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The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers: a Case of Compromise and Qualified Success

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The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers: a Case of Compromise and Qualified Success The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers: A Case of Compromise and Qualified Success By Lynda Dexheimer A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Education Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Graduate Program in Education, Culture, and Society written under the direction of _____________________________________________ Dr. Benjamin Justice, Chair ______________________________________________ Dr. Catherine Lugg, Committee Member _______________________________________________ Dr. Richard L. McCormick, Committee Member _______________________________________________ Dr. James Whitney, III, Committee Member New Brunswick, New Jersey January 2021 © 2021 Lynda Dexheimer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii Abstract Since the 1970s, there have been gains in access to higher education for people who have faced historical discrimination based on race, but disparities in admission persist at the most selective universities and colleges.1 College graduation rates mirror the same patterns of inequality that college access rates once exhibited. White and Asian students, high-income students, and students whose parents attended college graduate at rates far higher than those of their peers.2 Yet approaches to creating opportunity for those previously disenfranchised have been couched in terms of economic need and underpinned by the liberal principle of colorblindness. 3 This is problematic because it negates the explicit racial justice demands of participants in the social movements who agitated for a transformation of colleges and universities into equitable and inclusive institutions. This paper takes a historical approach and examines the relationship between the creation of the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) and the Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers University in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Informed by Critical Race Theory, the focus is on the narratives of the individual people who collectively made up the Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers. Analysis of archival data and oral history transcripts shows that EOF was a race-neutral compromise that fell short of the ideals of protesters. It also shows the social movement to have been strategic, rational, and explicit in its pursuit of racial justice. The demands of the Black Student Protestors at Rutgers for changes to admission policy, 1 Martha Biondi, The Black Revolution on Campus (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012). 2 Young M. Kim. Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-Fourth Status Report, 2001 Supplement (American Council on Education, 2011); Terris Ross, Grace Kena, Amy Rathbun, Angelina Kewal Ramani, Jijun Zhang, Paul Kristapovich, Eileen Manning. Higher Education: Gaps in Access and Persistence Study: Statistical Analysis Report. NCES 2012-046. (National Center for Education Statistics, American Institutes for Research, August, 2012); Tinto, Completing College; Paul Tough, “Who Gets to Graduate,” New York Times (May 15, 2014). 3 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism Without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010); Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States. 3rd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2015). iii curriculum, campus culture, and community relations were met sympathetically by the administration of President Mason Welch Gross, but because of internal and external pressure from stakeholders who rejected the narrative of racism as the key factor limiting opportunity, the initial agreements Gross reached with activists were stripped of reference to racial reparations in order to appease opponents of change. iv Acknowledgements Most of all, I owe a debt – in fact, all of us in higher education owe a debt - to the Black Student Protesters at Rutgers University and their peers at colleges and universities around the country. They selflessly challenged the strict exclusivity of higher education with firm values, hard work, and rare vision and seized the moment of national reckoning around race to create opportunities for those who would come after them. The students of the Educational Opportunity Fund and the Rutgers Future Scholars Program inspired me to explore the question of why there is little if any mention of racial equity or reparations in institutional conversations about opportunity, and I am grateful to have had the privilege to be in the classroom with them over the past decade. I am also grateful to the Rutgers Writing Program for giving me the chance to work with brilliant and engaging young people alongside so many committed fellow educators to whom I am grateful for collegiality and friendship. The members of my committee were patient and supportive even through my long silences, and they encouraged me and provided meaningful feedback along the way whenever I called on them. Thank you so very much to Dr. Benjamin Justice, Dr. Catherine Lugg, Dr. Richard L. McCormick, and Dr. James Whitney, III. Thank you to the generous people at the Rutgers Oral History Archive and the Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives. A special thanks to Erika Gorder who directed me to the archival material of the Black Organization of Students, and to Shaun Illingworth and Katherine “Kate” Rizzi who not only gave me permission to cite the transcripts, but also directed me to specific ROHA interviews with participants in the Black Student Protest Movement. v So many friends gave me not only encouragement, but places to work when I had no quiet place to write. I was a moveable writer in 2020, carrying my laptop and binder from place to place in Hoboken, feeding cats and watering plants along the way. Thank you to Diane and Jay, Dan and Kim, Tracey and Pete, and Hillary and Kevin for use of kitchen tables and spare bedrooms, and to Caroline and Scott for the loan of the folding table I set up in my own bedroom when there was no empty space in town. Sue, thank you for always valuing my work and believing in me. I finally finished my own ultramarathon! Jay, you were there on the day I created my Zotero account, and the coding system you helped me construct served me until the very last page I wrote. Thank you so much for sharing your intellect and insight with me and for your support. My family has never doubted I could do this; they have been endlessly encouraging and kind and loving every time I postponed a visit or a phone call to “finish.” Thank you to Mom, Dad, Liz, Sue, Pat, and Jen. Your support and love have meant the world. To my husband, Leigh, and daughters, Sophia and Zoë, there are no words to say how much I appreciate and love you, and there is no way this could ever have happened without your belief in me. Everything I do is with you in mind and heart. Thank you, readers! I am grateful for the opportunity to do this project, and I know all too well that most people don’t have the same privileges I have had to get to this place. vi Contents Chapter 1 Introduction: Problem Statement and Research Questions 1 Chapter 2 Literature Review 17 Chapter 3 The Imperative for Change at a White University 46 Chapter 4 Disruptions, Demands, and New Agreements 84 Chapter 5 Aftermath and Conclusions 113 Notes 153 Appendix A Admissions Demands of the Black Organization of Students 172 Appendix B University Statement on Agreement with Students 175 Bibliography 184 vii Chapter 1 Introduction “It has been and is the position of the Black Organization of Students that there can be no substantial changes in the total enrollment of black students at Rutgers-Newark without substantial changes in the overall structure of this institution. Specifically, this means changing Rutgers from the totally white, nationalistic, racist-oriented institution that it now is, through the structuring of policies, programs, curriculum, etc., expressly designed to meet the wants and needs of blacks in order that we might be more adequately prepared to undertake the task of improving the lot of our people in determining our own destiny.”* Problem Statement and Research Questions Rutgers University was the site of some of the most famous Black student protests in the United States. In February of 1969, Black students from all three campuses – Newark, New Brunswick, and Camden – took actions that included dumping trays of food on the floor in the dining hall, occupying buildings, refusing to speak with white students and faculty, walking out of classes, blocking up toilets, and even setting small fires.1 There is no doubt that Rutgers was altered in the aftermath of the protests. University administrators created new programs to recruit and prepare Black students for higher education, and made commitments to hire Black staff and faculty, reform the curriculum to represent Black culture and history, and to bring the resources of Rutgers into impoverished Black urban communities.2 But the story is complicated. Predominantly white faculty, students, and university leaders, community action groups, the press, the general public, and the New Jersey state legislature reacted to student demands with * “Admissions Demands of the Black Organization of Students,” n.d., Box 22, Folder 6, Coll. RG 04/A16, Inventory to the Records of the Rutgers University Office of the President (Mason Welch Gross), Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, Rutgers University. 1 highly divergent levels of sympathy. All these actors shaped the outcomes of the Black student
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