Black Power on Campus

Book excerpt: Joy Ann Williamson charts the evolution of black consciousness on predominately white American campuses during the critical period between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, with the Black student movement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign serving as an illuminating microcosm of similar movements across the country. Nationwide black student college enrollment doubled from 1964 to 1970, with the greatest increase occurring at mostly white universities. As Williamson shows, however, increased admission did not bring with it increased acceptance. Confronted with institutional apathy or even hostility, African Americans began organizing. 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 understanding of social protest and measuring the impact of black student activism on an American university, 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.