One of Northwestern’s core values is social justice, a principle built upon a long history of student activism. This year marks the 55th anniversary of the Bursar’s Office Takeover, in which over 100 students participated in a sit-in protesting discriminatory policies against and a lack of resources for Black students. Since then, NU students have.
A San Diego native, Charla Wilson knew she wanted to write about the history of the city’s Black community for her master’s thesis at California State University San Marcos. Sifting through documents from San Diego’s Young Women’s Christian Association, Wilson discovered the organization once had a segregated chapter in the predominantly Black community of Logan.
Content warning: This article contains discussions of racial violence. When Leslie Harris (Weinberg ’70) thinks back to his college years at Northwestern, he recalls an unwelcoming campus community that was at times hostile to Black students and other students of color. Harris said a white student assaulted one of his classmates from high school on.
Last year, the African American Studies Department celebrated its 50th anniversary, 54 years after Black students demanded acknowledgement of Black art, culture, literature and history during the Bursar’s Office Takeover in 1968. Following the demonstration, Northwestern hired two visiting professors, including historian Lerone Bennett, who would go on to serve briefly as the first African.
Prior to 1966, an average of five Black students per year enrolled at Northwestern. That year, NU’s race-based recruitment infrastructure changed with the inception of two new programs: the NU Chicago Action Program and a special summer program which aimed to encourage Black students to enroll. “Although not all black students participated in this summer.