“Brooklyn College Belongs to Us”: Black Student Activism & the Transformation of Public Higher Education in NYC (1968–1976)

Historical Context & Catalysts

  • Spring 1969: synchronized wave of Black student activism across every division of the City University of New York (CUNY)
    • Parallels with Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) tactics & Black Nationalist ideology
    • Coincided with grassroots “community-control” K-12 school movement in NYC
  • Problems targeted
    • “Token” desegregation • overwhelmingly white student bodies (e.g.
      Brooklyn College 96\% white in Spring 1968)
    • Merit defined narrowly by SAT & Regents scores → exclusion of tax-paying Black & Puerto Rican New Yorkers
    • Curriculum void of non-white perspectives (only 13 minority-content courses at Brooklyn, all created in 1968)
  • Wider political climate
    • Summers 1964–68 urban rebellions pressured officials to pre-empt “riots at the gates”
    • Post-1968 backlash—rise of conservatism, attacks on affirmative action, budget austerity

Key Organizations & Leaders

  • Brooklyn College
    • BLAC (Black League of Afro-American Collegians) founded 1968 by Leroy “Askia” Davis & Orlando Pile
    • Puerto Rican Alliance – consistent coalition partner
    • Faculty allies: Craig Bell (advisor), Bart Meyers (history chronicler)
  • City College (CCNY)
    • BPRSC (Black & Puerto Rican Student Community) – primary organizer of “Five Demands”
    • Support units: Black & Puerto Rican Faculty Group; integrated Faculty for Action
  • External allies
    • SEEK counselors Betty Rawls, Fran Geteles
    • Politicians: U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm; State legislators in Black & Puerto Rican Caucus
    • Community figures: Rev. William A. Jones; Dr. Thomas W. Matthew
  • Ideological mentors & texts repeatedly cited: Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon, Mao’s “Quotations”, Che Guevara, “Blueprint for Campus Revolt”

SEEK, Admissions Policies & the Question of Merit

  • 1966 SEEK (“Search for Education, Elevation & Knowledge”)
    • Largest U.S. program offering tuition-free admission + remediation + counseling
  • Governor Rockefeller’s 1969 budget sought major SEEK cuts ➔ mobilized 35 busloads from CCNY alone to Albany
  • Open Admissions timeline
    • Original Board of Higher Education (BHE) plan: implement 1975, place majority in community colleges
    • Student uprisings forced acceleration to Fall 1970 + guaranteed senior-college slots
    • Motive (per scholars): appease “explosive urban youth population”

Brooklyn College: Events & “18 Demands”

  • Spring 1969 chronology
    • Mid-April: BLAC/Alliance storm faculty meeting—"Brooklyn College belongs to us!"
    • Late April: 190-student sit-in at President George A. Peck’s office; graffiti “power” & “revolution”; auxiliary white radicals seize additional buildings; multiple small fires
    • May 6: administration claims students blocked firefighters; seeks injunction barring “loud or excessive noise” & assemblies
  • The “18 Demands” (selected highlights)
    • Admit all Black & Puerto Rican applicants regardless of record
    • Free tutorial + basic-skills courses
    • Establish Afro-American & Puerto Rican Institutes controlled by students/faculty/community of color
    • Community field-work course for credit
    • Mandatory Black & PR studies for Education majors
    • Dismissal of professors with “racist tendencies” (explicitly Prof. Robert Fitzhugh)
    • Hire Black & Puerto Rican faculty throughout college, not only in ethnic units
  • Fitzhugh confrontation
    • Six Black students pre-enroll in his literature class; question absence of Baldwin, Wright; professor walks out; later accused of retaliatory grading ➔ feeds Demand #11
  • May 12, 1969 police raids
    • 17 students arrested at dawn (total 19 indicted) on 18 felony + 5 misdemeanor counts ⇒ potential 228-yr sentences each
    • Triggered by undercover informant inside BLAC; bail initially \$15{,}000 → cut to \$6{,}500 after civil-liberties litigation; Chisholm & community collateral raise funds
    • Four days in Rikers; case eventually dismissed after brief probation & record expungement – seen as intimidation tactic
  • Campus-wide strike
    • Demands: drop charges, implement 18 demands, remove 100 stationed NYPD officers
    • Kingsman student paper endorses strike; reports arrests for minor “spitting” incident
    • Faculty & Peck finally endorse open admissions resolution urging BHE to “offer college education to every HS graduate… particularly needy Negroes & Puerto Ricans”

City College: “University of Harlem” & “Five Demands”

  • Campus profile: 4\% Black, 5\% Puerto Rican despite Harlem location
  • April 22, 1969: ~200 students seize South Campus → rename “University of Harlem”
  • Five Demands
    1. Enrollment proportional to local high-school demographics (target 43\% Black)
    2. School of Black & Puerto Rican Studies – student-community control
    3. Requirement of Black & PR history + Spanish for Education majors
    4. Reform SEEK: student voice in hiring; end “clinical psychologist” stigma; allow election to student gov’t
    5. Mandatory inclusion of Black & PR faculty in all departments
  • Intellectual engine: Professor Toni Cade
    • Open letter “Dear Bloods” urges self-education; frames tradition of “making something from nothing”
    • Proposes Center as course, research, skills & conference hub; ultimate vision: a “Black University”
  • Negotiation & political pressure
    • President Buell Gallagher refuses police assault despite alumni & mayoral-race outcry; notes occupiers “orderly” vs earlier white anti-war protest “fornicating in public”
    • Supreme-court injunction obtained by Comptroller Mario Procaccino forces May 5 police entry; Gallagher resigns May 10 citing “outside forces”
    • Acting President Joseph Copeland later compares occupiers to KKK; installs Dept. of Urban & Ethnic Studies chaired by Osborne Scott (2-course shell) without consulting students or Black faculty Wilfred Cartey & Barbara Christian ➔ labeled “insult”

Gender, Multiracial Alliances & Identity Politics Nuances

  • Black women like Toni Cade & SEEK counselors pivotal despite era’s macho rhetoric
  • Students consciously built coalitions: Puerto Rican, Asian American, sometimes radical white SDS chapters (though control remained with students of color)
  • Demonstrates “flexible & dynamic” identity politics — class & community service stayed foregrounded

Opposition & Backlash

  • Injunctions & selective arrests biased toward students of color (white SDS activists rarely charged)
  • Jewish Defense League (JDL) under Rabbi Meir Kahane
    • (1971) violent incursion onto Brooklyn campus; hospitalized several; injunction later bars JDL
  • Conservative politicians/media
    • Sen. John Marchi, Comptroller Procaccino demand police crackdowns
    • NY Daily News editorials equate activists with “Red Cuba/China”; call for Internal Security probes
    • House/Senate hearings; Brooklyn President Peck testifies SDS “masterminded” Black revolt

Outcomes & Structural Changes

  • Open Admissions impact
    • Fall 1970 freshman class: 35{,}000 (↑ 75\% vs 1969); \approx25\% Black/Latino
    • By 1975: 5 imes more Black & Puerto Rican students in senior colleges than 1969
    • Post-policy, 75\% of NYC HS graduates attended college (well above U.S. average)
  • New academic units
    • Brooklyn: Afro-American Studies Institute + Puerto Rican Studies Institute ⇒ full departments 1970; School of Contemporary Studies (SCS) 1972–76 with mandatory field internships (legal services, health clinics, prisons)
    • City: token Department of Urban & Ethnic Studies (2 courses) instead of robust Third-World School envisioned
  • Broader social effects
    • Expansion of Black middle class in NYC region; pipeline for lawyers, teachers, civil servants, artists, social workers

Retrenchment & Decline

  • Fiscal crisis 1970s
    • State takeover 1976; end of tuition-free policy; mass faculty layoffs; SEEK counselor caseloads double (from 50→100)
    • SCS closed 1976 amid claims of low standards
  • Narrative of “failure”
    • 1984 play “Open Admissions” popularizes stereotype of worthless degrees
    • Founders (Ballard, Berger) later fault lack of resources & planning rather than concept itself
  • Rollback 1998
    • Mayor Rudolph Giuliani & CUNY trustees scrap open enrollment; impose standardized tests; ban remedial courses at senior colleges ➔ “avenue for education” narrowed, esp. for working-class HS seniors

Numbers, Data & Legal/Media References (Quick List)

  • 96\% white (Brooklyn College, 1968)
  • 13 minority-content courses created 1968
  • Special admissions: committee planned 200 Black/PR admits (1964 proposal)
  • 18 Demands (Brooklyn); 5 Demands (City)
  • Arrest charges: 18 felonies + 5 misdemeanors ⇒ 228 potential yrs
  • Bail: initial \$15{,}000 ⇒ reduced \$6{,}500
  • Freshmen Fall 1970: 35{,}000 (↑ 75\%)
  • SEEK counseling ratio change: 50→100 students per counselor post-cuts

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

  • Re-definition of “merit” from test-centric to opportunity-centric, rooted in citizenship & tax contribution
  • Assertion that remediation is college’s responsibility given systemic K-12 inequities
  • Model of “movement studies” – academic knowledge as bridge to community uplift, not ivory-tower pursuit
  • Struggle illustrates dialectic of progress & backlash: victories (access, curriculum) simultaneously evoke fiscal & political counter-measures

Connections to Broader Movements

  • Direct lineage from SNCC & Southern freedom struggle → Northern urban campuses
  • Third-World solidarity ethos mirrors San Francisco State & Berkeley fights for Ethnic Studies
  • Anticipates contemporary affirmative-action debates & “post-racial” rollback attempts (e.g.
    Supreme Court challenges in 1990s–2020s)

Lasting Legacies

  • Demonstrated capacity of student activism to transform public policy at state-city level within one year
  • Set precedent for tuition-free → tuition-based reversal, highlighting vulnerability of gains without sustained funding
  • Produced cadre of scholars (Barbara Christian, Sekou Sundiata), public servants, and community leaders who trace careers to open-admissions doorway
  • Continues to serve as cautionary tale: without resources, radical inclusion can be framed as institutional failure rather than social investment