As students with access to ‘higher’ education, we much push ourselves to continuously ask how education in defined, who is considered worthy of having an education in our society, whose histories are being told, and who are telling those histories. Universities operate similarly to corporations; higher education is an industry in which certain types of knowledge are deemed more prestigious and traditionally reserved for the white and wealthy.
The Black Lives Matter movement has mobilized hundreds of thousands of college students across the country, including students at Wash. U, to call out the ways universities contribute to the systematic oppression black and brown communities face on a daily basis. Although many people have been recently politicized in the call to end police brutality, this work is not new. Student activists have been at the forefront of anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist organizing throughout the past few decades, and in our struggle to affirm the lives of marginalized peoples we must remember and learn from the revolutionaries that came before us.
The Black Lives Matter movement has mobilized hundreds of thousands of college students across the country, including students at Wash. U, to call out the ways universities contribute to the systematic oppression black and brown communities face on a daily basis. Although many people have been recently politicized in the call to end police brutality, this work is not new. Student activists have been at the forefront of anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist organizing throughout the past few decades, and in our struggle to affirm the lives of marginalized peoples we must remember and learn from the revolutionaries that came before us.
Below is a brief outline of student activism at Washington University:
1956-1969: Students for a Democratic Society envisioned a society where “at all levels the people have control of the decisions which affect them and the resources on which they are dependent”. Their mission was to “seek power for the students, education of them, and action by them, in order to establish a democratic society at Washington University”. SDS organized and ran a “free university” where Marxist social theory was discussed. The first act of civil disobedience occurred in 1968, when SDS interrupted an interview between a Dow Chemical recruiter on the grounds that the interview was “morally detestable”. Civil disobedience and direct action then became a much more prominent form of protest on campus.
1965- 1979: The Washington University Liberation Front (WULF) organized anti-war and anti-ROTC protests. In the spring of 1970, student riots culminated in students throwing a Cherry Bomb that set the ROTC building on fire. This resulted in the multiple arrests of students.
1968: After the police beating of a black student, the Association of Black Collegians organized a protest and sit-in against the violence and marginalization black students faced on campus. The Black Manifesto of 1968 and protests in Brookings Hall in 1968 demanded an increase in black student enrollment, better treatment of black students on campus, and the introduction of a Black Studies program to the curriculum.
1979: The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade and the Vietnam Veterans Against War marched on campus and burned an American flag in order to demonstrate against U.S. imperialism in Iran.
2005: Student Worker Alliance sit-in. In April of 2005, students occupied the admissions office in South Brookings for nineteen days, demanding increased wages and benefits for workers on campus. After a six day hunger strike, the SWA accepted an agreement to raise wages, allow unions, and provide workers with UPasses.
2008: During the Commencement ceremony in May, Washington University awarded Phyllis Schlafly, known for her anti-feminist politics, with an honorary degree. Students and faculty organized protests in the day preceding the commencement ceremony and during the ceremony.
2009: Wash.U students protested on their senior class trip outside of a Chicago nightclub that refused to let six black students who were not allowed to enter the bar due to their "baggy jeans".
2014: St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and student activists protested and condemn Washington University's administration for censoring a BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) event featuring Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi.
1956-1969: Students for a Democratic Society envisioned a society where “at all levels the people have control of the decisions which affect them and the resources on which they are dependent”. Their mission was to “seek power for the students, education of them, and action by them, in order to establish a democratic society at Washington University”. SDS organized and ran a “free university” where Marxist social theory was discussed. The first act of civil disobedience occurred in 1968, when SDS interrupted an interview between a Dow Chemical recruiter on the grounds that the interview was “morally detestable”. Civil disobedience and direct action then became a much more prominent form of protest on campus.
1965- 1979: The Washington University Liberation Front (WULF) organized anti-war and anti-ROTC protests. In the spring of 1970, student riots culminated in students throwing a Cherry Bomb that set the ROTC building on fire. This resulted in the multiple arrests of students.
1968: After the police beating of a black student, the Association of Black Collegians organized a protest and sit-in against the violence and marginalization black students faced on campus. The Black Manifesto of 1968 and protests in Brookings Hall in 1968 demanded an increase in black student enrollment, better treatment of black students on campus, and the introduction of a Black Studies program to the curriculum.
1979: The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade and the Vietnam Veterans Against War marched on campus and burned an American flag in order to demonstrate against U.S. imperialism in Iran.
2005: Student Worker Alliance sit-in. In April of 2005, students occupied the admissions office in South Brookings for nineteen days, demanding increased wages and benefits for workers on campus. After a six day hunger strike, the SWA accepted an agreement to raise wages, allow unions, and provide workers with UPasses.
2008: During the Commencement ceremony in May, Washington University awarded Phyllis Schlafly, known for her anti-feminist politics, with an honorary degree. Students and faculty organized protests in the day preceding the commencement ceremony and during the ceremony.
2009: Wash.U students protested on their senior class trip outside of a Chicago nightclub that refused to let six black students who were not allowed to enter the bar due to their "baggy jeans".
2014: St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and student activists protested and condemn Washington University's administration for censoring a BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) event featuring Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi.
2014: Students Against Peabody Energy organized protests and occupied Brookings in opposition Peabody Energy's influence over Wash U and specifically Gregory Boyce´s (Peabody's CEO) seat on Board of Trustees.
2014-2015: Students in Solidarity organized students across various college campuses in St. Louis to protest against police brutality toward black communities. The Wash. U branch (WUSIS) presented a list of demands to the administration addressing ways that Wash. U can improve the safety and wellbeing of students of color on campus as well as bettering the relationship between the university and the St. Louis community. |
2015: In partnership with Show Me $15 and low-wage workers across St. Louis, students organized a rally on April 15th on the steps of Brookings to bring attention to the economic injustice faced by fast-food workers, custodians, and adjunct professors, This day of action across the nation called for fifteen dollars an hour for all low-wage workers.
2015: AltaVoz organized multiple vigils honoring the lives of students in Ayotzinapa killed by the Mexican government. They also protested against the Missouri History Museum’s decision to deny Palestinian activists access to present at a panel hosted at a museum.
2015: AltaVoz organized multiple vigils honoring the lives of students in Ayotzinapa killed by the Mexican government. They also protested against the Missouri History Museum’s decision to deny Palestinian activists access to present at a panel hosted at a museum.
To read the Black Manifesto online, follow this link:
http://amlives.artsci.wustl.edu/details_image.php?rid=28&fspkey=false
To read the chronology of events during the 1968 sit-in, follow this link:
http://amlives.artsci.wustl.edu/details_image.php?rid=21&fspkey=false
Follow this link for a research guide on the history of student activism at Washington University, and for materials you can access at the University Archives Special Collections department: http://libguides.wustl.edu/history-activism
In addition, check out the University Archives blog post Bears Repeating, where you can find blog posts on the history of St. Louis and more information on student activism: http://wulibraries.typepad.com/bears_repeating/
http://amlives.artsci.wustl.edu/details_image.php?rid=28&fspkey=false
To read the chronology of events during the 1968 sit-in, follow this link:
http://amlives.artsci.wustl.edu/details_image.php?rid=21&fspkey=false
Follow this link for a research guide on the history of student activism at Washington University, and for materials you can access at the University Archives Special Collections department: http://libguides.wustl.edu/history-activism
In addition, check out the University Archives blog post Bears Repeating, where you can find blog posts on the history of St. Louis and more information on student activism: http://wulibraries.typepad.com/bears_repeating/