History teaches us to honor the past. To learn from it. Well, what happens then, if the history being taught in higher education doesn't encompass the whole story?
Sometimes students take it upon themselves to take back the power and disrupt the status quo. This was the exact mission of the students at San Francisco State College, now San Francisco State University, all the way back in 1968, when they kicked off the longest college student strike in history. Their tenacity, their resistance and their perseverance ultimately led to the creation of the first ever College of Ethnic Studies.
And this was a legendary accomplishment because at the time, higher education in the U. S. was dominated by Eurocentric topics.
Ethnic studies can range from Asian American, African American, and Latinx histories, to name a few. And it's also most likely the inspiration for why we can take an array of different classes like gender, sexuality, and women's studies today. In some cases, we can even take classes on Beyoncé or surviving the zombie apocalypse.
But it definitely took some time for us to get here. The 1960's were an incredibly turbulent time in U. S.
history. Young people and students in particular, were rising to the occasion to fight for their principles. Take the Woolworth lunch counter sit ins, where black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, demanded service, were refused and stood their ground when they were asked to leave.
Or the Freedom Rides, where college kids questioned segregation on busses. These events were only the tip of the iceberg. There were also anti-war protests, civil rights marches, and even Dr Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dram" speech.
These are the courageous actions that set the stage for the necessary social upheaval that would define this decade. It's like there was something in the air. The atmosphere was changing in almost every environment, and the world of higher education was no different.
Students understood that their lived and shared experiences were important. So when the classroom curriculum wasn't reflecting that, they questioned why? They wanted courses that illuminated their cultures, histories and perspectives.
And these were just not being taught in mainstream academia. The seeds for Ethnic Studies sprouted at San Francisco State with the formation of something called the Experimental College. Which was a program that was created and taught by the students.
This led their Black Student Union, or BSU to create the Black Arts and Culture series. The students powered these programs using funds rerouted from student fees, fundraised money, and grants. Talk about being self-made.
Their efforts eventually led to the creation of the Third World Liberation Front, or the TWLF. Which was a coalition of students across several on campus organizations who joined together to call for campus reform. Let's hear more from Dr Jason Ferreira, a professor of Ethnic Studies where this movement began.
So the Black Student Union at this time, this is really important, recognized the opportunity, both in terms of the threats associated with the conservative students and also the need to develop allies. And so they created the Third World Liberation Front. They argued for the development of a Third World Liberation Front that could do two things.
One, facilitate the development of a front, a coalition, an alliance in terms of the battles that were clearly coming down the line, but also helped politically develop Chicanos, Latinos, Asian-Americans in their own liberation struggles. All these communities were going through this process of re-identifying themselves. And so the Black Student Union recognized this opportunity and created the Third World Liberation Front.
Well, this is where the politics of the Panthers, sort of the Third World revolutionary framework that the Panthers were advocating and proposing, really brought together radicals and revolutionaries within all communities of struggle. Together, the TWLF and BSU protested an array of issues occurring on campus in relation to the Vietnam War and Free Speech Movement, And the lack of students and faculty of color on campus also remained a large point of contention. Students didn't just want curriculum changes.
They also wanted fair opportunities to be afforded to educators and students of color. Tensions reached their breaking point when George Murray, a beloved English professor and the Minister of Education for the Black Panther Party, was threatened with suspension due to his political beliefs. The BSU and TWLF immediately responded by threatening to go on strike, and presented a total of 15 demands to the campus administration.
These demands included a fully staffed black studies department, creating an Ethnic Studies department, and admissions to all nonwhite students who applied for the fall '69 semester. The rationale behind these demands was due to the lack of representation at SF state, in comparison to the high number of students of color in the Bay area in general. On November 1, 1968, the college president, Robert Smith, proceeded to suspend Murray, and five days later the BSU and TWLF officially called for the strike.
Campus protests, shut downs, numerous arrests, and police brutality soon followed. There was a lot of police periodically coming on campus, trying to disperse us in whatever we we're doing, and people were doing their own thing in terms of how they were gaining attention --- breaking windows, starting little fires here and there and the garbage cans or whatever they called it guerilla warfare. Right, was more underground, and it looked certain times, it looked like a war zone because the buildings itself were boarded up, people shattering glass doors, etc.
. Tensions were so high that weeks into the strike, college president Robert Smith resigned and was replaced by S. I.
Hayakawa. Hayakawa didn't want this type of behavior on campus, so he deployed as many as 600 police on grounds or had them on call nearby. There was already a history of student protests at SF state, with police presence used to quell both violent and nonviolent demonstrations.
Hayakawa would later tell a Senate subcommittee, quote, the revolutionaries said they would destroy the college. I said they would not. We had police available before trouble started.
Instead of waiting for the situation to get out of hand. But by the time he came, protests were pretty much under way. Hayakawa already said, if you guys have any more rallies, we're going to arrest all of you.
This time he threatened to arrest all of us. It's safe to say that strikers were not a fan of their new acting president. He was hand-picked to suppress the movement.
He was a fellow minority. So protesters were even more outraged that he was not the advocate that they had hoped for. He was a person of color, which we were very, very sensitive to at that point.
Not all the students at SF state were supportive of the protests. Some continued to attend class throughout the strikes, prompting BSU and the TWLF to continue to push for a united front. Amidst the opposition, the strike received support from non-students like the teachers union and the local community.
Those five months were long and tumultuous for the students at San Francisco State College. And even though all of their demands were not met, a deal was negotiated and the strike officially ended March 20, 1969. The students were tasked with creating the curriculum for this new college.
But as we now know, they were really true to this and not new to this. They utilize their skills in creating curriculum once again for students by students. And the very first College of Ethnic Studies was up and running only a few months later.
After the SF College strike, more marginalized communities gained visibility across college campuses. Shockingly, representation issues weren't unique to predominantly white institutions, but also affected historically black colleges and universities as well. The same year, the SF College strike began in 1968, about 1,000 students at Howard University also demanded courses that were more qualitative to their experiences.
And just like the students at SF College, Howard University, protesters were victorious as well. They introduced the department of African-American studies with classes on culture, literature, jazz, and more. The benefits of Ethnic Studies programs go beyond increased campus diversity.
The National Education Association found that both students of color and white students have benefited academically and socially from Ethnic Studies curriculum. More studies conducted throughout the years point to evidence that Ethnic Studies programs help students perform better in the classroom by contributing to higher grade point averages, attendance rates, and helping students outside the classroom improve their mental health and feelings of personal achievement. Ethnic Studies programs empower students to become champions for their communities.
We've seen it throughout history, from the Black Panther Party's free breakfast program to the Native American occupation of Alcatraz. And even today, where California college students operate Clínica Martín-Baró, a student organized free medical clinic for the community. Ethnic Studies and present day diversity, equity and inclusion efforts share their foundation in the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 60's.
And it could be said that the fight for Ethnic Studies laid the groundwork for inclusion efforts in universities over the past several decades. Both Ethnic Studies and DEI aim to be an equalizer in their respective spaces, and to course correct the societal norms of the past by validating the existence of different communities. They're designed to take a more holistic approach to key issues like bettering life on campus, diversifying the student body and faculty, and refining admissions policies.
However, we find ourselves in a very different position in 2024. Several states are closing DEI offices and eliminating DEI training requirements. Higher education has and will always be a place for discussion, debate, and protest.
It's a place for people to discover alternative points of view, express themselves in a variety of ways, and think deeply about the world around them. If these pivotal moments in our nation's higher educational history have taught us anything, it's that our actions and voices actually hold significant power. Power that can create resounding change.
What lessons from the strike in 1968 do you think are still relevant today? Let us know in the comments. I'm Felecia for the Win, and I'll catch you, on the next episode.
