Black Power on a City College campus: how Woodrow Wilson junior college became Kennedy-King College (original) (raw)

The scholarly research and writings regarding Black students and student activism on community college campuses remain scarce and at the periphery of the mainstream narrative on student activism. This dissertation will examine one student organization, the Afro-American History Club (AAHC), from Chicago's Woodrow Wilson Junior College (WWJC). I will investigate how their efforts successfully demanded a Black Studies program, hired the institutions first Black administrator and first Black president, and influenced a permanent institutional name change from Woodrow Wilson Junior College to Kennedy-King College. Introducing Black community college students from Chicago as key participants in the expansion of the Black Power Movement furthers new lines of scholarly investigation, which allows a more comprehensive and complex understanding of the Black Campus and Black Power Movements. Additionally, this research aims to inject a new term, the Black Community College Campus Movement (BCCCM) into the dominant discourse on student social movements. This term represents the importance of the efforts and impact of Chicago Black community college students to demand education reform as part and parcel of the 1960s Black Campus Movement, America's Black Power Movement, and the broader history of global student social movements. iii Acknowledgements This dissertation project represents a culmination of years of mentorship and training from a village of family, friends, and others. All praise belongs to Almighty God, Allah. The example of the mandated principles of what constitutes an infinite education began in my household. The Honorable Professor Willie Dixon, Jr. sacrificed greatly for over sixty-five years to provide examples of how to use formal education to positively impact a critical mass of the Black community. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to my loving mother who dedicated her life to me and my sibling's success and to that end I thank my sister and brother. As a product of a large extended family I thank all my Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins from "Grannies Gang." I acknowledge and want to thank the role of my community, the South Side of Chicago, for each and every life lesson. Eternal gratitude to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Academically, I thank each member of my dissertation committee. Thanks to those formal educators from my earliest memories of classroom instruction. I thank the professors at Northeastern Illinois University's Center for Inner City Studies. Gratitude to all who took time from to challenge me to become a more comprehensive scholar. Thanks to my cohort of scholars from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign's EPOL department. Undoubtedly, I thank those members of the Black Community College Campus Movement for your organizational savvy and strength, notably, the Negro History and Afro-American History Club at Wilson Junior College and Kennedy-King College. My greatest gratitude for this dissertation project belongs to Lou Turner from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for what he coined his "labor of love." Last but certainly not least, I wholeheartedly thank the legendary Civil Rights Attorney and Professor Lewis Myers, Jr. for decades of sacrifice, unique iv vision, and uncompromising will, which I continue to benefit greatly. I thank you and love you all!!! v