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Part of Black student dissent to continue, February 7, 1969

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Black student dissent to continue
by Dorie Klein
College Editor

Within the past month, black student upnsmgs have
swept a dozen colleges across the country, violence has
flared on several campuses, reports have come out in support
of and opposed to Black Studies programs, and the only
certain outcome is that the revolt will continue.
At the University of Cal­
At the University of
ifornia at Santa Barbara, a
50 students occupied
black student was arrested at Minnesota,
the office of Admissions and
a rally for using an allegedly Records after failing to reach
obscene word. The Black agreement with President Malcolm
Student Union held a rally Moos over black demands, and at
the next day and led the the predominantly Negro
crowd of 1500 in a cheer: Wilberforce University in Ohio,
classes were suspended while
"One, two, three, fuck!" No administrators worked out
one was arrested .
grievances concerning disciplinary
A speaker at the rally
commented on the lunacy of
arresting stu·d ents for "saying the
word 'fuck' when the real
obscenities are words like kill,
murder, napalm and Vietnam."
And others, remarking on how
they had used the same words in
lecture halls without being
stopped by the police said: "The
real question is, is there any free
speech on this fucking campus?"
The Black Student Union at
Santa Barbara had formed a
United Front with the United
Mexican-American Students and
Students for a Democratic Society
to press their demands to the
administration .
Among these were revoking the
warrant of the BSU member
charged with obscenity, issuing a
statement of no-censhorship-on­
campus, forbidding police on
campus, hiring blacks in the
Athletic Department, hiring
Mexican-American counselors,
establishing a community
relations program and creating
Black
Studies and
Mexican-American Studies
departments .

cases. A fire had destroyed the
student union there the week
before.

Brandeis disrupted

Students were ending their
disruptions at colleges in the East.
At Brandeis University, 75 black
st.udents occupied a building for
ten days and renamed it Malcolm
X University. They agreed to le.ave
in exchange for amnesty, after
finding President Morris Abram
unresponsive to their demands. '
One student noted that the
action had "exposed to the nation
the inability of one of the most
well-known liberal colleges in
America to deal constructively
with racism ." The group has not
given up on its demands, but
intends to continue the fight. "At
present," a member of the
Afro-American Organization said,
"the setting of the university does
not allow us the academic
freedom so sorely needed for our
development as black people."
Among the demands is the
establishment of an African and
Afro-American Studies
department.
,
The Brandeis students intend
Panthers shot
to establish a Malcolm X Univer­
The same week , at the UC sity in Roxbury, Boston's ghetto .
campus at Los Angeles , two black They have won their demand for a
student members of the Black Black Studies department on camPanther Party were shot to death pus.
after leaving a meeting called to
At another well-known school,
di"scuss the school's new Swarthmore College, the Afro
Afro-American Center.
-American Students Society held a
The two, John Huggins and burning-in-effigy of the college
Alprentice Carter, had supported and then occupied a building d'ur­
the UCLA Black Student Union in ing the early days of January.
the group's opposition to the Their action was terminated by
community steering committee the sudden death of President
for the center. The committee had Courtney Smith, after a week of
appointed a director for the meetings and discussion had
center not approved by the BSU, shaken the school out of its cust­
and this became the focal point of omary apathy.
the struggle between the Panthers
Similarly roused from
and the group supporting the indifference were those at Queens
committee, US, led by Ron College in New York, where black
Karenga. US is a defender of and Puerto Rican students in the
"cultural nationalism" and program known as SEEK -opposes the Panther's politically Search for Elevation, Education
revolutionary stand.
and Knowledge - sat in, at, and
Two ·brothers in US , George finally stormed, the office of
and Larry Stiner, have been SEEK Director Joseph
arrested by the police in Mulholland.
connection with the murders. A
The students arid staff
Panther spokesman has said that
members involved in SEEK, which
his group considers "four people
is funded by the state to help the
responsible, and we're holding
underprivileged through tutorials
Ron Karenga responsible too ."
and financial assistance, were
At San Franciscq State College
demanding autonomy for the
and Berkeley , protests go on. Last program. A leader of the protest
Thursday , police on horseback
said that it had become "a vehicle
broke up demonstr,ations at SF .
for white employment and racism.
State after the Superior Court
It provides an education geared to
issued a restraining order
the white experience alone, and
forbidding students to picket on
that's not all there is ."
campus and limiting the number
The SEEK students at Queens
of pickets outside to five per
have separate classes and meet in a
entrance . By noon, 500 were ' building
off the main campus.
picketing.
Mulholland has been charged with
At Berkeley, police in wedges discriminatory hiring practices
broke into the crowds after 1,000 and mismanagement of • funds,
strikers marched across the although one white caHed his
campus to Sproul Hall. They were "irrelevant to the whole thing enforcing an order against the like Archduke Ferdinand was
obstruction of , campus · entrances irrelevant to World War I."
by pickets.
Although some whites support the

Friday, February 7, 1969

demands, they have been asked
not to enter the dispute by SEEK
people themselves.
At Pennsylvania State
University, the black students'
Douglas Association used
unconventional tactics to achieve
their aims. They were demanding
the admission of 1,000 blacks,
increased University assistance to
these students, and the hiring of
black faculty members. Nearly
I00 marched into the office of
President Walker and silently built
a brick wall of thr,ee feet topped
by a single black brick, with a
note attached: "Next time we
won't build a wall."
The wall was to symbolize the
breakdown of communication
be tween the blacks and the
administration. The Douglas
students then appealed to state
legislators in Harrisburg. Some
legislators have threatened to
withhold
University
appropriations unless the demands
are met and black enrollment
increased, and announced their
intention to launch an
investigation of Penn State's
policies on admission and faculty
hiring.

SUNY victory
The Black Student Alliance at
SUNY at Albany won a victory
Jan. 13 when Preisdent Evan
Collins agreed to their demands.
These were the institution of a
course in Afro-American history
for the spring semester, 1969; the
establishment of an
Afro - American ·studies
department by fall, and the
enrollment of 300 minority-group
students next year.· The BSA is to
play a major role in the choosing
of instructors and students and
the establishing of curriculum.
In 1967, there were less than

20 blacks at Albany. They formed
the BSA and won the admission
of 200 additional blacks by 1968.
They began to agitate for black
history courses and mobilized
white support on this issue. The
administration signed the
demands ' when the students
threatened · a takeover of the
president's ·office.
. The black students want to
make their department "relevant
not only to black students, but
also to our brothers and sisters in
the community." One BSA
member said: "We support all
people .controlling the institutions
that affect their lives."
"To bring about those goals,"
he continued, "people are
justified in using any means
necessary." The students are
scheduled to meet Wednesday
with President Collins to begin
work on implementation.

Harvard report
Harvard University, which has
not had black student agitation on
its stately campus, has published a
report recommending the
establishment of a Black Studies
Program, and intends to
implement · the recommendation .
A student at Harvard will be
able to major in Afro-American
Studies in addition to any
concentration in other fields he
might have', and would receive a
degree in it. The report also urged
the creation of a black cultural
·center, similar to Hillel House or
Newman Center, and pressed for
additional Negro graduate
students on fellowships.
Tlie report was the work of a
faculty
panel which had spent
nine months studying and talking
to black students at Harvard. The
committee found the students
concerned with the same
problems as whites - course

Inside Brandeis
building

offerings, social and cultural life,
inter-university relationships and
university-community relations but recognized ,a profound
difference in outlook and needs.
"The desire for some 'all black
experience'," the report stated,
"is reflected in the almost
unanimous desire of black
students for an exchange program
between Harvard-Radcliffe and
black Southern colleges."
Roy Wilkins, of the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, has announced
his opposition to the creation of
Black Studies Departments and
black dormitories.
He said that the NAACP is
planning to take the students'
demands to court, if necessary, to
combat what he calls "simply
another version of segregation and
Jim Crow."
He believes that the courts will
find such demands illegal by the
same token that segregation by
whites was declared illegal in
1954. He warned of the danger of
a minority group talking about ,
"separation and apartheid."
Wilkins' comment on black
militants - "They ought to be in
the library studying to get a
degree, so they could do some
good" - sounded ironically like
the words of California Gov.
Ronald Reagan, who told a
cheering crowd last week that he
had "run out of give" to campus
militants and "there will be no
capitulation."
Opposing the Wilkins
viewpoint was Roy Innis of the
Congress of Racial Equality, who
considers the demands legitimate
and has pledged CORE to the
defense of the students should the
NAACP bring court action against
the creation of all-black programs.

Students camp inside Ford Hall at Brandeis
University almost a month ago.

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