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Becoming a Black University
Student activism at Historically Black institutions was met with more repression and violence than at the other types of institutions that have been previously mentioned. Howard University, the leading Historically Black institution has always been located in the heart of Washington D.C.’s ghetto. Student activism on college campuses began at Howard University. The university hosted the five-day conference Toward a Black University (TABU), which urged students of the university to make the distinction between Negro and Black. Negro denoted the control or influence of whites. In other words, Blacks did not possess ownership of their own universities. One of the leaders of TABU was the charismatic activist Stokely Carmichael, an alumnus of Howard University. Carmichael pushed for students to challenge school administrators and to organize the masses with arms (weapons) to prepare for the impending revolution. Howard students heeded Carmichael’s demand. In February 1969, graduate students of the medical, law, and social work profession school mobilized in an effort to change the curriculum at each respective school. These students also demanded that the university place more of an emphasis on the needs of Blacks and increase the overall quality of education at Howard. The bravery of the graduate students inspired undergraduates to being the May protest. Students urged administrators to have an equal say in faculty hiring and an overall increase in Black faculty members. These students gained support from local residents, which caused the university to react violently. Howard’s president Nabrit called for action against the protestors, a Black man subduing student fighting for equality. He urged for the ar...

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...e counterrevolution as well as in the Black Power Movement. These student movements were marked by violent acts, which have been overshadowed by more infamous examples of law enforcement repression on college campuses. The infamous shooting at Kent State University in 1970 where four students were killed has become the image of student activism in the United States. However, the murders of innocent lives at North Carolina A&T, Southern University, and Jackson State College deserve more recognition from scholars of student activism. To not provide the history of these institutions weakens the necessity of Black Studies on college campus throughout the United States. The struggle for Black Studies/Africana Studies resulted in hundreds of programs, centers, and departments dedicated to informing inquiring minds about the ignored history of Black and African people.

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