ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the victories of the US Black student movement of the late 1960s were incomplete and vulnerable to repeal during the subsequent rise of neoliberalism. The creation of affirmative action and Black Studies were key victories, but the students had generated more radical visions of higher education. This essay revisits those more radical visions, and traces their relevance for Black student organising in the 21st century. As ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’ became neoliberal buzzwords, they displaced the alternative imaginaries of campus radicals.
Black student activists of the late 1960s and early 1970s challenged sites of power to redefine governance, and to redefine access to higher education as a right rather than a privilege. Their struggles contain meaningful insights for contemporary student activists who, burdened by unprecedented debt, and disciplined by the language of meritocracy and austerity, face continuing assaults on their humanity. A round of 40th anniversary commemorations of Black student protests on many US campuses became critical opportunities to revisit and reclaim the legacy of the Black Power-era student revolts. These reunions often led to oral history projects and other documentation that have triggered new appraisals and appreciations of the era for student activists today.
