More than 30 years ago, James Turner led 110 black Northwestern students in a two-day takeover of the Bursar’s Office, spurring the creation of the African American studies department and the Black House at NU.
On Sunday, For Members Only and African American Student Affairs welcomed him “home” in a program for their Black History Month series. The event originally was scheduled to take place in the Black House, but it moved to Harris Hall after more than 80 students showed up.
Turner, now a professor of African and African American politics and social policy at Cornell University, attended graduate school at NU in 1967 and participated in the founding of FMO, NU’s black student alliance.
“Before 1965, we were not a significant presence,” Turner said. “(The administration) didn’t quite know what to do with us.”
He recalled that white students yelled obscenities and threw balloons filled with water or other substances at black students. Even in the classroom, Turner said the African American culture was misunderstood.
“I remember a group of us talking to an English professor about an African American literature course, and he looked at us and said, ‘African Americans don’t have a written tradition,'” Turner said.
On May 3 and 4, 1967, almost every black student on campus packed the Bursar’s Office, refusing to leave until their concerns were addressed. The stand-off between the administration and the black community lasted almost a week. It was a difficult period, he said, because there was never any straightforward dialogue between the white and black communities.
An official policy statement made between the Afro-American Student Union, FMO and a committee representing NU finally emerged. The terms of the agreement — including promises to intensify recruitment efforts toward black students — still are in effect.
“Everyone looks at this as a site of conflict, but (no one) stopped to ask what it did for American higher education,” Turner said. “Northwestern should be proud of its success story.”
Former FMO coordinator Heather Foster, Education ’03, said the tradition of the Bursar takeover is still alive and the event is one of the first things she heard about when she got involved on campus.
Roland Hinz, vice president and dean of students in 1967, was in the audience and spoke about the administration’s perspective during the question and answer session.
“In 1965, there were 29 African American undergrads, 21 of whom were athletes,” Hinz said. “The Civil Rights Movement was a distant academic notion. We just didn’t get it.”
Jerome Summers, a 49-year-old Evanston resident, recalls the support and enthusiasm of Evanston’s black community.
“I remember being 8 or 10 years old, and my mom and I brought big pans of spaghetti to the clock tower,” Summers said. He told Turner, “We were cheering for you guys.”
Reach Kristyn Schiavone at [email protected].
