Raw Footage of a Press Conference by Five College African American Society Representatives

OK we're here. Members of the- of the various five college Afro-American societies are here at WAMF And the thing we intend to do is to give you some sort of an- an overview of the demands that were presented to President Clinton at Amherst and to the college presidents at the University of Massachusetts, Smith, and Mount Holyoke. When I- When the demands were given to Mr. Clinton about 15 20 minutes ago, they were prefaced with this statement, which I will read to you now: "We the students of the Five College Black community feel the communication set up through your administrative structures have been meaningless and have not been responsive to our position as a viable force in this ballot. In numerable meetings, countless proposals, and powerless advisory committees have continuously frustrated our efforts to determine the reality of our present. That reality demands your acceptance of our right

to determine our own programs, policies, and directions. Games played for power are inexpedient and threaten the very existence of programs. As Black students, we are responsible to the immediate needs of our people. Your administrative reservations undeniably never confront the immediacy of this issue and distort its reality. Therefore the Five College Black community, united in its responsibility to end the games and set forth a more expedient program of action have accumulated these initial key issues to be enacted following negotiations with citizens of our community. [silence] And yes, I'd like to emphasize this again, that these demands have been presented to all of the other college presidents in the Five College community. Back last year, late last year, when the

Panthers- when the panther Fred Hampton was murdered, the Afro-American students at Amherst felt the need to- to do something about this, to somehow try to- to raise the consciousness of other Black students, of other Black people in this country, about the systematic disposal of our political leaders that has been going on. And in order to do this, we decided to write a letter to our president, Mr. Nixon. And we sent copies of this letter around to something like twelve hundred or more schools all over the country. And as of right now, we have well over 3000 signatures. And this letter goes as follows: Dear Mr. Nixon and associates: We, the undersigned, are hereby stating our concern for the deliberate decimation of our leaders. Ever since the first cry

for freedom came from the dehumanized slave, we have been subject to horrifying attacks, attempting to suppress our cries. We recognize that the systematic destruction of the Black Panther Party is merely the latest move in this continual attempt of blatant physical and mental subjugation. As human beings, we totally denounce this sedulous scheme. As Black people, we begin to ask, "what can be g- what can be done to stop this planned political genocide? For it cannot and will not be tolerated." [noise] If this mild attempt proves futile, then we shall attempt more stringent measures to achieve our goals. For what we are about, in general, is our liberation, but more deeply, our survival. We shall not plead our constitutional rights, for fear of being politically gagged and incarcerated. Instead, we, the Black people of this country, demand the immediate cessation of all attacks on the Black community. Furthermore, we insist that compliance with our demand be publicly stated, for there can

be no truth in that which passes over injustice and silence. [page turning] One of the other main parts of the demands presented to the various college presidents today was the Five College bridge program. As you know, the bridge program has been geared toward the academic development of students who have finished high school and have been accepted in college. But, you know, because of the destructive education systems in this country that are designed to cripple the minds of Black- it is somehow felt that their survival in college competition might not be at all assured if they did not receive some sort of assistance during the summer. And so, we have been dissatisfied with the bridge program the way it has been run in the past. And the principal reason we are dissatisfied with it is that there has been no attempt in the Bridge

program towards the psycho-cultural development of the Black student. That is, there's been no attempt to- There's been no attempt to prepare Black students so that they will be able to control their own destiny and realities, and be able to determine their destiny and their realities from a knowledge of the history of Black people in this country. And in order to do this, we would like to have for the governing board of the Bridge program and all- We would like to have the governing board of the bridge program be all Black. That is the substance of that letter. And finally, I'd like to give a statement on Five College Black studies which in a sense sums up the whole meaning of this enterprise today. The Black College- The black student community of the Five College area have been articulating

a unified position concerning the establishment and development of Afro-American Studies in this area. And we wish to take this opportunity to again articulate the feelings of a united Black student community on what we feel to be the most important aspect of our educational experience. The Black community of the United States is and has been, for the last hundred years, the victim of domestic colonialism imposed on it by the dominant minority. The White controlled educational system has served to divide the Black community along false lines of class, and to co-opt the so-called "educated negro" from his natural position of service and leadership to the community and their liberation struggle. Furthermore, the White, Western oriented cultural and politically chauvinist emphasis of American education is not designed for the education of Black people, who are conscious and aware of their historical relationship to the world Black community. In short the educational practices and philosophy of White America are

antithetical to the needs of Black people and destructive to the cohesion and awareness which is an- an absolute prerequisite to any solutions to the problems besetting Black people in this century. For this reason, we feel that it is the responsibility of colleges in this area to take the necessary steps to reverse this- this historical injustice and institute the programs which will ensure that black students are prepared psychologically and intellectually to undertake the formidable task awaiting them in the black community. This requires that a comprehensive program of Black studies be instituted in the Five College area, which will be available as a part of the curricula of all Black students. And when we talk about a comprehensive program, we are not talking about one or two warmed over courses in Black literature or in Black history. We are insisting on a coherent, comprehensive institution, which involves courses in every relevant academic discipline, as well as community oriented programs of an activist nature.

The Five Colleges say that they agree in principle to such a program. Yet they seem determined to setup- to set up, at some later date, individual uncoordinated token programs which will represent only token gestures of appeasement, rather than a real commitment to the innovative program of Black education. And because we do not believe that it is possible to recruit to each of these five campuses the numbers of committed Black faculty, which are necessary for any serious program, we feel that the whole Black studies program in this Five College area must be done on a Five College basis. We see no reason to- to get a whole bunch of Black faculty at Amherst and then duplicate that skill over at UMass and again at Smith and again at Mount Holyoke, and- or again even at Hampshire College. And we feel that the content and academic scope of such a Black studies program, of such a Five College co-operative Black studies

program can be counted on the proposal now pending action by the- by the administration of the University of Massachusetts. We feel that anything less than the commitment we are calling for will be unacceptable and evidence of the absence of any serious commitment to the educational needs of Black students on the part of the Five Colleges. The failure to seriously undertake this program will be evidence that these schools are not committed to correcting their historical record of indifference and neglect in the Black community and its educational needs. [clears throat] You see what has happened in the Five College area, [clears throat] the same kind of system that has operated historically with black people in this country is that we've been historically, systematically divided. [clears throat] And because a brother and a sister may go to U- UMass, Mount Holyoke, Amherst, or any other colleges in the Five College area, that doesn't make any diff- That doesn't mean that they're any different from one another, we're all Black people. And what I'd like to speak to is one of the

purposes of the demonstration that- that's now going on. The purpose of the demons- one of the purpose of the demonstration is for unity and solidarity with all Black people in the Five College area and all Black people in the world. And just because a brother and sister is in college doesn't mean that he's forgotten that brother and sister at home who didn't make it, or who won't make it. And I think that the brothers and sisters up here have realized that if we have to take the responsibility of making sure that when brothers and sisters who come to college and who hold college graduates responsible for their destiny, is that we have to be together. [clears throat] What's happened before the demonstration is that we've had a situation where we've tried to confront the administration, we've approached them in terms of negotiations, we've approach them in terms of meetings, we've tried to sit down and talk, but there seems to be a communication problem in terms of language, in terms of the memos that have gone out to the administrations. So I think that it was quite necessary

at this point, because in a demonstration of this nature, the thing that's important about coming to college is that [clears throat] those things which are reflected by the college campus and those things that a college campus expects you to do do not necessarily meet the needs of Black people. Not only those in college but those who are outside of the college. So one of the things that has to happen in the Five College area, what has to happen with all colleges and universities where there are Black students is that there has to be a power transfer taking place. That is, is that there are situations where they have instructors, they have courses, they have materials and they have resources that have not met the needs of Black people. They have not met the needs of Black people historically and they can't meet the needs of Black people in the future in terms of the situation that we have now. And so because of the failure on the part of the administration and some parts on the failure on the part of Black students who have gone through college and have't been able to deal with the problems that exist in the ghetto and that exist in the world. We're saying at this point, is that we intend to break this vicious cycle

that's existing in the colleges. We're very open to communicating with the university. Hopefully they'll read our demands and we'll respond to them. But let me say at this point, is that it may be that things have to be taken to another level. Things may have to be taken to another level if this means of communication has not been responded to. That students at Mount Holyoke college are actively involved in a coordinated efforts of the Five College Black community to establish viable educational programs that speak to the needs of the [phone rings] Black student community and indeed to the needs of the entire broader Black community. The grievances that we have against the administrative body at Mount Holyoke grow out of the college's lack of adequate attention to those needs. Regarding the college's financial aid policy, we feel that the present

policy functions more to restrain and stigmatize black students than it does to expand the student's ability to participate fully in the quote "Mount Holyoke experience." The admini- The admissions policy of the college we believe to be [phone rings] inadequate to realize our concept of what is involved in such questions as student recruitment and standards of acceptability. The college's response to our express need for Black Studies has been apathetic, unorganized, and virtually without any relevance to the actual need. Finally we have experienced total frustration with the college's fra- flagrant abuse of the guidelines of the EIP pro- summer program, those guidelines being essential to the proper functioning of that program, which had its origins in the Mount Holyoke Black community. [phone rings] With the summer program, as with the other issues mentioned, the colleges used our name, that is the con- concept of substantive Black student participation to lend legitimacy to essentially illegitimate

programs and policies. We, the Black student community of Mount Holyoke, will no longer allow ourselves to be used as a facade, a facade that has behavior that is insulting and- and that is indeed dangerous to the Black community. [mic noise] The saga of the Sisters of Smith is basically one of the past. Our demands are based as a result of the- last year's demands, or rather, the non-response of the administration to last year's demands. We presented to the administration demands last year for admissions financial aid and other areas, and we were given the runaround and watered down interpretations that left our demands unanswered. The one thing that we did learn was that just to point out our demands is not enough,

but rather that we have the responsibility to see that they got carried out. So that this year, we have not only presented our demands but made checks on them, and the VSA at Smith is responsible for seeing not only that the administration follows those demands, but that they are carried out according to our wishes. [clears throat] As citizens of the Five College Black community our grievances are shared in common. They deal with admissions, with financial aid, with the housing of our students in consideration of the racis- racist attitudes of the house mothers and White students in those houses, with the cultural center, with adequate funding for the Black organization on campus, and with Black Studies. [mic noise] I will speak to the particular grievances of the brothers at Amherst. And like the sis at Smith has said, primarily

our- our grievances come out of a type of thing that was left over from last year. Because basically, we issued the same- we proposed the same thing last year. It's just that there was such a flagrant neglect of our- Of our- our demands, or whatever. And the first problem first of all is admissions. Last year, and perhaps a year before, people said, "Well, Amherst, we want more Black students, you know. We want you to make some type of significant change. So, get more Black students here." And even using an unusual contemporaneous measuring rod, compared to West- compare Amherst to Wesleyan, Dartmouth, and Brown, is, falls way behind in terms of recruiting and admitting Black students. And that's- that's not a very good [cough] measuring stick at all. And the peculiar thing about the Amherst situation is that Amherst argues that "Well, we don't have a quota system or anything like that for Blacks." But,

in the last two years, Blacks have been refused at- have not been admitted because of- qualified Blacks quote "qualified Blacks" have not been admitted because of some type of claims of a lack of enough financial aid or we can only app- appropriate so much of our financial aid budget for Black students. And this is indeed, you know, a sort of species and really terrible quota system, subtle [phone rings] though it may be, because, you know, Amherst- Amherst can very well say that, you know- that- or take matters that are- methods of reestablishing financial priorities where Black students are given preference, in use- for want of a better tern- term, I'll say compensatorial. But these ideas have put aside on charges of discrimination, you know. We got to be fair, you know. We gotta say that Black students get half of the financial aid budget, or whatever. And surely using the unusual

measuring rod that I- that I used a moment ago, Amherst is not even less capable than these other institutions to provide funds in fact maybe even much more capable in many cases than- than these other institutions. And basically, our demands this year concern again a definite- requesting a defer- definite number, a definite percentage of the class of 1974 and future classes to be Black students. And that the admissions office and the financial aid office that the- that the admissions office set asides funds to be used specifically by Black students in their recruitment efforts to get more Black students. And that money be set aside by the- by the admissions office, or by the financial- a certain portion of the financial aid budget be set aside by the financial

system, to ensure a number of Black students who would not be able to make it to Amherst on the basis of their own family income, or whatever. The- the next- The next issue, primarily, is the Black Culture Center, and this is also another issue that we deal- that we try to deal with last year and that- And again, Amherst argued that, yes, we are committed to the idea of a Black Culture Center and all that it stands for. And therefore, for the most part, we've had so many- so much hassling and there's been so much re- reluctance and so much bureaucracy, and just- involved in things as getting furnishings, indeed the furnishings are just beginning to rot to arrive now. And the Black Studies- the Black Culture Center was- they were committed to it last year, this time, or even before. And there have been so many- so many problems in obtaining books and various things that I- that are

really needed to make the Cultural Center significant. And this time we're demanding that they set aside a budget, an annual budget, expandable for a future in the high cost of living, and all that type of stuff, For these various things that will make the Amherst Black Culture Center really meaningful. And like the- Like everyone else who's spoken up, The Five College Black Studies program. Again, we spoke of a Black Studies program at Amherst last year. And, for the most part, I think that most people are aware of the critical state the failure of whatever the fiasco of- of the Amherst Black Studies program because it is really very little. Very little. Really ridiculous, in a sense. and the final thing concerns the summer programs and several of the people spoken about the-

the apparent White Western cultural orientation of these programs. This is a problem. We've seen that these programs are not the most effective programs. That somehow these programs must be controlled and government and staffed by Black people so that the the proper- proper cultural perspective can be given to these programs. The Black students at the University of Massachusetts are participating in- in this action along with the brothers and sisters from other colleges for a number of reasons. First of all, we hope to demonstrate to the Five College establishment that the Black community will in future be acting as a unified manner on all issues affecting any Black persons in the Five College areas. We hope to ar- articulate once more the needs and grievances of that part of the Black community which is located at the University of Massachusetts. We demand immediate acceptance and implementation of a proposal for Afro-American Studies

Department, which is pending action by the university. There could be no qualifications for further delay. We further demand the immediate establishment of a cultural center to serve the needs of the Black community. Negotiations on this question have been dragging on since 1968, and we will accept Mills house for this purpose. We also demand that the university double its commitment to the service program. We call on the administration and trustees of the university to double the enrollment of Black students at the university for the 1971 ye- school year. Even with this action, the Black student representation on the University of Massachusetts campus will be dispor- disproportionately small as a consequence of the history of exclusion of Blacks from this campus. [clears throat] We'll take questions. Anybody has any questions?

I- Just curious, do you know what percentage of the Amherst financial aid project is devoted to Black students right now? Thirty. Thirty? Thirty percent of the funds go to Black students [background noise] And you propose- how much do you propose to have devoted to it? Or do you propose a definite figure, just announce though that you could admit enough Black students to fill what you're- Basically yes, we- we submitted a basic figure that we think will be sufficient to admit enough Black students. Well what percentage of that would that be of the total financial aid budget? Between, I guess, perhaps two thirds or something like that, say. I'm not quite. Can you- I'm sorry, can you [inaudible] measure your reaction among students in general What students? to your demands?

organized students. What students? [inaudible] Black students. Well, you know, we can't make any prediction on I mean, in fact, we won't even deal in that area, you know, how White students are going to react, you see. Because [clears throat] just like the administration, you know, the White students have had an opportunity, you know, to, see these kinds of things come about, you know, what their [phone rings] reaction is, I don't know, don't care. [noise] How [cough] of the buildings remain occupied? We don't know. One thing, could you repeat all the questions in your answer, so we can pick those up? What criterion do you have for releasing the occupation of the buildings? We don't know. [phone rings] Excuse me. Do you feel any- in any way that, maybe, you said that two thirds of financial aid should be- should be attributed to

Black and woman? Didn't- didn't- Wasn't that said? Some figure like that? Don't you think that's a little bit out of proportion concerning the other- the rest of the student body? It may very well be. So what? Can I [inaudible] not talking about that [inaudible] not anywhere near that amount. Not even. Just the way [mic noise] Could you clarify that? Yea, [inaudible] just say that [inaudible] But it's not two thirds, I'm not talking about two thirds. I just wanted to get that- wrong. [inaudible] percentage, there's no way to get [inaudible] [cough] [inaudible] But we identify ourselves with black students from the Five College area. Yeah [inaudible] No, man. Are there more sensible questions? No, man. [inaudible] No, I mean, we ain't-

there's nothing going on there. Have you been organized for long [inaudible] period of time, or is this just something- [inaudible] The question is if we've been organized for over a period of time. Could you- [inaudible] Well, you know, the way that I speak to that question is is that, [cough] you know, Black students have been on the Five College areas, I mean Five Colleges, you know, for many years. And you know by the virtue of Black people, you know, being together at any time and any place, you know, [phone rings] that would answer your question, you know, that we're organized. We just surfaced. Do you need anything like food? Do we need anything like food? Or literature prudent? Literature? While you're in the buildings? Thank you for your concern, but no. [train horn] [inaudible] Alright, we have some other questions. I'd just like to offer some- some things that'll

probably be happening in the future. We presented our demands [phone rings] to the Five College presidents. And we'll be- intend to do from this point on is that members from the Black community, from the Five College areas, we'll be pressing our demands if we feel that [cough] the administrations are not responsive, then it's quite possible that we will have to pressure each in- university individually. Now the action that took place Last night happened on Amherst College campus, which is very symbolic in terms of the attitude and the behavior that the administration from Amherst has been [cough] presenting to the students. But that is not to say that we will not move from here to University of Massachusetts, to Smith, to Mount Holyoke, and to Hampshire College when it opens up, if the University is- is not receptive, you know, to the demands of Black people in terms of the situation that exist here in the valley. Do you have any plans to talk the HEW and civil rights? We have no plans to talk to HEW. Have the specific issues of your demands been

dealt with in any other way prior to the demand today? They have not been recognized, let alone dealt with, even- But they have been dealt, specifically the terms of your demands as issues prior to their becoming demands, is this right? Now, people have listened. No one has dealt with nothing. [inaudible] Yeah, I have two questions that were just phoned in. The management Talk show. would like to- to know, he said that the conversation has been going on for a while. He seems to have the impression that each college is voicing its own demands, yet Amherst college is the only one that has some sort of a symbolic showing, they will take this for real. What happens if the other colleges do not get their demands? We already answered that. I've answered that question I'm saying that, first of all, let me clari- let me tell you what our position is, and we've been reiterating it all day, is that, you know, we are unified in terms of Black students in the Five College area, you know. It's not Amherst, it's not Smith, it's Mou- not Mount

Holyoke. [audio cut] students in the Five College area. That's where we're at. Right. And also, he would like to know, Massachusetts state law says that college ap- applications can have no reference to race, creed, you know, that sort of thing. That is shit! I'm sorry. But he wants to know how do you plan to get around this type of thing? Well, you know, well see... [inaudible] I don't want to deal that, you know, because, you know, we're not dealing with Massachusetts law, you know, you know. If the college doesn't then why should we? Power to the people! Yea [noise]