DC By the Book

Excerpt: From the short story "Our Bright Tomorrows" by Larry Neal -- Outside there was a large crowd of students clustered around the large oak tree just opposite the library. A notoriously controversial student by the name of Jennie Forman was speaking through a white bullhorn. The campus police were there almost in full strength. She wore a high bushy Afro, and she had on an army jacket with red, black, and green epaulets. She must have been quite popular with the male students, because there were a lot of good-looking brothers guarding her. She shouted through the bullhorn. The sound bounced off of the buildings surrounding the campus green: "You call this education?! Think about it. What are these bourgeois Toms preparing us for? I'll tell you... Have any of you heard of the Congo, or Vietnam...?" She paused waiting for an answer." What about imperialism?" -- "Tell it like it is, sister!" a male voice boomed out. "Brainwash! Make you docile, afraid, and white-minded like them. We have to shake up this university. Find out which of the board are investing in South Africa. We got to expose the running-dog lackeys in the political science department. The revolution must begin here because this is where we are." The crowd cheered wildly. |---------- DC BY THE BOOK TOUR --> Student uprisings in the 1960s transformed curriculum and campus life at colleges across the country, including here at Howard University. While many other schools had begun allowing student input in campus governance, Howard’ s administration maintained a top-down approach and did not support student participation in civil rights protests. Beginning in 1966, students began demanding their rights on campus, a voice in how the university was run, and curriculum more relevant to lives and history of African Americans. Just two years later, Howard’s new black studies program would begin to spawn programs elsewhere. On April 5, 1968, upon the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., students from nearby high schools came to this campus for a rally led by Stokely Carmichael before making their way down Georgia Avenue.