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.” 1 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. 2 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. 3
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.” 4 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.
