How Woodrow Wilson Junior College Became Kennedy-King College
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BLACK POWER ON A CITY COLLEGE CAMPUS: HOW WOODROW WILSON JUNIOR COLLEGE BECAME KENNEDY-KING COLLEGE BY FREDRICK DOUGLASS DIXON DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Policy Studies with a concentration in African American Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor James Anderson, Chair Professor Eboni Miel Zamani-Gallaher Associate Professor Christopher Span Professor William Trent Abstract The scholarly research and writings regarding Black students and student activism on community college campuses remain scarce and at the periphery of the mainstream narrative on student activism. This dissertation will examine one student organization, the Afro-American History Club (AAHC), from Chicago's Woodrow Wilson Junior College (WWJC). I will investigate how their efforts successfully demanded a Black Studies program, hired the institutions first Black administrator and first Black president, and influenced a permanent institutional name change from Woodrow Wilson Junior College to Kennedy-King College. Introducing Black community college students from Chicago as key participants in the expansion of the Black Power Movement furthers new lines of scholarly investigation, which allows a more comprehensive and complex understanding of the Black Campus and Black Power Movements. Additionally, this research aims to inject a new term, the Black Community College Campus Movement (BCCCM) into the dominant discourse on student social movements. This term represents the importance of the efforts and impact of Chicago Black community college students to demand education reform as part and parcel of the 1960s Black Campus Movement, America’s Black Power Movement, and the broader history of global student social movements. ii Acknowledgements This dissertation project represents a culmination of years of mentorship and training from a village of family, friends, and others. All praise belongs to Almighty God, Allah. The example of the mandated principles of what constitutes an infinite education began in my household. The Honorable Professor Willie Dixon, Jr. sacrificed greatly for over sixty-five years to provide examples of how to use formal education to positively impact a critical mass of the Black community. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to my loving mother who dedicated her life to me and my sibling’s success and to that end I thank my sister and brother. As a product of a large extended family I thank all my Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins from “Grannies Gang.” I acknowledge and want to thank the role of my community, the South Side of Chicago, for each and every life lesson. Eternal gratitude to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Academically, I thank each member of my dissertation committee. Thanks to those formal educators from my earliest memories of classroom instruction. I thank the professors at Northeastern Illinois University’s Center for Inner City Studies. Gratitude to all who took time from to challenge me to become a more comprehensive scholar. Thanks to my cohort of scholars from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign’s EPOL department. Undoubtedly, I thank those members of the Black Community College Campus Movement for your organizational savvy and strength, notably, the Negro History and Afro-American History Club at Wilson Junior College and Kennedy-King College. My greatest gratitude for this dissertation project belongs to Lou Turner from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for what he coined his “labor of love.” Last but certainly not least, I wholeheartedly thank the legendary Civil Rights Attorney and Professor Lewis Myers, Jr. for decades of sacrifice, unique iii vision, and uncompromising will, which I continue to benefit greatly. I thank you and love you all!!! iv Table of Content Problem Statement ........................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 From Civil Rights to Black Power: The Nexus of the Transition of Cycles Within Social Movements ................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 3 Higher Education in Chicago’s Politics and The Black Community College Campus Movement: Social Movement Engagement with Urban Power Structures .......................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 4 History of Woodrow Wilson Junior College’s Afro-American History Club: The Role of Grassroots Pdagogies in an Emerging Black Consciousness ............................................................................................................................... 84 Chapter 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 131 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 148 Appendix A Primary Sources ...................................................................................................... 157 v Problem Statement Historical scholarship on student activism on Black community college campuses remains severely marginalized and seldom appears in the dominant narrative of the Black Campus Movement (BCM) or the broader Black Power Movement (BPM). Consequently, the current historical narrative of the BCM does not critically analyze the accomplishments, commitments, and fault lines of Black community college activism, which disrupts the historical accuracy of the Black Campus Movement and Black Power Movement (BPM). Thus, to extend the current narrative on the Black Power Movement aims to be an exhaustive examination of the Black Campus Movement, the role of community college activism remains necessary. vi Chapter 1 Introduction In a general sense, the dominant narrative of the Black Power Movement contains a wealth of intellectual undertakings, which highlight a shift in a critical mass of Black people from non-violence tactics of the Civil Rights Movement to the Black Power paradigms of self- determination, community control, and armed self-defense. The emergence of Black Panther Party, a more militant Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the spread of Black Students Associations and black consciousness movements across four-year college campuses reflected the new shift in political ideology and protest strategies This master narrative, however, fails to include parallel movements on community college campuses. Therefore, the current historical reconstruction of Black Power remains deficient due to the fundamental exclusion of the Black Community Campus Movement. As such, this research seeks to employ Kendi’s Theory of Marginalization of the Black Campus Movement as a theoretical perspective.1 Hence, the purpose of this dissertation is three-fold: (1) To enhance the current research on social movements, specifically the Black Power Movement by introducing then examining a nuanced layer of the Black Campus Movement (BCM), (2) introduce and to shed light on the vital role Black community college students from Chicago’s Woodrow Wilson Junior College’s (WWJC) Afro-American History Club (AAHC) played in fashioning the direction of one cycle of 1 Ibram X. Kendi, “The Marginalization of the Black Campus Movement.” Journal of Social History. Vol. 42. No. 1. (2003): 175. 1 Chicago’s Black Campus Movement, and (3) introduce the term Black Community College Campus Movement to social movement historiography. To examine the ideological shift of a critical mass of Black community college students from Civil Rights to Black Power I will highlight specific historical developments, which span from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the assassination of MLK in 1968. I will explore the significance of this information and how it affected Black community college students from Chicago in greater detail in the literature review. Thus, this research seeks to furnish a comprehensive interrogation of the Black Campus Movement that includes the activism of Black students on one Chicago Community College Campus, which will expand the current roster of actors, ideas, and theories in the struggle for education reform in higher education during the Black Power Movement. A limited amount of research exists on the Black Campus Movement. Furthermore, a lesser amount of scholarly endeavors concentrate on Black student activism on community college campuses. The significan scholarship on black campus movements include the works of Richard McCormick (1990), Martha Biondi (2012), Stephan Bradley, (2009), Robert L. Cruthird and Jeanette M. Williams, (2013), Ibram X. Kendi (2012) and Joy Ann Williams-Lott (2013). Each author provides analytic or comprehensive narratives that investigate the influence of Black students on the formation and growth of the Black Power Movement. Each author places the accomplishments and challenges of Black students on college campuses as central to thoroughly investigating the Black Power Movement. This dissertation will examine how Black community college students from Chicago played a leading role in demanding education reform 2 in higher education and in doing so became