the Virginia Council on Human Relations.

It was on that evening that the Arlington Council on Human Relations was formed.

Membership meeting letter from Dudley P. Babcock.

The purpose of the Council was to improve the economic, civic, and racial conditions in Arlington County. Affiliated with the Virginia Council on Human Relations and coordinating with other local, regional, and national agencies and organizations, the council sought to promote better understanding and communication while trying to lessen tensions between the different groups living and working within Arlington County’s borders.

The County at this time was strictly segregated. Not only were there “white” schools and “Black” schools, but playgrounds were segregated, theaters maintained separate seats for Blacks, and they couldn't stay at any motels or hotels in the County. Even the Arlington Hospital was segregated as there was only one maternity ward and no Black mother could have her baby there except in cases of emergency. Low-income housing was also an ongoing problem.

The Council formed committees to address these various issues. Months were spent writing letters to theatre owners, and picket lines were formed at theatres. Many meetings were held with various organizations and businesses. A joint meeting with Arlington Hospital was arranged.

1967 announcement from the Council of Human Relations of Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax.

Change was slow, but the Council members persisted and while the struggles were sometimes bitter, progress was made. Arlington Public Schools began the process of desegregation, public playgrounds and theatres were integrated and some motels began to accept Black people. Black women were accepted in the maternity wing of Arlington Hospital, and lunch counters throughout the County were integrated. And all of this took place before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.

While the early 1960s was the most active period, the Council continued their social justice work throughout the 60s, focusing primarily on affordable housing and poverty issues.

1969 Council letter to Bernie Pony Rental.

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Joan Trumpauer Mulholland: Taking a Stand

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Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (1941-Present) is a civil rights activist, educator, and founder of the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation. She is best known for her role as a white freedom rider, risking her personal safety in pursuit of equality and social justice while defying racist attitudes and prejudices towards Blacks during the Jim Crow era.

Born in the District of Columbia and raised in Arlington County, Mulholland was deeply troubled at an early age by what she perceived as unfair treatment of minorities when a school friend dared her to walk through a predominantly Black section of town. Despite being only 10 years old, she felt the discomfort and alienation of the people she observed and thus vowed to play a role in changing attitudes and contributing to the elimination of racism in American society.

Following what she felt was an unfulfilling year spent attending Duke University, Mulholland spent the next year working on Capitol Hill which led to her involvement with the Nonviolent Action Group from Howard University. 1960 found her participating in sit-ins which often led to her being arrested and labeled as mentally ill owing to her unique status as a white, southern woman. One of these sit-ins took place on June 10, 1960, at the Drug Fair drugstore in Cherrydale in an attempt to integrate the lunch counter. Mulholland documented these experiences in a diary, which detailed conditions of her confinement which included segregated cells, what she was given to eat, and how she forged bonds with her Black counterparts.

1961 saw Mulholland joining the Freedom Riders, an integrated group of Black and white activists who defied the southern practice of segregated busing by refusing to travel separately. That summer, Mulholland, accompanied by activists Stokely Carmichael, Hank Thomas, and others, traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, with members of the Congress of Racial Equality.

Mugshot of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, June 8, 1961.

After refusing to leave a bus station area there, Mulholland was arrested and taken to Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi, a notoriously harsh prison. Mulholland, who was only 19 at the time, refused to post bail. Since there was no women’s wing of the prison then, she was housed on death row for two months and kept in a cramped, segregated cell with 17 other women.

Mulholland served her two-month sentence plus additional time to work off the $200 fine she owed, before attending school at Tougaloo College in Jackson where she had enrolled during her incarceration. While a junior at Tougaloo, she participated in a sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson, which resulted in considerable violence and great risk to her safety. In August of 1963, she helped organize the March on Washington before graduating from Tougaloo in 1964.

After returning to Arlington later that same year, Mulholland married, had five sons, worked at Patrick Henry Elementary School as a teacher’s aide and in 2014 founded the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation, dedicated to involving new generations in activism and social justice. “I want to show the younger folks that you can do something that will have an effect,” she said in 2015. “It’s just a matter of starting.”

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Barbara Marx: Speaking Out

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Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Barbara Marx

A native of Pennsylvania, Barbara Marx went to school at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Chicago, and for a time lived in pre-Hitler Germany. During WWII she moved to Arlington and subsequently became involved with civil rights activities and the NAACP in which she held various offices

She was also active in other community and activist organizations such as Arlingtonians for a Better County (ABC), the Arlington Community Action Committee (ACAC), and the League of Women Voters (LWV). However, it was her role in the desegregation of the Arlington Public Schools that was her most significant contribution to civil rights.

In the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown vs Board of Education the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. However by 1956 nothing had changed, and the NAACP decided that it was time to put forward lawsuits to try to make the Commonwealth comply with Brown. Marx became one of the few active white members of the Arlington NAACP who, along with two of her daughters, became plaintiffs in a 1956 lawsuit which the NAACP brought against the Arlington County School Board (Thompson vs the County School Board of Arlington County).

Once the suit was reported in the newspapers Marx was harassed, day and night, with obscene phone calls, threats that her house would be bombed as well as attacks by the KKK. However, although fearful and apprehensive, she was a person of deep convictions. She stood her ground and refused to give in under repeated threats even after bigots, angry with her decision to continue the fight, redoubled their efforts to terrorize her.

Flyer for Long Island Lodge & Chapter of B'nai B'riths' Annual Brotherhood Symposium. Barbara Marx serves as a panelist for a vital panel discussion.

Finally, in 1956 the long battle was over when Thompson vs County School Board of Arlington was settled in favor of the plaintiffs, which eventually led to the desegregation of Stratford Junior High School in 1959.

Equal opportunity in housing and employment, and the "war on poverty" were also issues with which Marx was involved, but her unwavering stand on desegregation in the face of continuous, ruthless harassment was arguably her most important contribution to social justice.

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Dr. Charles Drew: Taking a Stand

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Dr. Charles Drew

Dr. Charles Richard Drew (1904-1950) was a surgeon and a pioneer in the field of blood plasma preservation, storage, and transfusions. His accomplishments as the creator of the modern-day blood bank came during a time when opportunities for minorities in the medical field were nearly non-existent and society at large was beset with racial division and prejudice.

Dr. Charles Drew

Born in Washington D.C., Drew arrived in Arlington County in 1920 when his parents relocated to what is now known as the Penrose neighborhood, although he continued to attend the District’s Dunbar High School. Awarded an athletic scholarship by Amherst University in Massachusetts, he graduated and subsequently gained employment at Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland. From 1926–1928, he was a professor of chemistry and biology, served as football coach, and was the first athletic director at the historically Black institution.

Using the money he saved from his tenure at Morgan College, Drew studied medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, finishing second in his class while earning his Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree in 1933. Following a brief time spent as a faculty instructor for pathology at Howard University and teaching surgery/assistant surgeon at Freedman's Hospital, in 1938 Drew undertook graduate and then postgraduate studies at Columbia University in New York City. This marked the genesis of Drew’s groundbreaking research, authoring his seminal dissertation "Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation”, which his mentor Dr. John Scudder described as “a masterpiece” and “one of the most distinguished essays ever written, both in form and content.”

Home of Dr. Charles Drew in the now Penrose Neighborhood in Arlington County

In 1940, he became the first Black to earn a Doctor of Science degree in medicine before traveling to New York City, where he headed the World War II-era “Blood for Britain” program. “Blood for Britain” used Drew’s research in the field of blood plasma to enable the preservation, storage, transport, and distribution of donated blood from United States donors to British soldiers and civilians. The program also ushered in the use of “bloodmobiles”, a means by which refrigerated containers of stored blood were transported by trucks and vans to hospitals, clinics, and individuals in need.

In 1941, Drew became director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank but resigned from the position a year later, following a pronouncement by the armed forces that the donated blood of African-Americans would be stored separately from those of whites. This 1944 quote reflects Drew’s feelings:

"It is fundamentally wrong for any great nation to willfully discriminate against such a large group of its people…One can say quite truthfully that on the battlefields nobody is very interested in where the plasma comes from when they are hurt…It is unfortunate that such a worthwhile and scientific bit of work should have been hampered by such stupidity."

Drew then returned to Howard University and Freedmen’s Hospital where he taught and performed numerous surgeries.

Dr. Charles Drew

On April 1, 1950, during a visit to Tuskegee, Alabama where he attended the annual free clinic at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, Drew was involved in a tragic automobile accident. The accident was a result of exhaustion and fatigue after spending the previous evening performing operations and surgeries.

The accident caused his three passengers only minor injuries, but Drew’s were severe and proved to be fatal. Drew passed away that same day, and his funeral was held on April 5, 1950, at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

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William A. Rowe: Taking a Stand

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William A. Rowe

William Augustus Rowe (1834-1907) was a pivotal figure in the early development of the Green Valley/Nauck community. In the face of a post-Civil War world in which the Emancipation Proclamation was more legal decree than societal reality, Rowe persevered to achieve many firsts as a Black policeman, politician, elected official, district Supervisor and Chairman, and community leader.

William A. Rowe, possibly 1880's

Born into enslavement around 1834, Rowe eventually escaped and settled in the Freedman’s Village community. There, he trained and became a skilled blacksmith prior to becoming the first Black policeman in Arlington County. Rowe soon proved himself to be an able and effective politician, becoming the first Black elected to the Board of Supervisors. He served as Supervisor of the Jefferson District from 1871 to 1879 and as Arlington District Board Chairman from 1879 to 1883 after moving to Green Valley/Nauck, where he had previously purchased 5 acres of land from Sewell Corbett.

Upon Rowe’s departure from the Jefferson District, he earned this extraordinary resolution from the other two white supervisors:

“Resolved that the resignation of William A. Rowe as a member of this board having been made known, the faithful and efficient discharge of his duties during the past ten years, and the upright and honorable conduct that has marked his public service entitles him to the confidence, esteem, and gratitude of the people of this County.”

William A. Rowe’s tenure with the Board of Supervisors is as follows:

July 1, 1871-June 30, 1872, Jefferson Township, Board of Supervisors
July 1, 1872- June 30, 1873, Jefferson Township, Chairman, Board of Supervisors
July 1, 1873- June 30, 1874, Jefferson Township, “President” (Chairman), Board of Supervisors
July 1, 1874- April 2, 1879, Jefferson District, Chairman (moved from Jefferson to Arlington District)
July 1, 1879- June 30, 1883, Arlington District, Chairman

After his resignation as Chairman in 1883, he was appointed Superintendent of the Poor, a position he held through June of 1886.

Rowe continued to live in Green Valley/Nauck, where his son George served as a deacon at Lomax AME Zion Church, until his passing on December 5, 1907.

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Nguyen Ngoc Bich: Speaking Out

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Nguyen Ngoc Bich

Nguyen Ngoc Bich (1937-2016) was a pivotal Arlingtonian in commercial and community affairs alike. After his arrival in the U.S. in 1975, Bich became an educator in Arlington County, teaching adults at the Arlington Career Center as well as students at Key Elementary and Wakefield High School before teaching Vietnamese culture, literature, and civilization at George Mason University.

Little Saigon, date unknown

Bich branched out into endeavors such as authoring and editing works of both non-fiction and poetry, translating books into Vietnamese and English, and becoming Director of the Vietnamese Service for Radio Free Asia. Bich also played a crucial role in the establishment of the restaurants and shops in Clarendon known as “Little Saigon”.

He advocated and urged his fellow Vietnamese residents to take advantage of inexpensive short-term real estate contracts made available by vacancies from businesses that left as a result of demolition for Metro construction. It is estimated that at the height of Little Saigon’s heyday, it comprised as many as 70-80 establishments.

Little Saigon, date unknown

Despite often facing resistance as a result of tensions from the Vietnam War, Bich became the Multicultural Coordinator for Arlington County from 1987-1991. In his own words:

“I knew every single person, establishment in the area, and not just the Vietnamese…I knew the Hispanic… Cambodian… Ethiopian…the whole community, and that’s why they called me the deputy mayor of Arlington.”

Further Reading:

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William T. Syphax: Taking a Stand

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William T. Syphax

Native Arlingtonian William Thomas Syphax (1920-1989) was a prominent Black business entrepreneur, philanthropist, and advocate for the Black community in Arlington County.

Born into Arlington’s venerable Syphax family (which included his great uncles William Syphax and John B. Syphax), Syphax earned a bachelor’s degree in math from Virginia State in 1942, a master’s degree in engineering administration from George Washington University, and eventually a Ph.D. in behavioral philosophy from Pacific Western University. After a stint with the Army Air Force during WW2, he worked for the Department of Defense as an electrical engineer until 1964.

Margarite and William Syphax, spring 1957.

In the mid-late 1950s before his retirement from the Department of Defense, Syphax and his wife Margarite began building houses in Arlington. After seeing how many Blacks in Arlington County had to accept unsafe and inadequate conditions in the predominantly segregated Northern Virginia housing market, the couple began to concentrate on building well-crafted and affordable homes for their community.

Together, with William as developer and Margarite as secretary-treasurer, they founded Ballston-based W.T. Syphax Real Estate Co. and Syphax Management Co., ranking among the nation’s top 100 Black-owned businesses in the early 1970s and were profiled in Newsweek and Black Enterprise magazine. They built homes in Arlington View (where William had grown up), Highland Park, Green Valley and elsewhere. Their first apartment complex was Arlington View Terrace, a 77-unit complex of garden apartments near Army Navy Country Club.

William T. Syphax and Margarite Syphax "Working Together" at their construction firm, 1960s.

Syphax was president of the Virginia Real Estate Brokers Association, chairman of the Arlington County Building Code Board of Appeals, as well as serving as director of the Arlington County Red Cross. He provided financial assistance to over 100 students from the segregated Hoffman-Boston public school for their college education and was music department chairman and senior choir director at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Arlington.

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Edmund Campbell: Speaking Out

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Edmund Campbell

Edmund Douglas Campbell (1899–1995) was a lawyer, social activist, and Arlington County Board member who advocated for civil rights, school desegregation, and state representation according to population. Campbell vehemently opposed Virginia’s policy of “Massive Resistance” which occurred in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education. In 1954 and 1955, along with his wife Elizabeth, Campbell fought to ensure that Arlington's public schools remain open by organizing the Save Our Schools Committee (comprised of parents and citizens from across Virginia) in defiance of Senator Harry F. Byrd and his allies.

Edmund Campbell sitting at his desk, date unknown

Among his other accomplishments, in 1955, Campbell won a case that overturned a Virginia law prohibiting racially integrated seating in public places. In 1958, following the closure of schools in Norfolk, Charlottesville, and Front Royal, he successfully argued as the lead attorney in James v. Almond, finally ending Virginia's “Massive Resistance" laws that had forced the closing of all public schools which Federal courts had ordered to integrate. Following that decision, the first Black students entered Stratford Junior High School on February 2, 1959.

In the lawsuit Davis v. Mann, the Supreme Court decided in 1964 that Campbell successfully argued that Arlington and Fairfax counties were illegally under-represented in the Virginia legislature, finding that legislative apportioning gave less populated rural areas more legislative influence per voter than more densely populated Northern Virginia as a result of the 1960 census.

In his memoir “Musings of a 95-Year-Old”, Campbell said, "I could not live with myself if I did not stand up publicly for what I knew was right."

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Taking a Stand / Speaking Out

Joan Cooper

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Dorothy Hamm

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Arlington Council on Human Relations

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Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

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Barbara Marx

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Dr. Charles Drew

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William A. Rowe

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Nguyen Ngoc Bich

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William T. Syphax

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Edmund Campbell

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