Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-75

Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-75

Black Power, Black Studies, University of Illinois, Black Experience on Campus

From Introduction: "The story of a Black student movement and higher educational reform
is reconstructed by examining the in-between layers, the layers
between the national level and the local level, between reform initiatives
and the actual reforms. Identifying Black student demands and tactics as
an outgrowth of Black Power is not surprising, but how did popular Black
power rhetoric filter its way to the University of Illinois? How did Black
students appropriate Black Power ideology and mold it to fit their purposes?
How did Black students then transform their understanding of
Black power theory into practice? Some of the Black student-initiated
reforms were co-opted by the university, some were squashed, and others
were implemented as students envisioned. Some of the administrator-
initiated reforms were influenced by Black students. So how did a
reform initiative become campus policy? How did this forced negotiation
between two groups with different kinds of power color the outcome of
certain campus reforms? This examination of these layers reveals how
institutional change came to pass and demonstrates the important place
of Black Power in the history of higher education."

Joy Ann Williamson

University of Illinois Press

2003

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