BSU

A Philosophical Divide

Field Slave

WEB DuBois

Malcolm X

Black Power Movement

Black Student Union

Nathan Hare

House Slave

Booker T. Washington

Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil Rights Movement

NAACP

Roy Wilkins

The Vanguard

• executive director for NAACP
• "Black Jim Crow Studies"
• repulsed by Black Power imagery
• Black Studies went against NAACP's quest for educational integration

• sociology professor
• fired from Howard for supporting Black Power
• ended up at SF State
• first person in US hired to cultivate Black Studies
• founder of The Black Scholar

Integration or Segregation?

• the first Black Student Union
• founded at San Francisco State in March 1966 (Rogers, 2011)
• made the first suggestion for a Black Studies dept in December 1966 (Rogers, 2011)
• organized the first summer bridge and upward bound programs (Rogers, 2008)
• went on strike for 4 1/2 months and went directly against CA Gov Ronald Reagan
• for an autonomous department (Rogers, 2011)

• popular theme in the college speeches of Malcolm X
• racial segregation and separation are not the same
• "Segregation means to regulate or control... A segregated community is that forced upon inferiors by superiors. A separate community is done voluntarily by two equals."
• "the university emerged as an illustration of this critiques as well as an arena in which to advance it"
• "token integration" "lifting the veil on the hoax"
• paradigm shift from wanting a seat at the table to making your own table

Black Studies

Black Student Union

Black Campus Movement

Black Power Movement

Black Campus Movement

"I contend that the BCM should make up at least a chapter of any topically arranged examination, chronological narrative or study of the Black Power Movement, and (if applicable) an analysis of any person, organization or event of the Black Power Movement should show the full extent of that person, organization or event's relationship to the BCM" (Rogers, 2008).

The Emergence of the

Black Student Union:

Black Power

Movement

• shifting from traditional educational thought to alternative, influenced by the BPM (Williamson, 1999)
• led to the drastic increase in enrollment in higher education (Williamson, 1999)
• all BPM icons except Malcom X were trained in the university (Rogers, 2008)

How a Shift in Black Consciousness Shifted Higher Education

Ryanne Boyer

History

Motivation

• founded in 1966 at San Francisco State (Rogers, 2011)
• the only organization formed during the Black Power Movement that is still in existence today (Rogers, 2008)
• a target of COINTELPRO (Biondi, 2012)
• currently thousands of Black Student Unions

What is BSU?

• "geared to provide Black students with a solid, legitimate power base from which they can bring about needed changes in the colleges and universities involved" (Williamson, 1999)
• members, for the most part, looked alike and had similar interests (Williamson, 1999)
• formed to create solidarity and unity and show the positive aspects of Black culture (Williamson, 1999)
• space for emotional health (Williamson, 1999)