Black studies struggles

In the late 1960s the SF State campus proved to be a scene of unrest and turmoil for many people.

At a time when civil rights movements were prominent all over the country, students on this campus were demanding curriculum reform. Out of numerous student-initiated strikes and protests on campus emerged the department of black studies, and later the College of Ethnic Studies.

The department was the first in the nation established in a four-year college. In addition, the College of Ethnic Studies is still the only one of its kind in the country.

"It was the minority pressure that led to the black studies department," said Robert Smith, a professor of education in 1968 who was later appointed president of what was known then as San Francisco State College. "There was deep suspicion as far as what was going on in the black studies department because of the militancy at that time," he said

An inter-campus program called Experimental College also presented courses of black curriculum as well as other ethnic courses in the mid-60s. The classes covered areas of history, law, psychology, political science, and humanities. They were not offered as part of the required curriculum, however, and were led by students or people not connected with the college.

The idea of black studies and a black curriculum was proposed and formulated in the spring of 1966. Officially, a black studies curriculum program was established in 1968. The full-blown department did not come about until the 1969-70 school year.

Members of the Black Student Union at the time of the strikes submitted a list of demands to Smith. Of the 10 demands, one was to have a black studies department which would grant a bachelor's degree in black studies.

Professor of English Eric Soloman came to SF State in 1964 and remembers what was happening on campus during the strikes.

"Politics was very much a part of understanding race," Soloman said. "Many faculty members departed voluntarily, and many involuntarily."

For some time after the strikes there was still some tension on campus, but according to Jerald Combs, chair of the history department, much of that tension has withered with time.

"We have had plenty of other things to divide, unite, and rile us up by now," said Combs, who has been here for 31 years. "Most of the (faculty) tension had dissipated within a decade and it is now nearly 30 years since the strike."

Although Smith authorized and sent the proposal for a black studies department to the Chancellor's Office, he first thought there was a better way to handle the situation.

"My first reaction was that it would have been better to set black studies in the individual departments," said Smith, who resides in his Millbrae home and will be turning 80 next month. "But the movement among the black students was so strong -- they were pretty committed to having a strong influence over the courses."

According to documents from the special collection/archives department, students waged a battle with the administration that lasted nearly five months.

Smith had not even been president for a year when he found himself between a rock and a hard place. At one end students were eager for changes, and at the other end he had the support of only two trustees, while the others wanted him to get the strikes and other issues under control. With the creation of the department, he had hoped to ease pressure on campus, but he said students only gave more demands. At the same time, the Board of Trustees pressured him to end the conflicts on campus.

"We made the case that it would help ease the tension on campus to give attention to minority studies," Smith said. "Black students said they tended to learn more about white culture and its history and they wanted to reclaim their own culture and history. I tended to concur with that argument"

Once underway in 1969, the black studies department established some of the same courses available today, but also included classes like, Revolutionary Intellectuals, Black Journalism, Development of Black Leadership, Anthropology of Blackness, and Black Drama.

With a growing department at SF State, some Bay area schools began developing something similar. The University of California at Berkeley began its African American studies department in 1973. Mills College in Oakland is having a Day of Action today in protest of its ethnic studies program, which started at about the same time as SF State's but is in shambles today. The University of San Francisco has no ethnic studies department, though it does offer some courses in Asian American studies.

After the early turbulent times of the black studies department, there were still some problems affecting the department. College of Ethnic Studies Dean Phillip McGee came to SF State in 1976 as a lecturer for black studies and described the department as being in a state of disarray.

"I remember coming here one semester and there was a lot of factionalism, because the department was still trying to define itself -- trying to really understand where it was going," McGee said. "We went through all the growing pains of a department."

He said one of the problems that plagued the department was some white faculty members were not accepting of the discipline of black studies.

"Our work was not known to them, nor was black studies a popular discipline at the time. Especially not here, because it took the strike to create it," McGee said.

Though McGee arrived on campus several years after the strikes, he said students of color on many college campuses throughout the country were fighting for a change in curriculum at the time.

Since 1969 the SF State black studies department has enabled students to received major and minor degrees. Records from the University Budget and Planning office show that since 1970 there has been a total of 228 students who graduated majoring in black studies.

Many say the black studies department and the College of Ethnic Studies, including Native American studies, LaRaza studies and Asian American studies are what have brought diversity to the campus. Former student Charles Howard, who minored in black studies, said the department is just like a big family.

"It's more than just a learning experience, and you get to know the instructors," Howard said. "It's something that touches you personally. It's like an African tradition of passing down knowledge."

Howard has often been questioned about how he would apply his knowledge of black studies to a career and he gives people the same answer every time.

"People always want to know how you can apply it to career goals," Howard said. "You can't put a price on knowledge. It (black studies) has given me a strong sense of self to have confidence in the workplace."

[ Golden Gater Online February 29, 1996 ]

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