The Black Campus Movement

THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT: AN AFROCENTRIC NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE TO DIVERSIFY HIGHER EDUCATION, 1965-1972 A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Ibram Henry Rogers Department of African American Studies November 2009 i © Ibram Henry Rogers 2009 All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT: AN AFROCENTRIC NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE TO DIVERSIFY HIGHER EDUCATION, 1965-1972 Ibram Henry Rogers Temple University, 2009 Doctor of Philosophy Major Adviser: Dr. Ama Mazama In 1965, Blacks were only about 4.5 percent of the total enrollment in American higher education. College programs and offices geared to Black students were rare. There were few courses on Black people, even at Black colleges. There was not a single African American Studies center, institute, program, or department on a college campus. Literature on Black people and non-racist scholarly examinations struggled to stay on the margins of the academy. Eight years later in 1973, the percentage of Blacks students stood at 7.3 percent and the absolute number of Black students approached 800,000, almost quadrupling the number in 1965. In 1973, more than 1,000 colleges had adopted more open admission policies or crafted particular adjustments to admit Blacks. Sections of the libraries on Black history and culture had dramatically grown and moved from relative obscurity. Nearly one thousand colleges had organized Black Studies courses, programs, or departments, had a tutoring program for Black students, were providing diversity training for workers, and were actively recruiting Black professors and staff. What happened? What forced the racial reformation of higher education? A social movement I call the Black Campus Movement. Despite its lasting and obvious significance, the struggle of these Black campus activists has been marginalized in the historiographies of the Student, Black Student, and Black Power Movements with White student activism, Black iii students’ off-campus efforts, and the Black Panther Party dominating those respective sets of literature. Thus, in order to bring it to the fore, we should conceive of new historiography, which I term the Black Campus Movement. This dissertation is the first study to chronicle and analyze that nationwide, eight-year-long Black Campus Movement that diversified higher education. An Afrocentric methodology is used to frame the study, which primarily synthesized secondary sources—books, government studies, scholarly, newspaper and magazine articles—and composed this body of information into a general narrative of the movement. The narrative shows the building of the movement for relevance from 1965 to 1967 in which students organized their first Black Students Unions and made requests from the administration. By 1968, those requests had turned into demands, specifically after administrators were slow in instituting those demands and the social havoc wrought by the Orangeburg Massacre and the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead of meeting with college officials over their concerns, Black students at Black and White colleges began staging dramatic protests for more Black students, faculty, administrators, coaches, staff, and trustees, as well as Black Studies courses and departments, Black dorms, and other programs and facilities geared to Black students. This protest activity climaxed in the spring of 1969, the narrative reveals. In response, higher education and the American government showered the students with both repressive measures, like laws curbing student protests, and reforms, like the introduction of hundreds of Black Studies programs, all of which slowed the movement. By 1973, the Black Campus Movement to gain diversity had been eclipsed by another movement on college campuses to maintain the diverse elements students had won the previous eight years. This struggle to keep these gains has continued into the 21st century, as diversity abounds on campuses across America in comparison to 1965. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank the spiritual Creator who gave me this chance at life. I would also like to thank the two physical creators who gave birth to me, my beloved parents, Carol Marie Hunter Rogers and Larry Charles Rogers. Everything I am, was, and ever will be is because of you and the social experiences you carefully carried me through and groomed and nurtured me through. I thank you. I adore you. I love you. I would also like to give a special voice of admiration to my adviser, Dr. Ama Mazama. Your intelligence, your strength, your passion, your loyalty, your love, and your commitment to African people are truly profound. Thank you for being that scholarly and personal mountain that I can always look up too. Thank you for your insight, your advice, your kind words of encouragement, and for directing me through a very smooth dissertation process. Thank you for allowing me to leave Philadelphia and trusting in me that I would finish. Thank you. To Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, thank you so much as well. Having the ability to be around your intoxicating spirit of scholarly excellence, kindness, and zealousness for African people has made me a better person, and better scholar. I thank you for your regular words of support and lessons about the academy. I am sincerely thankful I have had the pleasure of learning from you. In addition, I must certainly acknowledge Dr. Emeka Nwadiora and Dr. Zizwe Poe, and thank you for agreeing to work with me on this dissertation process, and advising, supporting, and helping me along the way. I would like to thank all of my family members, my brother Akil, my aunts, uncles, and cousins who supported me along the way. Thank you to my close friends around the nation, and at Temple University, specifically Natasha Ngaiza and Weckea Lilly who formed the sturdy base of my support system these last few years. Every step of the way, you v listened to me, and guided and pushed me in the right direction. Natasha and Weckea—I love you, and I can not truly express my gratitude for assisting me on this graduate school journey. Furthermore, I certainly would like to thank SUNY College at Oneonta for supporting me during my final year. Thank you to all of my colleagues and now friends for giving me the opportunity to come to upstate New York and serve as a dissertation fellow. Finally, I must thank the hundreds of thousands of Black campus activists who put themselves in the academic trenches and fought for the diversification of higher education. Everything I do on the Black Campus Movement is dedicated to these incredible warriors for relevancy. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….. ……iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………....…….....v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………...1 Statement of the Problem……………………………………………..……………….......2 Purpose of the Study……………………………………………………..………………..4 Significance of the Study…………………………………………………..……………...8 Literature Review……………………………………………………………...…………10 Methodology…………………………………………………………………….……….19 Methods………………………………………………………………………….……….22 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….……....26 CHAPTER 2 THE ORIGIN OF THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT (SPRING 1965 – SPRING 1967)……………………………………………….......29 CHAPTER 3 THE BUILDING OF THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT (SPRING 1967 – APRIL 3, 1968)………………………...……………..68 CHAPTER 4 AN ASSASSINATION AND THE JOLT FOR BLACK CAMPUS ACTIVISM (APRIL 4, 1968 – MAY 1968)…………...……………….100 CHAPTER 5 THE ASCENT OF A NEW POLITICIZED CRITICAL MASS (JUNE 1968 – DECEMBER 1968)………………….…………………134 CHAPTER 6 THE LAUNCH OF THE CLIMAX SEMESTER OF THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT (JANUARY 1969 – FEBRUARY 20, 1969)………………………………………………..…………………..171 CHAPTER 7 THE INTENSIFICATION OF AN INTENSIFIED MOVEMENT vii (FEBRUARY 21, 1969 – APRIL 1969)………………………………..197 CHAPTER 8 THE VIOLENT ESCALATION OF THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT (LATE APRIL 1969 – MAY 1969)…………………….220 CHAPTER 9 THE RESPONSE TO THE CLIMAX OF THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT: REPRESSION AND REFORM.......…………………..253 CHAPTER 10 THE CALLS FOR RELEVANCE BY NEW CRITICAL MASSES AT SMALL AND SOUTHERN SCHOOLS (EARLY FALL 1969 – MAY 1970)………………………………………………..……………276 CHAPTER 11 THE DECELERATION OF THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT (JUNE 1970 – DECEMBER 1972)………………………………….....315 CHAPTER 12 THE CULMINATION OF THE BLACK CAMPUS MOVEMENT…………………………………………………………..347 ENDNOTES………………………………………………………………………………........359 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………397 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the 21st century, most presidents have sustained or inaugurated diversity missions for their colleges and universities. It has become almost taboo not to at least outwardly seek to diversify student, staff, faculty, and areas of study. Despite concerted attempts to stymie their development, the disciplines of Black Studies, Latino Studies, and the like, continue to evolve, as two more doctoral programs in Black Studies came online in 2008. So many diversity offices are being established and diversity officers being hired that a blueprint for their success was recently issued by the American Council on Education. Millions are being poured into diversity-related initiatives and research on areas of study concerning people of color. The vines of diversity have never been more intertwined in higher education, even though there is still massive room for growth. However, four decades ago, the diversity vines were non-existent. In 1964, many of the traditionally

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