Black Students Take Over Admin Buildings at Northwestern University

photo Northwestern Univ Archives

In Evanston, Illinois, on May 3rd, Black students seized and occupied two buildings, including the administration building at 619 Clark Street.   Altogether 95 Northwestern University students told the clerical staff inside to vacate the building and blocked the revolving front door with chairs, padlocked the back doors, chained the windows.  They had successfully taken over Northwestern University’s central financial building, a building that housed the university’s computer system and financial operations.

Among the demands that the students made were:  that the University administration should make a statement deploring the viciousness of White racism, that an independent Black student union be established, that Black studies be added to the curriculum, that more Black students be admitted into the University and more scholarships be made available the them.