Black Studies, Kent State University

On April 4, 1968, African Americans throughout the United States rose up in strident and oftentimes violent protest over the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Three years before King's murder, Malcolm X (who is also known by his Muslim name, el Hajj Malik el Shabazz) was gunned down in Harlem while speaking at the Audubon Ballroom.

The murders of these two warriors in the struggle for civil and human rights, and liberation from America's institutionalized racism, resulted in widespread urban protest and violence in black communities everywhere. Protests also erupted in the nation's high schools and universities, and Kent State University in Ohio was no exception. The on-campus appearance in November of 1967 of the Deacons for Defense and Justice (which originated in 1965 in Jonesboro, Louisiana) had inspired students to organize the Black United Students (BUS) in the spring of 1968. BUS members then began to assert their dissatisfaction with white America and with Kent State University. To make matters worse, recruiters for the Oakland Police Department appeared on campus, further inciting black students to react. These events precipitated BUS's walkout in May of 1968 from a campaign rally held for Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey.

These incidents, along with the deaths of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers, spurred the students into more dramatic actions. Consequently, they organized a student walkout in November of 1968, “a day of absence” during which 58% or more of the 600 black students on campus walked off and set up a “university in exile” in the neighboring community of Akron or simply went home to Cleveland. The students remained out until they were convinced they should return by the administration's willingness to address their demands. The students made five demands. First, in May of that year, black students had argued for and were granted an office that would be responsible for dealing with the educational and social factors they felt were obstructing their ability to achieve. The students wanted this office to be administered by an African American with the rank of dean. Second, BUS pressed for the establishment of an office of minority affairs, a learning development program, and a fund to assist black student programming activities. Third, the students demanded they be granted amnesty for violating university regulations by walking out. The students' fourth and fifth demands, which were not met until May of 1969, called for the establishment of an autonomous Black Studies institute that would not be attached to one of the university's constituent colleges, as well as a facility to house a black cultural center.