Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Elvita Dominque's senior thesis in the Barnard Department of History (2004). In the sections that precede this excerpt, Ms. Dominque discusses her primary sources (archival research from student newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews with black alumnae), the history of black women at Barnard before the 1960s, the effect of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and the Higher Education Act (1965) on black recruitment at Barnard, and Barnard's "Special Student" Program, a pilot program developed in the mid-1960s to recruit underprivileged students of any race or ethnicity that became problematically confused with black recruitment efforts. In the sections that are presented here, Ms. Dominque discusses the push that Barnard made in the later 1960s to recruit black students and the consequences of this integration on the institution and the black women themselves during the most radical period in Barnard-Columbia history. Student activism reached a height in 1968 for local, national, and international reasons. Locally, there were protests against Columbia University's plan to build a gym in Morningside Park, to which local residents (largely working class and black) would have separate and unequal access; additionally, students were becoming increasingly radicalized by the black power and antiwar movements. Black women at Barnard were integral to all of these debates and used this time to advance their own goal of advocating for both racial and gender equality, especially on campus, by forming BOSS, the Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters. BOSS is still very much active today; Ms. Dominque served as BOSS President in 2002–03.

Considering the Offer

Why Did They Come?

Why did they come? There are many different reasons given by black graduates of this period to explain why they decided to study at Barnard. Some wanted to come to New York City, some wanted to attend an Ivy League Institution, still others were looking for a good school close to home. However, despite these variations there is one common theme running through all their stories and narratives—they were coming for opportunity. Regardless of class, geographic, or ethnic background, these women saw a Barnard education as a means to unlocking doors and advancing in American society.

Deborah Perry from the class of 1972, who self-identified as middle class, stated, "My parents thought, and still think, that a degree would open up all the doors that I wanted—and I agreed with them." [1] Similarly, Frances Sadler, a black student from a working-class background, when asked during an interview how she came to decide to go to college, explained, "I was a good student in elementary school and my mother decided that education was the way for us to move up."[2] This theme is also found in the reminiscences of Christine L. Edwards of the class of 1973, "My parents always felt strongly that education was the key to social mobility . . . . So, from the beginning I was taught that I could escape the stigma of my Blackness by doing well in school."[3] In a short autobiographical sketch of her life, Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, of the class of 1974, also maintains that, "Both my parents promoted education and hard work as the way out of poverty. They felt their lives had been adversely affected by a lack of education (neither finished high school) and they wanted us to get ahead."[4]

These women and their families believed that acquiring the same education as their white counterparts would also allow them to gain access to the privileges afforded to whites. In a statement published in the Barnard Bulletin on March 12, 1969, members of the black students' organization explained to the general Barnard population why they decided to attend Barnard: "We came for the same reason you did—for an education. Black colleges are largely inadequate and nothing more than an imitation of white-establishment colleges."[5] Here we see that black students perceived that there existed an important difference between an education received at a white institution and one received at a predominantly black one. Haratia Trahan, a black graduate of the class of 1974, remembered that Barnard's reputation as a prestigious Ivy League institution was one of the reasons she chose the college over the four state schools to which she had also been accepted.[6]

It is clear that black students believed that attending a white institution would remove many of the racial and economic barriers of American society. It was a gateway out of a poor and/or racially marginalized community and into the mainstream of America. However, in this attempt to use Barnard as a stepping-stone to greater opportunity many black women found they had to develop ways in which to survive and thrive as students at Barnard; in attempting to negotiate their space at Barnard, they would leave an indelible mark on the college's landscape.

On Rejecting the Offer

Alienation and Black Nationalism

Being Negro is being different, but America is called a melting pot, which I take to mean that everything goes in and one thing comes out. But it hasn't worked that way, somehow thankfully; some elements, the Negro particularly, have not succumbed to the temperature, have not let blow freely the molecules of their makeup. But in places like this there is the danger of being blinded, or being bleached.[7] —Joan Frances Bennett, black Barnard student, spring 1968

Socializing almost exclusively with other black students was one of the most defining characteristics about black students at Barnard during this period. All the interviewees from this period claim they made no real friendships with white students while at Barnard. Haratia Trahan, Jonette Miller, and Barbara LaBoard do not recall any significant interaction with white students while at Barnard.[8] This was not a phenomenon found exclusively at Barnard. Many scholars have noted that, as the number of black students increased at historically white colleges and universities, instead of having more social integration between the races, black students became more alienated from the schools they were attending. Black students did not quietly assimilate into the white culture of their colleges. One of their initial acts of rejection of Barnard's offer was to withdraw from the social life of the college and create their own social groups and communities. They decided that they would refuse to allow themselves to be assimilated into Barnard's community. Why did black students reject Barnard's offer and withdraw from the college? All the black interviewees from this period spoke about how they stuck together as a group as a means of getting through Barnard. They all spoke about a sense of disconnection and alienation they felt from the larger college environment.

Black students generally did not come to Barnard expecting not to fit into the social environment of the college. Although Jonette Miller and Haratia Trahan spoke about coming to Barnard looking specifically for the black Barnard experience, most of those interviewed said they expected some period of adjustment to college life but for the most part were simply looking for a good college experience. As Marsha Simms explained, when asked about her expectations of Barnard, "What did I expect? I expected to get a reasonably good education."[9] Some, like Frances Sadler, were accustomed to integrating white institutions and did not really give much thought to the fact that Barnard was a white institution.[10] Although, undoubtedly some were probably well aware of the realities of being black at a white institution, many came expecting to be able to integrate easily into the Barnard community. In a piece written for The Barnard Alumnae magazine in 1969, Deborah Perry explained that even after an initial feeling of unease, she still believed she could fit in at Barnard:

During my first week as a Barnard freshman I was infused with a spirit of adventure, of anticipation at being in New York . . . I had very little contact with whites, except as teachers, and I staunchly supported the idea that only though integration and communication between the races could we ever have harmony. Yet and still, I worried about assimilation and acceptance here at Barnard. From the very first, I felt uncomfortable and uneasy with the white girls I met. I felt that I had nothing to say to them, and vice versa, but I ignored the feeling, chalking it up to "the period of adjustment."[11]

Perry was mostly excited about the prospect of college and, prior to coming to Barnard, believed thoroughly in the idea that social integration of the races was possible. Jacqueline Fleming, in a book comparing the experiences of black students at black colleges with those of black students at white colleges, concludes: "Because black students came to college expecting less prejudice and more social integration than they found, their consequent anger and despair contributed to a desire for separation and withdrawal from whites."[12] Part of the reason blacks became so rapidly alienated from the white college environment, according to Fleming, was that they were expecting to be welcomed by the college community. Many of them after all had been recruited and enticed to come with special financial aid offers. Therefore, being rejected by the college community came as a surprise to many and their withdrawal from campus life was for some a reaction to this rejection. They wanted to feel accepted and valued by the Barnard community and when they did not receive this acceptance, they turned to each other for support and validation.

They were rejected both overtly and subtly by the college community. As Frances Sadler explains, "I don't think the college was malicious. It was just a racist institution. It was an organization that had not worked at diversity. So, it never tried to support us, understand us, incorporate us. Mostly the policies were 'fine—we invited you here, now deal.'"[13] Jonette Miller states, "It was even more than a matter of seeing through the transparency of the people's prejudice to how they really were not there to support young black women, or how they really wanted us to be cookie cutter images of upper-class white women."[14] From the very beginning of their Barnard experience many felt that the college had done nothing to prepare for their arrival. Deborah Perry remembered,

The Social Life—Freshman Orientation program, floor parties, mixers, luncheons, teas—was geared to the incoming white freshman, completely ignoring the different needs of black students. We were treated as whites too—which may sound fine and dandy—but this type of treatment is a kind of racism in itself. The administration, the student sponsors, everyone was so willing to "overlook" the fact that we were black and to ignore the different cultural and social background that is black people's. Barnard's lily-white faculty and courses of study emphasized even more the lack of concern or interest on the part of the "powers that be" about the needs or interests of blacks.[15]

Perry re-emphasized Sadler's point that black women felt ignored by the Barnard community. Like Perry, some of the women interviewed talked of the limits of social life provided by the college for black students (some stating they turned to New York City, and Harlem in particular, for entertainment).[16] And, like Perry, many regretted the absence of black professors and courses on black issues. Karen Butler majored in American Studies in order to pursue her interest in African American history.[17] Sadler recalls feeling pressure to represent black people and teach other students about black culture in classes where blacks were never mentioned. Sadler remembered "taking an American Literature Symposium with Christine Royer and it was Melville, Whitman, and another American author of your choice. I think about the fact that I chose to do Richard Wright because I felt obligated to do a black author because otherwise no one else would have heard of him."[18]

Sadler also noted that not only were black students asked to carry the burden of educating their fellow students about blackness, they also felt they were rejected as full contributors to the intellectual life of the college because, as was previously discussed, many doubted their academic qualifications for gaining admission into Barnard. Sadler stated, "Everyone assumed that they had lowered their standards to let us in. And in fact we were highly qualified."[19] These negative perceptions of themselves and blackness really frustrated the black students. Such perceptions were particularly annoying when they were held by white classmates with whom they lived.

Sadler felt that the college did nothing to prepare white students for integration, and that this lapse showed in white student's reception of blacks. "Yes the college had a big part of it but it also didn't do anything to prepare the white students for us being there," Sadler explained. "They are the ones who made our lives miserable on a day to day basis. Not the college as an institution . . . You know, people talk today about the posture pictures and the touching hair. That wasn't the college who touched our hair and invaded our space. It was the students."[20] Jonette Miller also mentioned she felt that black students were always being watched by staff, in places like the dining hall, because people were always worried black students would steal or cause trouble.[21] Taking these women's stories into account, it is not surprising that many of them found the Barnard of this period such a hostile environment in which to study, and turned to each other for support.

Alienation alone, however, does not fully explain the black women's rejection of Barnard's offer. In his discussion of black students' protest at the University of Pennsylvania, Wayne Glasker argues for the importance of black power and black nationalist ideology to the development of group consciousness and, subsequently, black students' protest at the University of Pennsylvania. Black power ideology also played an important role in black women's rejection of Barnard's offer. Black power ideology provided them with a view of integration different from the one being put forth by Barnard, and it also influenced their ideas about where they fit into the Barnard College community.

Black nationalism and alienation were, of course, connected. The black students who came to Barnard during this period had some commitment to integration; however, it soon became clear to most black students that they would need to form supportive networks if they were going to make it through Barnard. As many of the issues they were facing had to do with race, it was almost inevitable that they would form bonds along racial lines since these relationships helped to increase group identification and pride. Fleming quotes a researcher as stating that, "'[T]he experience in the white senior college or university in most cases seems to lead the student toward an increasing consciousness of his blackness, toward an identity not with all people, but with black people.'"[22] James P. Pitts in his article discussing the politicization of black students at Northwestern University explains, "Black students, despite differences in status and regional origin, constituted a nascent group from the moment they entered the University, sharing honor, stigma, elation, and frustration. This nascent group, not simply individuals, became politicized in their attempts to cope with the campus environment."[23] In his study, "College as a Source of Black Alienation," Richard Shingles defines black nationalism, in terms of black alienation from white American society, as "a sense of powerlessness and isolation from American society leading to a counter move or withdrawal characterized by militancy, the rejection of traditional means of political access and social reform, and separatism, the black demand for control of their own affairs and the institutions which influence their lives."[24] One alumna, in an article assessing the state of blacks at Barnard in 1976, explained the growing feeling of black nationalism at Barnard in reaction to white rejection: "We felt a need to show whites that we didn't want them, that we (the) rejected, just discovered a pride in our own culture and wanted to spread it around us, just have total Blackness around us."[25]

Wayne Glasker explains that toward the late 1960s the influences of black nationalism and black power could be clearly seen among the black student population of the University of Pennsylvania.[26] Evidence for their shift toward a black power ideology could be found in their creating black students' organizations (that limited or forbade white participation and membership) and protests, to make demands on the administration regarding issues of racial importance. Pitts also notes this shift in the experience of students at Northwestern University.

Black students who entered Northwestern in 1966 were overwhelmingly sympathetic to the objectives of the Civil Rights Movement, but few saw themselves as crusaders or activists. Their experiences between 1966 and 1969 reflect much of the general pattern of change in race consciousness among young blacks from an 'integrationist' to a 'black nationalist' perspective.[27]

This race consciousness, as Pitts argues, moved many black students to reject integration and move toward a black nationalist understanding of race relations, especially as they became more politicized. A similar shift in ideology to the one at Northwestern can be seen at Barnard. Just in looking at black students' writings in the Barnard Bulletin that year one notes a new emphasis on racial consciousness. One student, Paulette Williams (later known as Ntozake Shange), announced this shift in an editorial in the Bulletin:

I have seen Black men and women preparing themselves together for participation in the development of the black nation we intend to build . . . Martin Luther King is dead now. He died because non-violence is out of context in the American experience. Black Barnard realizes that this golden dream of peaceful reconciliation of Black and white society has died with him, in spite of the eulogies expressed by generous white leaders who had opposed him subtly or blatantly while he lived. There is going to be throughout the country a shift in the attitudes of the Black community, especially students.[28]

For students at Barnard there was an acceleration of the shift toward black nationalism in the spring of 1968, a significant time in the development of black power thought and increased politicization of black students both at Barnard and Columbia and really throughout the nation. According to Fleming, "Prior to 1960, most black students on white campuses had been content to be seen, not heard (except within their own peer group)."[29] Robert McCaughey argues that spring 1968 was a turning point for black students at Columbia University. Although they had formed their own communities and social networks between and within the two colleges prior to 1968, they did not have a political agenda until that moment.[30] As increased feelings of alienation and black nationalism took hold, black students began creating their own political agendas.

The Counter Offer

Black Protest at Columbia

The trend of increased politicization and protest was very apparent at both Barnard and Columbia. It was in keeping with the trend of increased politicization of both white and black students throughout the country. This can be said to be the formative stage of black students preparing to present the Barnard community with a counter offer in the integration negotiations.

The spring of 1968 was a particularly turbulent semester at Columbia. Protesting students forced a temporary shutdown of the school. It was also a turning point for the black community on campus, ushering in a new era of radicalization and protest. The Columbia protests, in which many Barnard students participated, involved several issues and several major groups. Black students protested Columbia's proposed plan to build a gym in Morningside Park. The major protests of the semester began with a combined rally on April 23, 1968, held by Students for a Democratic Society and Columbia's black students' organization Student Afro-American Society. The protests would escalate when students, beginning with black students' spontaneous occupation of Hamilton Hall, began taking over campus buildings.[31] One black Barnard student wrote a journal entry about her experiences inside Hamilton Hall:

This looks pretty serious by now. We had a meeting last night. The steering committee guys are really bright, and so are the other kids. I got a feeling of closeness in that room that didn't have anything to do with the fact that it was packed. There is unity here. We have renamed this place Malcolm X University. And we call each other "sister" and "brother." For me it is ironic that as a Southerner I waited until I came North to make my first physical stand against Racism . . . . Marcia has not looked well nor happy since we've been here. She's worried about what her parents will think when they find out that she has been in here . . . . There are about 90 of us here. We have a kitchen, eating rooms, and a Supply room and a shower. There is a cleaning detail and a kitchen detail. I slept on the floor again last night. The blanket I have now is not as smelly as the other.[32]

Bennett's discussion of events provides some insight into the character of the black students' protest. First, many of the black students participating in the protest were far from seasoned political activists. Second, the Hamilton occupation would further help to forge an even more salient black identity and greater political awareness. This increased political activism and awareness would have implications for black student life following the protests. The protest represented more than black students' objections to the building of a gym in Morningside Park; in addition, it was a rejection of the terms of integration. Joan Bennett left Hamilton Hall before the buildings were forcefully evacuated by the police, so she avoided arrest; other Barnard women, both black and white, were arrested. But protest did not end there; the following year, in the fall of 1968 and spring of 1969, black Barnard women engaged in protests of their own. These protests would allow black students to present their counter offer to assimilation.

The Formation of BOSS and Protests at Barnard

The Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters (BOSS), founded in the fall of 1968, was an outgrowth of alienation and black nationalism, re-enforced by the new spirit of protest produced by spring 1968 protests.

The formation of BOSS and the protest movement at Barnard can be best understood in terms of Doug McAdam's model for the development of social movements laid out in his book Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970.[33] Doug McAdam argues that there are four elements necessary for the formation of a social movement: changes in broad socioeconomic processes, expansion of political opportunities, cognitive liberation, and the mobilization of indigenous organizational strength of a community.[34] According to McAdam, broad socioeconomic changes are "any event or broad social process that serves to undermine the calculations and assumptions on which the political establishment is structured." Broad socioeconomic changes occasion changes in political opportunity. McAdam explains that political opportunity is the test of a political system's vulnerability to assaults by excluded groups. Cognitive liberation is the idea that "[b]efore collective protest can get underway, people must collectively define their situations as unjust and subject to change through group action." Indigenous organizational strength is the ability to turn indigenous community groups to the purposes of the social movement.[35] The protests at Barnard, in many ways a microcosm of social movements, fit within McAdam's structure.

The broad socioeconomic change that engendered more political opportunity was the recruitment of black students to Barnard. The increased population of black students created a critical mass of students, so that unlike previous generations they had a significant presence and voice on campus. Black Barnard students achieved cognitive liberation through their witnessing of and participation in Columbia student protests. These protests, and of course the numerous other protests going on throughout the country, heightened awareness on Barnard's campus about the possibilities for change via protest. Finally, the most critical aspect of the Barnard movement came with the formation of BOSS, which provided black Barnard students the indigenous organizational strength necessary for a social movement. It was the formation of BOSS and its subsequent conversion into a protest organization that immediately precipitated the protests at Barnard.

As black students began to form a community on campus and a salient identity, they began an organization that would help them meet their needs; as such they would also have a formal forum for airing of grievances and planning action to deal with those grievances. As Frances Sadler recalled, "Well, we didn't think BOSS was starting something. It was the black women who were in one place at one time sitting down, talking about stuff . . . stuff that was affecting us. And so we met a few times, we talked a few times. We sort of fueled each other's feelings of isolation and the University's responsibility to us."[36]

According to the Barnard Alumnae Magazine, the college first became aware that black students were organizing in October 1968, when signs were seen around campus calling for meetings for all black students.[37] At its inception, BOSS could be defined as the name given to Barnard's black community because as one member stated to the Barnard Alumnae Magazine in 1969, "If you're black you're automatically a member—everyone belongs although there's no formal membership."[38] At first, black Barnard women attended meetings of the Student Afro-American Society (SAS) looking for community; however, it soon became clear that that particular organization would not meet their needs. Frances Sadler remembered, "Well, the Student Afro-American Society was a University wide organization . . . a Columbia-issues-dominated organization and a male-dominated organization. And we were sort of not into deferring, and also not into sit-ins, or not as strongly interested in Columbia issues . . . . And we had our own problems, own issues."[39] As a result of this disillusionment with SAS, BOSS was formed.

When BOSS was initially formed, it was a very informal organization that did not receive funding from Barnard's student activities budget.[40] In fact, Francis Sadler, one of the founders, did not think she was aware at the time that Barnard offered student groups an activities budget. The group did not initially plan many formal events. It was more of a support group. As Karen Butler noted, "[W]e were just there kind of support with homework, just being together. All together, in an environment that a lot of us had never really been in, predominantly a white environment. Some people had come from prep schools but a lot of us hadn't; it was just a sense of family, that's what we kind of tried to fulfill."[41] However, although not all the black students at Barnard were active participants of BOSS, BOSS soon became the voice of black students on campus, a vehicle through which to protest and make demands on the college, and a forum for presenting new ideas about integration to the college community.

According to the Barnard Alumnae Magazine, by January 1969 BOSS had elected a steering committee consisting of Carmen Martinez, Alma Kinney, and Clara Hayley, and it had issued a manifesto.[42] Having come together, realizing that they shared many of the same complaints, and forming a black students' organization, they began demanding that Barnard become more responsive to their needs.

Self-Determination and Autonomy

BOSS's agenda focused mainly on opening up the college to influences of black culture and thought and allowing black students at Barnard to maintain their own culture as separate from that of the College's mainstream. This focus, along with a great deal of anger and frustration, is expressed clearly in their manifesto, issued on December 18, 1968; it states, among other things, that "[t]he only educational relevancy Barnard has to the black student is to demonstrate successfully institutionalized racism. Barnard's courses serve simply to reinforce the European cultural heritage, as a look at the Barnard catalogue will aptly testify."[43] After issuing this manifesto, BOSS began pushing for changes at Barnard.

According to Andrée Abecassis, shortly before 9AM on February 24, 1969, black students gathered in the office of Barnard's president Martha Peterson and presented her with a list of ten demands. The students demanded that the president respond to their demands a week later when the college community met for convocation. The president agreed to address their demands by convocation. The demands were in keeping with the manifesto that BOSS had previously released. They wanted black culture incorporated into the curriculum, as well as the establishment of an Afro-American Studies major. They also wanted Barnard to recruit more black students and improve the financial-aid program to make it more flexible. They wanted a new orientation program designed for and administered by black students. In addition, they asked that books and periodicals representative of black culture be bought for the library. They wanted the reconstruction of the Special Students Program and lounge space in Brooks, Hewitt, or Reid Hall. They wanted soul food in the cafeteria and an end to harassment by campus security. Finally, their most controversial demand was for selective living for black students, a black floor. In addition to these ten demands, in keeping with their desire for self-determination, the black students at Barnard wanted the ability to oversee and direct, or at least chose who would oversee, the implementation of their demands.

These demands were in line with the type of demands being made by black students at white institutions throughout the nation. At Northwestern, black students made almost identical demands of their university administration in 1968. Wayne Glasker, in his look at blacks at the University of Pennsylvania during this same period, also noted similar demands being made by those students as well.[44] What these demands represent is a desire to have their difference recognized by the College, and the right to organize and preserve their own distinct identity as black students. They also desired the ability to have influence within the College, particularly in making decisions that were of concern to them.

In response to criticism from other Barnard students arguing that BOSS was a separatist organization, the students in the organization explained their position further in an editorial written for the Barnard Bulletin:

We have been repeatedly questioned as to our separatist attitude. We are not racists. Racism by definition includes the exclusion for the purpose of subjugation of another group. We, in no way, see that as our goal at Barnard. Our demand for the power to have control over our environment is an extension of the movement of Blacks throughout this nation toward self-determination. There can be no integration, assimilation, call it what you will, between two groups unless they are on equal footing. It is clearly recognized that Blacks in this country are not on equal footing with Whites. This can only be reversed by Blacks developing a sense of community and a consciousness of themselves, which cannot be fully achieved when we are thoroughly enmeshed in the White community. Blacks need to close ranks, to consolidate with and behind their own, and to take full part in the decision-making process which affect their lives.[45]

In his book, Glasker discusses at length this issue of whether or not the black nationalism displayed by the students could be equated with separatism, as black students at the University of Pennsylvania were also accused of being separatists. Glasker argues vigorously against this point, stating ultimately, "Most African American students do not seek to separate and withdraw from the campus (or society), but wish to participate in both their own ethnically homogeneous institutions and the larger society as well, while pursuing upward mobility without assimilation."[46] These were the terms under which black students wanted to participate in the integration project. In the next sections, we look at the ways Barnard reacts to the new terms being presented by the black students.

Barnard Reacts to the Counter Offer

Concessions

President Peterson did respond to the BOSS demands during her convocation speech on March 3. This willingness even to address the issues and engage in a discourse on race on campus shows that Barnard began to move slowly toward a recognition, and even toward an acceptance, of the fact that it could not expect black students alone to change and accommodate to better fit in at Barnard—that Barnard needed to change and make accommodations as well. This of course is not to say that Barnard was one big happy family after President Peterson gave her address. The address was one representation of Barnard as a community in transition—a community engaged in a discussion and a negotiation about the meaning of integration.

Although President Peterson's address cannot be taken to represent the views of the entire Barnard community, it can be said to provide insight into the thinking of the Barnard administration led by President Peterson, as well as many white students who attended convocation, who, according to Abecassis, seemed to overwhelmingly support the sentiments expressed in President Peterson's address.[47] It is clear from President Peterson's speech that Barnard was in effect approaching the bargaining table and at least considering some of the issues and ideas raised by the black students at Barnard, Columbia, and at other selective institutions throughout the nation. In her speech President Peterson conveyed the message that Barnard was actively attempting to react to the times and was changing. BOSS ultimately rejected the speech as insensitive and irrelevant.

President Peterson began her speech by explaining why she felt compelled to respond to the BOSS demands at convocation. She stated that the issues brought by BOSS were of significance and deserved to be addressed because of the social climate of 1969 and also because the black women who raised the issues were part of the Barnard community. President Peterson explained, "They are questions which black students must ask now about their relationship to their college . . . . Because these questions are important to a part of our student body they should be considered thoughtfully by all of us, white or black, student or faculty, young or old."[48] This, again, (although it may seem as though the issues being brought up by the black students were really only of relevance or importance to black students) indicated that the college recognized that these were issues that should be engaged.

President Peterson then moved into discussing the limitations of change at an institution like Barnard, which, judging by their rejection of her speech, really frustrated the BOSS members in attendance. She explained that decision making at Barnard was a structured process that required the following of certain procedures. This was a prelude to explaining to the BOSS members that they would not be "given the assurance that proposals they work out in the specific areas be accepted: that they be in charge of their own lives and be able to make the changes they desire."[49]President Peterson did assert, however, that the college would accomplish all recommendations that were "sound educationally" and "practically feasible" which again illustrated that, at some level, Barnard recognized the need to accommodate black students.[50]

After she explained the limitations of the possibility of change, President Peterson went on to discuss the steps being taken to address some of the issues brought up by BOSS, which again shows that Barnard was at the very least adopting the discourse of accepting change. Peterson indicated that she thought the request for an Afro-American Studies major was particularly reasonable and should be implemented as quickly as possible. She stated that all chairmen of affected departments had agreed to develop such a major, and a committee of faculty and students, led by Professor Peter H. Juviler, would meet to begin the process. President Peterson declared that she did not have "one iota of doubt" that an Afro-American Studies major would be established at Barnard, but it had to first be approved by the faculty (such a major was established at Barnard, but not for another 20 years). Further, President Peterson encouraged students interested in increased black recruitment, improved financial aid, having more books on black culture in the library, or a revised Special Students Program to speak to the admissions director, the financial-aid director, the head librarian, and/or the director of the Special Students Program respectively.

Significantly, President Peterson accepted, without much qualification, black students' request for selective living areas for black students, a black orientation program, and to make available a meeting space for BOSS. This showed an understanding of the fact that minorities at Barnard might have had needs that were not being met by the services and spaces designed for majority students. Peterson stated, in support of black selective living: "The black students who have requested such separation describe eloquently their unhappiness in the present situation and their need for unity in order to be at home in the College."[51] Here again President Peterson acknowledged that black students' experience Barnard differently than white students. President Peterson also realized that that particular request was particularly controversial and in her address she asked members of BOSS to hold forums explaining to the general college community why they want selective living space because "so many disagree with you philosophically on separatism."[52] President Peterson did not have a direct response for the question concerning harassment of black students by campus security. She said procedures would be developed to ensure a safe environment without demeaning students.

As was previously stated, President Peterson's speech was well received by white students in the audience. However, according to Andrée Abecassis in an article written for the Barnard Alumnae Magazine, following President Peterson's speech, one BOSS leader, Carmen Martinez, stood up and rejected the speech as insensitive. Martinez's comments upset many of the white students in the audience. As a result, in the following weeks BOSS issued statements and held meetings and rallies on campus to explain their rejection of the president's speech to the other members of the Barnard community and to ask for their support. Again, this campus-wide discourse on race indicated that Barnard was a campus in transition. One Barnard Bulletin article describing a BOSS rally showed that BOSS was engaged in discussion with white students and received support from both white and black students' organizations at Barnard and Columbia.

A rally held by the Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters on Friday, March 6th called for support from the rest of the student body to continue the discussion of the organization's demand for sole power to institute the changes they seek. The rally was addressed by BOSS members and invited speakers from the Student Afro-American Society, Students for a Democratic Society and The Barnard Young Socialist Alliance . . . SDS support for BOSS was expressed by Nancy Biberman. She said that the fight against the military and against Columbia expansion is part of the same fight of the black students.[53]

Despite its campaign and the support from other student organizations, BOSS was never granted the opportunity to decide who would be allowed to implement its programs, or the power to implement changes. However, Barnard did begin to change as a result of this process, as President Peterson's speech indicated that it might. The changes that Barnard decided to implement represented at some level a qualified acceptance or at least a recognition of the new terms for integration being presented by black students at Barnard specifically, but also more generally around the country. They began recruiting more black students (there was a particularly large increase in accepted black students, from 33 in 1968 to 81 in 1969, with a similar increase in black enrollment, from 20 in 1969 to 40 in 1970),[54] made changes to the Special Students Program, allowed BOSS to have a black orientation program, began investigating possibilities for studies in black culture and history (this would not begin to fully take shape at Barnard until the late 1980s and early 1990s), and created a black residential floor.

The changes that Barnard made indicated a newfound willingness on the part of Barnard to recognize that black students would not necessarily fit into the mold it had created for the majority of its students, that black students may have different needs and wants than those of the white students, and, more importantly, that the college should take measures to accommodate those differences and not attempt to ignore them. One of the more significant examples of Barnard's shift can be found in its creation of a black floor.

The Black Floor

Integration of housing has been a contentious issue at Barnard since it matriculated its first black student. As was mentioned earlier, none of the early black graduates lived on campus. In fact, Jeanne Blackwell Hutson, class of 1932, transferred to Barnard from the University of Michigan because of a battle with that university for on-campus housing, only to find out on arriving in New York that she could not live on campus at Barnard either.[55] Interestingly, some 37 years after Hutson graduated, black students would be fighting to remove themselves from general Barnard housing.

The black floor was one of Barnard's most significant concessions. Although there was a great deal of controversy that surrounded the black floor from its inception in 1969 to its elimination in 1973, it represented the beginning of an understanding that the black students needed a space where they could feel safe and supported, and where they would feel valued as individuals and also as members of the black community. Frances Sadler claimed that in terms of the ten demands made by BOSS the black floor "was really the most salient one. We were always in trouble for staying up too late, playing our music too loud, and for sort of living a different way."[56]This sentiment was echoed in 1976 by a student discussing the significance of the black floor:

Many Black women at Barnard, because they were such a great minority, felt like oddities and white students often exhibited curiosity toward them, their habits and lifestyles, having never been exposed to Black students before. The Black women wanted to live comfortably and happily at college, not in what they felt to be a zoo atmosphere . . . with women who had a culture and style of life that they felt at ease with.[57]

As one administrator stated in 1971 in defense of the black floor, "the black floor was a place for black girls to relax in an atmosphere which many of them find hostile."[58]

The black floor is an area to which an entire thesis can be dedicated and in truth it deserves further attention and research. This paper has focused primarily on illustrating the ways in which black students changed Barnard; however, there remains a great deal to be said about the ways in which Barnard influenced the black students that matriculated here. One important part of this story would have to deal with the influence of the black floor on the experience of those students who fought for and/or lived on the floor. For many of the interviewees who lived on the floor, Seven Hewitt/Brooks/Reid was their Barnard experience. However, there are two important elements about the black floor that tell us a great deal about the changes black women had wrought at Barnard.

The first was that it represented in a way a victory for those who were involved in the BOSS protests—which was a solid indicator that black students at Barnard were beginning to be empowered and were starting to acquire a voice on campus. Christine L. Edwards also saw empowerment of black students in terms of having been able in the physical sense to claim the black floor as their own. Edwards states, "'Seven Hewitt' became a legend. The white women living in the rest of the dormitory complex were instructed (by us) to respect our self-imposed isolation—both to insure our privacy and their continued physical well-being."[59]

As was discussed previously, what comes out in these interviews is that for these women the black floor represented a space where they, as black women, felt a sense of support and value. Haratia Trahan states, "As soon as you got off on the seventh floor you were home, you saw yourself, always."[60] Barbara LaBoard and Jonette Miller also speak about the floor in terms of home, with Miller indicating that she felt the black community on the floor was like a family.[61] Christine L. Edwards expressed similar feelings in her senior essay:

My class was the first in Barnard's history to have the option to live on a dormitory floor that was "designated black." The significance of this choice is inestimable. It meant that, as a freshman on a (presumably) alien, hostile campus, I had a "place" at Barnard where I felt a true sense of belonging. Because Blacks on white campuses are conspicuously estranged from the white reality, our floor was home in a way that white students will never know.[62]

Frances Sadler and Haratia Trahan talk about the freedom to be oneself that the black floor allowed students. The discourse around the black floor, and around the existence of BOSS as well, was in many ways the beginning of Barnard moving away from seeing such things as separatist to seeing them instead as safe spaces. The black floor left an indelible mark on the Barnard campus because it forced people to question their ideas about the meaning of integration.

Concluding Remarks

In 1973 the black floor at Barnard was eliminated because the New York State Board of Regents declared housing based on race illegal.[63] What legacy did the pioneering women of 1968 to 1974 leave behind at Barnard? I began this project wanting to look at the ways in which the integration project at Barnard has stagnated and try to understand why. In reading Christine L. Edwards's essay "The Dilemma of the Black Student in the White University," I was struck by just how much I could identify with her experiences as a black Barnard student even though I will graduate from Barnard exactly 30 years after she did. After completing my research, however, I have learned that the integration project at Barnard has not been stagnant and in actuality the black women who have been at Barnard before me, particularly those who were here from 1968 to 1975, have been active in forcing Barnard to examine its ideas about what integration means and what is ultimately the goal of integration.

Their influence on Barnard can be found in the current Barnard mission statement, which in part reads, "Located in the cosmopolitan urban environment of New York City, and committed to diversity in its student body, faculty and staff, Barnard prepares its graduates to flourish in different cultural surroundings in an increasingly inter-connected world."[64] Here we see that Barnard takes as one of its primary goals the promotion of diversity. While the black women who were at Barnard were not the sole reason that the college began to move away from assimilation and toward the valuing of diversity, their presence and activities were very influential in promoting this shift. Their desire not to give up their identity in order to gain access and opportunity has a great deal to do with why Barnard is the school that it is today.

The school that Barnard is today is not the school it was 30 years ago. Barnard, in my opinion, is not where it needs to be. However, to say that the integration project at Barnard is stagnant is to deny the profound influence that black women have had on the shaping of this institution and their centrality to its history.

Black women have an incredibly rich history at Barnard. This project really has been the very beginning of what should be a larger socio-historical project to delve into and understand their contributions to this community.

Bibliography

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Interviewees

Karen Butler, class of 1973 (graduated 1974)
Sylvia Farrington, class of 1975 (degree pending completion)
Rhonda Harrison, class of 1989
Mila Oden Jasey, class of 1972
Tara Jefferson, class of 1992
Barbara LaBoard, class of 1973
Delsia Marshall, class of 1978
Jonette Miller, class of 1974 (left 1973)
Frances Sadler, class of 1972
Marsha Simms, class of 1974
Haratia Trahan, class of 1974
Joyce Theobold, class of 1991
Katherine Wilcox, Barnard professor and administrator
Dara Williams, class of 1978

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———. Indivisible . New York: Barnard College, 1996. Documentary on black students at Barnard.

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———. "BOSS on Racism." Barnard Bulletin, 12 March 1969.

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Endnotes

1. Deborah Perry, "Because I Was Black," Barnard Alumnae Magazine, Spring 1969, 1. [Return to text]

2. Frances Sadler, interview by author, 1 June 2002.[Return to text]

3. Christine L. Edwards, "The Dilemma of the Black Student in the White University: Case in Point, My Four Years at Barnard College," Barnard College Archives, 3. [Return to text]

4. Sheila Abdus-Salaam, Sheila Abdus-Salaam, http://www.whedco.org/SHEILA.htm (accessed 6 November 2002, no longer available). [Return to text]

5. Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters, "BOSS on Racism," Barnard Bulletin, 12 March 1969. [Return to text]

6. Haratia Trahan, interview by author, July 2002. [Return to text]

7. Tobi Gillian and Joan Frances Bennett, Members of the Class Will Keep Daily Journals: The Barnard College Journals of Tobi Gillian and Joan Frances Bennett (New York: Winter House, 1970), 101. [Return to text]

8. Trahan, interview. Jonette Miller, interview by author, 4 October 2003. Barbara LaBoard, interview by author, 1 June 2002. [Return to text]

9. Marsha Simms, interview by author. [Return to text]

10. Sadler, interview. [Return to text]

11. Perry, "Because I Was Black," 1. [Return to text]

12. Jacqueline Fleming, Blacks in College (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1984), 18. [Return to text]

13. Sadler, interview. [Return to text]

14. Miller, interview. [Return to text]

15. Perry, "Because I Was Black," 1, 15. [Return to text]

16. Simms, interview. [Return to text]

17. Karen Butler, interview by author. [Return to text]

18. Sadler, interview. [Return to text]

19. Ibid. [Return to text]

20. Ibid. [Return to text]

21. Miller, interview. [Return to text]

22. Fleming, Blacks in College, 21. [Return to text]

23. James P. Pitts, "The Politicalization of Black Students: Northwestern University," Journal of Black Studies 5.3, Working Papers in the Study of Race Consciousness, Part 1 (March 1975): 283. [Return to text]

24. Richard D. Shingles, "College as a Source of Black Alienation," Journal of Black Studies 9.3 (March 1979): 267. [Return to text]

25. Felice Rosser, "Barnard's Black Women: The Calm After the Storm," Barnard Bulletin, 24 February 1976, 5. [Return to text]

26. Wayne Glasker, Black Students in the Ivory Tower: African American Student Activism at the University of Pennsylvania (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002), 12. [Return to text]

27. Pitts, "The Politicalization of Black Students," 284. [Return to text]

28. Paulette Williams. "Black Students: North and South," Barnard Bulletin Wednesday, 17 April 1968, 3. [Return to text]

29. Fleming, Blacks in College, 11. [Return to text]

30. Robert McCaughey, Draft of chapter 12, Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1754–2004 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003). [Return to text]

31. Ibid. [Return to text]

32. Gillian and Bennett, Members of the Class, 152–53. [Return to text]

33. Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982). [Return to text]

34. Ibid., 51. [Return to text]

35. Ibid., 41–51. [Return to text]

36. Sadler, interview. [Return to text]

37. Andrée L. Abecassis, "Blacks at Barnard: A Survey of Policy and Events," Barnard College Alumnae Magazine, Spring 1969, 4. [Return to text]

38. Ibid. [Return to text]

39. Sadler, interview. [Return to text]

40. Ibid. [Return to text]

41. Butler, interview. [Return to text]

42. Abecassis, "Blacks at Barnard," 5. [Return to text]

43. Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters, "BOSS Manifesto," 8. [Return to text]

44. Glasker, Black Students in the Ivory Tower, 58. [Return to text]

45. Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters, "BOSS on Racism." [Return to text]

46. Glasker, Black Students in the Ivory Tower, 159. [Return to text]

47. Abecassis, "Blacks at Barnard," 7. [Return to text]

48. Martha Peterson, "Miss Peterson Replies at Convocation March 3," Barnard Alumnae Magazine, Spring 1969, 11. [Return to text]

49. Ibid. [Return to text]

50. Peterson, "Miss Peterson Replies," 12. [Return to text]

51. Peterson, "Miss Peterson Replies," 13. [Return to text]

52. Ibid.[Return to text]

53. Susan Stein, "BOSS Asks Student Body for Support," Barnard Bulletin, 12 March 1969, 1. [Return to text]

54. Dramatic increases in black student enrollment were also occurring at other colleges across the country—including Columbia, which increased acceptances from 58 to 115 and enrollment from 29 to 51 in the same period. These increases come on the heels of black student protests at Columbia and the beginning of black student mobilization at Barnard. See Glasker, Black Students in the Ivory Tower, 45. [Return to text]

55. Linda M. Perkins, "The African American Female Elite: The Early History of African American Women in the Seven Sister Colleges, 1880–1960," Harvard Educational Review 67.4 (Winter 1997), 742. [Return to text]

56. Sadler, interview. [Return to text]

57. Rosser, "Barnard's Black Women," 18. [Return to text]

58. Ruth Smith, "Lawton Recommends Policy for Black Floor Be Upheld," Barnard Bulletin, 24 February 1971, 1. [Return to text]

59. Edwards, "The Dilemma of the Black Student," 10. [Return to text]

60. Trahan, interview. [Return to text]

61. LaBoard, interview; Miller, interview. [Return to text]

62. Edwards, "The Dilemma of the Black Student," 10. [Return to text]

63. Felice Rosser, "Barnard's Black Women," 5. [Return to text]

64. Barnard Mission Statement, http://www.barnard.edu/about/mission.html (accessed 23 April 2003). [Return to text]