The Fisk Hall Takeover

by Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi, Dean for Diversity and Academic Advancement

Taken from the Hewlett Diversity Archives Project

At 4 a.m. on February 21, 1969, a number of black students occupied Fisk Hall when a petition requesting that the administration suspend all normal University activities on that Friday “in reverence to El Hajj Malik Shabazz Malcolm X … to observe his death” was defeated by a faculty vote of 60–47. The petition was put forth by the first official black student organization, the Afro–American Society (AAS), which was founded in 1967 by Bill Boulware ’71, Dwight Greene ’70, David Jones ’70, Lawrence Madlock ’70, and Thurman Northcross ’71.

No invasion, police or otherwise, took place; for a takeover, the event was extremely civilized. Regular occupants of the building were allowed in to remove any belongings or materials they might need. Otherwise, only blacks could enter. Randy Miller ’70 (later an assistant dean of admission at Wesleyan), Dwight Greene, and Edgar Beckham made sure all the offices were locked, and from the outset it was clear that the occupiers were determined there would be no vandalism. Other than one broken window and one broken table leg, no damage was reported.

Students occupying the building issued a statement:

“In occupying Fisk Hall we seek to dramatically expose the University’s infidelity to its professed goals and to question the sincerity of its commitment to meaningful change. We blaspheme and decry that education which is consonant with one cultural frame of reference to the exclusion of all others.”

Dwight Greene said it best: “Black students thought that Wesleyan is rich, all–powerful, great, smart, and can do all things for all people, and therefore, given that, it was not doing that vis–à–vis its black student body. The idea was that Wesleyan wasn’t doing enough. We weren’t making Wesleyan do enough.”

They also used the occasion to formulate a set of demands, which they issued later from the Black House. These demands included: the establishment of a cultural center for black students, where intellectual, social, and cultural events could be held and which would have an academic component; educational programs, including black studies for credit; an exchange program with Atlanta University; an African American residence for all black undergraduates; an increase in the number of black students; more involvement with the admissions staff; a reexamination of financial aid criteria; a change in the grading system (more pass–fail); the recruitment of more black faculty, and the employment of more members of Middletown’s black community.

Edgar Beckham said: “My position as teacher, administrator, and alumnus enabled me to interpret the black students to my white colleagues, and it provided space for me to interpret Wesleyan to some of the black students; that is, with a group that maintained close contact with me. … I was grateful to Dwight Greene and Randy Miller because their political thinking was very shrewd and subtle.”

On March 14, President Etherington sent a seven–page memo to the AAS, responding to each of its itemized demands and requests, and urging prompt discussions of details. He put special emphasis on the proposal for a cultural institute: “In particular, we have been impressed by the concept of an institute which will provide a location for meaningful examination of intellectual and cultural questions of importance to black students, but also of importance to all students and faculty members.” With regard to the request for added educational programs, the memo read: “… we consider the outline submitted to be a promising basis for further discussion.” Less than a month later, on April 8, the faculty took up a proposal for an African American Institute, which they approved the next day at a special meeting.

Etherington’s strategy was, in Beckham’s opinion, “a brilliant Wesleyan moment. For a lot of people, diversity means numbers. At Wesleyan, diversity was transformed into an educational resource. The defining act was not the takeover of Fisk Hall but the encounter afterward. Since then, diversity at Wesleyan has meant education.” In his response, Etherington gently moved the students “away from confrontation and from the most outrageous and not do–able demands,” Beckham said. “It channeled their energy toward the one demand the institution could handle—the black studies program.”

While the establishment of the African American Institute was being planned for September 1969, Dwight Greene and Randy Miller, working with Beckham and consultant Barry Passett ’56 had additional goals in mind. During the summer of ’69, they worked together to create a new three–week pre–orientation program for black freshmen called “Me, My Goals, and Wesleyan.” In the summer of ’70, black graduates inaugurated a more extensive summer program, “Prospect Wesleyan,” to bring incoming black and Hispanic freshmen to the campus for six weeks of academic and cultural preparation.

One of Prospect Wesleyan’s first participants was Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum ’74, now president of Spelman College. She indicates:

“I think the program was significant to the black student population. The program focused on the New England college experience and gave us a chance to form a bond with each other that was critical to my success at Wesleyan and, I think, to the success of many of my black classmates. The program created a sense of community for the participants. By the time we began our freshman year, we had already begun to feel at home at Wesleyan and with each other. I think by the end of the six weeks, the program had managed to give us a leg up that many students of color entering college today do not have.”

The Fisk Hall Takeover represented a critical juncture in Wesleyan’s history of diversity. The responsiveness of Etherington’s administration and the resulting programming implemented for students of color set the standard for Wesleyan’s commitment to diversity and academic excellence.