Black Power on Campus
Subtitle: The University of Illinois, 1965-75
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: June 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9780252028298
Subjects: Black studies; Higher & further education; Multicultural studies; Organization & management of education; Teaching of ethnic minorities; Philosophy & Social Aspects; History; Discrimination in higher education; Political activity; Blacks In Higher Education; Individual Institutions Of Higher Education; Education; Education / Teaching; Higher; University of Illinois at Urba; Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General; Social Science / African-American Studies; African American college students; Illinois; Multicultural Education; Organizations & Institutions; 20th century; African American college stude; African Americans; Civil rights
First sentence: The history of Black students at predominantly white colleges and universities is a complicated one of discrimination, racism, protest, and resilience.
Description: "Joy Williamson charts the evolution of Black consciousness on predominately white American campuses during the critical period between the mid-sixties and mid-seventies, with the Black student movement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) serving as an illuminating microcosm of similar movements across the country." "As Williamson shows, increased university admission rates in the late 1960s did not lead to increased acceptance for Black students. In response to institutional apathy, or even hostility, Black students advocated Black unity, celebrated Black culture, and employed aggressive tactics to initiate a period of institutional reform during one of American higher education's most tempestuous eras. Williamson examines the creation of such groups as the Black Students Association at UIUC and looks at the effect the activities of such groups had on the wider student body, on academic administrators, and on university policies. Drawing on student publications of the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as interviews with former administrators, faculty, and student activists, Williamson discusses the emergence of Black Power ideology, what constitutes "Blackness," and notions of self-advancement versus racial solidarity. Promoting an organic understanding of social protest and assessing the impact of Black student activism on an American campus, Black Power on Campus is an important contribution to the broader literature on African American liberation movements, the role of Black youth in protest movements, and the reform of American higher education."--Jacket.