Table Of ContentThe Black Revolution
on Campus
Martha Biondi
university of california press
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
The Black Revolution on Campus
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The Black Revolution
on Campus
Martha Biondi
university of california press
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
University of California Press, one of the most
distinguished university presses in the United States,
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tion, visit www .ucpress. edu .
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, En gland
© 2012 by Martha Biondi
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Biondi, Martha.
The Black revolution on campus / Martha Biondi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0 - 520-2 6922- 4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. African American student movements.
2. African American college students—P olitical
activity— History—20th century. 3. African
Americans—E ducation (Higher)—H istory. I. Title.
LC2781.B38 2012
378.1'982996073—dc23 2012001211
Manufactured in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmen-
tally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC
Press has printed this book on Rolland Enviro100, a
100 percent postconsumer fi ber paper that is FSC
certifi ed, deinked, pro cessed chlorine-f ree, and
manufactured with renewable biogas energy. It is
acid- free and EcoLogo certifi ed.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Introduction. The Black Revolution on Campus 1
1. Moving toward Blackness: The Rise
of Black Power on Campus 13
2. A Revolution Is Beginning: The Strike
at San Francisco State 43
3. A Turbulent Era of Transition: Black Students
and a New Chicago 79
4. Brooklyn College Belongs to Us: The Transformation
of Higher Education in New York City 114
5. Toward a Black University: Radicalism, Repression,
and Reform at Historically Black Colleges 142
6. The Counterrevolution on Campus: Why Was Black
Studies So Controversial? 174
7. The Black Revolution Off-C ampus 211
8. What Happened to Black Studies? 241
Conclusion. R efl ections on the Movement and Its Legacy 268
Notes 279
Selected Bibliography 319
Ac know ledg ments 325
Photo Credits 329
Index 331
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Illustrations
Figure 1. Po liti cal scientist Charles Hamilton / 21
Figure 2. In March 1968, students at Howard
University occupied the administration building / 38
Figure 3. Sociologist Nathan Hare / 50
Figure 4. Strike leaders address a rally / 61
Figure 5. Strike leaders at the head of a mass march of ten thousand
students on campus during “December days” / 63
Figure 6. Tactical squad police brutally beat and arrested
Don McAllister / 64
Figure 7. Students in front of the Northwestern building
that housed the bursar’s offi ce / 86
Figure 8. Northwestern student Eva Jefferson (later Eva Jefferson
Paterson) at a Chicago rally / 88
Figure 9. White student sympathizers show support / 90
Figure 10. Graduate student James Turner explains the goals
for the sit-i n to the media / 91
Figure 11. Lerone Bennett / 96
Figure 12. Historian Sterling Stuckey / 99
Figure 13. Charles Hurst, president of Malcolm X College,
with Jesse L. Jackson and Betty Shabazz / 110
vii
viii | Illustrations
Figure 14. “Support the Five Demands” was the rallying cry for
students at City College of New York in 1969 / 130
Figure 15. T he admissions policy at City College quickly changed
the demographics / 136
Figure 16. Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Non-V iolent
Coordinating Committee / 147
Figure 17. Lerone Bennett and Ewart Guinier / 194
Figure 18. Legendary Harlem historian John Henrik Clarke / 212
Figure 19. V incent Harding and St. Clair Drake, 1971 / 229
Figure 20. W illiam Strickland and Walter Rodney / 230
Introduction
The Black Revolution on Campus
“Black young people feel they can change society,” a minister in San
Francisco observed in 1969. “Now that’s very important.” Black stu-
dents want “revolutionary change in the basic institutions in this coun-
try,” echoed a young politician. According to students in San Diego,
“Racism runs rampant in the educational system, while America, in a
pseudohumanitarian stance, proudly proclaims that it is the key to equal
opportunity for all.” “This is the hypocrisy,” they declared, that “our
generation must now destroy.”1 This widespread feeling of power and
purpose among Black college students, combined with a sense of ur-
gency and context of crisis, produced an extraordinary chapter in the
modern Black freedom struggle. Black students org a nized protests on
nearly two hundred college campuses across the United States in 1968
and 1969, and continued to a lesser extent into the early 1970s. This
dramatic explosion of militant activism set in motion a period of con-
fl ict, crackdown, negotiation, and reform that profoundly transformed
college life. At stake was the very mission of higher education. Who
should be permitted entry into universities and colleges? What consti-
tuted merit? Who should be the future leaders of the nation in this
postsegregation era, and how should this group be determined? What
should be taught and who should teach it? Perhaps most controver-
sially, should students have a hand in faculty selection or governance?
Moreover, what would happen to public Black colleges in this era of
1
