Segregation Comes to Columbia

Most people are familiar with the events which took place on the Columbia University campus in the spring of 1968, and considerable press attention has been focused on the student mood since. With the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in the spring of 1970, for example, scores of newspapermen and television reporters poured onto the Columbia campus for fear that they might miss a political proclamation or overlook a stray fragment of youthful idealism. Yet, in the midst of all this attention, it seems strange that the media should pass over one of the more telling and significant situations to exist on a college campus in some time: the granting of a segregated college facility.

One Columbia student recently remarked: “The Malcolm X Liberation Center could only happen at someplace like Columbia.” This remains to be seen, but the Liberation Center, located on the ground floor of Hartley Hall (a dormitory) is indeed unique. On April 20, 1970 a group of black Columbia students seized the Navy ROTC offices in Hartley to press the demand for a black lounge which, the blacks claimed, was necessary in view of “the racist nature of the American society,” and which would serve “black dormitory residents and their guests.”

FL

About the Author

Frederick K. Lowell

Featured Tags

Most people are familiar with the events which took place on the Columbia University campus in the spring of 1968, and considerable press attention has been focused on the student mood since. With the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in the spring of 1970, for example, scores of newspapermen and television reporters poured onto the Columbia campus for fear that they might miss a political proclamation or overlook a stray fragment of youthful idealism. Yet, in the midst of all this attention, it seems strange that the media should pass over one of the more telling and significant situations to exist on a college campus in some time: the granting of a segregated college facility.

One Columbia student recently remarked: “The Malcolm X Liberation Center could only happen at someplace like Columbia.” This remains to be seen, but the Liberation Center, located on the ground floor of Hartley Hall (a dormitory) is indeed unique. On April 20, 1970 a group of black Columbia students seized the Navy ROTC offices in Hartley to press the demand for a black lounge which, the blacks claimed, was necessary in view of “the racist nature of the American society,” and which would serve “black dormitory residents and their guests.”