Student Press Conference Following Student Takeover at Amherst College (1970)

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.