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"We Hope for Nothing, We Demand Everything": Black Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dublin Core
Title
"We Hope for Nothing, We Demand Everything": Black Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Subject
Black Experience on Campus, Black Power
Description
Ph.D. Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 230 pp.
In the late 1960s, Black students at predominantly White and historically Black campuses across the nation reevaluated the education they received in institutions of higher education and demanded an education more "relevant" to their situation as Blacks in America. This dissertation is an attempt to understand the influence of such notions on one such predominantly White institution, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). It presents an historical reconstruction of the Black UIUC student movement's origin, development, and decline. Preconditions such as alienation and isolation on campus provided Black students with the foundation on which their frustrations with UIUC built. Off-campus events and on-campus experiences precipitated the formation of a Black student union as a way to allay their alienation and to act as a mediating body between themselves and the institution. The organization filled social and psychological needs for Black students and provided a forum in which they could plot a course for change. A catalytic event bolstered the Black student movement and transformed their efforts into an open and large-scale protest which, in turn, elicited responses and control efforts from the UIUC administration. Though short-lived, the Black UIUC student movement was able to leave a tangible and intangible legacy on campus.
As a case study of Black Power's influence on the UIUC campus, this dissertation contributes to the discussion regarding the influence Black students had on helping to shape the nature of education at predominantly White institutions. In particular, it allows for an understanding of how unique factors influenced the rise in and character of Black student discontent at a large, land-grant, residential, Midwestern institution. Though unique for several reasons, the discussions and demands that came out of the Black student movement at UIUC were not unlike the discussions and demands at other predominantly White institutions across the nation. This dissertation is an attempt to contribute to the dialogue on the rise, ideology, development, and outcome of Black student movements across the nation in an effort to determine the full impact of Black student efforts and Black Power on American higher education.
In the late 1960s, Black students at predominantly White and historically Black campuses across the nation reevaluated the education they received in institutions of higher education and demanded an education more "relevant" to their situation as Blacks in America. This dissertation is an attempt to understand the influence of such notions on one such predominantly White institution, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). It presents an historical reconstruction of the Black UIUC student movement's origin, development, and decline. Preconditions such as alienation and isolation on campus provided Black students with the foundation on which their frustrations with UIUC built. Off-campus events and on-campus experiences precipitated the formation of a Black student union as a way to allay their alienation and to act as a mediating body between themselves and the institution. The organization filled social and psychological needs for Black students and provided a forum in which they could plot a course for change. A catalytic event bolstered the Black student movement and transformed their efforts into an open and large-scale protest which, in turn, elicited responses and control efforts from the UIUC administration. Though short-lived, the Black UIUC student movement was able to leave a tangible and intangible legacy on campus.
As a case study of Black Power's influence on the UIUC campus, this dissertation contributes to the discussion regarding the influence Black students had on helping to shape the nature of education at predominantly White institutions. In particular, it allows for an understanding of how unique factors influenced the rise in and character of Black student discontent at a large, land-grant, residential, Midwestern institution. Though unique for several reasons, the discussions and demands that came out of the Black student movement at UIUC were not unlike the discussions and demands at other predominantly White institutions across the nation. This dissertation is an attempt to contribute to the dialogue on the rise, ideology, development, and outcome of Black student movements across the nation in an effort to determine the full impact of Black student efforts and Black Power on American higher education.
Creator
Joy Ann Williamson
Date
1998
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Citation
Joy Ann Williamson , ""We Hope for Nothing, We Demand Everything": Black Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.," in eBlack Champaign-Urbana, Item #571, https://eblackcu.net/portal/items/show/571 (accessed April 20, 2024).
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